Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

It was a bright and sunny day in the Fourth Kingdom and his lordship, the newly titled Anthony Lewis (Tony to his friends), was putting the final touches on his wardrobe. His clothes were sharp and expensive in tasteful shades of charcoal gray with bright touches of royal red at the corners of his cuffs and collar. His hair was perfectly in place and the skin on his face was smooth and touched with just the right amount of cologne.

It was now a week and a half since Virginia and Wolf had left and he had been heavily engaged in the task of bringing the Fourth Kingdom into the industrial age. He had a flock of assistants who fluttered about at his slightest command and a bevy of beautiful female admirers who laughed giddily at his every joke. On top of that, he felt as if he were actually doing something positive for himself and the world at large. Thanks to him, industry was at last coming to the Nine Kingdoms.

As he stepped out of his room, Tony was met by Lord Rupert, who’d no doubt been waiting several minutes for him to appear. Rupert had been assigned by the King to work as Tony’s assistant. And he took his job very seriously. He may have been foppish, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that Lord Lewis’s position was quickly becoming an important one in the Fourth Kingdom and that one day he might command great influence over the other eight. Lord Rupert hoped to have some of this prestige rub off on him.

“Good morning, Lord Lewis,” Lord Rupert said with a deep dramatic bow that was so low, the large red sash that draped over his right shoulder, touched against the floor.

“Good morning,” Tony said, a big smile on his face.

“And how is the Inventor to the King this morning?” Lord Rupert asked.

“Quite well. And how are things going with the cotton gin?”

A few days before, Tony had unveiled his first invention amidst great pomp to the King and his subjects. He’d gotten the idea because there were several fields of cotton growing just beyond the castle. It was harvest season and though cotton was prized for its lighter weight during the warmer months, everyone tended to wear wool most of the time because it was easier to handle.

Tony figured using the cotton gin would allow the cotton growers to prepare more cotton more quickly and bring some easy money into the coffers of the Fourth Kingdom. It was such an easy mechanism to build. It basically raked the cotton through small slots and took out the seed that would have taken the farmers a ridiculous amount of time to pick out by hand. Also, it could be run by using animal power.

“Oh,” Lord Rupert exclaimed, reaching up excitedly into the air with his hands. The red sash flew up into his face this time. “It’s wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Everyone is so excited. The cotton crop is being prepared for market in record time. The Fourth Kingdom will be the envy of everyone. Truly, you are a great inventor!” Lord Rupert bowed again.

“Oh,” Lord Rupert exclaimed, reaching up excitedly into the air with his hands. The red sash flew up into his face this time. “It’s wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Everyone is so excited. The cotton crop is being prepared for market in record time. The Fourth Kingdom will be the envy of everyone. Truly, you are a great inventor!” Lord Rupert bowed again.

“Oh, it was nothing,” Tony said, beaming, “Just a little something I picked up. But don’t let this little success go to your head. It’s such a simple gadget, by next year everyone else in the Nine Kingdoms will be copying it. We need to move on to bigger and better things now.”

“Yes, of course. What is your next great invention to be?”

“Well, I was kind of thinking of a steam generator. It seems to me this castle is going to get pretty cold this winter. Fireplaces just won’t cut it. And it would be nice to have hot water without all the fuss and muss of heating it over cauldrons in the kitchen. We’re going to build a nice big boiler in the cellar of the palace, just a simple fire-tube type.”

“Yes. Of course. Steam. Fire-tube type.”

“But we’re going to be needing some metal tubing. I suppose you people haven’t started making steel yet. So, we’ll probably have to start with iron and copper.”

“Iron, yes. The dwarves in the Ninth Kingdom would be the best suppliers for whatever metals you want. We’ll go to the King at once and make our request. He can send word to the Dwarf King.”

Lord Rupert led the way from the upper bedroom floors to the King’s private office on the ground floor. As they came down the grand central staircase, Tony’s eye was caught by the beautiful young blond whose company he’d enjoyed the night before at dinner, as well as for sometime afterwards. He shot her a rakish smile and blew her a kiss. She returned the airborne kiss and disappeared behind a pillar in a swish of blue silk.

Just past the ballroom, another young lady, this one in green with raven hair cascading over her left shoulder, sent Tony a wink. At once, he leapt to her side, leaving Lord Rupert to walk alone.

“Tonight, my dear?” Tony said, kissing the girl’s soft white hand.

“Tonight,” she said, “in the gardens.”

“At eight?”

The girl giggled in answer and Tony kissed her pinkie delicately. It smelled like lilacs.

