Work Text:
Katarina wiped the sweat from her brow, letting out a big sigh as she straightened. Her muscles ached, but it was the good kind that meant a job well done. She smiled as she leaned on the handle of her hoe and surveyed her new territory.
The third prince’s wing was really big — and she and Gerald practically had the whole place to themselves! She could get lost in here! And there was a big courtyard, surrounded by the wings belonging to the other royal family members, full of pretty trees, plenty of sunlight, and a nice little plot of land that Gerald had told her was fair game. So what do you do when your big new house is a little too much? Obviously, you make a farm!
“This might be my best one yet, if I do say so myself,” she said, nodding at the freshly tilled earth with its neat row of signs marking off each section of vegetables. This would be a great crop! And man, it was great to have something familiar in this cavernous place; it shook the nerves right out of her! She couldn’t wait to share fresh vegetables with Gerald, and everyone else, of course! It was going to be fun with Alan and Mary living right next door once they got married next month, and Sophia and Maria would be visiting soon for their regular book club. Yup, yup, she could handle all this new stuff well after all!
She hoisted her hoe onto her shoulder, yawning. Maybe time for a bath and some snacks before Gerald finished his work. There was a new kind of macaron that she was dying to try...
A soft giggle caught her attention as she stepped up onto the covered pathway that surrounded the courtyard. As she glanced up, she noticed a pair of ladies in nice dresses, hiding behind their fans under a copse of nearby trees. She didn’t recognize them, but, well, the courtyard was public, so they could be from other courts. She didn’t know everyone yet — there were too many to know, anyway.
They stood with their heads leaned towards each other as though sharing gossip. She shrugged, turning back to her and Gerald’s wing.
“Honestly, can you believe the gall she has?” a faint voice tittered. Katarina frowned. The gall who had?
“Tearing up the prestigious grounds like that. What an eyesore.”
“Yes, the torn up ground is such an eyesore too.”
The ladies broke into laughter, though Katarina didn’t know what was so funny. It was pretty rude, actually. Shouldn’t they be a little more mature than that? She shook her head, frowning as she reached for the door handle. Well, whatever. Court ladies will be court ladies, she guessed. Same as back at school.
“It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” said one of them in a loud voice. “There must be something wrong with Prince Gerald to have a wife like that. ”
Katarina froze with the door half open.
For a second, she tried to rationalize. But even her brain couldn’t find a way to deflect the obvious mention to Gerald, and it wasn’t like he had a different wife, and the realization that they were talking about her threw her for such a loop that for a second, she felt like a dial tone sounded through her head.
Wait...they... are talking about me? No, they’re...
She swallowed, then quickly darted through the door and snapped it shut. Her cheeks burned.
They’re saying something awful about Gerald , she thought. Because...because I make him look bad?
Dirt caked beneath her nails, and sweat stained her dirty, well-used work clothes, her hair was tangled, and for the first time, she noticed it. For the first time, she thought about how she looked, and imagined herself standing next to perfect, put-together Gerald. And it looked terrible. She made him look awful .
Those ladies were making fun of Gerald, and it was all her fault.
Gerald slumped back in his chair, letting out a huge, gusting sigh. The room was finally, blessedly empty. What a long day. What a long month . If he’d known that moving to the castle would mean immediately beginning an endless stream of paperwork, meetings, and court visits, he would have insisted their honeymoon lasted an extra couple of months. As it was, he’d barely seen Katarina for more than a few minutes a day before passing out.
That would change tonight, he thought, smiling. He’d ordered a special tray of new pastries from the kitchens to be delivered to their room this evening, and he could hardly wait to see the look on Katarina’s face when she saw it. The thought brought a flush to his cheeks, and he hurriedly stood up to shake it off. Honestly...he’d been married for months now, and he still acted like an embarrassed teenager any time she came to mind.
He smoothed a hand over his face to try and disperse the heat as he finally made his way back towards their wing. Katarina should still be at her farm. He knew she’d been working on it — she liked to keep busy.
He headed straight for the courtyard, imagining Katarina in her work overalls: red-faced and sweaty from exertion. Her eyes lighting up at the sight of him, rushing over to babble to him in detail everything she’d done with the farm today, to drag him from row to row to show him what she’d planted. It brought a smile to his lips.
He opened the door into the courtyard, and paused.
Katarina was nowhere in sight. Her field laid before him, freshly tilled and planted, with neat labels stuck into the dirt. He didn’t see her tools, so she must have already put them away. Could she have gone back early?
He glanced around the courtyard, but all he saw were a pair of ladies near a grove of trees. They made fluttery eyes at him from over their fans, and he turned back into the hallway without acknowledging that he’d seen them. Perhaps Katarina was already back in their rooms taking a bath. Hopefully, she hadn’t gone straight to the kitchens and ruined her appetite.
