Alexander

Disowned

Alexander stood before the king, the lord, the princess, and his two brothers, completely ashamed and confused... not to mention severely hungover.

No one, not even Nicholas, seemed to know what to say. Every last one of them was shocked. Of course, in his state he couldn't tell that Josiah and Angelica didn't seem to be, though neither was enjoying it.

The king cleared his throat. "Well," he said, embarrassed as the rest of them were for having to have this conversation. "It goes without saying that you are not to ever go near my daughter again."

Alexander nodded to the best of his ability, but stopped as a nasty headache crashed into his brain going full speed. "I won't sir," he assured him. The king shook his head. The boy's attitude was making this difficult. Whether the king bellowed or whispered the words, it made no difference. The boy's respect never wavered. Besides that, he seemed to be just as confused as the rest of them.

"Is there anything you'd like to say, Walter?" he asked, deferring to the grieved and angry father of the boy.

"Actually," Lord Troup said, standing up straighter, "there is." He turned to Alexander, facing him head on. Alexander, even his name matched that of the wife he loved. He could swear he was saying this directly to her. The boy's deep brown eyes had belonged to Alexandria in her past life, he just knew it, but that didn't excuse his behaviour. "Boy! For all sixteen of your years I have done nothing but care for you. You eat food off of my table. You drink from my cup! How have you thanked me? By tormenting and sabotaging your own brother since you could walk and talk! At every one of his successes you've tried to overpower him by doing evil. And your poor sister, Elizabeth...

"You care not for your family, despite all they've done for you. Now, you've crossed the line. There's no controlling you, Alexander, and trust me, I've tried! But I have a fief to run."

Josiah watched Alexander as it began to register, and it broke his heart, but this was the only way.

"The king as my witness, I hereby disown Alexander Troup, prior son of the Lord of Troup Manor."

You could cut the tension with a knife. Alexander's mind was still trying to process what his father had said... disowned. Disowned? Disowned. His stomach gurgled, threatening to re-empty its contents right then and there, but even though he still felt as if his mouth was a desert, and his head was a bulb of agony, he didn't think that the nausea was coming from the effects of too much alcohol.

He'd heard of children being disowned. It was a process, and it was humiliating for everyone involved, but it had happened once in a blue moon. A blue, very far away moon. Not on his moon.

Nicholas appeared warped, as if something had flattened him and set him out in a smooth breeze, but Alexander could tell that he had to really try to put on that sorry excuse of a disappointed face. Josiah was grim, but he was always grim. The princess couldn't seem to care less, and the king just looked awkward. The thing that struck Alexander the most was that there were no tears. He'd always imagined that there would be lots of tears at something like this, but no. Not one.

"Pack your things, Alexander," the lord said. "I'm having your sister join us so that she can say goodbye, and then you're leaving. For good. You have no surname from this day forward. You are now a guest in my house." He turned to address Josiah and Nicholas. "And for their own protection, I want him to be the only guest by tomorrow, understood?" The children nodded.

Alexander was still trying to process. Once everyone had started talking their voices blurred together to make one terribly loud noise which penetrated his head like a two-edged sword. Actually, now that he thought about it, he'd rather the sword. "Can I sit down?" he mumbled at last, swaying on his feet. No one moved.

"Oh, for god sakes," Joisiah said, he went up and took Alexander by the elbow, which nearly made him topple over then and there, but he steadied him and proceeded to lead him out of the throne room. "I think that we're done here? The kid can hardly stand up, for pity's sake."

The lord waved out, "By all means, take him out of here." Walter shook his head slowly, pinching his eyes shut tight, "It seems I have some matters to discuss with the king."

There was no way that Josiah was going to manage to get Alexander up the stairs into his own room, so he led him over to a couch in one of the lounging rooms and sat him down. "Don't throw up yet," Josiah said, backing out of the room. "I'm going to go and get a bucket."

Alexander just moaned and muttered something unintelligible.

"What?" Josiah asked.

"I'm never drinking spirits ever again."

Josiah laughed to humor him and hurried away to find the bucket. On his way there, Angelica stopped him, pursing her lips in the pouty 'I want something' kind of way that Josiah had no patience for. "Move," he said, and then remembered who he was talking to. "Please," he added as an apologetic afterthought.

"We did it... well I did it. So, where's my payment?"

"We're not finished yet."

"Oh, come off it," Angelica said. "It's as good as done, besides, you said something was in it for me." She flicked her gaze up to the ceiling, and then back at Josiah's eyes, a threat forming behind her sweet smile. "You know, I could just tell the truth. Daddy, I'm sorry! I asked for it, I really did! Please don't let the lord take Alexander away!"

Josiah instinctively clapped a hand over her noisy mouth and scanned the area for listeners. It was empty. "Shh!" he said through gritted teeth. "And what would that do? It would get Alexander killed, especially now. Is that what you want?"

"What I want..." she paused for emphasis, "is my reward that you promised me."

Angelica waited patiently as Josiah tossed the possibilities back and forth, then he relented, albeit begrudgingly. "Alright, I'll get you the money."

"Money!" she hooted, making Josiah have to refrain from physically holding her mouth shut. "I have all the money in the world! More than you at least!"

Anger flushed Josiah's cheeks and he had to seriously ponder to figure how this brat could have encouraged Alexander to drink so much as to climb in bed with her. "Would you keep it down?" he attempted to ask in a respectful manner, though it was likely a far cry.

"Sure, honey," she whispered mockingly. "Here's the deal. I don't want your money, I want your commission."

Josiah was lost. What commission? Did she want him to win a battle that she didn't want her dad knowing about? That's about all he was good for. "Commission?"

Angelica squealed, a smile threatening to spread right off of her perfect face. "Aren't you cute? What do you think I mean by commission? Think about it. You paid to pull me out of the bed of a lord's son! And he was pretty good, too. It took every ounce of my dwindling sobriety to get me to follow through with the plan..."

Josiah put up a halting hand, "Absolutely not."

A part of Angelica's 'larger than life' smile melted to make way for confusion. "What, are all the lord's sons this pure? Are you a virgin or something? You're turning down a princess, for god's sake!"

"Yeah," Josiah challenged. "You know, I've found that sleeping with a princess gets you... oh, what's the word? Oh, yeah, disowned!" Even the word felt eerie and dark. It felt like an unreal, or at least undiscovered place of evil. To be disowned... your heritage, your name, it's what made you who you are. Alexander was about to lose that, and then what? Where would he go? What would he do? Josiah almost wanted to let Angelica come clean, even if it meant taking him down with her.

You're doing this to save his life, Josiah, he reminded himself. Alright, no backing out. But in order to do that, he'd have to ensure that Angelica stayed quiet, preferably without compromising his own morality. "Is there anything else that I could offer you?"

Angelica patted him on the shoulder and sauntered away, giving a seductive wiggle of her hips before fully exiting the room. "Let me think about it."