THE HAUNTED KINGDOM 2 - Charles E.J. Moulton (good books for high schoolers .txt) 📗

unaware of the conversation that was going on just feet away.
Belinda sighed and looked down. “When Lucinda came to the Grand Hall that October of 1422, I knew that she meant trouble. Big trouble” Belinda said and took Steven’s hand. He grabbed it and her husband took her hand. He knew, as well, that something sinister was on its’ way from her heart to his. “Steven, that hound scared me. Ten heads.”
Steven shook his head. “No, Belinda. Green fog, ten heads, bad seeds. Forget it.”
She took her finger and put it against his mouth.
“Here me out, darling” she said. “I know my father knows this. I saw it in his face. We were both avid fanatics of Greek mythology.” She looked at her father playing and tickling Alfred and then looked tenderly at Steven. She cocked her head. “That day was no coincidence. That creature guards the underworld. I have seen that creature in pictures, Steven.”
Little Alfie stuck his thumb inside his mouth and leaned against his grandfather’s chest.
The king sang him a song, closing his eyes.
“I did not realize there was such a creature. I thought someone made the fiend up.”
“I know” Steven said and sighed. He shook his head and laughed. “We cannot,” he emphasized, “cannot ever spend eternity trying to decipher what happened that night. Lucinda has powers, but we have shown that there is a way out. We have beaten them.”
Belinda shook her head. “Yes, I know there is a way out. But I think that we have to go through the underworld to get out of this.”
“What?” Steven stood up and walked to the opposite window. Belinda followed him. “What are you talking about? If this is one of your nightmares I will …”
Belinda grabbed his cheeks and gave him a long kiss.
“We better not speak of this in front of Alfie” she said. “I think we are still asleep and dreaming that we are here.”
“I beg your pardon?” Steven spat. “Dreaming this?”
“I believe,” Belinda continued, “that … Lucinda, posing as Snekawa actually put the entire country to sleep and wants her brother to herself.”
“Have you told your father about this?”
She shook her head. “I will not talk to him about that. You know him. He overreacts and then I have to calm him down.” She fidgeted with her hands. “Steven,, just remember what I said and keep your eyes open. For God’s sake, keep your eyes open.” She looked over at her father, who still was singing his grandson songs. Alfred was snoring. “It might just be a silly mistake on my part, but it all fits.” She took her husband’s hands and kissed them. “I am telling you, because I trust you. There is much more to this than meets the eye. I am asking you to …”
Alexander spoke. “What are you two talking about over there?”
Alfred had obviously opened his eyes.
“Nothing, father” Belinda chirped. “Do you promise to keep your eyes open?”
Steven nodded. “Of course I will keep my eyes open, if that will make you happy.”
“No” Belinda growled softly. “To make us happy you should be alert. Something wrong here and I don’t want to worry father.”
“He is the king, Belinda” Steven said. “He deserves to know.”
Alexander spoke up again. “Love birds. A young gent wants to sing you a lullaby.”
“We will be right there, father” Belinda said and turned quickly to her man. “If I tell father, soon Zedrick will know and Theo will know and about ten other people. I tell you and you tell no one.” Belinda smiled and kissed Steven. “We tell no one.”
Steven shrugged and shook his head.
“Steven” Belinda spat. “Promise me you will remember this conversation and see if you see anything strange or out of the ordinary. Keep it to yourself.”
Steven nodded. “I promise.”
“Thank you” She nodded. “Let’s go to the boys and listen to his lullaby and then put Alfred to bed. I think he needs a nap.”
So, the young family listened to the lullaby and laughed with grandfather and then slowly went to the young prince’s chamber and sang another song for him, putting him in bed and hoping that he would fall asleep.
They pretended not to have had that conversation.
Steven could not forget it.
He lay awake all night and thought of it.


