To Act as Befits You | 15th Morning

[Francis Kirke]

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Private Chambers of Prince Rupert

The Governor's Suite comprises a large part of the Round Tower, and as Prince Rupert is the current governor of Windsor Castle, this is his primary residence.

 

The Hall

The Hall, on the ground level, is adorned with military memorabilia, some of which has been incorporated into the that Rupert has gathered. Offices are situated from himself and the Constable, leading off the Hall. The Hall still functions from time to time as a court room.

 

Withdrawing Room

Off of the Dining Room, the Withdrawing or Drawing Room offers comfort and elegance. Here, the hand of a lady can be seen in the upholstered furnishings and a notably diminished stock of weaponry.

 

 

Francis did not know the reason why the Duke of Cumberland wished a private audience with him, but he supposed it likely had to do with his suggestion for a yacht race during their conversation the night before.

 

If he were more astute about court matters, he might have realized that princes rarely concerned over details they could trust to others and that privacy was hardly needed for that sort of thing. Thus, Francis was blissfully ignorant that it was about something of far more seriousness. 

 

At the appointed time, he arrived in the late morning, informed the servant of his arrival, and awaited the German prince's pleasure in the amply decorated hall, his blue eyes occupied with the appreciation of all the militaria. 

[Prince Rupert]

Kingston was shown into the Prince's inner chamber.  He was well-known to the older man and he had sent for the lad.

"Ah Kingston," the man greeted Francis.  "Come join me by the fire."  A roaring fire in the fireplace was a balm to an older man with sore joints and bones.  Cumberland stood facing the fire.  "Can I offer you a drink?" he asked in the expected protocol.

"You may think I summoned you to discuss the yacht race in greater detail.  Though a splendid idea, I have a more serious topic in mind."  He twisted at his waist to beckon Kingston to stand beside him in facing the fire.

[Francis Kirke]

"Good morning, Your Highness," he said, bowing deeply. 

 

He came next to the prince by the fire, looked down into it briefly, before looking to the side at Cumberland. 

 

"No, thank you, Sir. If I start now, I shall be drunk by tea. My current state of affairs cannot have that," Francis replied, honestly. They had, after all, mentioned the rumors plaguing him the night before, so it was hardly a secret Francis needed to be careful not to stoke the fires that reminded everyone of Charles Kirke. 

 

When the prince said that this was not about the yacht race but about something serious, he raised a blond brow, settling in beside the slightly taller Cumberland and standing with his hands folded neatly behind his back. 

[Prince Rupert]

"I am not one to mince words," Rupert began.  "You are not a youth anymore.  You have come to the attention of your cousin Buckingham, and become a gentleman to the King. As such, I can take comfort you understand protocols, expectations, honor and rank."  He cleared his throat briefly, putting his own hands behind his back.

"Dorothea is a good friend to my niece.  Her Majesty has seen some of the broadsheets about you.  Dorothea seems to hold you in high regard and the Queen wishes to protect her.  I offered to speak with you, for I know the broadsheets about you to be wrong."  The claims about Kirke's father were a different matter.

"You know she is a princess.  She is far above you in station.  Her father will be arriving soon for a visit and may be taking her home with him.  You are no fool sir, so tell me what advice, if any, I should give you."  His words were pointed but not unkind.  The fact that he spoke in a way that merely organized facts was a sign of respect in the old Duke.

[Francis Kirke]

This speech began in a way that was familiar to an earlier part of his life, and it was not particularly surprising to him as his grandfather and Cumberland were of the same generation and had been good friends. Their ideals and way of speaking of them rang similar, and though not a youth anymore, he could tell when he was being read a lesson. 

 

He stood silently, eyes dipped down. Francis understood that he had taken a misstep in the realm of protocol, expectation, honor, and rank to even hear this prologue. There was a sting to that notion. 

 

What he had not expected was for Dorothea's name to come up following. He had always been very careful to treat her with the utmost of respect, and had never been alone with her or sought to be. He had chased young Whitehurst away for having desires inappropriate to her station and had told the boy's brother, so to now hear the same caution from no less than Cumberland had his face losing some color.

 

Francis knew he needed to reply, but he was silent for a long moment in deference to the seriousness of what was said and the kindness and respect by which it was delivered.

 

"Your Highness wishes me to know that especially after what has been said of me, that I will do damage to her reputation with my attention to her person, if I have not already, and that it will do little good for me to be seen to over-reach the very mark people are already gossiping about in regard to my behavior. They will think I am...after more. A newly made earl who had not much of anything to his name a few years ago is not fit company for a princess. Nor does it reflect well as a gentleman of His Majesty. I understand perfectly well." By the time he was done speaking, his cheeks had a strong flush of embarrassment, an inheritance from his real father who Buckingham always reminded him he resembled strongly and was a blusher as well. 

