Chapter 23
ONE YEAR LATER
Bella supported two children on her lap as she demonstrated how to draw the letter A. “Your turn,” she told the girl, Marie, and when she scrawled it on the slate, Bella congratulated her and then offered her older brother his turn.
“Why do we have to do this?” Gustav grumbled.
“Because we wanna be smart,” Marie, said.
“That is correct,” Bella told her, then answered her brother. “An entire world opens up for you when you can read, and write, and run sums. It gives you an advantage in life, opening up options you may never have considered before.”
“Papa says learnin’ letters is dumb.”
“Now, I know he doesn’t believe that,” Bella said with confidence, “because he’s been coming here every night this past week to learn, just like you. He wants to make more money, which means a better life for you two, with more food, and warm clothes, and even toys.”
“We’re getting toys?”
“Maybe,” Bella hedged. “Once your father has learned what we teach him here, we will help him apply for new positions in the castle. And then, we help your mother do the same.”
“Mama gonna learn, too?” Marie asked.
“Yes!” Bella said. “In fact, you can go home tonight and teach her how to draw the letter A, even if it has to be in the dirt. Come, show me what you will teach your mama tonight. Then, we shall move on to the letter B.”
Marie grabbed her chalk piece with enthusiasm and drew three letter As, each lopsided but confident.
“Excellent.”
“Hello, darling.”
Bella smiled as Riven entered the tiny school hut that had been built specifically for teaching the peasants in the fields.
She still caught her breath whenever she looked at her husband.
Riven was everything a fine prince was supposed to be—gentlemanly, scrupled, disciplined, and kind.
The fact he was handsome to boot, with his tousled sandy-brown hair and hazel eyes, was merely a plus for her.
And the fact he did everything in his power to make her life enjoyable and filled with purpose made her love him more every day.
Riven trailed his fingers over her jaw, his eyes sparkling with love. “How is my wife doing this fine day?”
“Well,” she drawled out, “Marie here is going to start teaching her mama her letters, all on her own. How exciting is that? I might be out of a job!”
Marie giggled at the thought.
Not to be outdone, Gustav asked, “Can I teach my papa a letter?”
Bella had an idea for the older sibling. “Let us write out your father’s name to show him. How exciting will that be?”
“Really?”
Bella loved the spark that shone in the boy’s eyes. This was what she loved about teaching—seeing the excitement when things came together and made sense.
Riven nodded and ruffled Gustav’s hair. “That is an excellent idea. I think Willum will be quite shocked and pleased to see how his name looks in print.”
“Show me, show me, show me,” Gustav demanded as he bounced on her knee, and Bella grabbed a fresh slate and wrote out Willum’s name, explaining the letters as she went. This led to the children wanting to see what their names looked like, so Bella complied, spelling them out on two separate slates.
Little Maria hopped off her lap and hugged the slate to her chest. “I am Marie!” she proclaimed, running about the school hut with her prize.
“I am Gustav,” her brother yelled, mimicking her actions by running in the opposite direction.
“It is like standing inside two competing whirlwinds,” Riven said as he watched.
Bella calmly observed their antics for a minute, then asked, “How goes the new college? Is the building almost complete?”
He frowned. “It is, but I’ve run into an issue I hadn’t expected.”
“Oh?” She shifted to face him. “What is that?”
He pressed his lips together in his tell that she would not like what he was about to share. Bella braced for the bad news. “The teachers do not want to have young women in their classrooms. They feel they will become a distraction.”
Bella scoffed, her mouth gaping. “Do you honestly mean to tell me that males are incapable of concentrating on their studies if women are present? Women must comport themselves daily around men and have no trouble in doing so. Surely this alone proves us the more capable sex in academics where focus is concerned.”
He smirked at her. “Perhaps I should deliver you to the council to argue your case.”
She grinned. “I will tell them that perhaps these boys, teachers included, should be better taught how to control themselves around women. Inform them that their inability to focus is a moral failing on their part.”
“Yes. That should go over well.”
She tossed him an arrogant smile. But then Bella said, “I find I have a simple solution.”
He grinned. “I assumed you would.”
“Put out an advert requesting female teachers.”
“What? Are you mad?”
Bella cocked her head at him. “Place notices in papers as far as India if you must. State they will be paid the same as the male teachers.”
“Unheard of.”
“Which is why this university will be so unique. You, husband, my prince, will show the world that women are skilled and qualified. We must have a seat at the table if we are to be treated as equals.”
“Are you, though?” he teased as she swatted him. “Are women not the natural, submissive extension of men?”
His eyes danced as she swatted him yet again, but Bella had grown quite used to his jesting over the past year. “I bet I can find not one, but two enchantresses who may think different.”
