“I’ll see to it,” William said. “I also took the liberty of instructing the seamstresses to have three dresses delivered here within the hour. One will be a housedress and the others formal. I also asked for slippers and anything else a young girl may need for an audience with her King.”
Sir James spun on William. “He already knows?”
“And insists on both of you being in attendance at your earliest, which means he wants you there now,” William said.
“Send a messenger that we will be there as soon as we have proper clothing. Don’t explain further, just let him wonder at what we wear.”
William headed for the door. “It is so interesting to have you back, sir.” The door closed firmly behind him.
Hannah said, “He’s a bit rude, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he always has been, but I couldn’t ask for a better uncle.”
“Uncle? He is your uncle. So he knows you’re not my uncle?”
“Yes, but he also knows that if I make the claim, he will back it up to the death. I do not have to explain my reasons to him, although we spend many an evening in front of the fire, sipping white wine and talking about home, family, orchards, and fresh air. It does not matter what. 'Family’ is about togetherness and talking of nothing and enjoying it. I’ll explain it all to him soon enough.”
“In many ways, you have a strange relationship.”
Sir James shrugged. “We manage. He has insisted I find a wife for twenty years or more, but my job and poor attitude make me a sad catch for any woman.”
She shook her head. “A woman looks inside of a man to see more than what he shows to the world. A woman would be good for you.”
He carried an armload of scrolls from the chart room to a sofa and placed them down as if each was made of thin glass, then went back for more.
Hannah strode around the room, still wrapped in lengths of drying cloth, examining statues, carvings, and on one table colorful rocks, just plain rocks as near as she could tell. She paused near the fireplace and admired the man wearing the crown in the painting above it. She said, “I’m going to meet him, the King, I mean. Today.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sir James faced Hannah and said, “I’d hoped to put this off a few days until you learn a few basics of how to greet your King, how to speak to him, and the required civilities. But it seems you’re going just to have to be your charming self and do the best you can. Fortunately, he has called for a private audience so the gawkers will not be there the criticize you.”
“Is he old, too?”
“Like me? Well, not as old, but older than young. He loves children, especially those well-behaved and mannered.”
Hannah laughed, then noticed Sir James was not. “Uh-oh.”
“Uh-oh, indeed. I cannot teach you all the things you need to know in a portion of one day. So I will say this. No matter what is said, no matter how much you disagree, you must be respectful to your King.”
Hannah heard the iron in his tone and wondered at the reaction of the two squires-in-training when they heard the same iron speech come dawn when they were introduced to the flagon at sunup. She said solemnly, “I will. I promise.”
She continued to wander the room attracted by first an artifact on display, then a painting of a woman, followed by a carving of a deer leaping. Each held a story, and Sir James eagerly shared all of them. She held an ornate knife that had been a gift to the crown a hundred years earlier, far too fancy to be of practical use, when all three of the tittering seamstresses reentered. The young one carried a blue dress trimmed with white lace. One of the others a pair of blue slippers made the same color. The last another blue dress, of fancier lines.
Sir James turned his back and strode to his bed-chamber, leaving them to their tasks of dressing and preparing her. One asked if the color blue looked just right. Hannah exclaimed that it was the perfect snapdragon color of blue. They dressed her, had her spin, made minor adjustments and would have continued long into the night, but Sir James cleared his throat and called to them, “The King awaits. Leave the house dress there for later and please make at least three more tomorrow.”
“Just look at your beautiful niece,” one said, then burst into a fit of giggles as if she’d said something funny.
His face lit up, as he entered, wearing different pants, polished boots that rose to his knees, and a loose shirt decorated with a gold stripe beside a crimson one the same size running from his left shoulder to his waist. He’d slicked his hair back, and Hannah smelled the strong cologne before she saw him.
Hannah stood, dressed in the blue formal dress, her hair tied with a matching blue ribbon, and her shoes matched the same color. Her lip trembled in anticipation. “Like it?”
“You are indeed a princess,” he said, his voice choked with emotion. “Where is the little girl in ragged homespun I knew a few days ago?”
She ran and leaped into his open arms. He spun her around, but when she caught an unexpected glimpse of the three seamstresses, two of them wore bitter expressions. Only the younger one smiled with what looked like genuine affection. But Hannah let her eyes flick away before they noticed she’d found them out. It felt no different than the morning kitchen when the cooks talked and gossiped about her. They would look at another right in the eye and lie, then laugh and talk behind their back.
Sir James said, taking her by the hand and almost dragging her from the room, “We must hurry. The King awaits.”
Once in the hallway, she pulled back and slowed. The dress nearly reached her ankles and running threatened to trip her. She said, “Uncle James, will I always have those three make me more clothes?”
“Why? Do you need something else?”
“I’m thinking of the future, is all. Will it always be the same people?”
“We have dozens of seamstresses. I have never seen any of those three, but you can request them if you’re satisfied.” He gave her hand a small squeeze intended to settle the issue.
She continued down the hallway with him, trying to see the pictures on the walls, the tapestries, and even glimpses out the small windows. She said, “I would request one of them.”
He pulled to a stop near an intersection of hallways and knelt at her side. “Something is on your mind. Why would you request one?”
“The other two are snipes.”
“Snipes? What in the world are those?”
“They’re mean women who smile to your face and talk dirt to your back.”
Standing again, Sir James said, “You are going to make things most interesting in the palace. I don’t need to know how you figured them out so fast, but I accept your judgment. We will talk more of this later.” He reached out and pushed a door open.
Two guards stood inside, both giving a salute to Sir James, and he raised his open hand in return. “May I enter?”
“He’s waiting,” one guard said before opening the next door.
Hannah expected to enter a room at least twice as big as the one Sir James called his own. She expected to see a suite larger than the ballroom in the Earl’s Castle, more ornate than any room she’d seen so far. Peeking past the Knight, she stumbled to a stop.
Inside the door, she found a room smaller than the Knight’s bedroom, almost as small as his library that she would use for a bedroom. Two more guards stood beside another door, and a third door stood open, allowing sunlight to fill the room. Outside that door, she saw another terrace, not unlike the one Sir James enjoyed, but far smaller. Another guard stood discretely in the corner of the terrace. A man sat there at a table. A very ordinary looking man.