Chapter 9

When Maerwynn started calling out and waving, Beowulf quickly spotted Thedrick standing on the small stage in the town square, surrounded by what seemed to be a group of performers. Of course, Beowulf should have known that the jester would find his type of people rather quickly here. The guard quickly headed over to the group, awkwardly trying to weave his way through the crowd, Effie on his heels and the princess giggling from her perch on his shoulders.

“Thedrick! There you are, we were wondering where you had run off to,” Beowulf said to the jester, who was looking up at him with an expression of anxiety. Beowulf glanced around the group of strange performers who were gathered around Thedrick. The soldier was slightly surprised that the strongman was nearly as tall as he was. “Who are your new friends?”

“H-Hey Beowulf, this is… my family,” Thedrick stammered out, following up with an awkward smile.

Behind his visor, Beowulf’s eye widened with surprise. “You… your family?” he asked in confusion.

Thedrick nodded, and started introducing each of the group to Beowulf, while the guard watched on silently while blinking in disbelief.

“Everyone, this is Beowulf and Maerwynn… oh, and Effie too…” Thedrick said, seeming to notice the nursemaid hanging just behind Beowulf, carrying the basket full of gifts for the princess. Beowulf plucked Maerwynn off his shoulders and held her in his arms again so everyone could see her better.

The woman, Joy, stared at the little princess in shock, and then looked between her and Thedrick a couple of times. Then she smiled widely. “Oh my goodness, look at you little one! Aren’t you just precious! Wearing a cute little crown and everything, just like a princess!” she exclaimed in delight.

“I am a princess!” Maerwynn stated firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Of course you are little dear,” Joy said in a patronising tone as she reached out and pinched Maerwynn’s cheeks.

Beowulf cleared his throat awkwardly. “She is the princess, actually. Daughter of the late Queen Vivienne, heir to the throne.”

Joy froze in place for a moment, blinking, before she let go of a grumpy looking Maerwynn and pulled away, her eyes going wide. She looked between Thedrick and the princess again, and pursed her lips, narrowing her brows. “Please tell me you didn’t, Thedrick,” she said in a measured tone.

Thedrick raised his hands in surrender. “It… it wasn’t my fault, I swear!” he claimed in defence, wincing slightly.

Joy shot him a look of disapproval. Then she sighed and turned back to Maerwynn. “My apologies, your highness,” she offered, along with a small curtsy. Maerwynn looked rather pleased at this, a smile returning to her face.

“So Thedrick… is Joy your… mother?” Beowulf asked awkwardly, looking between the two of them. Thedrick had never been very forthcoming with information about his past, but Beowulf did remember the vampire mentioning he was a noble, and also the guard didn’t see much family resemblance between the two of them.

“Not exactly,” Joy answered before Thedrick could, as the jester still seemed to be battling with embarrassment. “We found little Thedrick huddled up by our campfire one evening, so we took him in and cared for him.”

“And taught him everything he knows!” the man known as Jacques piped in with a grin, stepping up on the stage for a moment to clap Thedrick on the back jovially, which nearly made the jester fall forward from the impact. Thedrick stumbled a step forward but caught his balance, and then looked up at Beowulf with a sheepish grin.
“Though Thedrick… how come your friend doesn’t know about us? Did you never mention us?” Jacques added, his smile now falling away.

Thedrick turned his gaze to the ground. “I thought you all probably hated me. I don’t talk about my past much, unless it’s funny, and remembering you guys… only made me sad… because I missed you…”

Jacques quickly wrapped his arm around the jester from the side, giving him a squeeze. “I missed you too, little guy.”

“We all did,” Joy said, smiling kindly at him. “But I’m sure we are all glad that he managed to find some good new friends,” she added, looking up at Beowulf.

“What’s this for?” Maerwynn suddenly asked loudly during the brief pause of conversation between the adults, pointing at the stage and searching everyone’s faces with her big red eyes for answers.

