Royals and Rebels 2: Love and War

Twenty-Four: Prince Cadoc

Chapter Twenty-Four

Prince Cadoc

The Christmas Ball was a grand affair. Royals from all over Europe were there. The girls wore their best gowns. The boys their best suits. An orchestra played classical versions of pop songs as people danced intricate waltzes. The food that was set up might have fed an entire country. And there was enough champagne and booze to fill all the lakes in Wales.

Gwyneth was there with me.

And Eddie.

And Winnie, much to my Uncle Theodore’s displeasure who kept on looking at her like she was the plague. She’d come as Eddie’s plus one, to his delight and her displeasure. The only reason she was there in the first place was to keep me sane. Being the bastard daughter of a Prince wasn’t easy. But she put up with family events for me because she knew that I liked having her there.

Arwen was off somewhere getting wooed by the future Tsar of Russia. Who, despite being broody, and silent, wasn’t too terrible. He looked at her like she was the sun, and I was certain that he’d seduce her if he could get a moment alone with her. As for Arwen, she blushed every time Tsar Alexi looked her way so who was I to interfere? Even if I wasn’t happy that she was being married off for political gain, at least she didn’t look miserable.

It was Jasper out of everyone that concerned me the most. All throughout the holidays, he’d been quiet, and sulking. Standing off to the side like a security guard instead of walking with me like he used to. There was a change in our dynamic since I’d gotten back from school, and I didn’t like it.

There was a giant Christmas tree in the grand ballroom. At midnight, everyone gathered round it to give each other their presents. I’d gotten something for Jasper, but I couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Eddie,” I said, “have you seen Jasper?”

Eddie shook his head. “No, but have you seen your cousin?”

“Er, she was off flirting with the Duke of West Pendragon.”

“Christ, I’m going to kill her,” he muttered.

“Please don’t,” I said, “I wouldn’t appreciate that.”

He waved me off and went chasing after Winnie. I chuckled, shaking my head, and kept on searching for Jasper. We’d had a tradition in our family of giving the Captain of the Guard a pocket watch. I’d gotten one for him since he’d finally finished his basic training. If everything went well, I took over my father’s throne, he would take over his father’s post.

That was if we didn’t go to war before then, and if he managed to survive it if we did. I found him outside, wandering in the palace gardens, humming to himself. He had a bottle of wine in his hand, and his eyes were glassy from drinking.

“Jasper?” I said. “Jefferies, mate, what’s wrong?”

“Old Crom talked to me,” he said, “I’m not going to the front. To the border, like I’m supposed to. I am going to have an office job this summer! Then, if needed, I’ll go to Hay-on-Wye. The home of my ex-girlfriend. You wouldn’t know anything about this would you?”

I sighed. “You know I have to.”

“You don’t,” he said, “this is my job, Cadoc. I’m supposed to be your Captain of the Guard. I can’t do that if I don’t get the right training.  I’m sorry if that’s an inconvenience for you and your grand love affair but I’m not letting Pen interfere with that.”

“You know if something happens to you, she’ll hate me.”

“Well that’s too f*****g bad,” Jasper snarled. “I’m sorry if that throws a little wrench in your love affair, but I’m a soldier, Cadoc. You can’t keep me from doing your job.”

“Actually, I can,” I said, “I’m your Prince, and your future King as you might remember. My entire job is to give you orders and yours is to listen to them.”

“Fine,” said Jasper, “send me to Hay-on-wye. Make me protect her. But if you keep me from my post, from doing the one thing that I am supposed to, I will keep you from her for as long as I can. Do you understand?”

I wanted to hit him. I could have hit him, and no one would have said a thing.

“I’m not making you protect her. I’m making you protect Hay-on-wye. You know as well as I do that it’s a location that is at risk. This isn’t a punishment. I’m not trying to torture you.”

“You are,” he said, “your universe might revolve around her, but my universe doesn’t. I’m not going to end up giving up the f*****g job I was born to do, so you can feel more comfortable being with her.”

“Jasper.” My voice sounded harsher than I intended. Authoritative. Like my father. I hated that I sounded like my father.

“What?” he demanded, a wild, raging look in his eyes.

“I’m ordering you to Hay-on-wye. I’m ordering you there, because it is a location that is in danger. Because there is a girl who resides there who is going to be my future wife. Your future Queen. So, I’m sending you there to do your f*****g job as you so eloquently put it. And f*****g the Queen is treason.”

He stared. “She’s not the Queen. Not yet.”

“It’s going to happen, Jasper. One way or another.”

“You know you don’t make her choices for her you know. Remember the day of the fashion show? She called me. We had a whole, long talk about all the problems that came with your world. Has she ever called you to do that? She also called me to see if you had been f*****g with her. Have you?”

I stared. “f*****g with her? What do you mean?”

“You took her virginity when you were in Hay-on-wye last year,” he said.

I took a deep breath. “She knows about that?”

“You remember that?” Jasper demanded.

“Yes,” I said, ‘but I didn’t realize that it was Penelope. How did she find out? Why hasn’t she called me?”

“Because she thought it was a joke,” sneered Jasper, “she thought everything between you was a joke. That you were trying to screw her because she was the lowly scholarship girl.”

