Chloë (25 page)

As
dusk finally fell and it was well within the hour of the Prince’s arrival,
distractions became harder to find.  Heather did her best as she filled
the long hall with a beautiful performance on the piano, but the air was thick…

“His
Highness, Crown Prince Philip Amsterval and Sir Reinhardt of the Beycones!”
announced the doorman.

Chloë
snarled. 
The errant knight too?

They
all rose and moved to ‘greet’ the newcomers.  Chloë and Heather out front
with Raymond right behind, Caleigh and Grandmother to the side, while the
quintet of sisters formed into a glaring ‘V’ with Maria standing in the
pocket.  All along the perimeter of the room stood elements of Watzkel’s
forces watching blinklessly.

 Philip
snarled as he entered the room, “What are those hideous Shukurae doing
here?  Send them away at once!”

“This
is House Heigen on Bervik VI,” lectured Chloë’s grandmother.  “I bid you
know your station and mind your manners.  The Shukurae stay!”

“Stay? 
After what they did to poor Chloë?”

“What
did
they do, Philip?” asked Chloë.  “What did they do besides help
rescue me from that treacherous coward
Sir
Reinhardt?”

“Quiet
girl.  Know your station!” snapped Sir Reinhardt.

“Mind
your
station in how you address my daughter,” snapped Caleigh.

“Your
Highness, I do apologize.  It is just that the young girl…”

“Lady!”
snapped Heather.  “She’s not a girl.”

Philip
scoffed, “And what would a tart from the Highlands know…”

“She
knows the obvious truth,” snarled Chloë, half on her own and half at Heather’s
defense.  “I
must
be a lady, a young girl is not permitted to
marry!”

Philip
rolled his eyes, “Seriously, a girl your age is permitted to marry.”

“If
she is declared a competent and emancipated minor… So then you agree; I am a
competent and emancipated minor.”

“Still
your tongue and don’t put words in mine!” snapped Philip.

Chloë
laughed.  Honestly she didn’t know she had it in her, but it just sort of
came bubbling out, “Sixteen years I’ve been quiet.  Ten of which without
my mother!  If you wanted me to be quiet now, maybe I should have talked
more then.  Honestly, when is the last time you and I just talked? 
Not false smiles and a pat on the head for some class, or fanciful garden I
made.  When have we ever just talked?”

“This
is not the time nor the place for such discussions!”

“That’s
right!  There never is the right time or place for such discussion is
there?  But what does it matter?  You still have not addressed the
horrible company you keep: Sir Reinhardt!  Men under his employ drugged
us, tossed us in a shipping container and then tried to squirrel us away while
he played out his own game
at your expense!
  When things came to
blows, as he didn’t wish to admit his treacherous behavior, he was the first
one to run!  A coward!  I can’t tell you how he looks in combat
because all we ever saw was his tail bouncing away, into the distance!”

“You
grossly misunderstood the situation, Your Highness,” began Sir Reinhardt.

“Oh,
‘Your Highness’ now is it finally,” snarled Chloë as she cut him off. 
“Which part would you like to address first: that they were in your employ
perhaps?  Or the drugged and stuffed into a shipping container?”

“It
was a pretty sparse shipping container too,” grinned Heather.  “I can’t
believe
you’d stick a princess into such dismal conditions.”

“Things
were complicated… I had to intercept parties already in motion!”

“Parties
that you paid handsomely!  If it was all so noble on your part, then why
wasn’t the Prince notified as soon as you had custody of us?  When I asked
you if you had grabbed us in an effort to curry favor with the Prince, you
replied that ‘My motivations are complicated.’  What exactly did you mean
by that?”

Sir
Reinhardt just gnashed his teeth.  It was Caleigh that spoke up next,
“Philip,
dear
, why don’t you ask your newest young knight what
happened.  He was there.”

“That
young fop has a crush on the Highland girl!  His mind is clouded with
lust!” snarled Reinhardt.

“Fascinating! 
So being waylaid off the streets of Afon and put into binders was all some
elaborate lust filled dream.  That is a little more kinky than I would go
for.  That explains much of your personality,” began Raymond eloquently
and evenly.  “Oh I wish I had
half
the imagination about such
things as you.  Oh, and that whole part where one of your men fired a
plasma lance into the room and narrowly missing Chloë and striking Heather, was
also part of the hallucination?  Prince Philip, you may not like the
Shukurae, but they are very,
very
professional: why not ask their
account of the story as well?”

“A
plasma lance?  Into the Highland girl?  How absurd!  Are you
even listening to yourself?” blasted Reinhardt.

Heather’s
grin tried to consume her face as a waterfall of blue sparks engulfed her
leaving only to reveal the iridescent sheen of her Live Steel armor, “It
hurt.  It hurt a lot, you son-of-a-bitch!  But at least I didn’t
run!”

“Heather,
watch you language please,” offered Maria discreetly over her shoulder.

“Sorry,
Second Mother,” grinned Heather as she dismissed her armor to the shock and
amazement of the newcomers.

Philip
was taken aback… that was the first sign of weakness Chloë had seen, “Did you
send Count Alfonso off to… ‘recover’ me?  What exactly did you instruct
him to do?” she asked softly.

“Of
course I sent the count out to help you!  Any and all means at his
disposal!”

“So,
you concur with his actions… where he gassed us all and kidnapped us off the
streets…”

“You
are my daughter!  It wasn’t a kidnapping, it was a rescue!”

“Let’s
take this a piece at a time: so you are okay with the count gassing the town?”

“Of
course!  He had to get you away from those monsters!”

“The
monsters that were protecting us… right… Three townsfolk, three
innocent
people were killed in that gas attack!  Suffocated!  Killed for no
good reason.”