He headed back to their suite. He’d check there first. If she wasn’t there, he’d ask Anne if she’d seen her...
His thoughts skidded to a halt when he opened the doors to their rooms and found her immediately: sitting very quietly, and...doing embroidery.
Gerald stared. He knew his mouth hung open, but he couldn’t help himself. His brain had stopped working.
She didn’t notice him at first. Her hair was done up in a fashionable updo that looked uncomfortable. She squinted at her work, sitting stick straight, and sucking in a breath every time she poked herself with the needle.
He finally managed to make a sound, something very much like hnnghh . Her gaze jolted up to him, eyes wide. For a second, she seemed to be scrambling, as though she, too, had forgotten how to speak.
Then a very tense, awkward smile spread over her lips.
“Welcome home, husband,” she said, in the most stilted tone he’d ever heard. “How was your day?”
Gerald stared. Then, almost panicked, he looked at Anne, who stood in the corner with her hands clasped in front of her. Anne only pressed her lips together in that “please don’t look at me” expression that people put on when they didn’t have any answers and didn’t want to be asked for them. He looked back at Katarina, who continued to smile that bland smile at him.
“I...it was fine,” he said. “Are you all right?”
“I’m very well, thank you,” she said woodenly.
She definitely wasn’t, but why wasn’t she saying it? What happened? He sent Anne another pleading look, but she shook her head, grimacing. He’d have to try another angle.
“I ordered us some special sweets for after dinner tonight,” he said. “But they should arrive earlier, if you’d like to share them beforehand.”
For a brief second, he thought he saw Katarina twitch, straightening, her eyes brightening. Then something passed over her face, and she swallowed.
“That’s very kind of you,” she said. “But I couldn’t possibly spoil my appetite. It’s not good for ladies to gorge themselves.”
He was vaguely aware that his mouth still hung open.
“I...think I will, uh...retire until dinner,” she said. “Good night!”
She dropped her embroidery on the sofa and...slowly and carefully left the room, walking like a normal court lady rather than hiking up her skirts and running.
One last time, he looked to Anne.
Anne just sighed in that long-suffering way that she had probably earned after years of dealing with Katarina.
“With all due respect, my lord, I am not paid enough for this,” she said, and she left him gaping like a fish, and wondering exactly what alternate dimension he’d wandered into.
“What,” Mary demanded, “did you do to her?”
Gerald nearly choked on his food when Mary slammed her hand on the table, and he pounded his chest several times, wheezing, before he could answer. Eyes watering, he glared at Mary.
“What are you talking about?” he asked, knowing the answer already.
Mary pointed furiously across the courtyard, and Gerald reluctantly looked.
Katarina sat stick straight in her chair, holding her tea cup daintily. She laughed politely at something another lady said, and didn’t even look at any of the sweets on the table.
“She refused to come to our book club with Sophia and Maria,” Mary said. “And she rejected our offer politely!! With decorum!! Who is she??”
This had gone that far? Katarina didn’t even want to read romance novels anymore?
“Did you replace her with someone else?” Mary said, slapping her hand on the table. “Is she possessed? Did someone possess her?”
“I don’t know,” Gerald said, rubbing his temples. “She just started acting like this a few days ago. She won’t tell me why.”
He shot her another worried glance out of the corner of her eye. Was he imagining things or did she look...strained? Her smile, at the very least, wasn’t the same bright, unabashed smile he fell in love with.
“I don’t know ,” he repeated, and perhaps his voice cracked, because Mary’s anger faded, replaced with an out of character concern.
She folded her arms, though, rather than offer any comfort.
“Well you’d better find out what happened quick,” she said. “Or I may just have to go through with my plan to kidnap her from you anyway.”
He sighed.
“Duly noted.”
It was surprisingly difficult to sneak around one’s own palace, but luckily for him, Katarina was the densest person on the face of the planet and wouldn’t have noticed him following her if he’d stood inches behind her.
Still, Gerald tried to keep a low profile, peeking around corners to watch Katarina smile politely at inane comments from other ladies. Peering through a window to see Katarina nibbling daintily on tiny portions at lunchtime. Watching from behind the hedge maze as Katarina walked deliberately, without hiking up her dress, through the gardens with other ladies without so much as mentioning a vegetable.
He squinted through the hedges at Katarina, who actually was actually carrying a parasol .
“I must say, Lady Katarina, it’s been a real treat having you join us for once,” one of the ladies said, waving her fan.
“I’m...so, uh...honored for your invitation,” Katarina said, as woodenly as a puppet.
“I’m sure Prince Gerald has been most pleased with your turn of character,” said another, patting Katarina’s elbow in a decidedly condescending way. “We were all worried, you know...his reputation...”
“Daisy!” another said warningly, though she smirked behind her hand.