 

"Even without the sheets and gossip, I understand, Sir," he said, giving a nod of acceptance and looking Cumberland in the eye. "I apologize and beg Your Highness' forgiveness if I've given any offense."

 

(OOC - it's her brother, her father is dead already  )

[Prince Rupert]

"Fret not.  You have given no offense.  This is merely a cautionary conversation I promised to relay. That being done, I can report that I have done my duty and that you will do yours."  There was a ghost of a smile on the man's face as he drew that quick conclusion.

"This is not a warning to neglect Dorothea.  She shall be on to us if you were to disappear."  The smile widened.  "Just keep an appropriate distance, both physically and emotionally."  He turned more towards Francis and changed the subject only slightly.  "Surely, you have an eye on a lady to wed.  I cannot imagine Buckingham has not already suggested a favorable match." 

[Francis Kirke]

"I will do my duty, you have my word," Francis replied. "It was not my intention to inspire affections or give an outward appearance to others of, erm, wanting that or wanting some form of courtship. I wished Her Majesty's good friend to feel welcome here and to want to stay for the Queen's benefit. I have never been alone with her privately or sought to be."

 

He nodded at the warning not to avoid the lady in question altogether and neglect her entirely. In truth, Dorothea was very intelligent and observant, she would notice if he did that. "I do value our conversations, so I will not just disappear, but I will be guarded and mindful of her honor and rank. I will make certain she doesn't spend an amount of time in my company that would be inappropriate or give an impression of any intimacy between us."

 

The slight change of subject had him stumbling mentally. He blushed again. 

 

"I...well..." he paused with the lack of dignity in his sputtering and composed himself. "If the Duke does have ideas, he has yet to share them with me, Your Highness." In fact, Francis had no idea that both Buckingham and the King had discussed that very subject together and that the duty to get married and have children was another duty Francis needed reminded about! Little did he know it was about to become the season of awkward conversations. "As for myself. Marriage is a difficult situation for me."

 

He had a distinct feeling of unease at those words. Surely he would sound ridiculous. On the surface of his life, he understood that. He had a title. He was nearly thirty-years-old. He seemed to have enough of Buckingham's attention and favor that he would at least inherit a good portion of things unentailed from the duke. He knew that from an outside perspective there was responsibility there, and he did not wish to feel silly around Cumberland, who probably saw nothing difficult about his situation and would find that a poor excuse.

[Prince Rupert]

"Good man," Rupert replied to Kingston's pledge.  "I knew I could count on you."

The topic switched to marriage.  "Why is marriage difficult for you?" the Prince queried.  "Too many choices or something else?  I pray it is not the Italian disease."  Others would jest about such accusations, but not Rupert.

"You are now an earl.  You must consider heirs."  It was an obvious fact.  When Francis professed to be unaware of any plans by Buckingham, Rupert shook his head slightly in amusement.  "Kingston, Buckingham always has plans.  He has seen to it that you received the earldom that your mother enjoyed.  I would not be surprised if he was not already negotiating your match on your behalf.  It is not difficult to know his targets."  He stopped there without saying more. 

[Francis Kirke]

Francis nearly choked on his own spit when Cumberland asked, quite seriously, if it was the Italian disease. "Oh, no, Your Highness. Everything is...as it should be in that regard. I am not ill."

 

He listened to the mild chastisement about being an earl and needing heirs. He understood that would be the prevailing perspective. It was what was expected. Francis was also quite positive that Buckingham had designs, but it was truthful that the duke had yet to share those ideas with Francis. 

 

"That would not surprise me, either, Sir. It would not surprise me if he simply apprised me of the date as if he simply expected me to happily take vows at the drop of his word," Francis answered, with a light laugh. "He would attempt it just to see what my response would be. His Grace takes deep enjoyment in his role as patriarch." In the typical meaning and the meaning  that he enjoyed putting Francis in hilariously impossible situations. 

 

There was something of a crossroads here. He knew he would have to answer what was difficult about marriage, a question he had momentarily dodged. Cumberland was the only royal who did not know the truth of his situation save, perhaps, the Queen. Francis was, honestly, somewhat surprised that the prince did not suspect. After all, he was one of few people still alive who had known his true father and known him well. The elder Francis had even escaped Trinity to join Cumberland for a siege at Lichfield without permission before he and Buckingham had been sent to safety in Italy. And Francis resembled his father greatly aside from his blond hair, even in his voice according to his mother. 

