Boy King

// hearts and minds //

"She has the most dazzling eyes I have ever seen!" Henri beams at me.

   "Mm," I simply say, leaning against the window.
   "Oh, Charles." He grabs my shoulders, "You are an amazing match-maker!" He exclaims, his hair bouncing. I hear Madame Zulu nearly chokes on her drink.
   "Henri," she calls him, "Did you just called the King a matchmaker?" She points at me. Henri giggles, "He's also my brother." I laugh at his remark.

  "Besides," I add, "I made Louise of Lorraine your betrothed because it will benefit our country not because she has dazzling eyes. Her family has a thorough knowledge of our trading routes and--"

   Henri rolls his eyes. "Henri." Madame warns.
   "But, I have a thorough knowledge on how to remove a corset in less than 4 seconds," Henri jests.
   "Excuse me?" I interject, "My god, you are only 15!" Where is he learning this?
   Then, I see Madame Zulu slaps her wooden ruler on his torso. He flinches. "Aw!" He cries. I shake my head in disappointment, yet stifling a chuckle.

  I leave Henri and Madame argue while I gaze down at the window to watch Elisa walk around the courtyard with Claude.
   I wonder what they're talking about. I still have to fix this before worse comes to worse.

  "Ouch!" I yelp, a stinging pain seeps on my skin. I look back and realise that Madame also slapped her ruler on my bum.
   "Will you stop that?!" I snap.
  
   She pulls me by the shoulder. "When we arrived here from Paris, I heard servants gossiping of a female crying and an argument between the King and Queen. What have you done?" She sneers at me.
   I pull my arm out of her grip. "Could you stop doing that in public?" I roll my eyes, "There are people here! And besides," I add. "It's none of your buisiness." I say, stomping away.

  "You," I point at a servant. I catch his attention and he turns clumsily at me, then bows. "Could you please bring me my riding cloak and boots?" I command at him. "Yes, sire." He obliges.

  I march towards the courtyard. I carefully watch Claude and Elisa converse. "Your Grace?" I hear a voice. I turn around and see the servant with my cloak and boots. "Thank you," I say as he gives it to me, bows once again and depart.

   I wrap the cloak around me and tie the lace by my neck. I take my shoes off and put my boots on. I glance at Claude and Elisa once again. They both have smiles playing on their face. Claude parades confidently at Elisa, swishing her red cloak around. I hear Claude laughs at something while Elisa just shrugs her shoulders and faintly chuckle.

  I take a deep breath before stepping out of the castle. Claude suddenly stops and notices my presence.They both stop talking and Elisa subtly turns around and sees me. They exchanged glances.
 
  "Shall I leave?" Claude asks, standing between Elisa and I. We both don't answer.
   Claude answers her request by simply nodding and marches towards me.
  "What did you talk about?" I ask, grabbing her arm. "You," she says, pulling her arm off my grip. I let her go. She exits the yard.

   I step out of the castle out to the yard. Snow pours down from heaven.

   Elisa turns her back at me and begin to walk around the yard again. She's ignoring me.
   I put my hood up to prevent snowflakes descend on me.
  
   I notice Elisa kicks the snow at towards the gate, her crown dangling by a thread on her head.
   She tries to fix her crown but it suddenly falls onto the snow. I walk up to her. She bents down and picks her crown up. She must have heard the noise of my boots. She notices me. She stops at her tracks.

   "Hi," I say.

  "Hello."

  "Good morrow?"