“It
was a horrible situation!  Five men were brutally maimed!”

“Five
men were injured by Heather, trying to protect Raymond
after
the entire
town had been covered in gas.  No shots were fired.  If the threats
had been from the Shukurae there would be a nice array of 15mm holes in
people.  Go check the infirmary… no gun shots.  Not a one… And now
the colony has called for the count to be bound over on charges of
murder.  Murder that he will say you authorized.  ‘Any and all means
at his disposal…’“

“Count
Alfonso would never try to throw the blame back at me…”

“Oh,
young knight, Lord of the Bescones, do listen to what is being said before you
too are cut and left to dry in the sun,” smiled Chloë with false concern.

“This
is serious Chloë!” fired back Philip.

“Yes,
yes it is.  Which brings us back to the charge of kidnapping.  I’m an
emancipated minor, well either that or you are a felon.  I traveled to
Afon and was brought into House Stratford.  By law, by treaty, by custom
of the Altshea Confederation as well as the Highlands, I am a daughter of
their
house!  Trying to take me from them is, quite bluntly, kidnapping.”

“Now
see here!”

“Now
you see here!” snapped Heather.  “The entire government of the Altshea
lands save for three, three small little planets, agree that she is my
sister!  How many planets do you wish to pick a fight with!”

“They
can all burn!”

“Yours
first!” snapped back Heather with a grin.

Philip
paused and then finally laughed, “Chloë, you would give up your throne for
these
sort of people?”

Chloë
scoffed, “My throne?  Or did you mean young Duke Estherdale’s throne?”

“Well,
yours together, of course.”

“Just
like you and mom.”

“That
was different!  There were complications!”

“Like
she wouldn’t roll over and play dead?”

Philip
snarled, “Whatever the reason!  Do you
really
want to give up your
station and go be some peasant girl?”

“Well,
the man of the house is Baron of Threedales…” grinned Chloë.  “Are you
threatening to disinherit me?”

“Maybe
I am!”

“Good! 
Do so!  By law of the land as a disinherited princess who is the only
legitimate
heir, I claim my due: one quarter of the land and I accept the diminished
title of countess.  As countess I list Lady Caleigh as executor of my
estate in my absence!”

 Philip
was enraged but carefully fought through it, “You’ve thought this out. 
You’ve planned this… that is why you left in the first place didn’t you?”

“I
left because I was scared!  Scared to death!  I didn’t plan this one
little bit.  Planning means you’ve thought about it and
thinking
was
never part of my life in that… palace!”  Chloë fought hard to dodge unladylike
words.  “My new family, my friends,
they
taught me that it was okay
to think!  That it was okay to care!  To love and be loved, no matter
my background!  And worst of all, they taught me to believe in myself!”

“You
want your mother on the estate just to be thorn in my side!”

“No! 
Not even the slightest!  I want her on her own estate where she isn’t in
house arrest!  Where she is free to travel and do as she sees fit!”

Philip
stared at Chloë with the first honest smile she could remember in her life, “I
believe you.  I do…  So is this how it is to end?”

“There
is still the question of Count Alfonso and Sir Reinhardt,” replied Chloë evenly
but with the beginnings of an honest smile.  She
wanted
it to be
over with Philip and her mother, she really did…

“The
colonists who were killed, will blood money handle those cases?”  Philip
asked plainly.

“I
think they will also call for the count to abdicate as well.”

“He
was foolish at best, maybe abdicating to his son would be best for everyone.”

“And
Sir Reinhardt?” asked Chloë softly.

Sir
Reinhardt squirmed, obviously very nervous and agitated!

“
Mea
culpa.
  He is my responsibility and he will depart and trouble you no
more.”

“What
do you offer to pay for his transgressions?”

Philip
looked confused, “What more would you have of me?  I’m giving you a fourth
of the land.”

“Either
you take mother back in, freely and openly to the principality or you agree
that remaining lands of the principality will not pass for a hundred years to
anyone of the House of the Estherdales,” replied Chloë.

“You
know of Amanda…” replied Philip somewhat shocked.

“I’m
not a
child. 
I understand: you and mother both were in a political
marriage and you found yourself drawn to the widowed duchess.  She was
widowed ten years ago, the same time mother was moved from the palace… Just
answer me this, were you drawn to her power or did you love her?”

“If
I had divorced your mother I would have had to abdicate and surrender half the
estate.”

“You
are looking to lose a fourth anyway.  And you never answered my question,”
replied Chloë evenly.

“I,
too, was scared when we were married.  I grew to love your mother.  I
truly did.  But the duchess, she was so… and the power of her House!”

“So
lust and greed took over?”

Philip
blinked as he looked squarely at Chloë, “You are so calm… I’ve hurt you and
your mother both so dearly, yet you would set aside that pain?”

“The
pain is still with me, it always will be.  But I’m
trying
to look
forward.  Heather tells me there is good in everybody and of all the
things she has taught me, I’m loathe to think she’s wrong about that one… If
you and mother could reconcile, that would mean so much to me…”

“You
are a stronger…
better
person than I.  I… I can try.”

“I
just have better friends.” Chloë leaned forward and kissed her father, Philip,
on the cheek.  “Then that will do for now.  Try.  If you fail,
well at least you tried.  She still holds my lands in my name.”

“You
would still return to the Highlands with your new family?”

“Yes. 
For now.  That may change, and I hope it does.  But my strength here
is running ever so thin and the pain, oh! the pain runs deeper yet!  There
is a warmth and strength there in the Highlands I’ve
never
had…”

“Take
your quarter of the land as you see fit, but you are keeping your title! 
In time… well…” Philip smiled.  “I think we have reached a settlement we
can all agree on!”