Gerald frowned. His reputation? What did his reputation have to do with any of this? But Katarina flinched. Her hands tightened and loosened on her parasol.
“I...I think I need to use — I need to excuse myself,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
She curtseyed, and using very tiny steps, skittered away. Gerald straightened to follow — he paused, however, when the ladies tightened into a circle, tittering.
“What a joke. Look at her trying so hard,” one said.
“At least she has the sense to listen when she hears what a fool she is,” another said with a snort. “Even if it is useless for her to fix the stain she’s put on Prince Gerald’s name.”
Gerald stiffened. Was...was this why Katarina was acting like this?
Because....she was...
She’d been worried about him ?
Anger briefly bubbled up in his chest. A ringing sounded in his ears for a moment, as he nearly thought of revealing himself, of confronting them. But he released the breath. Katarina was more important.
He had to find Katarina.
Katarina was sooo tired...and ugh, crying only made it worse. Gah. She rubbed at her eyes, hoping she didn’t look too bad. She’d have to make a break for her room where she could freshen up a bit and get herself back under control. Who knew this lady stuff could be so...draining?
Still rubbing at her eyes, she slipped out of the bathroom — and nearly smacked right into Gerald.
He caught her by the shoulders before she could careen off of him. Where had he come from?? Oh, no, he’d notice her tears, and then...then what?
For a moment, he didn’t say anything. He just held onto her, his hands light but firm against her shoulders. She couldn’t quite tell what his expression meant — it wasn’t the angelic smile, at least. It was just...quiet.
Slowly, his hand lifted to her face. She tensed, but his thumb just brushed lightly at the corner of her eye, brushing away a tear she hadn’t realized was there. He looked down at the tear on his thumb for a moment. Then a sigh rolled out of him, and he pulled her forward.
She blinked, hanging limply in his embrace.
“Um...Gerald?” she said. “Are you okay?”
He squeezed her a little tighter.
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?”
He said it so softly. It unscrewed the dam inside her, and all at once her eyes filled with fresh tears.
“M-me?” she said, throat tight. “I’m fine!”
“Katarina...”
Katarina lifted her arms and wrapped them around his waist.
“Um, I guess, I mean...I don’t know,” she said, her voice getting thick. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Um, for...being...sad?”
She fumbled. Could she really just tell him? What would he think? Would he be proud of her for trying to be the lady she was supposed to be, or would he be upset that she was doing such a bad job of it?
“Why are you pushing yourself so hard, Katarina?”
His voice was so soft. She wasn’t exactly sure how the words tumbled out of her, but she knew she talked. She rambled — from the first snide comments she’d heard, to her worries about making Gerald look bad and that it might lead to some kind of doom ending for both of them, about how hard and boring embroidery was, and her fingers still hurt and she was so hungry because she’d been trying to eat like a proper lady but that was not enough to eat —
And Gerald just held her. He didn’t say a word, holding her as she babbled on, his hand running gently through her hair.
When she finally ran out of words, he did not let go of her. She clung to him in the sudden ocean of silence, afraid that it might wash her away.
Finally, he let go of her, his hands sliding down to her shoulders. His eyes held hers.
“Katarina,” he said. “I don’t care what anyone thinks about me. Or about you.”
Katarina blinked through still watery eyes.
“But...” she said.
“No,” he said, putting a finger to her lips. “I love you, Katarina.”
He’d said the words before, but it still never failed to make her cheeks alight and her stomach to do weird flip flops as it occurred to her that he really meant it.
“I love you because you’re you,” he said. “I love you because you do what makes you happy. I don’t want to see you forcing yourself to be someone you’re not.”
“But what if I cause trouble for you?”
He only laughed, a light, almost cough of a thing.
“I like trouble,” he said. “Every day with you is a surprise, and I’ll never tire of it.”
“I....ahhh....I love you, Gerald, I really really doooo,” she said, fresh tears flooding down her cheeks.
He hugged her once more, smiling as he stroked her hair.
“I love you just the way you are,” he said.
Then he laughed.
“But before we go any further...I think we’re forgetting something.”
“You know, I think they look good on you, actually,” Katarina said, putting her hoe over her shoulder.
Gerald smirked, as though he knew everything looked good on him. Even in his dirtied work overalls, even with a little smudge of soil on his cheek, he looked as regal as ever.
“Not as good as they look on you,” he said, leaning over to give her a kiss before he plucked the seedling from her other hand. “Now tell me where you want these tomatoes. We should get them done before the end of this week.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. He smiled that winning smile of his, the real one that didn’t hide anything behind it.
“Thanks, Gerald,” she whispered.
His eyes softened, and she wondered how it had taken her so long to notice the way he’d always looked at her. She smiled, took his hand, and walked him to the tomato patch.