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"WE ," Mary whispered to Ja withwe be allowed to have what she calls recess each day, but she is very much not herself"

"Andus harder than e&039;er, and his temper is short We are mostly afraid to utter a word, when afore he asked us to speak up at all ti set before him as he does now"

"We must formulate a plan," Mary said

"Yes Yet I cannot think of one"

"Leave it to me, James But I will need your assistance to put it in play"

James smiled at his bride-to-be "I love you so much, Mary I cannot wait to rinned back at him "And I cannot wait to call you husband But if our vows are to be perfect, weand the countess They are standing up for us"

"Yes"

Mary suddenly juht her "What?"

"Our vows! Our vows! The king is an honorable man and the countess is such a priceless lady Our vows!"

"I aic, Mary"

"No need I will let you knohat needs be done when I have it all in place"

"I trust that you will" He held her close, but not too hard He had once hugged her so tightly that she had cried out &039;Twould never, ever happen again "We will be happy together This I do vow"

She laid her head into his neck "We have a very long lifetime for you to continue to prove it true"

"I very much look forward to it"

As the days passed, there was progress, although, it seemed, not with Gwen She laid abed and had continuous complaints

But her seamstresses had finishedpossession and actually wearing them At least for that hour when they were set free to play

ThisIsabel had decided to teach theolf The wo to her, tears strea down her face

"What is it, Mary?" she asked

"I am afraid my voith James are off"

"What? Why?"

Mary looked around "May we go elsewhere? Some privacy?"

Jenny, Gwen&039;s chambermaid, walked over and asked, "May I help?"

As diplomatically as she could, Isabel said, "Yes, please If you would oversee the rest of recess?"

Mary sniffled "I need Countess Isabel"

Jenny nodded "Of course I will be happy to take over for the rest of the hour, Countess"

"Teach theet the freakin&039; stones in the holes That&039;s the goal Stones in the holes"

"Yes, Countess"

She turned and focused on Mary "Now tell me, please, what happened"

Mary swiped away the tears "May we please go to your chambers to talk?"

"Of course"

Isabel tried questioning Mary as they ascended the stairs, but Mary kept shaking her head Isabel figured Mary wanted co that Mary had been shunned by many of her peers, lately

Mary pulled her into her own room, almost shoved her farther, and then kicked the door closed

"What happened, Mary? Let h You love hiold What rong?"

Mary&039;s tears dried up as if she were facing the sun in the Mojave "If Jae vows happily, Isabel, then we need those standing witness to be happy as well"

"I&039;m sorry? Mary, I don&039;t understand"

Mary stuck two fingers in herwhistle She sht "

Isabel was considering how she was going to punish her friend when her door flew open and Ja a blindfolded Arthur in his wake

"James, this has beco, but now this lanced at Mary "Traitor," she whispered

Mary shrugged

James pulled the blindfold from around Arthur&039;s head Arthur blinked and looked around As soon as he spotted Isabel and Mary, he glared at Jaed

Ja so iether

"You two are standing up for us during our vows in just days," James said "And you will, and I mean will, be happy at our cerean

Ja Arthur, that I am loyal to you I will run with you into battle, and I will protect you untilbreath"

"And you, Countess Isabel," Mary said "You have becoain I would stand afore you in any situation where someone would do you har up the apparent narrative, "of your surliness of late As you have been avoiding one another as the plague the past days, we can only surmise that there areare "

"Issues," Mary finished "Those which need be aired and addressed You will," she said, pointing back and forth between the two, "fix these problee vows"

"Whate&039;er happened betwixt the two of you," James said

"Get over it!" they yelled in unison

With that, the two huffed their way out of the roo

Isabel and Arthur stared at each other for several hter

"I believe we have both just been spanked by our parents," Isabel gasped

"I&039;ly," Arthur said "Just when did I lose control?"

"No," she said, still laughing "It shows just what a great king you are"

"Surely, you jest," he said "My first man just berated me"

Oh, how Isabel wanted to say, "Don&039;t call me Shirley" But somehow she was fairly certain the joke would not translate