CHAPTER TWO

SCANDAL

Wednesday Evening - March 1st 1427

Alfred watched Lancelot closely.
He wanted to be sure that his friend didn’t cheat this time.
He was only three and a half years old, but he wasn’t dumb.
Lance shook the wooden box.
The dice inside the little thing made little noises that gave Alfred an excited feeling of fun.
The older boy took away his hand and rolled out the dice upon the floor of Alfred’s room.
The ivory game pieces rolled out and stopped on four and five.
“Nine points” Lancelot smiled. He clapped once with both hands. “Now you.”
Alfred looked at the dice and tried to count them. There was no way that he could count those little things. He knew how to count to five, but nine? No way.
He grabbed both dice and put them back in the box. They made that scrambling noise again. Alfred smiled and tried as well as he could to shake the sachet. Then he turned the container upside down and let the dice roll out upon the floor. There were more dots now. Actually, there were rows of three dots. He could see that. Two rows of three dots on each dice.
“You win” Lancelot said. “You have twelve points.”
Alfred smiled triumphantly. He knew that Lancelot would not be cheating him if Lancelot himself lost. Belinda’s son picked up both his dice and laid them in the box. He stood up, passed the bed and walked up to the cupboard with his playthings. He put the dice by the toy horse with wheels. He pushed aside the pottery doll from Coptic Egypt and put it next to the toy jug.
The dice rested safely next to the other toys.
Lancelot watched this with incessant interest.
Alfred toddled over to Lance and said:
“Let’s out on balcony and name birdies.”
Lancelot had promised to be a babysitter of sorts and agreed willingly. He knew how happy Alfred was to sit on his parent’s balcony and watch the birds, trying to find out what their names were and name them. Sometimes he would make up names and he would chuckle at the names he gave them. Then he would look up at the sun and hum a tune.
The two boys walked out of Alfred’s room and into the nuptial bedroom of the royal parents Belinda and Steven. The two adults had taken the time to be cordial to some of the Senators. Alexander and Sieglinde and Rolf and Geena had also joined them. The boys, it had been decided were too young to listen to boring older men exchanging ideas of diplomatic gallantry. These older men had been pleading for them to both come and speak to them and eat some pheasant and ostrich. There had been no speech in too long a time now and Cretan had almost cried when he asked them both to come and hold something of a conference in the hall.
Marie-Louise had been with the boys all morning and was just tired of keeping them busy. So, she told them to play amongst themselves. They had done so for a while now, but just needed some variation. The balcony provided that needy flexible vigor.
The weather was quite a sunny for a spring day and too warm for a late winter date.
What met the boy’s countenance was a lark flying about the sky and a sparrow picking breadcrumbs from the balcony’s stone wall. The birch trees were yet spare in blossom but they were hoping to soon pride themselves with leaves of plentiful glory.
The two gents stood there speaking about nothing at all for a bit.
They realized that the door to Lancelot’s parent’s balcony door was open. Obviously, the two adults were now in the middle of a fight. There had been a long silence that was now broken by a soft and mellow female cry with a Hispanic lilt.
The boys listened intently. Alfred did not understand everything. Lance understood most of what he heard and he knew that he could not enter his parent’s room to go to his own play chamber without having them notice him. He hated that his father stunk of mead and that his mother was weak enough to let his father cheat on his mother.
In the middle of the conversation poor Lancelot broke into tears. Leaning against the stone wall of the balcony, he found himself growling and stuttering how much he wished for them to stop.
“Mi mile amamanta color de rosa” Erica sighed. “I just want you to be faithful. Lance needs a faithful father. What kind of role model are you to him if you sleep with everyone but his mother?”
There was a loud laugh. “You ridicule me in front of everyone” Patrick screamed. “You said that I was a good-for-nothing drinker and whoreson the other day. When I crawl into bed you are sleeping. You never touch me anymore. How can I be faithful?”
“I called you a ‘hijo de la puta’ because you deserve it” Erica shouted. “Your pene has other homes than my warm organs. You entertain your Roberta and I am forced to watch.”
“Why don’t you join me in my amorous escapades?” Patrick said. “Look, there can be a joy in swapping partners. See how much fun I have with Roberta and you will see that I love you just as much even though I penetrate other females.”
There was a loud slap. It was the slapping of a female hand against a male face.
Erica now spoke with a grit that had even her son, standing on the balcony next to her listening to this, shiver with trepidation.
“Nunca sé porqué te casé. Estoy aquí porque tu padre cree en la unión. Cogida algún otro.”
Patrick now reacted to these words with hardness. He took his mother’s hand and threw her body against the floor with a horrid thud. There was a loud scream, followed by a horrendous roar. Patrick was out of his senses and there was ripping noise coming from the other room. Obviously, he was ripping his wife’s clothing to pieces. She was screaming and trying to break free.
Lancelot knew what his father was doing and took Alfred into his playroom away from his father. Rape was no joke. Patrick had raped his mother before and now he was doing it again. After a while, Patrick was finished and rushed out and screamed. I will be spending the night with my mistresses in the brothel. I will penetrate whom I wish.”
The door was left open and Patrick rushed down the hall and ran out to the stables.
Very soon there was a galloping horse speeding toward town.


Tuesday Morning – March 4th 1427 A.D.

Alex was now taking a little more responsibility for his palace, since Belinda had complained that she could barely stand anymore because of exhaustion.
The king was back in his throne room, mostly talking to senators and priests.
The two young boys had decided not to tell anyone of what they had overheard Patrick do to Erica. Erica herself had thrown away the dress in a box in the attic and tried to wash away the blood, claiming to