 

Francis wet his lips. It felt wrong after the respect Cumberland had shown him speaking about Dorothea as he did for Francis to lie or misdirect.

 

"You have always shown me trust and respect, and my grandfather raised me to hold you in the highest regard, a regard that has only grown deeper, so I will answer with bare honesty." He wet his lips, a bit of the flush returning to his cheeks. "Marriage is difficult for me, Your Highness, because I do not wish to give the Kirke name to a wife or a child...because he was not my father..." He paused to take a slight breath through his nose. "The Duchess of Richmond has held in her possession this long time the proof that my real father intended to marry my mother and was killed before he could do it, and we've just found out. It is difficult for me to think to bring a wife into a tenuous situation that is not yet fully resolved."

[Prince Rupert]

It was comforting to hear that Kingston was not ... ill.  The disclosure about his parentage drew a sharp look from the Prince.  He could understand not wanting to give the Kirke name to any respectable lady, but the twist was a surprise. "Ho, that is news."

Rupert gave the younger man a closer look as if trying to discern his parentage.  "And who is your father then?"  The pieces starting to fit together.  Buckingham seemed overly fond of the young man.  The earldom of Kingston was connected to a sibling of the Duke that had died decades before.  Rupert had known the younger brother well.

"And what is there to resolve?"  Illegitimate births were not resolvable generally.

[Francis Kirke]

"His Grace's younger brother, Francis," he replied, though from the look he was being given, it seemed the prince had started to draw a conclusion. 

 

"As I mentioned, the Duchess kept the reply my father had penned to my mother about wishing to marry her and his intent to do so as soon as he returned. Church law allows for intention to marry if one dies before it is enacted. Several things can be used as proof. Exchange of marital gifts - I have his christening plate that he gave to my mother and the duchess says the lock of hair she gave him is still buried with him - but the letter signed in his own words is the significant piece. Both together stronger. A marriage in the eyes of God is a marriage, and I could take his name properly. It would require a bishop or archbishop to accept the evidence."

 

He looked back at the fire for a moment, wondering at the prince's thoughts of this revelation. 

 

"His Majesty was the one who recognized the christening plate and called it to the attention of the Duke. The King gave his blessing at Brighton that if there was a case for legitimacy to be proved, he would be happy for it, and he knows of the letter. That is why he gave me the earldom in the interim."

[Prince Rupert]

Rupert was willing to assume that all the statements were legitimate and backed by appropriate evidence.  The King would not likely have blessed the possibility without it.  Furthermore, if the King blessed it, what Archbishop would naysay it?

"I knew your father.  He was a good man.  It was a great loss to his family and the realm," he complimented.

"I can understand your hesitation to marry under the circumstances.  You would be wise to wait until the matter is clarified."  Rupert supposed it could be clarified immediately but Buckingham likely wanted the process to move methodically so that there would be fewer questions about authenticity after a favorable outcome.  "Let the process run its course.  Your slanderous broadsheeters need no more fodder."

[Francis Kirke]

The younger Francis was like the elder Francis in the duality of his nature, most of their blood had some form of striking personality traits that did not seem to go together, and his was that he was both the softer side of traits that made him kind and gentle, but also the harsher side of traits that made him a good fighter and warrior. He had not inherited Buckingham's ego, but rather his father's circumspection. 

 

In the moment, it was his soft-spoken side which prevailed. "Thank you, Your HIghness, that is what I am told. I should have liked to have known him. I hear we are much alike." He bit the corner of his lip in frustration and then wet them again, looking at the fire. "I should have liked to have known other family before I was nearly thirty too."

 

"I have been happy in my life and thankful for how it has been unfolded, knowing it could have been worse, but it is strange to be an onlooker to this unfolding of my life, much out of my control, as a full-grown man. The harsh irony of which is that this would have been far easier if it had been done when I was a child. A baby cannot be broadsheeted. Compassion could be had for an eleven-year-old just coming out of exile where nothing could have been done." He exhaled. "I know how it looks from outside. I know it will not be pretty or easy, even though it is true. I know the Duke's enemies will come at him, at me. The pamphleteers will have fodder no matter when, but I am not doing it for myself, for my own aggrandizement, even if they think it so."

[Prince Rupert]

"Few men are given the opportunity to live two lives in the span of one," the Prince commented.  "Perhaps it is a blessing."

