Part 24
Afterwards, Danielle went straight to bed considering the fact that she had not slept for two days. She had only meant to take a nap, but she had ended up sleeping the till early the next morning.
When she woke up, it was six o’clock in the morning. She headed for her dressing room hoping that she had saved at least one dress. To her surprise, all of her old belonging were sitting exactly where she would have left them. That brought a smile to her face because she knew that Henry was the one behind it. No one else would have done such a gracious deed.
She hurried towards her father’s room. She entered through the sitting room where she found Henry. “How is he?”
“No change.” Danielle turned to go into- the other room, but Henry stopped her. “It is no use to go in right now; he is resting. Why don’t you take a seat.” Henry patted the spot beside him. “We have a lot of catching up to do.”
Danielle took the seat. “I guess we do have a lot to catch up on. You can not always portray everything that you want to in to in a letter. Before I left, I remember that you had your eye on a lady. What ever happened to her?”
A smile graced her face. “Nothing really has happened with her. I have not heard from her for awhile. What about you and your Antoine?”
“It is complicated, but I basically told him to move on, and that he would be better off without me. He did not like the idea at first, but he has already started to get use to the idea.”
Henry thought about it for a moment. No matter how much he wanted to be with Danielle, he cared more about her happiness. “Danielle, I can not sit back and watch you do this to yourself again.”
“What are you talking about?”
Henry let out a sigh, “You always think that you are not good enough for a man, but the truth is that any man would be lucky to have you. With Charles, I know for a fact that you loved him because you came crying to me when he and Jacqueline got together. I knew Charles, and I knew that he was a good man. You two would have been great together.”
“Henry, I was so young then that I did not know what I was feeling. I did not yet know what love was. Charles might have been my first crush, but when I look back on it I now know that I did not love him. He has been a great friend, but he never truly was anything else to me.”
“What about this Antoine? In one of your letters you wrote to me, you wished that you were a princess again so that you could be with him. You mean to tell me that you no longer have any feelings for him? I do not know him, but I am sure that he is a gentleman. Why then are you turning your back on another man?”
“He cares more for me than I could ever care for him. Sure I love him, but I am not in love with him. He is more like a brother. In fact, he is probably more like a brother than you are. He fell in love with me, and I wanted to make him happy. I pretended to love him more than I did. After I did this, I realized that I was hurting him much more than I was helping him.” By now, a few tears had started to fall down her face. “Why do I have to be so caring! It only ends up getting me in trouble.”
Henry let Danielle cry on his shoulder like she had done so many times before. He gently smoothed her hair with her hand. “Danielle, you are constantly changing. You are growing stronger by all of the trials you have had in life.” He did not say that he believed that she had grown more beautiful.
She whispers in his shirt, “Why can’t more people be like you?” Her eyes then slowly drift up to meet his.
Henry was compelled to kiss her. Her lips were simply unresistible. He felt himself slowly lowering his head. He tried to resist the temptation, he really did, but he could not help himself. When he was only a few inches away from her lips, the door suddenly opened. Both of them guiltily jump to the other side of the couch.
A nurse walks in. “The King is awake now, and would like to see his children. The doctor has approved it, but only for a few minutes. He is still weak, but he improved somewhat last night. Things are looking up for the King.”
Both of them shared excited looks, but neither of them touched the other one. Quickly, they entered the room. Danielle sat on the bed next to her father, who was now sitting up, and Henry stood a safe distance behind her. “I never realized how horrible it must be to always have to follow everyone else orders until I had to follow the doctors orders,” Francis laughs slightly.
“Do not be like some of the French citizens and not follow orders. You know that we would hate to lose you,” commented Henry, “You are much to valuable to all of our sanity.”
“I am sure you are only saying that because you do not want to be king quite yet, but regardless it is a nice thing to say. Thank you.” He looked over to Danielle who was sitting next to him. “Why don’t you stand up so your old father can have a good look at you?” Of course, she obeyed. “I must say that you have grown in height and I dare say beauty,” he took one of her hands, “But I believe that you have been working too hard. Your hands are all callused.”
“I have been a seamstress for the past nine months. I started my own shop, and once it got going it was very successful. Now, I shall leave it in the care of my friend Anne. She was kind to me when no one else was.” The three of them talked until the doctor told them that they needed to leave. Both were reluctant to go, but doctor’s orders were not to be taken lightly.
The moment they were in the hall Danielle spoke quickly, “I must go see Mother. I have not even talked to her since I came back. Excuse me.” Henry could feel his heart break with that comment that spoke of her fear of being alone with him.
Danielle was quickly able to find her mother in the garden. Marie was the first to speak, “I was beginning to think that you had forgotten about me. I shall forgive you because I understood that you rode for day and a half straight. After such a journey, I do not blame you for needing some sleep. Now sit with me until Jacqueline comes to monopolize all of your time.”
Danielle sat down across from Marie. The two of them easily fell into chat. It was basically the same conversation she had been having everyone. She told her mother all about how she had been keeping herself busy the past few months, and Marie told Danielle all about what had been happening here. Such as the fact that the Baroness had been sent to the Americas for hiring someone to stalk Henry, stealing from the crown, ect… Quickly, however, Jacqueline was there.
A guard announced her arrival, and that she was in what use to be known as the nursery. Danielle quickly excused herself and headed towards the nursery. She had to admit that she thought it was an odd place for Jacqueline to go, but then again Jacqueline had never been quite normal.
Danielle quietly walks in, and Jacqueline rushes to hug her. “None of us thought that you were ever coming home again, especially Henry. He was always trying to find an excuse to get you to come back.” Suddenly, there was a cry from behind Jacqueline.
Danielle slowly crept towards the cradle. Inside was a perfect little baby. Danielle lifted her up into her arms and started to rock her back and forth. “Whose child is this?”
“Mine.”