| The couple walk up to the castle, and then somebody inside spots them
and (and recognizes Princess Astra) and horns are sounded and a impromptu
reception is held in the courtyard. Astra's parents throw royal decorum
to the side and openly weep as they hug and kiss their daughter. Fred feels
a bit uncomfortable until they stop and then Astra, after a bit of hesitation,
tells what happened. Fred blinks, because he figures that Astra would at
least want to break this news quietely....but he then mentally shrugs because
SHE of all people knows her parents best.
Eyebrows goes up as they learn who's children this is and how they came
about. None speak until.....
"Let it be known that we welcome the newest addition to the Royal family,"
the queen announced to the crowd, with a hint in her voice that there BETTER
NOT be objections to this. "Lord Fred, we welcome you into our household.
Thank you for returning our daughter safe and whole."
The crowds cheer (sounding sincere) and Fred soon finds himself, Astra,
and his children in a royal chamber, alone with the king and queen. Fred
smiles as he sees that the faces of the royal parents are still warm.
"Frederigo," the king says. "We truelly had believed that our daughter
had died in her quest to kill the dragon. We TRUELLY appreciate what you
did. We truelly understand the....unusual circumstances that brought us
to this point in time. I believe and trust my daughter implicately in this
matter, she never was able to tell a lie confincingly. She scratches her
nose when she tries to lie."
"Daddy!" Astra groans in embarrassment.
"However, the best thing now is for you two to be wed as soon as possible,"
the queen says in an understading voice. "While we set what is seemly and
unseemly....even we have limits to what we can decree."
Fred suddenly feels like the room is too warm. It isn't a magical attack,
it's more like an attack of nerves! While in this country arranged marriages
had been done away with along with the traditional restrictions of knighthood
being an all male affair (admittedly due to a desperate situation where
any able body was needed for a past conflict), Fred understood that the
scandal of his sons and daughters were bastards..... The only remedy acceptable
was marriage. Though this nation was radically different in it's views
where it came to what a woman could and couldn't do compared to the Kingdom,
even they acknowledged certain limits.
Maybe somewhere out in the world there were places were a unwed mother
could raise her children without ridicule if she chose to remain unwed.....but
that was out THERE.
-
 A date is set.....and in
the meantime there were babies to name.....would be wives to get to know
better......and all that happy stuff.....
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