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bad-at-names-and-faces · 1 month

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Inga lay on her bed, staring out the open window at the moonlight, contemplating her curtains which were blowing in the breeze. The curtains were different in each room, even though many of the rooms here looked similar otherwise. She dozed in and out, not quite dreaming.

“Are you sure?” he asked, pulling away from the kiss.

“I’ll tell you when I change my mind,” she replied.

She woke up from the wind gusting in through the window, and tried to convince herself that she was remembering a dream, nothing more. That was all. She knew it wasn’t true, but she still tried to convince herself of that.

There was another gust of wind, and a letter landed in her lap. She opened it quickly.

October 18th, 1865

Dear Inga,

Good news! The ship I'm on is making excellent time, and I should be in Arendelle in less than two days. I'm quite looking forward to seeing everything you've been planning, but most of all, seeing you. I hope you're feeling better now, but please don't feel like you need to pretend you're feeling well just for my sake.

Love,

Henry

Inga smiled at the letter, but started crying as she looked outside. She still wasn't feeling any better, and at this point she wasn’t sure if Henry would be disappointed coming to visit, no matter what he said to the contrary.

Perhaps the doctor could give her something to settle her stomach. The doctor would stop by in the morning, so she needed to sleep as much as she could before then.

***

Anna sat with Kristoff at breakfast, looking out at the town preparations for the Harvest Festival.

"Is Inga still not feeling well?" Kristoff asked with concern.

"She was working herself too hard the past few weeks, so I've been making her rest for the last few days. Hopefully she'll be feeling better before Henry gets here, since he's the whole reason she's been putting quite this much effort into the preparations."

"Well, I just hope it's nothing serious," he sighed. The last thing they needed was the worry of their children getting seriously ill. Luck and isolation had been on their side avoiding a lot of outbreaks, but he never quite felt secure about that.

"Nobody else in the family has gotten sick, and nobody in town seems to have anything, so I think she just needs to take better care of herself. I wish she'd eat more, though. Gerda says that Oline tells her that Inga has refused everything except for toast and butter."

"I'm sure she'll be hungry enough in a few days," Kristoff smirked.

"Oh, when Henry gets here," Anna glared at him.

"Well, I should go find Frederick and Anton and Peder now. They're going to take the wagon out and bring down some pumpkins from the farm a few miles out of town."

“Send them with something nice from the kitchen to bring to the pumpkin farm. There should be some good pastries ready." Anna stood up and kissed him before starting to get herself ready for the day.

***

“I’ll tell you when I change my mind,” Inga told Henry, kissing him again.

Henry pulled away from the kiss once more, looked at the door, and back to her. “It’s getting late, maybe-”

“Nobody will be looking for me,” Inga interrupted him quickly, not thinking about her words, “not until lunchtime, probably, and Gerda selected this dress because she knows I can get out of it on my own.”

“Can you?” he said, his voice cracking suddenly.

Inga realized what she had just said, setting the painting down on the nightstand safely. “Oh, I mean… Not that I… Well, I can, of course.”

He stood in front of her, completely still, his eyes wide. “I- you-”

She kissed him. “I don’t want to leave, not right now. I know I’m not supposed to, but… but nobody knows we’re here, and nobody suspects anything. And-”

Inga stared at the ceiling, half awake. She slowly forced herself to sit up, and watched as the sun rose. There were a few ships arriving, but the light hadn't yet hit the fjord at this hour so she couldn’t see any details. She had hoped she would be feeling well enough this morning to cancel the doctor's visit, but she had no such luck today.

She cleaned herself up and made herself decent enough for the doctor, but she supposed there was no point in dressing up all that much. She hadn’t really eaten the day before aside from some toast, so her stomach wasn’t bothering her very much, but she was still so tired, and something just seemed… off.

