Before You Meet Prince Charming: Mel's Epilogue

(Author's note: This is how I see the Princess' early married life unfolding.  Since removing the anachronisms would require writing an entirely new book, I decided to let them remain - and add a few of my own. )

Night Before Princess' Wedding

The Princess languidly watches the moon rise as she rests in the deep casement window of her bedroom.  Tomorrow she begins her real life - a life of joy,  ecstatic love and complete fulfilment as Sir Valiant's wife.

The Queen silently enters her daughter's room.  Even in the most private of moments, her regal bearing and unyielding gaze mark her as separate.

The Princess starts.  "Mother.  I didn't expect to see..."

The Queen's gesture silences her.  "On the night before I married your father, my mother gave this to me.  To honor her memory, I pass the gift on to you."

"Oh, how lovely!  Lady Gloria gave this to you?"

"Yes.  My mother was a flawed woman, I am sorry to say.  She was full of ...wrong...ideas. My mother never learned the beauty of submission to her husband much to my shame.  This pendant was her "insurance policy" for my future - a bauble for me to exchange for cash if my husband ever led me into dire times.  As I said, she was foolish and misguided - but she was my mother.  I believe she would want you to have it now."

"Thank you, Mother.  I will cherish it."

"I am glad you have it - although you will not need an insurance policy.  Goodnight, my daughter. "

Two harvests after the wedding:

"...and that will get the People ready to fight Temptation!" Valiant finished triumphantly.

The Princess started awake.  Quickly, she glanced at her husband lying next to her in bed to see if he had noticed.  Blessedly, he hadn't.

"Oh, darling!  That plan is entirely what God intended for the Kingdom.  How lucky the Kingdom is to have a brave knight like you to plan and initiate protection programs against Lies and Temptation."

Valiant glowed at his wife's praise.  "What did you do today?"

"I had the servants move the furnishings of the West Wing again. This time it is just perfect! ......   Oh! The Alligator had the most absurd idea yet.  Shall I tell you about it?"

"I wait with bated breath."

"The Alligator wanted me to be out amongst the People more!  Can you imagine?  I explained to him that you were the heir apparent and that the People needed to see you as the future King.  The People need to learn to follow you - not your wife.  My role is to demonstrate the proper submission of wife to husband just as the Kingdom will model submission of subject to king."

"Well done, darling.  You need not worry yourself over the affairs of the Kingdom.  That's....my burden...." Valiant drifted off to sleep.

The Princess shifted, unable to shake her feeling of unease.  She had wanted a husband who saw the great struggles in life and fought them.  She had wanted to be his helper and accomplish more in the Name of God than any had before. 

God had given her everything she wanted - so why did she feel empty? 

A good God-fearing wife wouldn't fall asleep while he described his newest plan - let alone question the wisdom of the plan in her heart.   

Giving herself a good shake, she resolved to try harder tomorrow to be the wife that Valiant deserved.

The next day

The Princess wandered aimless through the castle.  She found herself standing in the sweltering sunlight by the moat.

"Good morning, Princess."

"Good morning, Alligator.  My husband and I agreed that your concerns over my presence in the Kingdom are overblown and absurd - as always."

"I am sorry to hear that.  I fear you are making a grave mistake.  The People love you because you represent security - a Kingdom that prospers under stability and peace."

The Princess threw her hair back dismissively.  "They will love my husband as well!".

"The People already know your husband.  Sir Valiant is a common-born man who has contrived to become the next king.  Mind you, I like that about him.  It shows he has ambition.  But he has not ascended to the throne yet.  He needs the gloss of your nobility next to him to make the people forget who he was..."

"Alligator!  I know I am right!"

The Alligator looked at the slim figure standing above him.  The Princess' artless understanding of human nature grated on him.  And the King married her to Sir Valiant - a callow windbag!    The Alligator took a deep breath and tried again.

"My informants tell me the harvest for this year is poor.  Many in the Kingdom fear Famine and Disease will ride again."

"And I told you, Alligator, that my husband knows the important enemies of Lies and Temptation ride now.  We cannot lose sight of the enemies before us in preparation for something that may never happen."

"Sir Diomed and his wife Lady Sophia are providing supplies of grain and roots to local villagers already."

"Diomed is my cousin.  He's Uncle Justheart's younger son.  Of course,  he would help our Kingdom."

