Enchantress 7 - The Royal Family

"I'm done yer majesty, not only have I seen the error of my ways, they lay on my heart like a rock. Yer majesty, for years I didn't remember you an your mum, then slowly over the years as I kicked the booze and drugs it all come back. I wish ah could take it all back, I did what I did outta the desire to get more skim and nothing else..."

"Mister Stein, the things that you have done..." started Nick but Ivo interrupted him.

"I know yer majesty! I did the most horrible things to you and your mum without thought... I hate myself so much and you haunt me, you haunt me all night long, that trust you had in your eyes when I... when I..."

"When you abandoned me," said Nick.

"I didn't abandon you; I threw you away like a piece of trash. I lied to you, got you all excited about seeing Hogfather then I tried to kill you like I tried to kill your mum. All night long I see that look in your eyes, I see myself hitting your mum and I want to die, I see her crawling off into the night and I want to open my wrists... I deserve to die, I..." Ivo dropped to his knees weeping, "I don't ask for your forgiveness, I ask for the mercy of the axeman. Please kill me, please erase my sins and allow me to burn in hell..."

Cholly cried out "Grandpa!" and dashed out to Ivo and threw his little arms around Ivo's neck and asked, "Wass the matter grandpa?"

"Cholly," said Nick as he rose to his feet, "get back, he's a..."

"DON'T YOU HURT MY GRANDPA!" shrieked Cholly. His big, brown trusting eyes were filled with nothing but contempt for Nick. The king felt like he was hit with a sledgehammer in the forehead.

"Cholly..."

"He's right Cholly, you need to go sit with Miss Jutta, I owe a debt to the king, it's time for me to pay."

"No!" cried the little tyke. "Grandpa! No!"

Nick fell back into the throne; he did not expect this. He looked to Octavia and her words came into his head, 'You know what to do.'

"No I don't," he whispered. Then he turned to Ning and he didn't get a chance to formulate the words.

Ning put her fingers on his mouth and she said, "Don't be the son, be the king."

He took a deep breath and hoping his beard hid the tears said, "Miss Garlick, what can you say for Mister Stein?"

Magrat looked down at Ivo and said, "he's been in my employ for several years, he's done a wonderful job with the laundry and the children love him. I couldn't ask for a better assistant."

"Assistant?" said Nick shocked. "How is he your assistant?"

"He sets up the classrooms and cleans them after class. While class is in session he gathers all the laundry and cleans it on Octdays and Wednesdays, he straightens up their rooms and helps me correcting their papers, and he's so good and understanding with Esme, I couldn't ask for more."

"Ivo Stein, is this true?"

"I try to help wherever I can," said the small man. "Sire, I am so, so sorry for what I did to you and your mom but my words are not enough, not nearly enough... please take it out on me..."

Now Cholly was joined by another small lad, one that Nick found last year, the one they call Benny. Benny was on the other side of Ivo hugging him. Benny was like Cholly was at first, tiny, silent, and mistrusting of everyone.

Nick looked at the gallery and saw the faces, looking to see if he could read their thoughts, then back to Ivo who was trying to calm Cholly and Benny. The king rose to his feet and said, "There will be a ten minute recess then I will return to render my decision," then he turned on his heel and left. Octavia and Ning looked at each other then followed...

Nick didn't get far, they found him in the hall mulling over what happened over the past few minutes. "Ning, honey, could you run to the kitchen and tell Mrs. Reinhart that we will be having a family dinner at six thirty? Nothing fancy, just family fare. We'll be expecting about sixteen adult and two, maybe four children. Then come right back, ok?"

"Yes sire," and with a kiss she was off.

"You made your decision already?" asked Octavia.

"Mostly. I realized that I've been missing the cottage and living there. I've decided that we will have a family dinner every week where we can catch up with each other."

"That's it?"

"At the moment," said Nick. "The rest will come." He pulled Octavia close and they kissed and whispered endearments for the next nine minutes until the chime on Nick's pocket watch went off. "Let's go."

"I hate that thing," muttered Octavia.

"You gave it to me on our first Hogswatch together," he said.

"I still hate it. Lancre society is not bound to the clock. When someone says, "I'll be by at six," that really means "tonight" or possibly "early tomorrow." But ever since she gave him that pocket watch he's always on time... however he's usually the only person on time because he's usually the only person who knows what the time is.

As they reentered the court room they found Ivo was sitting on the ground with Cholly and Benny on his lap. Ivo and Cholly were trying to encourage Benny to speak. Holding Octavia's hand Nick led her to the thrones as the room rose to their feet. As Octavia sat, Ning entered and Nick held her hand as she sat on the throne to Nick's right. Ning's throne was an Agatean throne, but not the one Marlon was born on, that throne was sitting in Wægn Manor.

