"You can see why I summoned you, sire. These gypsy women have some rather interesting horses towing that caravan. Look closely."
"I see what you mean, colonel."
The invading king Geoffrey turned to the dark-complexioned gypsy women and asked, "How did you ladies come into possession of a team of horses from the royal stables of your fleeing king Arnold?"
The first woman stated, "We found them, your excellency."
"Really? Where?"
"They wandered into our camp. No one was using them, your royal highness."
"Interesting, woman. Don't gypsies generally have their own horses? Further, I have captured every castle in this realm. All of the mares, stallions, and geldings save those actually being used by King Arnold and his knights have been accounted for. The battlefields are quite some distance from this barn on the border. For two horses, tended and cared for with the intention of being for royal use only should end up in the hands of two anonymous gypsy women, is either quite a remarkable coincidence or a bit of chicanery is afoot."
"We speak the truth, Sire!" insisted the first woman. The second gypsy woman remained silent but looked or warily.
"Search the wagon!" ordered King Geoffrey.
"Sire!" came the startled reaction, "It is filled with jewels and gold bars bearing King Arnold's royal crest!"
"Ah, so it is chicanery!" stated Geoffrey.
He shot the women a withering look and said, "Fetch the farmer's wife and daughter, if she has one, so these women can be stripped and searched."
"You shall do no such thing!" the previously silent woman declared.
King Geoffrey peered closely at the defiant woman. There was something familiar about the woman. She had a certain air, an imperiousness not at all befitting a humble gypsy woman. The vanquishing king strode over to the slim lovely woman. She met his gaze with open hostility.
"You do not know your place, woman," opined the king. He intended to grasp the woman on the shoulder, but she flinched, and Geoffrey's hand came down upon her headscarf, it came away along with the dark wig under it, revealing net restraining golden curls. Instantly the pieces fit together.
"Why if it isn't Arnold's Queen Margarite, disguised and absconding with the royal treasury! And the other must be her chief lady in waiting!"
"You foul parasite!" squealed the exposed queen.
"Insult me all you like, bitch. I have to upper hand. No doubt more treasures are sewn into the linings of your voluminous skirts. We shall soon find out!"
"I am a queen of the realm. I'll not bare my person to a mere commoner!"
"Or the contrary, madam, you are no longer the queen of anything. You and your lady are my prisoners as is your treasure. Your only hope for clemency is through me. Now, you and your handmaiden will cooperate with the search, strip to your skins, and be quick about it. No one knows that I have captured you. No one knows that you are or the run with your people's wealth in your possession; and, if I give the word, neither of you will leave this barn alive. Is that clear, your grace?"
An involuntary shiver passed through the captured queen. At that moment, the soldier dispatched to the farmhouse returned with the farmer's wife and her adult daughter. Both women curtsied when they realized they were in the presence of their new king and absolute ruler. Geoffrey explained quickly what was expected of the women. The farm women and the captured women were ordered behind a partition that left only the women's heads and shoulders exposed.
"Once the prisoners have disrobed, throw their clothing over the partition. I then expect you to search every part of them is that clear?"
"Yes, sire!" returned the farmer's wife and her daughter.
The disguised queen Margarite moaned mightily, but, at last, her dress was tossed over the partition. King Geoffrey spied the humiliated royal trying to hold back her tears. She had not entirely succeeded, and rivulets of tears had etched away at the brown dye or her face, revealing pale, alabaster skin. The dye on her face and neck ended at her delicate collar bones. It was clear to King Geoffrey that the tales of Margarite's beauty were true. It was clear that free of the disguise and paint, that she would be an absolutely stunning woman.
One of his men was busily disassembling the queen's gypsy dress. He held open a seam and smiled at the king, diamonds and other jewels winked in the lantern light of the barn.
"Bag up the dresses, we will inventory everything later."
"Yes, sir!" replied the officer snappily.
Geoffrey smiled when he turned and discovered the queen's undergarments, boots, and stockings on the floor beyond the partition. These too would need to be searched. The king decided that he would perform this task himself. He had the queen's unmentionables bagged separately and had the parcel placed in his saddlebag.
"You, whore!" screamed Margarite as the fingers of the farmer's wife entered her sex. A moment later, the farmer's wife presented Geoffrey with a small silk bag. He opened it and found the Star of Orion, the crowning jewel of the royal collection. It was priceless.
The mother and daughter stepped out from behind the partition and informed Geoffrey that they had finished their search.
"Can you supply these women with dresses? You will be well compensated," stated the king in response.
"My clothes should fit them rather well, sire," offered the daughter.
Geoffrey removed a small change purse full of gold coins and handed it to the daughter. "Hasten to bring them something suitable, girl."
The young woman was off like a shot for the farmhouse.
From the other side of the partition, the newly deposed Queen Margarite glowered at conquering King Geoffrey.
"It is true that you and your entire nation are nothing but filthy reprobates!" she hissed accusatorily.