She looked out the window into the courtyard, and could see her brothers taking the wagon across the bridge. It was already time to get the pumpkins. She wanted to be with them helping, but now she wasn’t even sure if she would be able to show Henry around. She looked at herself. She didn’t look like the girl Henry painted, but she wasn’t always sure if she really looked like that girl.

The doctor knocked at exactly the time she had asked him to arrive. Inga opened the door. He was a kind old man, and had been the royal family’s physician for quite some time now, well before she was born, when her mother was a little girl.

“Good morning, Your Highness,” the doctor greeted her.

“Doctor,” Inga acknowledged him.

“I got your note yesterday. Are you not feeling well?”

“I haven’t been feeling very well, no,” Inga told him as she sat on the edge of her bed. “My mother thinks I was just working too hard the past few weeks, but it’s not just that I’m tired. If I eat anything besides toast, I get sick.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “How long have you been feeling this way?”

“On and off for a few weeks,” she told him, “pretty much since I took on the extra work for the planning last month.”

“I see,” he nodded. “And how was your summer? You don’t get many scrapes or bruises any more, so I almost never see you these days.”

“It was a nice summer,” she smiled, “I suppose it was good that I didn’t have to do any of the planning for my birthday party, it might have worn me down entirely too much.”

“I suppose that’s a possibility,” the doctor muttered, beginning to look in her eyes and ears. “May I see your throat?”

Inga obliged.

“This all looks fine, though of course you haven’t complained of any kind of cough,” he said when he was done looking into her mouth. “May I ask if you’re wearing a corset? I need to feel your stomach.”

“No, I’m not,” Inga replied. “I haven’t really eaten since yesterday, so it’s not feeling too bad today.”

“I see,” he hummed, poking and prodding a bit.

“I hope I’ll be feeling well enough this week,” she continued, not really sure if he was expecting small talk.

“Of course, you’ve been helping organize that,” he replied. “And, I hope it’s not forward of me to ask, but I believe you have plans of getting married?”

“The engagement should be official soon,” Inga said, trying to ignore the continued poking and prodding. “Henry's going to be arriving soon with a letter from his grandfather.”

“This is the young prince from Corona, I assume?” the doctor said, finished with his prodding.

Inga nodded.

“If I might ask a delicate question, have your menses been regular?”

Inga realized she hadn’t put much thought into that lately. “I suppose not, but again, I have been rather busy.”

“Indeed?” The doctor stepped back a moment and turned to his bag, looking for something as he continued speaking. “You mentioned your engagement. Has your mother, or… someone… discussed marital relations with you?”

“Sort of, and I've read some books about it. Why?” she asked.

The doctor turned around. “If you will permit me, I would like to examine more thoroughly now. If you could remove any underthings and lie back.”

“Oh, I suppose, if you need,” Inga hemmed, but complied with the doctor’s request. He said nothing as he examined her.

“Thank you, you can sit up again,” he told her.

He was looking at his bag but didn’t seem to have any particular thing he was looking for while she got her undergarments back on.

“So, what do you think it is?” she asked absentmindedly. He turned around and was frowning, looking very seriously at her.

“Inga, have you… spent much time alone with the young man you are promised to?”

***

The sound of a polka came through the windows from the courtyard down below.

“There,” Inga said as she pulled off her shift, “now you have a proper model. What should I do first?”

Henry sat on the bed with his notebook and stared, wide-eyed. “I’ve never done this before.”

“I know, you told me,” Inga giggled. “You didn’t get to work from live models in Paris.”

“I mean… I’ve never really…” Henry took a deep breath. “I’ve never even kissed anyone else.”

Inga realized what he meant. “Oh, um, well I haven’t, either. I mean, I suppose I’m not supposed to, not really, of course… Are you going to draw me or not?”

“I don’t know if I could draw anything right now,” he confessed. She noticed the tip of his pencil shaking a little.

Inga walked over. “Should I get dressed, then?”

“No. I mean- no- yes… no…” He covered his face.