“It’s a stage dear, so people can see us when we perform,” Joy explained politely to the princess, smiling at her warmly.

“Perform? Like Thedrick?” the little girl asked, looking at her father.

Joy nodded with a grin. “Yes, we were just setting up for our show. Would you like to stay and watch, your highness?”

Maerwynn’s face lit up as she stared at Joy in wonder. “Oh, yes yes yes I wanna see! Wulfy, can we stay?” she asked, turning her head to look up at her bodyguard.

Beowulf smirked under his helmet. “Well, you are in charge, your highness. I will follow your orders.”

“Oh! Then, I order you to watch the show with me, Beowulf!” Maerwynn exclaimed, bouncing in his arms with excitement.

“Of course, your majesty,” Beowulf said formally, nodding to her.

While they waited for the troupe to finish setting up, Beowulf found a spot to sit down in view of the stage, sitting the princess in his lap while Effie took a seat next to them. While Joy directed the others, Thedrick stood beside her, looking to be talking to her animatedly. Beowulf noticed how warmly the woman smiled at the jester, with eyes so full of love.

The vampire seemed to elicit strong emotions in others, either they loved him, or they hated him. Or maybe both, in the case of a certain noble, which Beowulf spotted standing at the edge of the square with the other guard that had been sent with them to protect the princess, watching Beowulf and Maerwynn quietly.

Soon the troupe started their performance, Thedrick wandering back over to Beowulf and Maerwynn to watch with them. Maerwynn watched on, enraptured, as the twins flipped across the stage. Then the masked person, Maverick, juggled knives, just as Beowulf had seen Thedrick do before. Then the twins came back on the stage and Maverick picked them up and started juggling them as if they weighed nothing, a surprising feat of strength from what seemed to be quite a lean individual.

The strongman Clay joined them on stage, along with the bard, who Clay held aloft with a single hand while the small man strummed away on his lute. Clay picked up Maverick as well using his other hand, who was still juggling the twins. The crowd that had gathered around cheered as the strongman easily held aloft the rest of the performers, while Jacques sung a merry tune. Maerwynn was bouncing up and down in Beowulf lap while clapping her hands together and giggling.

Once the performance was finished, Beowulf held the princess aloft as she clapped and cheered like the rest of the crowd. The guard turned his head to glance down at Thedrick’s face, seeing the vampire watching the group with a look of forlorn longing. This made Beowulf frown slightly under his helmet, before he turned away again, back to the stage where the performers were bowing to their audience.

As the crowd began to disperse, Beowulf and Thedrick rose to their feet and then made their way across to the stage again. Joy was congratulating everyone on a job well done, before she turned to speak with the guard, jester and princess again.

“Did you enjoy that, your majesty?” she asked Maerwynn, who nodded eagerly while smiling.

“That really took me back…” Thedrick sighed wistfully. “By the way, where is Lottie?”

“Oh yes, well, she ran off earlier to check out the rest of the fair, probably gathering ingredients for dinner tonight as we speak,” Joy explained cheerily.

Thedrick’s posture seemed to slump slightly in disappointment. “Oh… it would have been nice to see her,” he mused sadly.

“Well, Thedrick, would you like to hang around during dinner with us so you can catch up with her?” Joy suggested.

Thedrick’s demeanour seemed to brighten up again immediately. “Oh yes, that would be wonderful!” he exclaimed.

“Can we stay for dinner too Wulfy?” Maerwynn asked, looking up at the guard pleadingly.

Beowulf sighed and shook his head. “Sorry princess, but we really need to get you back to the king for dinner, otherwise he may worry,” Beowulf explained to her as delicately as possible.

Maerwynn instantly looked upset and pouted. “But I want to have dinner with the funny performers!” she whinged.

“Well… Joy, how long are you staying in town?” Beowulf asked.

The woman smiled up at him warmly. “We will probably be here for another day or so, resting and stocking up before we move on.”