"And YOU shall mind your tongue, woman. If I am such a filthy reprobate, then why did your husband's army not only desert the battlefield but also hasten to fight by my side once I led my troops over your border? It seems to me that both your husband and you have overstayed their welcome in your own nation."
Margarite continued to glare defiantly at her usurper.
"Further," continued Geoffrey, "In a week's time I shall be installed as monarch over this realm in the castle that was your very own. I shall rule it far more effectively and maturely than you have. Once this former country becomes a province of my empire, I shall not tax its citizen into poverty and misery, solely to procure baubles like this for my person!"
As he stated this, he waved the Star of Orion meaningfully.
"One of my first acts shall be after the contents of this caravan and your person are cataloged and assessed, is to return its value to the people you compelled to purchase for you!"
Margarite reared back and spit at King Geoffrey.
"Vipers do always strike in the end do they not?" stated Geoffrey eliciting a laugh from his officers.
At that moment, the young farm maiden returned with two of her finest dresses and a set of underthings.
"Here, Sire, these are my best!" she said as she curtsied before her new ruler.
"Thank you, fair maiden. Once you and your mother have seen that they are properly attired, I ask that you make no mention of what has transpired in your barn. Your family's silence provided that it is iron-clad, shall yield a title for your father and a generous boon from the crown."
Both mother and daughter's mouth fell open with awe and delight. After a moment the mother stated, "Nothing has happened this evening, your highness. If any neighbor asks what has transpired, we will state the truth, that our family loaned your men a team of horses."
"Excellent, my lady," returned the king as he bent his knees and bowed before the matron.
In short order, the women were garbed in peasant finery.
"Have the wagon delivered to Welborn Castle. Keep the women apart, out of sight, and sequestered. I'll puzzle out what to do with them in a few days. Treat them both as you would any gentlelady but do NOT defer to them in any way."
"Your orders shall be obeyed to the letter, sire!" exclaimed the colonel who had diverted the disguised women.
II
King Geoffrey relaxed in the huge master bedroom of the central palace. Far from being seen as an oppressive invader, the people once led by King Arnold seemed to bend over backward to see to it that he was comfortable. Those loyal to the former king had either fled the country in fear of their lives or had lost them in their attempts to escape when they fell into the hands of overtaxed, bitter, and very angry citizens. The new king's first decree was a one-year moratorium or all taxes and a court of just compensation to return wealth to the populace. Any resistance that may have remained to Geoffrey's rule collapsed in the wake of those enormously popular moves. There had been very little bloodshed on either side and the vast majority of Arnold's army had sworn fidelity to Geoffrey. The generals and colonels who could have caused trouble were quickly and silently eliminated and men beneath them promoted to fill their positions. As for the unlamented King Arnold? Allies across the border were holding him. Geoffrey thought it best, when the time was right, that the people he had so oppressed would serve as his judge and jury. No way was he coming out of things with his head still attached to his shoulders.
"It is good to be king," said Geoffrey to the mostly empty room about him without a scintilla of irony. Now came an event he was really looking forward to.
At his summons, a cloaked sedan chair was carried into the bed-chamber. The footmen quickly left the room.
"You may come out now."
The black fabric parted and out strode the former Queen Margarite. She was dressed in a fine but not overly expensive mauve dress. Her golden nimbus of hair fell in flowing curls above a simply enchanting face. A face that would have been enchanting, were it not presently scowling. The dress clung to her slim firm revealing that she had a rather prodigious bust and an hourglass figure. "Yes," thought King Geoffrey, "I'm going to enjoy this a great deal!"
Margarite refused to curtsy or even nod once she exited the sedan chair.
"Still sulking, are we?"
"Go to Hell!"
"Ah, still radiant sunshine, I see!"
"Why have you summoned me here, parasite?"
"Ah, curious are we not?"
Margarite glared.
"Very well. It is time that you were given the lay of the land, woman. Your former people have welcomed me like a conquering hero. Songs and poems have already been written in my honor. Plays, monographs, tributes of all kinds are flowing from the hearts of the people you so wickedly oppressed. In due time, your former husband will be returned to this city in an iron cage to face the judgment of your former citizens. I will provide him with the ablest barristers and attorneys money can buy. It will make no difference; his conviction is a foregone conclusion. The only question is whether the jury will decide upon a simple beheading or drawing and quartering."
"You would not dare!" squealed the former queen.
"That I'm afraid is out of my hands, justice must be done. I've taken the liberty of dissolving your marriage. You will not be permitted to be the grieving widow. Which begs the question of what should happen to you, fair woman? Or the one hand, since you were even more avaricious than your former husband and, in many ways, drove him hard to oppress your former citizens, I should turn you over to them as well. The best you are looking at is being tarred and feathered after a battalion of soldiers has publicly ravaged you followed by permanent exile. Most likely, however, is that you will join your former husband or the chopping block."