He would have loved to continue on to her other fingers but he knew he had duty elsewhere. “Till then, my dear,” he said. And with a low bow that would have made Lord Rupert jealous, he continued his journey to the King’s private office.

Rupert was waiting patiently in the hallway. He’d worked with Tony long enough now to know how easily he could be distracted by the fairer sex. In this case, he considered himself lucky that Tony hadn't taken much longer.

"Come in," the proper voice of the Chancellor said in answer to their knock.

King Wendell was standing at the open window of the office with his back to them, studying the courtyard with great intensity. The Chancellor was standing next to him.

"It's Lord Lewis," the Chancellor told the king.

"Ah, Anthony," King Wendell said, turning around at last. "How is the cotton gin working out?"

"Brilliantly, your Majesty!" Lord Rupert exclaimed. "The Fourth Kingdom is going to be the first to bring its cotton crop to market this year."

"Good, good." Once again Wendell's attention strayed toward the window.

"We've come to ask about ordering some metals from the Dwarf King in the Ninth Kingdom," Rupert said. "Lord Lewis's next project is a steam generator. He says he can make it so it will heat the castle during the winter months and even make large supplies of hot water."

"What?" the king said, still giving whatever was outside the window the largest amount of his attention. "Oh, splendid, splendid. We all get too many colds during the winter months."

Lord Rupert was obviously disappointed by the king's lack of enthusiasm. He thought the idea of a heated castle with gobs of hot water wonderful beyond all words. It meant he could wear stylish clothes right through the winter, instead of those endless layers that they usually wore that made one's figure look so lumpy and bumpy.

Tony saw Rupert's expression and tried to lessen it by saying, "The king has seen hot water plumbing and indoor heating in the kingdom where I came from. That's why he's not more excited."

"Oh," Rupert said.

"Is something wrong, your Majesty?" Tony asked.

"No more today than yesterday or the day before," Wendell said with a sigh."

Tony knew what he meant. "The wolves?"

"Two more caravans arrived from the Fifth Kingdom last night," the Chancellor said. "And we can't begin to guess how many have flowed in from Red Riding Hood's kingdom. It just doesn't seem to stop."

"There are quite a few families staying in the forest just outside the castle," Wendell said. "Everyday a group of them comes here to inquire whether Wolf has returned."

Tony came to the window and looked out onto the courtyard. A group of wolves and part-wolves were approaching the castle in casual formation.

"By and large, they're a very orderly bunch. But the sudden flood of immigration is causing a strain. Not all of my subjects are as ready to welcome wolves as I am. And the winter months are coming. How will our new citizens find food? Most of them arrived here with very little."

The wolves had reached the great doors of the castle by then and were being greeted respectfully by the guards, who were used to seeing them at that time of day. King Wendell motioned to the Chancellor and he departed at once with a pile of official documents.

“We’re just doing our best to help them find homes and settle in,” Wendell continued when the Chancellor had gone.

“What do you tell them about Wolf?” Tony asked.

“We tell them he’s gone to another kingdom far away and may not be coming back. But they still return, day after day, as if their need for their hero is so great that they just can’t believe what we tell them. Sometimes I’m afraid it’s all a tinderbox that may go up at any moment. And if it does, well, I don’t want to bother Wolf and Virginia, but the time may come when we’ll have to ask them to come back to help keep the peace.”

“I’m sure they would.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The King stopped talking, his eyes entirely focused on the group of wolves then talking with the Chancellor on the steps of the palace. The Chancellor was giving his pile of documents to the lead wolf, an old gray of considerable size, and explaining them one by one. At the rear of the group, standing among several part-wolves was a young woman with a brilliant mane of red hair that stood out magnificently above her simple brown peasant dress. She was younger than Virginia with very white skin and freckles. The King couldn’t see the color of her eyes, but he often wondered about it. She always came with the group of wolves that visited the castle. The rest of the assemblage changed from day to day. But she was always present, standing quietly at the farthest end.

Wendell wondered who she was. She had to be part-wolf. Why else would she stand so solidly by them? But the human part of her was breathtakingly beautiful. Or, at least, so Wendell thought. He made a point of standing at the window to watch her everyday, her thick red hair blowing up behind her in the wind.

Still, he made no attempt to talk to her. He was afraid his attraction to her might be noticed. That was why he always sent his Chancellor out to talk to the wolves instead of seeing them himself. He’d formed a strong friendship with Wolf and come to think more highly of wolves as a whole. But involving himself romantically with one was quite another thing. Still, he couldn’t help but stand by his window each day when she was expected, just to catch a glimpse of her.

Tony caught sight of the young girl too. But he thought of Virginia and suddenly realized how lonely he was for her.