Beowulf turned his attention back down to the princess. “Why don’t you invite them to the castle for tea tomorrow?” he suggested, trying to appease her.

“Okay!” Maerwynn said brightly, nodding her head eagerly.

“Beowulf… are you sure it’s wise to invite these strangers to the castle?” Effie suddenly asked from beside him, looking up at him with brows furrowed in concern.

“I’m a princess, I can do whatever I want!” Maerwynn answered instead of Beowulf, glaring at her nursemaid.

“Joy, if you would like to do so, you are welcome to bring your family to the castle tomorrow at noon for tea with her majesty,” Beowulf said formally, bowing his head slightly.

“That sounds delightful!” Joy returned a slight curtsy to the soldier. “We will look forward to seeing you tomorrow, your highness. In the meantime, we will take good care of your jester, I promise,” she stepped over to Thedrick, putting an arm around his shoulders and squeezing gently. Thedrick smiled in a slightly shy manner.

“Come now your majesty, we must be getting you back to the castle,” Beowulf stated plainly, adjusting his grip on the princess in his arms.

“Aw, but I was having so much fun! Can’t we stay a little longer?” Maerwynn whined, giving Beowulf another beseeching look.

“I’m sorry princess, but we can’t have the king getting worried about you again. You don’t want Thedrick to take the blame and end up in the dungeons again, right?” Beowulf attempted to persuade.

Maerwynn appeared slightly alarmed at that concept, and Beowulf could see in his peripheral vision that Thedrick was sharing the same emotion. The princess sighed in a very weary manner that didn’t at all match her age. “I guess you’re right…”

“Once we have returned, we can go through all the gifts that the townsfolk gave you, your highness,” Effie suggested, holding up the full basket of goods.

“Yay!” Maerwynn cheered, clapping her tiny hands together again.

“See you tomorrow,” Beowulf said cheerily to Joy, and Maerwynn waved to her as Beowulf and Effie started moving away. Beowulf noticed that not only Joy was sending them off with a wave, but the rest of the troupe had turned to wave goodbye as well, which appeared to delight the princess as she smiled.

Beowulf and Effie headed over to Emil and the other guard at the edge of the town square. Emil smirked up at the large soldier as he approached. “Finally managed to sell off the jester?” he jokingly scoffed.

“Unfortunately not,” Effie sneered in a tone which didn’t sound nearly as light-hearted. Beowulf lightly bumped his arm against her a little as a signal of his displeasure at her attitude towards his lover.

“Thedrick ran into some old friends and wanted to spend a bit of time with them,” Beowulf informed Emil.

“Oh, so does that mean that you are free this evening?” Emil asked, his joking manner gone.

“Very smooth Emil, you have all the subtlety of a, well, Thedrick,” Effie quipped with a smirk.

Emil suddenly looked very indignant, and also a bit embarrassed. “I-! I don’t know what you are talking about! I merely wanted to spend some time with a friend…” by the end of the explanation he was looking away from them.

“I’m your friend, Emil?” Beowulf asked, a gentle smile playing on his lips under his helmet.

This only seemed to increase Emil’s mortification. “I, I mean, well… if you wanted to be…”

“Good gods this is embarrassing to watch. Let’s get moving already!” Effie exclaimed, then started stalking away up the street, heading for the castle. The rest of them blinked in shock at her for a moment, before they started following, Emil falling in next to Beowulf’s strides.

“I have my duties to the princess this evening as usual,” Beowulf explained, glancing down at Maerwynn who he saw looking up between him and Emil with a sly grin as she listened to their conversation.

“Oh yes, of course of course, I should have realised…” Emil said, glancing away again in embarrassment.

“But once she has been put to bed, perhaps I could ask Cassian or someone to guard her for a couple of hours?” Beowulf suggested, noticing Maerwynn’s face turn slightly conflicted at that. She was very attached to him after all, and she didn’t like other people guarding her as much.

