Fighting for Freedom

That night at dinner when I found Prince Landon sitting on my left I knew it was the doing of my father. I sat down and they began to serve dinner.

“Hello Landon,” I said with a smile. Suddenly the meals came out, and I was surprised to see Cassie serving the meals along with the other cooks and maids.

“Cassie, what are you doing serving the meals?” I asked in surprise when she handed me my plate.

“One of the maids was sick, so I volunteered in her place,” she whispered, then turned and gave Landon his plate. He gave her a smile, which Cassie returned before she turned back to handing out the meals.

“Is she one of the serving maids? I did not see her at the banquet last night,” Landon commented as we ate.

“One of the serving maids was sick, so she took over for the night, but her position in the castle is my maid-in-waiting,” I replied.

All through dinner Landon and I talked, much to the delight of my father, and the displeasure of Sir William, who kept giving me frowns all through dinner when I glanced over at him. After dinner was over I quickly rushed to my room; I could no longer stand Sir Williams rude staring.

I went to my bedroom and sat down in front of the mirror. Tomorrow I didn’t have any lesson’s with my teacher, so I figured I would see Landon again.



The next day I woke up early as always and ventured out into the gardens to find Landon. I didn’t get far before I spotted Sir William leaning against a tree in the inner garden; Landon was nowhere in sight. I quickly contemplated running away before Sir William had a chance to see me, but it seemed he’d been expecting me.

“Hello, princess Lydia,” he said with a grin.

“Hello, Sir William,” I said politely. “Have you seen Landon?”

“Yes, he was here earlier before I told him the king requested to see him in his court,” Sir William said with a shrug.

“My father wanted to see him?” I asked. That seemed unlike my father.

“No, but I could tell how miserable you are around him. So I…” Sir William paused for moment, trying to find the right word, “got rid of him so you could be with me today.”

“Oh, how kind,” I said sarcastically, but he didn’t seem to detect it.

“No problem, my princess. I saw how you were glancing at me across the table from time to time last night. I saw how you wished you could be rid of that pushy Prince Landon, so I decided to help,” he said with an air of superiority.

“Um, that is very…thoughtful, but I actually had a date with him set for today. So if you will excuse me, I must be off to find him,” I said quickly.

“It is alright princess, I understand how important keeping your word is to you,” he said with a hint of disappointment in his voice, but any sympathy I had for him went away with what he said next, “Perhaps some other time you can make a date with the man you really want.”

I knew I would be in trouble with my father if I said what came to my mind at that moment, but I didn’t want to encourage Sir Williams’ affections either, so I simply said, “Goodbye.”

I walked back through the garden to the side entrance to the castle and ran into Landon at the door.

“Hello, Princess Lydia,” he said with a smile.

“Good day, Landon,” I said with a smile, then frowned. “I heard how Sir William tricked you into thinking my father wanted to see you.”

Landon chuckled a bit. “Oh, it was no problem at all. It was quite comical actually, I showed up outside the throne room and was sent in. The King was confused as to why I was seeing him. He seemed to think I was coming to tell him we were betrothed.”

“Already?” I asked with a laugh, then sighed. “He is so eager to marry me off. My mom said he intended to have me married by the time I was sixteen, and it is a wonder he’s let me stay unmarried this long.”

“Do not feel bad, my father is just as eager to see me take a wife to produce an heir for the throne. In fact, he sent me here with these words, ‘come back with a suitable wife or do not come back at all.’ Charming, is he not?” he joked. I laughed and nodded. “Society seems to revolve around one thing: marriage.”

“What else is there?” I asked. “We are born, we get married, we try and make our kingdom a better place, then we leave everything we own too our children when we die. It is a never-ending cycle. What more could there be?”

Landon shrugged. “Oh, I do not know; I just can not let go of the feelings that there must be…more, I guess, to this life than that.”

After a few moments of silence Landon sighed. “You probably think I am crazy.”

I shook my head. “No, just maybe a bit too much time on your hands,” I teased, then turned serious. “You are a very deep thinker, and there is nothing wrong with that.”

Landon nodded, then turned his eyes to me. “So Lydia, what do you wish to do today?” I thought for a minute then took his hand and led him inside.

“I want to show you something,” I said as an explanation. I led him through a maze of tunnels and hallways until we finally climbed up to the highest tower in the castle and came to a bare room with a window at the other end of it, letting in a square shaft of light that illuminated the whole room. I tightened my grip on his hand and led him over to the window and led him take in the view.

His eyes lit up and he let out a whistle. “Wow, it is a beautiful view, Lydia. It truly is.”

I smiled at his reaction. “I thought so too. I first found this place when I was about nine or ten and I ran up here to hide from Cassie because we were playing hide-and-seek. I have come up here every so often since then, and just gazed down and wondered what goes on down there.”

“You mean you’ve never been to the village before?” Landon asked in astonishment. I shook my head.

“We have everything we need brought to the castle, and my father says the village is no place for a princess; that only the King should go there to see how his subjects are doing and such, but I have never been there before.” I looked down from the towers at the miles and miles that stretched out as far as I could see. Houses dotted the landscape, some in tighter clusters than others, and only a mile or two from the castle lay the main village square. I’ve only ever seen it from this high up, but I imagined the people bustling about: buying, selling, looking. I always made up stories in my head about what it was like, and had a longing to visit it but I knew it would never happen.

