Upon A Time

Chapter Twenty-One

Back in the tiny village of St. Fleur, Tristan David Julien Georges, Heir to the Throne, found it impossible to sleep.

He had given up trying and abandoned the small bed that belonged to Charlotte; the woman who had cared for him so tenderly day after day and never once flinched in her duties, no matter how distressing they might have been. She had become so much more to him than a nurse, or even a friend. She had become the woman he longed for, body and soul.

I’m in love, he thought. Who would ever have believed me capable of it?

Not only did he worry she would decide she didn’t want everything that came with him—especially since, with any luck, she had now seen the palace and a hint of the life that accompanied it—he worried that he’d never see her again at all. The mission he had sent her and Thomas on was fraught with danger, and their risk of ending up in the dungeon, or worse, was considerable.

He could only rely on Charlotte’s intelligence, Thomas’s strength and determination to protect her, and their ability to reach the Queen with proof that he lived.

“I can’t sleep, either, Your Highness.” Julien looked up and saw Walter ambling toward his position. “May I join you?”

“Of course, sir. This is your home, I am but a grateful guest here.”

“The future king, calling me ‘sir’.” Walter shook his head as he moved a chair closer to the hearth and sat down beside the young man. He analyzed Julien’s face in the firelight. “You’re really coming along now, healing up well. I have no doubt you’ll have the strength to ride if you set your mind to it and can manage a horse with the one arm, though you won’t be able to ride very well and be expected to hold a sword if…” Walter’s voice failed. He didn’t want to consider that the Prince would be facing such danger any time soon, because that meant Charlotte and Thomas would be facing it, too. Though, perhaps, they already had been subject to worse on their critical journey.

“How much longer do you think it will be until they return?” Walter asked.

“If things went according to plan, they are hopefully on their way now,” Julien replied, staring into the flames and only seeing one thing there: Charlotte’s image, rising in the smoke. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, he saw her face. “God willing, they are safe.”

“I worry for them, too,” Walter added. “Especially Charlotte. She does run headlong into things without thinking sometimes, and that could get her into a lot of trouble when trying to stick to a plan.”

“It aids her though in the art of improvisation,” Julien replied. “Her ability to think quickly and respond to any situation at hand has been a great aid in my getting well.”

“I agree, no one else could have done a better job, given the circumstances.”

“Given any circumstances, I believe she was the kindest and best nurse any man could hope for.” Julien tilted his head now toward the old man. “Sir, if I may speak to you a moment. About Charlotte.”

“Hmm.” Walter shifted in his seat and folded his arms, as any father suspicious of what he was about to hear from a young man regarding his daughter would do. “What about her?”

“I… I’m… I’ve…” Julien actually found himself stammering. “I’ve fallen in love with her, sir.”

A gentle smile spread across Walter’s face. “And why wouldn’t you? You have seen her as she is, plainly, before you. You have seen her tired and dirty and angry and frustrated.” The smile spread into a grin accompanied by a wistful look in his eyes. “She does so remind me of her mother at that age. I first saw her mother arguing with a local merchant about the price of a piece of cloth she needed to make a dress from. I was just walking through the marketplace and I saw her standing there and heard her raving on so...” His eyes grew sorrowful. “I never thought the day would come I would see that fire in her so diminished.”