“You don’t have to change your schedule around for me. I realise you probably still don’t like me much, ever since I shot you all those years ago. I know you’re probably only nice to me to be polite…” Emil rambled, looking anywhere but at Beowulf.

Beowulf shook his head. “That’s not true Emil, I have long since forgiven you for that. And I would like to be friends with you.”

“Really?” Emil asked, face now turned to look up at Beowulf with large imploring eyes. A second later Emil’s expression changed, as if he suddenly snapped out of it, and his brows furrowed. “I, I mean, I guess we could be friends if you really wanted,” he said in a more familiar surly tone.

Beowulf chuckled lightly. “You’ve changed a lot, Emil.”

A look of confusion took over the noble’s features. “H-Have I?” he stuttered out the question, glancing up again at Beowulf with suspicion.

Beowulf nodded, making a ‘mmhmm’ noise as he did so. “You aren’t half as insufferable as you used to be,” he added.

Emil made a ‘hrmph’ noise of indignance. “Well… perhaps I’m tired of being alone. Maybe… I’ve learned something from watching you on how to be… ‘nice’,” Emil mumbled, glancing away again. “Though I’m not about to go around begging for everyone’s forgiveness. I still have some dignity left…”

“So, I’ll see you at the tavern this evening then?” Beowulf said, nudging Emil slightly with his elbow while grinning.

Emil seemed to be knocked slightly off guard by the gentle jostling, then frowned and straightened up. “Well, if you can make it, I would appreciate your company,” he said in a very formal manner, sounding almost strained in his attempt to be courteous.

They had reached the castle now, so Beowulf said goodbye to the two guards, who nodded and headed off towards the barracks, Emil stealing a glance behind him at Beowulf before he was out of sight. Effie and Beowulf then headed towards Maerwynn’s room, to get her undressed from her fancy outing clothes and to unpack the gifts from her subjects.

“You would rather go out with stinky guard than spend time with me?” Maerwynn huffily asked Beowulf as he carried her down the corridors, following Effie who had gotten quite far ahead again.

“Stinky?” Beowulf asked in mild surprise. “Why do you call him that?”

“Because his blood smells so good! I really want to-”

“Shhhh Maerwynn!” Beowulf cut her off, quickly looking up at Effie to see if she had heard, but she carried on without turning back towards them, seeming oblivious. “You know we can’t talk about that around anyone else,” he chided her in a hushed tone.

The princess pouted up at him. “You asked!” she said in a snappy whisper.

“Alright, my mistake,” Beowulf whispered back, before clearing his throat and returning to his normal speaking register. “Also, I spend time with you literally all the time Maerwynn! And besides, it will be after you go to sleep, so you won’t miss me too much.”

Maerwynn made a noise of indigence, clearly set on holding a grudge about this, even if it was just for show. They reached her room, where Effie was waiting for them, having set the basket down on the bed. Beowulf handed the princess over to the nursemaid to be changed.

“What do you want to wear tomorrow for your tea party with Thedrick’s friends?” Effie asked Maerwynn as she pulled her clothes off, trying to cheer up the grumpy child.

The two of them immediately started discussing outfits, which seems to have the desired effect of improving the princess’s mood. Effie changed her into the appropriate clothing for dinner, but they still had some time before that, so they all sat on the bed and went through the basket full of gifts.

Cassian was surprised about Beowulf requesting a few hours off, as it wasn’t something the guard regularly did, but at the same time he was all too happy to cover for him, saying he deserved to take a break. Beowulf thanked him graciously, before heading into town to the tavern to meet Emil.

Emil did a very poor job of trying to hide his excitement when he looked up to see Beowulf approaching the table he was sitting at in the tavern. Beowulf removed his helmet as he sat down, smiling warmly at the noble. They drank and chatted away into the evening, with Beowulf in much better spirits than the previous occasion, and not ending up drunk this time.