“I do not understand why your father would not want you to visit the villagers. To be a good leader, you need to know the people, and you can not know them unless you form a relationship with them. My father always tells me, ‘a relationship with your subjects is the key to a prosperous kingdom.’”

“He says my husband will deal with all the matters of the kingdom while I bear children for him to raise and be good leaders,” I explained, but Landon just shook his head.

“I was taught the King and a Queen are a pair, they rule the kingdom equally and they both need to be good leaders. The women follow the example of the queen, therefore she needs to form a tight bond with them to ensure their loyalty.” It made sense, but I knew that even with this logic my father would never permit me to visit the village.

“Landon, if this is too personal do not feel obligated to answer, but why have you not married yet?” I asked, looking over at him. The light hit him in just the right way to make his golden hair appear like a halo around his head. He turned his eyes to me and opened his mouth, then closed it a moment later.

“Well, I never really thought about it but thinking back now, it was because I never met someone I wanted to marry. When I marry I want to really like the person, love them if possible, but these days it’s uncommon to marry for love.”

“I know what you mean.”

“Lydia, I ask the same question of you; why have you never married before this?”

I wished I could be perfectly honest with Landon, but if I told him of my love for Dawson he would think less of me. After all, who wants to court a woman who is in love with another man? “I, um…well I prefer not to talk about it.”

Landon opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of a loud horn being sounded in the distance.

“What does that mean?” he asked in alarm. It was not uncommon to sound alarms when the castle guards sensed danger of an army approaching the castle walls.

“Do not worry, they sound that particular horn when they are looking for me and can not find me in the usual spots. I must go now,” I said as I picked up my skirt and hurried over to the door.

“Can I see you later?” Landon asked, making me stop for a moment. I turned back around and nodded before hurrying down the stairs. I walked through the halls, nearing the throne room when I found Cassie looking in rooms. She looked up when she heard footsteps approaching and smiled, running over to me.

“Princess, the guards have been looking all over for you. The king wants to see you in his Throne room immediately,” she said, trying to hurry me along. We walked quickly down the different halls and I wondered why he wanted to see me and why it was so urgent. Had I done something wrong? Was something the matter?

“Did he say what he wanted to see me for?” I asked nervously. Cassie shook her head as we hurried along.

“No, but then again, I did not hear him say he wanted to see you. One of the guards told me, and I decided to join in the search. When they could not find you they blew the horn, but I continued to search,” she explained, and when she caught sight of my worried expression she sent me a small smile. “I would not worry too much, he may have good news!”

When we finally reached the doors the guard standing there let me in immediately. When the King saw me coming in he smiled and I felt myself let out a sigh of relief. Good then, I was not in trouble; he must have good news. For a second I let myself think that maybe it was news of Sir Williams departure. Maybe he had been called back to his Kingdom for an emergency, or the death in a family, but then I immediately dismissed the thought. It wouldn’t be good news for my father if Sir William was leaving, only me.

I walked up to his throne and curtsied. “Yes, father?”

“Lydia, you look lovely this morning,” he said with a smile, then motioned for me to sit down on my mother’s throne.

“I would like to tell you of something that happened to me this morning,” he began, “Early today, just a little after daybreak Prince Landon came to me in the throne room,” my father paused for a minute to chuckle to himself, “It was all a misunderstanding. He seemed to think I had called him in here, even though I never had-”

“Yes,” I interrupted. “That was Sir William who told Landon that. He wanted to make sport of him.”

“Ah, well I’m sure it was all in good humor. Just a friendly jest between two friends.” I wanted to correct my father on why that sentence was wrong, but I held back. It didn’t matter, that hadn’t been why he called me here.

“Continuing, I thought that Landon had come here to tell me,” my father paused for a minute, then waved his hand. “Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. I called you here to tell you that when I originally told you about picking a suitor in one month I forgot to mention something.” For a moment I felt a sense of dread washing over me. I prayed that it wasn’t something that would cause me even more distress about this whole ordeal.

“I said that you must pick a suitor at the end of the month, but I forgot to mention that if you wish, you may pick a suitor before that time is up.” I looked up at him in surprise and he leaned over and took my chin in his hand. “Do not feel rushed, but I just want you to know, that if you feel you have found the right husband for you, you need not wait a month just to pick him. I trust your judgment Lydia.”

“Thank you father. Is that all?” I asked as I stood up and curtsied once more.

“Yes. Had I interrupted something?”

“No father. I had just been talking to Landon. We were up in the tower looking at the view of the village,” I explained. My father smiled to himself.

“Landon is a fine young lad, he is. Very polite with good manner and a respectable character,” he said, then turned his eyes to me. “We are very fortunate to have him, my dear. He is from a very prosperous and rich kingdom.” I hadn’t realized it before, but I didn’t know which kingdom Landon was from. He’d never told me and I never thought to bring it up, but now I was curious as to where he had come from. My father must have seen the surprised look on my face.

“He did not tell you where he was from?”

“No father. Can you tell me?”

Father just smiled to himself. “I’ll let him tell you himself.” Father then cleared his throat and sat up straight in his chair. “That is all Lydia, you may go now.”