He stopped, his eyes wide with caution. “You would not dare call out their names.”
“Hmmm, would I not?” she taunted.
Riven smiled and pulled her to her feet by both hands, then draped her arms over his shoulders. “I yield, Princess. Do not call upon the Great Ones. I do not think I could handle their particular form of attention again.”
“Are you gonna kiss?” Marie asked them.
Riven eyed the little girl before looking back at Bella. “I was thinking of it.”
“Eww,” Gustav pulled a face while Marie jumped up and down and screamed, “Do it!”
Bella smiled at her husband. “I have learned it is best not to disappoint Marie. She is quite vocal when she does not get her way.”
Riven smiled and slanted his lips against hers, delivering a kiss that always melted her spine and swirled her thoughts. Marie giggled and raced around the hut in her happiness, and Bella took the moment to draw Riven’s hand to her stomach.
“I think it is time you know, we shall soon have a little tadpole of our own running about.”
His eyes lit up, and he jolted with his surprise. “Really?”
She nodded. “The midwife confirmed it this morning.”
“Tell me she did not confirm it is actually a tadpole?”
Bella smiled and pretended to ponder. “Well, she didn’t say it wasn’t a tadpole.”
He mumbled under his breath about loving insufferable women as he pressed his forehead to hers and smiled. Bella knew he was teasing her right back and loved every minute of it.
“Have you told anyone yet?”
“Henriette was with me but is sworn to silence until after our general announcement. Then she is allowed to tell all and sundry that she was the very first person to know.”
“When are we allowed to tell our families?”
“Another moon, husband. These days are yet fragile.” She placed a protective hand over her belly, wondering what it would feel like when the baby moved.
“I know your father will leap over the moon when you tell him.”
She smirked. “Thank you for dragging him out of his house last year at your royal command and making him move into our village. I do so enjoy having him here.”
“You mean, did I defend my wife by demonstrating what it feels like to have all your options forcibly removed from you? Why, darling, I have no idea what you speak of.”
“I said nothing,” she replied in a singsong voice. “You must be imagining things.”
“Anything for you, love,” he said as he placed a light kiss on her lips, then chuckled. “I can already see your father, bragging of the royal lineage he helped raised, and the new generation he will also embrace.”
Bella smiled as she envisioned her child sitting atop Papa’s knee in Henriette’s old shop, where he now got to invent items all day long, earning a royal paycheck to boot.
Henriette had married Leon, the guard, and was given larger accommodations closer to the castle as The Royal Clothier.
She had even found a talented protégé to take under her wing to keep up with demand.
“He will be a doting grandfather, for certain.”
“He could certainly teach my father a thing or two about kindness.”
Bella stroked her husband’s soft hair at his hurt-filled comment.
“Well, he has been more doting over Luc. Look you how long he feeds those trout.” The reminder that Luc had not been freed of his punishment still sat poorly with Bella.
“You know, I firmly believe ill deeds deserve repercussions, but a full year of this seems overly harsh.”
A frown puzzled Riven’s brow. “For some reason, I remember Luc was thus sentenced for twenty-six years, to unlearn his foul behaviors, at which point he will emerge as the day he left. How do I know this?”
Bella waited for an answer, then asked, “Well? How do you?”
“Darling, I do not know.”
She tapped her lip in thought. “Luc was punished while you were...absent. Think you the Great One told you the details of the spell?”
“She must have, else I have no idea how I would have come to that kernel of information.”
“It sounds as if she wishes him to suffer more, perhaps as an apology for punishing the wrong king’s son?”
A hint of a smile lit up his eyes. “At least Luc is alive, which is better than I received, if you recall.”
“True.” Bella shivered at the memory. “I still feel like I should erect a statue in memory of Albert the Frog on the place he died. He was a good and kind frog.”
“Um, you do recall that Albert is me, correct?”
“But Albert was kind and generous to me way before Prince Riven entered the conversation. Once any prince arrives, you know everything becomes all about them.” And she tossed her shoulders in a self-important manner for Riven.
“Is that how you see me, you cheeky wife?”
“Some days,” she teased.
“Will I never be good enough for you, darling?”
She beamed and leaned back in his arms. “Mayhap you need to be more sincere in your approach. Would you care for a lesson in how to appeal to a woman’s good graces?”
He grinned and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Have patience with me, darling. I am but a man.”
“A good and kind one,” she said as she snuggled into his arms
He squeezed her in appreciation. Then, “Have you thought of names?”
“Adelheid if it is a girl, after my mother. And possibly William, after my grandfather, the king, if it is a boy.”
Riven nodded, then a moment later said, “I vow to you, darling, no matter what they are named, or how many we have, all our children shall be the best loved tadpoles ever.”
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THE END