The Cradle
Bernard looked up from Leopold’s letter to watch his youngest granddaughter Elsa play with her doll, tucking it into its wooden cradle, singing it “Leise Rieselt der Schnee.” He smiled.
“Is the baby sleeping?” he asked her. She frowned at him and held a finger to her pudgy lips.
“Shh, Opa,” she said. “You’ll wake the baby.”
He made her a little seated bow. “Es tut mir sehr leid, liebchen,” Mollified, she went back to rocking the cradle. Bernard looked back to the graf’s letter and sighed. This boy. All right, so this princess would rather be a nun than the wife of the most powerful graf in Bavaria. Fair enough. But was this child even old enough to know her own mind? Would it have killed Leopold to use just a little of his copious charms to persuade her? She seemed like just his kind of girl, and the stepdaughter of Prince Paulus would be the perfect insurance policy for Leopold’s interests, should they run crosswise of the king’s ambitions. But no, Leopold would rather help this girl get herself to a nunnery than secure his and his subjects’ future…. Bernard dropped his head into his hand and rubbed his eyes. Wait until Leopold got back and found Sigismund’s letter waiting. Of course Bernard hadn’t broken its seal, but he didn’t have to. “Dear cousin, I send you all the best greetings for Christmas along with my thanks for your loyal service. Please be ready to march on Prague as soon as the roads dry in the spring.” If that wasn’t what it said, Bernard would eat his beard.
“Opa!” He raised his head to find Elsa tugging on the sleeve of his velvet house jacket. “Can you tell me a story?”
“Of course, my dove. What story would you like to hear?”
“The one about the princess in the tower.”
“All right,” he picked his granddaughter up and put her on his lap. “Once upon a time, a prince learned of a princess who was held captive in a tower. As it is ever the duty of princes to rescue princesses in distress, he immediately called for his horse and rode out from his castle. The tower was in a far corner of his realm and very difficult to reach. He had to leave his horse and climb a great, slippery cliff to arrive at the base of the tower, which stretched up and up, so far its top was lost in the clouds.
“‘Hello!’ the prince called up the tower. “Are you there? I have come to rescue you.’
“There was no reply for a long time, so long that the prince thought maybe he had gotten the wrong tower, or that another prince had beaten him to it, or the princess had already died up there and turned to a pile of bones. But just as he was turning away, dejected, the door at the bottom of the tower banged open, and there stood the princess. She was tall and strong with bright red hair, and she waved to him.
“Wonderful, you’re here! You got here in the nick of time. Come on!
“Come on?
“Inside, you silly man. I called you here because my brother, the Duke of the West, has been plotting against you for months, and he was about to lay siege to your castle and overthrow you in a coup. Even now, he is riding after you, but if you come inside with me, you’ll be safe until he has to return home for the winter, and then you can follow him and strike back.
“The prince was flabbergasted. He ran back to the edge of the cliff, and sure enough, already at the bottom he could make out an army, and they were throwing grappling hooks up and scaling the cliff.
“Come on!” urged the princess. “I have a goodly supply of rocks and boiling oil as well as plenty of provisions to see us through the siege. They will never take us!’
“The prince didn’t know if he could trust the princess, but he had no choice. He ran into the tower, and she bolted the foot-thick door behind them, then cranked a handle and dropped an iron portcullis in front of it. ‘There,’ she said. ‘You’re safe now.’
“‘I don’t understand,‘ the prince said. ‘Who are you, and why are you helping me?’
“‘You don’t remember me,’ the princess said, ‘but once when you and your father came to visit my father the king, you saw me crying in the corner of the garden after my brother had beaten me, and you brought me some snow for my swollen cheek and a honey cake from the kitchens. I swore two things that day: one, that I would never allow my brother to beat me again, and two, that if I ever had the chance to return you the favor, I would. And so I did, and so I am.’ And sure enough, the prince and princess withstood the evil duke’s siege in the tower and eventually defeated him. And then they married and lived happily ever after and ruled the kingdom wisely after the death of the king.”
Elsa grinned up at her grandfather. “Opa, I love that story!”
Bernard kissed her soft, sweet-smelling brown curls. “Why?”
“The princess saves the prince!”
“Indeed she does. And now do you think, my little princess, that we should go see if your Oma has any lebkuchen for us while your dolly is sleeping?” Elsa clapped her hands, and Bernard bundled her his arms and carried her through into the kitchen, where there was not only lebkuchen, but also hot chocolate, and kisses from Oma.
The Rookery 