“I went looking for her,” I said, “you know that, I know that! All I had left of her was that damn poem. If I’d had her name, I would have shouted it from the rooftops, but she didn’t leave me her real name! She left me the name of a dead poet from the 1500s. She was never a joke.”

“Well, good luck convincing her of that,” snarled Jasper. “Because you have this habit of treating the people that you’re supposed to care for like they’re nothing!”

“Jasper, if I didn’t care about you, I would have sent you to the front to get killed. I’m trying to keep the two people I care about most from getting destroyed by this war. Forgive me for caring.”

“You should give up!” Jasper sneered, “because you’re not good at taking care of people. You are good at destroying them. That’s what Kings do. Destroy things. Think about that when you go near Penelope again. Because sending me to Hay-on-wye, that’s not going to keep her safe. That’s going to destroy her. The same way that you’re destroying me.” 

He wandered off into the palace maze, leaving me alone in the garden.

Penelope knew. She knew that I had taken her virginity, and she thought that I was using her. Jasper believed that I was trying to destroy his career.

Snow was falling, and I had started to shiver. I should have gone after Jasper and brought him in from the cold. But he could take care of himself.

“Cadoc!”

Arwen had slipped outside. She wore a light, blue dress with a faux white fur wrap around her shoulders. Her blond hair was up in a bun, with light curls and a tiara on her head.

I smiled. “Coming, my lovely sister. What do you need me for?”

“Carols!” she said. “Come on. Do you know where Jasper is?”

“Not a clue,” I said.

I went inside, and left Jasper out in the cold. He was right. At the end of the day, we weren’t brothers. He was my subject. I had to start treating him like one. He didn’t know anything about me. And he would never know anything about Penelope. At least if I had anything to say about it.

Inside the castle, I gathered in the grand ballroom with my family and friends.

“Where’s Jasper?” Winnie asked as we gathered around the big, glittering Christmas tree.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, “he’s off doing his job. This event is for family.”

Winnie gave me a look. “Cadoc.”

“Let’s start singing Christmas carols,” I said, “it doesn’t matter.”

I didn’t see Jasper for the rest of the evening. After the last gifts given out, I went to my room where the cardinal brooch had been sitting on my desk.

I’d placed it in a box and wrapped the thing myself. Had I ruined everything with Penelope? She had called Jasper instead of calling me when she realized what had happened. When there was something wrong, it wasn’t me that she called. 

There was a knock on my door.

“Cadoc?” it was Gwyneth.

“Come on in.”

Gwyneth slipped inside. She wore a red dress and had a present in her hands. “You alright?”

“No,” I mumbled.

She walked over to the desk I was sitting at, holding the gift that I’d gotten for Penelope.

“What happened?” Gwyneth asked.

“I’ve screwed up, Gwyneth,” I said.

“How?” she said.

“I turned into my father tonight. I interfered with Jasper’s job. I’m forcing him to protect a girl that I don’t even know if she wants me. I told him it was treason if he f****d the Queen.”

“She’s in love with you,” Gwyneth insisted, “and you were reminding him of his duty. It is treason to f**k the Queen.”

“She’s not the Queen, Gwyneth,” I said. "She’s a girl I’m obsessed with who might not even want anything to do with me after this whole thing is over. I got her suspended. She doesn’t even talk to me. She calls Jasper when she’s in trouble.”

Gwyneth walked over and sat on my bed. It was strange having her in my room again. Last Christmas, we had spent it together, getting drunk on eggnog, having s*x so much that we’d broken my bed. This Christmas, we weren’t even together, and I was in love with a girl who might have hated my guts.

“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other,” she said, “it’s going to happen. Not right away, but that girl is yours. No one else has her heart the way that you do. The only reason she calls Jasper is because he’s the only one that understands her right now. But soon, that’s not going to be him. It’s going to be you.”

I looked up at her. “How can you be so sure about that?”

“Because he might protect her from the world, but you are going to show her it.”

I smiled. “You are a class act, you know that right?”

Gwyneth smiled. “I try. Look, I know we’re not together anymore, but I got this for you before we broke up. I already gave you your Christmas present, so this is your birthday present. I wanted you to have it. So that I could give it to you without anyone getting suspicious about the two of us or Pen worrying about it.”

I took the gift from her. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I did. That’s what you do on birthdays. You were my first boyfriend, Cadoc, and a good one. I never want you to think that I didn’t care about you. I always loved you, but I----”

“You’ve got your own world, and I’ve got mine,” I said.

She smiled. “Yes. But Penelope’s different.”

“You think so?” I asked.

She nodded. “Penelope wants to see the whole world. To experience it. That’s why she’ll want to be with you, because you’ll be able to give that to her. You’ve got to know the world if you’re going to write about it. Now, open your present.”

I tore the wrapping paper off, and inside was a grey box. It was a golden Versace watch. “Look at the back,” she said, “it’s engraved.”

Draig goch.

Welsh.

“Red dragon,” I said.

“Remember who you are,” she said, “because you’ll be needing that when the time comes.”

That was the good thing about Gwyneth. I could always count on her to remind me of who I was. I supposed everyone needed that. Even Penelope. Yet I wished that the person that did that for her wasn’t Jasper.

But she was right. I was the red dragon. The symbol for Wales. The future King. I would get what I needed. One way or another. And that was Penelope.