Without sitting Nick turned to face Ivo who had Cholly and Benny clinging to him. "Let go boys," said Ivo and he rose to his feet. Maggy clutched Benny and Cholly off to the side but the boys knew something was up and were crying, trying to fight their way free of Maggy's grip.

"Ivo Stein..." Nick paused for a very long time then said, "There will be a Royal Family dinner tonight at six thirty in the main dining room, please dress appropriately."

There was a collective gasp from the royal family members in the gallery, what was going on?

"Sire, I... you're not...?"

"Mister Stein, this is not a prison camp, and we don't just kill people because they feel bad. If you're having issues you are free to seek out help, your daughter-in-law can probably help more than anyone else. Your granddaughter and your son are both witches who can also help."

"I'm free?"

"Yes, you are free to help with the Kings College and move about Lancre. I believe that Ankh-Morpork is still looking for you so please don't leave the country. Also, if you do anything that makes my mother uncomfortable, you will get the execution you asked for, and I promise you, it will take weeks."

"I... yes sire! Thank you sire!"

Nick felt Cholly wrap his arms around Nick's waist and Nick scooped the little guy up then turned to Octavia, "Darling, could you remove the spell that Annette cast on Mister Stein so he can talk to his grandchildren?"

"Yes dear."

Without a word Nick left with Benny and Cholly leaving Findlay MacIver to say, "Court is dismissed."

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Farnworthy Candlechrome has never been beaten so badly at darts in his life. He plays against Nick after court on Octday and he's pretty evenly matched with Nick and he doesn't mind if Nick accidentally calls him Trei. Nick's study is a pub where friends and palace staff are allowed to congregate, if you can't find someone on the staff, look in Nick's study. It got so popular that Octavia hired a regular bar tender because Nick would take over tending bar and not get his paperwork done. Along with the bar tender, the kitchen staff set out sandwiches for the lunchtime crowd.

Right now a small crowd has gathered to see the weekly contest between the two best dart throwers in Lancre Town while Cholly and Benny sat in the corner with Little Pommy and his cousin Corina drinking root beer and drawing pictures on some paper. Had they been watching the King of Lancre and the King of Trash, they would have seen the fastest game of 901 in Lancre history. The game goes very quickly when every dart you throw hits a triple 20. "You're throwin' quite well sire," said Farnworthy. "What's yer secret?"

"I just got some troubles off my mind that have been around for a while," said Nick as he doubled off to win.

"How long have they been around?"

"About forty five years. Oh gosh, look at the time. Cholly! Benny! Let's get you back to school, it's almost your supper time."

"Awww grandpa!" groaned little Corina. "Can they have supper with us?"

"This is a special supper, it's just for family."

"Cholly is family!" insisted Nick's oldest grandchild. "See?" She pointed to an icon on the wall that showed Nick feeding snow ice cream to a tiny, nearly mute Cholly five years ago.

"Start cleaning up your mess and we'll let queen grandma figure that out, come on, that means you too Benny."

Dinner was delicious, nothing fancy, beef stew with dumplings along with fresh baked bread and butter churned by the duchess of Wægn from milk obtained from a cow by Princess Hollie. Nick looked at the people gathered around the table and realized that for the very first time since he wore the crown his entire family had gathered together. Ivo was so interested in his grandchildren and he couldn't hear enough about their lives and the stories they told about life on the farm. Laughter rang through the room as the stories brought the latest addition to the family up to speed.

Nick was tied up in the thought that it was life on the farm that he missed, but that wasn't what he missed at all. Life on the farm was hard, backbreaking, monotonous labor interspersed with periods of shoveling shit and the weekly court meeting which was a different form of shoveling shit. No, he missed his family, his kids all gathered together and telling jokes, and now with spouses and grandchildren it was paradise. Jutta wasn't happy to have Ivo Stein at the table because he's the one that caused Catrin so much pain, but Catrin didn't seem to be bothered and she even laughed at one of the jokes he told and that was good enough for Jutta. Nick even knew that Catrin and Jutta were holding hands under the table, as they should be.

Nick felt Lancre blanket him in bliss and he began to shiver from the sheer joy he was feeling, Cholly on one knee, Hollie's son Pommeraie on the other knee, it was so perfect. He looked at Octavia who was holding hands with Ning. She looked at Ning and said, "I always get weepy at this part."

Somehow Octavia knew this was going to happen, and Nick didn't have a clue. He was about to ask her 'dear, did you know that this was going to happen?' but Cholly was trying to feed him some pudding saying, "It's ice cream poppa!"

Nick was so content he could weep with joy. How did she know? He'll ask her next time.