Inga pulled at his hands, pulling him back. “Here,” she said, undoing his collar, “this looks tight.”

“What?” he asked.

Inga kissed him before he could ask more. His hands began to trace down her back as she began to unbutton his shirt.

***

Inga paused before answering the doctor’s question.

“We’ve been alone, yes,” she admitted. “Why are you asking me this?”

“I’m asking you this because everything you’ve told me as well as what I’ve seen would seem to indicate pregnancy. If this is not a possibility, I need to know. If it is, in fact, a possibility, you need to know.”

Inga stood stunned, catching her balance on the edge of the bed.

“I’ve known your family for a long time, and I do not share secrets,” he said, hinting at a deeper meaning, “but I believe this is one that you will need to tell someone.”

The doctor closed up his bag and looked at her with his eyes full of pity. “I can send someone up here right now,” he said, “or not, that is up to you, Your Highness.”

“I think I’d like to be alone,” she told him.

“Very well. I will be in the castle kitchen for the next hour, if you need to find me,” he told her gently. “Your Highness.”

Inga sank to the floor as he left, not noticing the sound of the door closing.

This should have been obvious. It's what can happen, she knew this. How did she think she would be any different? She grabbed a pillow from the bed to muffle her sobs. What would her parents think? She wasn’t supposed to be careless like this. That wasn’t who she was.

What would Henry think?

She did her best to rise from the floor.

***

The royal physician sighed as he went into the kitchen of the castle. It was a familiar place for him, having been one of the few outside people allowed inside the castle for many years, he knew the family and many of their secrets. Something would work out for the princess; somehow something would work out.

“Excuse me, sir, I mean, doctor…”

It was the maid who had brought him the note from the princess.

“Yes?” he replied.

“Are you here to see Her Highness?” she asked.

“I’ve already seen her, in fact. You are her maid, are you not?”

“I am. How is she doing? I was hoping to bring her breakfast, though she hasn’t had much of an appetite lately.”

“Perhaps you should go see her,” he suggested.

***

Henry breathed in the crisp fall air as the ship sailed into the fjord from the open sea. They were early, and he was bound and determined to surprise Inga. He was almost giddy with nervous excitement, pacing back and forth along the deck.

James would take care of seeing that most of his things were ready, but he had his sketchbook with him. He made a few quick sketches of the fjord, trying to spot the places he had been on previous visits. He flipped back through the pages, finding some of the sketches of Inga he had made during the summer, and before that, the many sketches he had based on the photograph from the year before. Usually, he would sketch only her, but sometimes he would sketch her more as she appeared in the photo, surrounded by the large family, holding the baby.

After what felt to him like an eternity, the ship docked at the harbor, and he almost ran down the gangway to the quay. He tried to act calm as he hurried to the castle, pausing to look around the market square, which was nearly empty except for a few people preparing for the Harvest Festival. It was early, perhaps he could surprise Inga.

The halls of the castle were nearly empty, though Henry saw one older man, not obviously a servant, entering a door to go to the kitchen, but Henry was fairly certain nobody saw him. He got to Inga's door and immediately knocked, too excited to think through any sort of elaborate plan beyond rushing in to surprise her. Maybe it was early enough that he could wake her, though he wouldn’t hope for more on this day, at least, with so many people coming and going.

The door wasn't latched, and swung open with his knocking. Inga was sitting on her bed, staring out the window.

She turned around and smiled.

“Henry? Are you really here?”

He ran over and sat next to her, kissing her briefly.

“The ship got in early,” he told her. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up if we didn’t get here today.”

“I’m hardly even dressed,” she told him.

Henry realized she was in a dressing gown.

“I don’t care, I mean… you know…” he gave a bit of a smile.

She started crying, burying her face in a pillow.

“Inga… what’s wrong?”