"Princess!" the Alligator hissed.  "Open your eyes before it is too late. Diomed is cunning - and hungers to see himself on a throne.  Your husband is scorned by the nobility.  The knights of the Kingdom mock him as a coward.  Neither will rise to support Valiant's claim to the Kingdom's throne if Diomed challenges him.  The People love you - but they will love the man who stands between their families and starvation more. "

The Princess stepped backwards in anger.  "I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about, scum eater!" she spat before escaping into the castle.

The Alligator tail-slapped the water in frustration.  "I EAT GOATS!" he yelled at the pitiless sun burning above.  Sliding back to the bottom of the moat, he chewed on a fat haunch of a wether while pondering his next line of argument.  His lineage had pledged to protect and serve the Royal Family in time past.  He knew his duty; he hoped he could convince the Princess of hers before it was too late.

Four winters after the wedding

The Princess woke from a fitful sleep.  She checked on little Phoebe huddled under a worn blanket on her pallet.  Rising, the Princess tucked her threadbare comforter around her small daughter to keep her warm in the cold night.

She paced silently through the halls questioning how her life had reached this point.  She had been separate from the sinful world.  She bent her will to the will of her father, the King.  At great personal cost, she had been pure and chaste.  Her life was supposed to reflect the gladness, ease and joy that came from an unsullied girlhood.  Her marriage to the righteous Sir Valiant would spark a rebirth of Godly values in the Kingdom which would shine as a beacon of holiness through the land.

Their shared dream propelled them forward through the last years they lived in the Kingdom

The second winter after her marriage Famine and Disease moved into the Kingdom.  Diomed and Sophia's food supplies prevented Starvation from entering - but the People struggled.  Disease preyed on the weakened populace.

Cosseted by her family's wealth and preoccupied with the impending birth of her first child, the People's despair went unnoticed by the Princess.  Her father and husband spoke of the benefits that suffering would bring to the People - "iron sharpening iron" for the battle against Lies and Temptation.

Phoebe was born that summer as the crops ripened in the field and the People hoped for enough to survive the coming winter.  Sir Valiant rejoiced in his newborn daughter before departing on a mission for the King the day after her birth.  He and the King had decided that the time was right to train up young men to fight Lies and Temptation.

Valiant returned three months later jubilant in his success of training up a small, select group of believers. The Princess was proud of her husband's success towards their vision for the Kingdom.  She hid her grief over Phoebe's discomfort in the arms of her husband and never admitted to anyone that she rarely missed Valiant during their time apart.  She commiserated with her husband that his newly trained force mistakenly placed the worldly concern of harvesting crops over moving forward immediately on their mission.

The downfall of the Royal Family began with a slow, steady rain a week before the grains were ripe.  When the rain stopped, the temperature soared higher than all but the oldest People remembered.  The elderly farmers warned of grains cooking in the fields and a starvation winter.

Valiant brought that folk-tale back to the castle for the Royal Family's amusement.  How could grain cook in a field?  The People were so gullible. 

The grain crops failed.  Famine gripped the land.  Diease moved through the People.  Baby Phoebe sickened, but survived.  Her grandparents did not.

Heartbroken, the Princess and Sir Valiant greeted Sir Diomed who came to offer his condolences - and assume the throne.  As foreseen by the Alligator, the hearts and minds of the People had been won over by Sir Diomed who brought safety and salvation in the form of food. 

Sir Diomed and Lady Sophia had no reason to harm the small remnant of the Royal Family.  In fact, they had prepared a place for them in the court at Carnalville. 

There the Princess languished.  She sought to educate the people about their faulty religious beliefs - and found she could not articulate her own beliefs.  The Princess demonstrated her hard-won skills of baking, painting, goldsmithing, weaving and dyeing - and found that impartial observers found her skills to be poor.  She wanted to capture the hearts of the court for Christ - but found that she could not capture the attention of the people at court.

Hardest of all, the Princess realized that there was no companionship in her marriage.  Valiant thrived on creating large dreams.  Trapped as an inconsequential member of a foreign court, Valiant escaped by dreaming of the days when God's Plans - as shown to Valiant - would succeed and he would reign over a God-fearing Kingdom. 

There was no place in this dream for a grieving wife and a tiny daughter in small, cold rooms. 

More alone than ever before,  Princess rested against the cold wall and wondered what the future held.