Rupert had lived multiple lives in a sense.  His life in the German States had been one life.  The Prince Cavalier of the Civil War had been another.  Now, he was the elder statesman prattling about his laboratory with regal garb laid aside as he raised a daughter with an actress morganic wife.  The imperial life and opportunities were those of a different man.

There had been sadness in his life, but the young Rupert learned that no one pitied a poor little prince who seemed to have everything.  Would Kingston be in a similar situation? Would he come to accept the bad with the good?

"The Duke has a history overcoming his enemies."  With the fall of Danby, none had the power to challenge Buckingham unless the man outdid himself with the King, as he had done in the past.  At times, Buckingham was his own worst enemy.  "Let the game play out and observe the enemy movements.  Their strategy will be easy to predict and it will fall to you to outmaneuver it."

[Francis Kirke]

Francis blushed again, cursing it even as he felt the heat on his cheeks.

 

"The good fortune I have experienced is an immense blessing, Your Highness. One I very likely do not deserve."

 

He smiled. "Perhaps these broadsheets wound me more than they should and have focused me too much on the difficulty of what lies ahead and the should have beens of an ideal world. The reality is that the world is not like that and it's a folly of youth to think that way. Few at court know reality these days, because most are young and had no experience of exile or hardship." Or their families had played along with the Republican experiment. "These slanders are new to me. I was North for most of the recess. In a way they make me wish His Grace had never asked I be given this title; I was content before and only dealt with vague whispers. Now I can see what will happen when the Duke tries to make certain that his martyred brother gets the legacy he deserves by right, and I see it very clearly."

 

He heaved a sigh. "I owe it to his memory to weather through it and, as you say, Sir, outmaneuver it, because I would be a very poor son if I let what I inherited from his blood in any way be associated with Charles Kirke and lessen what an unmitigated waste of a human he was. To allow that to happen because I didn't want to cope with the difficulty of staying the course through the squall." Then he added, "He stayed his course, I will stay mine." His father could have, after all, asked for quarter, and he didn't, and he'd died a very heinous death because of it, before he was even of age. Francis couldn't be a coward over some talk, paper, and difficulty at court!

[Prince Rupert]

"Well spoken," Rupert complimented.  "Sally forth young Kingston, but know that your slanderers are not just the mob.  You should assume that they surround you even here.  Everyone here will smile to your face.  Your enemies are not just rivals of your uncle.  There is a perverse joy among English courtiers to enjoy the fall of anyone who climbs high," Rupert warned.  "But do not let these truths eat at your soul.  I have learned to dispel the power of slander by caring less about their insidious effect."  Sadly, that ability only appeared after decades of whispers against him.  Kingston would only gain that skill with time.

[Francis Kirke]

Francis dipped his head in appreciation of the compliment that he was well-spoken.

 

He didn't much care about the opinion of most people. The broadsheets and pamphlets were painful in that they were widespread and common knowledge, for any one who didn't know him - and some who did - to believe. He did care about Cumberland's opinion of him. 

 

"I am sure they are also among those that call themselves my friend," Francis agreed. "Most assuredly they are at court. Not anyone can pay for such prolific printing and secrecy of it." Unlike many courtiers, he intimately knew the cost of things and how prohibitory costs could be for the average person or even merchant. He had lived life amongst them. 

 

Nodding at the truths offered to him by the elder man, Francis took in a breath. "I shall try not to Your Highness." He assumed it was both easier and harder to deal with slander as a prince. "If those who are most important to me retain their good opinion of me, that is all that really should matter. I overcame reputation barriers when I first came to court, and I can do so again." He rubbed his lips together resolutely. "I value your advise and wisdom immensely, Sir, and I will continue to try to be worthy of it."

[Prince Rupert]

"That is the right way to view it," the Prince replied.  He sensed that their meeting had reached a point of conclusion.  His body language suggested the same.

As parting words he sought to bolster Kingston's strength.  "Recall you have an advantage that almost none enjoy.  With royal favor and Buckingham as your uncle, you have the power of the throne behind you.  Against those forces all opponents will wilt in time."

 

OOC~ finis?

[Francis Kirke]

Francis knew a dismissal when he saw one, even if it wasn't explicitly given. Such was the eccentricity of serving any royal; they tended to have the most subtle ways of doings things. It was a gesture, a change in tone or body language, or something equally simple to miss without much training. After more than a year of serving HIs Majesty, Francis was very good at picking up on those things. He had not been when he first arrived.

 

"I shan't forget, Your Highness. The advantages His Majesty blesses me with are always close to heart. And nor shall I forget my place with Lady Dorothea, as I have promised you," he replied, offering a deep bow before taking his leave. 

 

Finis