She was still sobbing, so he laid down next to her. She kept sobbing as he put his arms around her, and she buried her face in his coat. James would probably have a word over the coat getting dirty, but never mind that. Henry wondered if something had happened to someone in her family. Perhaps it had been too quiet this morning. Inga continued crying as she grasped him, heaving and trembling in his arms.

“Inga, please, you’re starting to scare me,” he pleaded. “Are you sick? Is someone in your family ill?”

She looked up again. “Henry… about last summer…”

“I’ve got the letter from my grandfather. They can’t change their word on that. You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

“No, I haven’t changed my mind. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t now…”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m pregnant,” she whispered. As quiet as the words were, he felt like he’d been punched in the gut. He held her tighter, not sure what he could actually say.

“Wh-” he stopped himself. He had been about to ask how it happened, which he knew very well was a stupid question.

Through his mind his family’s words echoed, reminding him that he was only nineteen, and just how young that was. It was exactly what he eventually wanted, eventually, but not like this.

“I’m sorry…” she muttered.

He realized he hadn’t told her anything coherent.

“Look, I said I’ve got the letter from my grandfather, so we can get married now,” was all he could think to say. It was true. He wasn’t sure how it would work, or whether people would gossip, or what a mess their lives would be now, but that much was true.

She gripped him more tightly. “You’re not mad?”

Henry was confused. “Why would I be mad?”

“It’s… it’s not how this is supposed to happen,” she insisted. Henry wiped a tear from her cheek as she spoke. “I’m so scared.”

“Well, no,” he admitted. “I’m scared, too. Everyone in Corona was telling me how young I am.”

“We don’t even have a wedding date scheduled. What if the council wants to delay more? And my parents… My mother will know…”

“Why would they object or delay? I have the official letter,” Henry insisted, “but if I have to take you on the boat back to Corona with me to get married there, that’s what we’ll do.”

He held her close to his chest, stroking her back, trying not to let on just how terrified he felt at the moment. Of course they needed to get married right away.

Inga sniffled. “I don’t want to elope if I don’t have to. That’s too much of a mess for everyone… but… but I’m glad you still want to marry me, Henry. Thank you.”

Henry stopped what he was doing and kissed Inga’s forehead. “Why wouldn’t I want to marry you? Besides, it’s not like I wasn’t involved.”

“No, of course,” she said, almost laughing. “That’s… I hope that’s obvious.”

“It’s not the best time, that’s true, but… it’s just… earlier than we intended. That’s all.”

Inga gave a smile.

***

Kristoff had gotten Frederick and the twins on their way with little difficulty, and now had joined Anna for breakfast.

“Do you see that?” he asked Anna as they finished their breakfast, “I thought you said the Corona ship wasn’t expected for another day or two.”

Anna looked out the window, watching the ship being unloaded. “We should let Inga know. I think that will cheer her up.”

Kristoff nodded in agreement.

They walked down the hallway to Inga’s bedroom.

“So I suppose you’re going to start planning their wedding now?” Kristoff asked.

“Unless they’ve changed their minds, but I doubt Henry would have come all this way.”

“I assume she would have told you if something happened with that,” Kristoff replied.

As they neared Inga’s door, they could hear her talking, sounding like she was crying.

“I still don’t know what to say,” they could hear from the room. Anna and Kristoff stopped and looked at each other. Anna grabbed Kristoff’s hand, knowing that his instinct was to barge straight into the room unannounced.

“Maybe Oline is in there?” Anna whispered.

Anna knocked at the door as she opened it. "Inga!" she called out with forced cheerfulness.

"Mother? What…" Inga trailed off. She was sitting on her bed in her dressing gown, looking like she had been crying, with Henry right next to her, holding her.

Kristoff shut the door securely behind them.

"Um," he mumbled, "we came to tell you that the ship from Corona arrived early, but I guess you already know that…"

"I… we… yes," Inga stammered. "I forgot the door was still open."

“We can leave if you would like a little time,” Anna said. “Though for propriety Henry should probably come with us.”

