Keep it a secret

Although he has been king for a very short time, Stewart has learned that there are limits to what even a monarch is able to do. He knows if he shares his plans with any of his ministers, they will immediately try to talk him out of it and put obstacles in his way. He decides to keep his own counsel and goes about his responsibilities, wondering whether he has made the right choice.

As the business of the court begins to wane as the Spring Festival approaches, Stewart’s excitement begins to grow. At last, when the final appointment of the day is complete, he is practically standing on one foot with impatience as Lord Norbier prattles on about last-minute matters before the start of the holiday.

“And then, Your Majesty, there is the matter of the correspondence from the Raja of Patabologna; it is sealed with his royal insignia, so it may be opened only by you. You will, of course, want to read it straight away.”

“Yes, yes, of course, Norbier,” says the king, dismissively. “Just leave it on the desk, and I will get to it.”

“And then there are the proclamations from the Privy Council that still await your royal ascent. If you would like, I can walk you through them, so you can sign them and we —“

“Thank you, Norbier,” says the king, taking his minister by the elbow and escorting him to the door. “I will give them my full attention, I assure you. Now, I believe your family is awaiting you so you can enjoy some welll-deserved time off. Don’t let me keep you any longer.”

Norbier pauses at the door and says, “Oh, and it would probably be wise for you to pay a visit to your mother, Sire. Your subjects love her dearly, and it would be good for them to see you caring for her in this time of grief and widowhood. Perhaps over the holiday you could —“

Stewart closes the door, bringing an end to his minister’s counsel.

With a spring in his step, Stewart turns and rushes to his wardrobe, where he retrieves a bag he had packed several days earlier. Placing it on the bed, he retrieves a change of clothes from inside and hurriedly removes his expensive royal outfit, and dons the simple, humble attire of a peasant.

He looks at himself in the mirror and makes final adjustments to his clothing just as a three knocks sounds at the door. He hurries to the door, opening it at the sound of the pre-arranged signal, and sees his brother, similarly dressed, as expected.

What he didn’t expect is the sight of the two young women on either side of him. At the sight of their king, they both drop into a curtesy, but Duncan pulls them back up and says, “Here now! Remember what I said — you’re to treat us as commoners. You don’t want to blow our cover, do you?” He looks up at Stewart and winks, saying, “Believe me, there are other things they should concentrate on blowing!”

Stewart looks quickly up and down the hallway before hurriedly ushering the trio into his room. He closes the door before speaking.

“Duncan! What are you doing? I thought this was supposed to be a big secret! Who are these girls and why are they here?”

Duncan gestures toward the blonde and the brunette in turn. “This is Melinda and Colleen.”

The brunette speaks up and says, “Actually, Your Highness, I’m Melinda. My sister is Colleen.”

Duncan shrugs and continues. “They have graciously offered to help us move undetected through the neighboring villages by pretending to be married to us.”

Stewart runs his fingers through his hair. “I don’t understand. How does that help us? I thought the whole point of this exercise was to not let anyone know who we are. We had every detail worked out.”

“True,” admits the prince, “but I woke up this morning and had a brand new thought, and I asked the girls if they would be willing to help us blend in.”

It is not lost on Stewart that his brother was able to speak to both girls immediately upon waking up.

“And I thought that it might look weird for two blokes to be traveling around together; people might get the wrong idea about us.”

“I thought we were going to tell everyone that we are brothers,” says the king.

“Yes, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how unlikely that story would sound — particularly if anyone saw us naked. They’d have a hard time believing that two brothers could look so different.”

Ignoring the not-so-subtle insult, Stewart asks, “And why would anyone see us naked?”

Duncan looks at him as if he has lost his senses. “Seriously, brother? Have you been king for such a short time and you have forgotten what it is like to live a normal life as a bachelor?”

Stewart groans. “I should have known something like this would happen! You know, it really isn’t the norm in the kingdom to do the things you have been doing since adolescence. In fact, if you weren’t endowed with wealth, fame, and power, you wouldn’t have nearly as many women depriving you of your clothing at every opportunity.”

Duncan laughs breezily and says, “My dear brother, those things are not the ‘endowment’ that attracts the fairer sex, is it, ladies?”

Melinda and Colleen both bring their hands to their mouths and giggle like schoolgirls.

Duncan says, “So, anyway, if we change our cover story to being two newly-married couples, going on a joint honeymoon holiday, I thought that would attract less attention.”

“I’m sure that’s what you were thinking,” says the king, wryly.

He looks at the young ladies and considers the matter. While he doubts the pure motives of Duncan’s plan, there is some value in having a couple of ladies around to help satiate Duncan’s unending carnal desires. Without them, Stewart figures he’s going to be spending a lot of time keeping an eye out for Duncan to make sure his dick isn’t getting them both into trouble.