rhythm. The old man was amazingly quick on his feet; as fast as she moved, the old man kept up with Aleanna. His feet stomped the ground so fast they were a blur.
But Björn’s eyes were on Aleanna. He thought she was quite sensuous. The music rose to a crescendo and stopped abruptly. The absolute silence in the village was astounding, then the people began to clap vigorously. When the music started again, they paired off and began dancing.
Aleanna returned to Björn with her face flushed and her breasts heaving.
“You were magnificent,” he told her.
“Thank you,” she said. “I love to dance.”
“I can tell.”
Taking his hand, she led him toward the center of the street. “If you are my boyfriend, we must dance. We do not want to disappoint all those young ladies.”
“I have never danced,” he said, refusing to move even though she was dancing up and down to the music.
“Oh, come on,” she said. “The people will be so disappointed, and so will I.”
With a twinkle in his eye, he began to dance in rhythm with her.
“You said you had never danced!” she said.
“I have not. I have learned from watching you and the old man.”
Just as before, the music grew louder and faster. The music continued its frenetic pattern, and the dancers danced faster. Some couples started dropping out, but Aleanna and Björn continued dancing. Finally it was down to only the two of them.
The music stopped, and the villagers’ applause was deafening.
Aleanna wondered if there was anything this man couldn’t do.
The music started again and a middle-aged woman grabbed Björn and started to dance. He grinned back at Aleanna and let himself be caught up in the fun. The music and dancing went on for several hours. Finally the dancers stopped. Aleanna and Björn, dancing together again, were among the last to stop. The musicians began to play a softer tune.
Catching her breath, Aleanna announced that it was drawing late. Despite pleas to stay, she asked for their horses.
Saying their good-byes, they mounted their horses and rode out of the village with the people shouting good wishes after them and children running beside them shouting,” Goodbye! Goodbye!”
As they left the hamlet and children behind, Aleanna turned her mare in the direction of the castle. “We should be getting back. Perhaps they have finished their discussion.”
Rathe took a walk around the castle grounds. He was capable of being quite introspective, and he wondered if his reason for supporting Björn’s plan was truly because he believed it was the better plan or that he selfishly wanted to spend that time with Aleanna, They had never been separated since she was born. She was his beloved sister, his best friend and playmate. He remembered when she was young how she would try to follow him everywhere. He was constantly afraid she would hurt herself or be hurt. She was a tomboy and by the time she was a teenager, she could win fights with boys her age, and he taught her to use a sword and bow until she became as good as most soldiers. Because she wore her hair cut short, visitors to the castle sometimes mistook her for a boy. It wasn’t until she was nineteen or twenty that she began to let it grow long.
But what he remembered most were the talks they had. From the time she was able to play with him, they shared almost everything. At first, it was children chatter, but as they grew older, the talks grew more serious. He told her of his plans for when he was king, that they would conquer Delph, not to subjugate it, but to stop the centuries-old war, and the Delphs would have the same individual freedoms as the citizens in Kallthom.
Rathe was different from his father. Although skilled in the arts of war, he did not like fighting and thought fighting and war should only be a last resort when negotiation failed. As a boy, he did not enjoy fighting with other boys and even used his authority as prince to avoid them.
Aleanna was the opposite. He was always having to pull her out of fights with boys. She wouldn’t fight with girls; she said they were no fun because they couldn’t fight. It wasn’t until her late teens or perhaps as late as twenty that she gave up her competitive tendencies and started to become a lady, but her independence grew stronger. She was envious of Rathe as he had his future planned out for him and would do great things while she had no such future. She also wanted to do great things. He smiled, remembering when she had first come up with the idea of a legal system. They were on one of their many trips through the kingdom when Aleanna became offended because the peasants and their families had no power against the large landowners and no recourse against their actions. She was also frustrated with the people and the way they bickered, fought and tried to take advantage of each other. Like her brother, she had a keen sense of justice and fairness and the wisdom to know that they were not always the same thing. They discussed and planned her system in detail and, when they were satisfied with it, together presented it to their father. They knew that he most likely would have refused if Aleanna alone had presented it. The king still had delusions that his daughter would marry, settle down and give him grandchildren. Even though he humored her current behavior, he assumed she would correct it as soon as she grew up.
Rathe realized he had made three trips around the courtyard and people were beginning to stare at him. He knew walking helped him think better and was tempted to go to his room, but he knew he would simply pace the floor so he decided to leave the courtyard and go into the countryside.
Rathe’s only weakness was women. His conquests started with women in the court but quickly spread to women in the countryside. Aleanna was extremely critical of his behavior when he confided in her, but he defended it by stating truthfully that he never used his position to take advantage of a woman and his relationships were limited to single women and widows. Her rejoinder was that no woman, especially those who were not of royal birth, could refuse a prince for fear of repercussions. Thinking that over, he gave some credence to what she said and told her that in the future he would be as careful as possible to ensure that any encounter was mutual.
He was both pleased and offended when Aleanna told him of an adventure she had one afternoon with a boy from a village—pleased that she was open enough with him to confide such intimate behavior, but offended and infuriated that a young man had taken advantage of his sister. His anger made him demand who the man was so he could beat him to a pulp. Her response was that she had initiated the encounter and did not see how this was any different from his behavior. She had enjoyed it so much that she intended to continue the same as her brother.
Her attitude stunned him. He remembered his little sister was no longer little and how she always followed him, and he suddenly realized what a responsibility he had. He promised her that he would be celibate until he married as long as she would not repeat her adventure. They both agreed and as far as Rathe knew both upheld the bargain.
They discussed their ideas for significant ways to improve life for the inhabitants of the kingdom. In the process, they developed a sense of great responsibility for the kingdom and its people.
Rathe was convinced that his first duty was to end the war with Delph. First he would attempt negotiation and, if that provided no hope, war was the answer. Then he would work with his sister to make life better for both the people in their kingdom and the people in Delph.
Aleanna and Björn rode leisurely side by side back to the castle, even though dusk was approaching. It was dark when they arrived at the stable.
“Your father and Rathe took some men and went out looking for you,” a stable boy told them.
“Those old fuddy duddies,” Aleanna exclaimed in disgust, “when will they realize I am an adult and can take care of myself. Besides,” she smiled at Björn, “you