“What?” Henry asked.

“You know how this could look,” Kristoff said, frowning.

“But we would like to know why you were upset, Inga,” Anna added.

“It’s fine now,” Inga said. “At least, I think it will be. Henry has the letter from his grandfather, so we can get married now, right?”

“Yes, as soon as the council has the letter, we can start planning,” Anna said. “I would still rather not rush things. I think Henry would want his family to attend.”

“How soon could they get here?” Inga asked him.

“The steamer takes a week,” Henry said. “I could write to my mother this afternoon.”

“Wait,” Kristoff said. “What’s all this? I know you’re excited, but are you really talking about getting married next week?”

“I suppose we could wait two or three weeks if we really have to,” Inga said. “I don’t really want to elope.”

"It would only be as a last resort," Henry blurted out.

"You don’t have to elope, we never said no,” Kristoff sighed, rubbing his forehead. “We’re just saying that you really shouldn't be in such a rush to get married.”

Henry leaned over to Inga. "We need to tell them," he whispered.

Kristoff suddenly felt his stomach twisting, but tried to convince himself he was jumping to conclusions. This was Inga, she wasn’t the sort to do something foolish.

“I had the doctor in here this morning,” Inga began, her voice shaking noticeably. "He told me-"

Kristoff looked over at Anna. She was shaking her head. Inga was looking away.

“Please, Inga, finish what you were saying,” Anna pleaded.

Kristoff was fairly certain he and Anna were both thinking the same thing now, but desperately hoping it was something else. But what could possibly be good news if she was having so much trouble telling them?

Inga looked at Henry again, then straight at them. "I'm pregnant. I don't want to elope if I don't have to, but I will."

Kristoff remembered the rumors the morning after Inga’s party, and the confused explanations for who was seen going into Henry’s room. And the forgotten gift.

"I… I suppose I don't need to ask you when this happened…." Anna said flatly.

They had trusted Inga, and given her so much freedom.

"You're mad at me," Inga stated, "I understand."

"Not mad. Disappointed. Very disappointed," Anna sighed.

Everyone stood silently for what felt like hours.

“Obviously, we’ll need to get married as soon as possible,” Inga repeated

“I don’t think that’s obvious,” Kristoff interjected.

“Why wouldn’t we get married right away?” Inga demanded.

“This isn’t the sort of thing you want to rush into,” Kristoff replied. “I just don’t want you making a mistake.”

“What else would you suggest? Sending me away? Like-”

“No,” Kristoff cut her off. He wasn’t sure what Henry knew, but this wasn’t the time to let it slip. “I don’t think you should be sent away.”

Anna was staring silently, and she had clearly understood their daughter’s meaning.

“Then what?” Inga prodded, starting to cry again.

“And what about me?” Henry asked. “I’m standing right here!”

“Yes,” Kristoff sighed. “But can she trust you?”

“Trust me?”

“After you seduced her?”

“What do you mean?” Henry asked.

Kristoff rubbed his forehead. “I’m talking about how you got into this… situation…”

“He didn’t seduce me,” Inga interrupted.

“Inga,” Henry whispered, “you don’t have to-”

“No, Henry, I do,” she insisted. She looked at them, wiping the tears from her face. “I’m not defending my judgment this summer, but I wasn’t seduced.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Everyone stopped and looked at each other. Finally, Inga walked over and opened the door.

Her maid stood there, surprised at the number of people in the room.

“Um, Your Majesty…” Oline curtseyed. “Your… Highnesses…”

“Yes, Oline?” Anna prompted.

“I was in the kitchen and the doctor suggested I come check on the princess, but I can come back later,” she said.

“Thank you, Oline, I think that would be good,” Inga said, oddly calm.

The maid curtseyed once again and left.

After the door closed, Anna sighed. “I’ll speak to the council today.”

#frozen fanfic #tangled fanfiction #prince of two realms #1865 #OC Inga #kristanna

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