the haunted kingdom by Charles E.J. Moulton (best detective novels of all time .TXT) 📖

It was Adnicul, Lucinda, Nina Ray and Reficule. The four beings walked up to her with stately and calm step, whilst she ran faster and faster and could not get anywhere.
There were torches on every side of the hallway and the sandstone arches that otherwise seemed so cosy and familiar now seemed cold and mean.
Belinda managed to reach the hallway to the staircase and ran up to the next landing. The four horsemen of the apocalypse followed her solemnly as she entered the Grand Hall.
She looked up and saw herself hanging from the chandelier.
Belinda then rushed around the hall in the half dim light looking out the windows.
She realized there was nothing there but stonewalls and darkness she could not swallow.
To her immense shock, the princess realized in looking up that the palace was hanging from a chain hammered into the wall of a mountain. She was not at home at all. She was all alone and the Grand Hall was actually a replica of itself that was dangling in a dungeon in Hell.


CHAPTER NINE
SLEEP

Monday, April 26th, 1423 – Morning

The first sound that Belinda heard that morning was the wind grabbing hold of the balcony door and banging it against the stone frame. There was a slight breeze coming from the door as it opened again and a lark chirping in the garden. She opened her eyes and saw her own sheets lying on the floor. The she saw that Steven was not there anymore and sat up in bed. He was sitting outside drinking her ginger tea and devouring a left over of Ruby’s Veal Pie with ginger, saffron threads and red wine. It was a wonder he stayed so thin.
She stood up, put on her closed, white shoes and went to the basin of fresh water. Splashing some aqua on her face, she saw her reflection in the water and wondered when these dreams were going to end. The towel that she took from the cupboard soothed her wet face. The little one suddenly kicked inside her and she smiled to herself.
“Oh,” she sang, “so you are up and about, are you?”
She sighed and walked to the white cedar room divider and picked up her Greek chiton tunica.
For a moment she stood there by the rice paper and bamboo dresser. She couldn’t get out of that dream. Twice this dream of a Grand Hall replica hanging from a chain had beaten up her soul. This time she had been introduced to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, an expression Lucinda had used before. Belinda now knew who these four horsemen were. Worse was, though, that she knew that Lucinda was planning something big. This kind of thing was not easily digested. She was planning to put the entire kingdom to sleep.
Belinda opened the balcony door. As she did, Steven looked up from his last bite of Veal Pie. He stood up from his chair and fell upon his knees:
“Hast thou slept accordingly?”
She caressed his cheek, curtsied and tried to smile:
“Not really, but thanks.”
He got up again and held her by the arms.
“Want some ginger tea?”
“That juice makes me vomit.” she growled. “I’ve had so much ginger that I am liable to fall into a deep state of dreamlessness any day.” She looked at her husband and shook her head. “I’m sorry, dear. Give me some water and a bit of that pie, will you?”
She sat down and was served. Steven sat down on his chair and caressed her leg.
“What is the matter?” Steven said. “Anything I can do?”
A tear fell down her cheek. She silently dried it away, looking at the trees in the garden and seeing a lark on a branch that did not sing. She sighed shakily. “Steven. I dreamt about the palace again. I dreamt that I was in a replica of the Grand Hall trapped alone and that it was hanging from a chain in Hell. I dreamt,” she said, looking down, “That the four horsemen of the Apocalypse were Adnicul, Lucinda, Nina Ray and Reficule.”
Steven walked up and embraced her as she sat in her chair. He wanted to hold her tighter than ever before. He wanted to squeeze the pain out of her chest and burn it. Oh, why didn’t the pain end?
Lucinda, why? Leave us alone, he thought to himself.
She stood up and embraced him back, resting her head upon his shoulder.
“Steven,” she panted, a desperate laugh protruding her lips, “I remember everything about that dream. It was real. It was a prophecy. It was here and yet in was not here…”
Steven grabbed her by the cheeks and gave her a long and passionate kiss. He withdrew his lips with a smack and looked her deeply in the eyes. “Honey” he said calmly. “We have come this far without fearing her all that much. Let us not start fearing her when our child is going to be born just three or four months from now. Remember that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. That is her power! Our fear is her power. Not the curse. Not her hatred. Not the jealousy. Not the evil deeds and the magic tricks.” He kissed her again, caressing her bosom. “Remember that she has only power over us if we give her the power. We are royalty, angelically protected and surrounded by love.”
Belinda looked into his eyes and smiled. “If I only could believe you.” she whispered. The whisper was tender, full of an angelic aura of love and tenderness, drenched with a deep-rooted fear of the unknown. “I see my child abducted just like I was. I see…”
She stopped and sighed.
“Oh, God” she wept.
“I want my child to be safe.” she cried. “I want…”
She swallowed and screamed a scream of weeping anger.
“I want this to be over.” she howled.
Steven caressed her cheek and kissed her softly. His tongue dived into her mouth and she met his own with her own red, wet orifice. Belinda Winsletenna grabbed hold of his shoulders and dwelt inside his soul and there she found companionship far away from the desert of debauchery. There was hope there and the horrific terror of the nightmares slowly began to fade.
Leaning against his chest that morning, the princess saw a light in the sky and found she was shivering. The lark was singing again, but the breeze blowing in the trees was cold. She didn’t know how long she stood there, leaning against her husband’s chest. She only knew that once her child again began dancing the Estampie inside her belly, there were tears in her eyes.


CHAPTER TEN: ALFRED

Tuesday, August 17th, 1423 A.D.

That very day, August 17th in the year of our scared Lord 1423 at two o’clock in the morning, the alarm was a real call and there were five people in the room as a result of it a few minutes later. Everyone was amazed at how brave and controlled she had been and still was as the baby slowly emerged. Buckets upon buckets of cold water were brought in to cool the princess off along with a dozen towels, herbal disinfectant and several bottles of herbal mixtures brought there by the physician himself. Belinda’s screams echoed in the hallways and the king bit on his nails, next to the nervous husband pacing the hallways in the beginning of the delivery.
Constantly, she sunk her jaws into the cloth in her mouth. The sheets of the nuptial bedroom were drenched in water and blood. The larks and the robins were singing all the time through the birth and Belinda felt herself losing touch with reality toward the end of the labour. The contractions were much, much worse toward the end and her last labour pains were so bad that she slapped Steven across the face when he asked her to calm down. She then excused herself, knowing that she had against every one’s will pleaded for Steven to be there when the baby was born.
From the alarm bugle at four in the morning until the delivery at five o’clock in the afternoon were fifteen full hours and the mother was as tired as she was happy. The boy could barely open his eyes, but blinked curiously when his parents sang him Come, Come Now, Mistress of Fancy and Bedroom Roses for him upon his arrival on Earth.
The boy was bundled up in many sheets and the parents were left alone for a while to cuddle with their little new family member, Prince Alfred Winsletenna, heir to the Prosperanian throne. On top of it all it had been a beautiful day with brilliant sunshine and a slight, warm breeze.


The days following the birth

Belinda’s vagina and backside hurt so much that sometimes she felt she was going to burst. Steven always brought up her food and would sit for hours on end talking with her and cuddling with the little boy. Belinda would sit up and breastfeed the child and feel such a unity with her family that she would more often than not burst into tears of joy and not of agony for the first time in years. The balcony door would be opened and the summer breeze would be let in.
Bantrard almost immediately began composing lullabies.
The first days were bliss, the young couple almost every minute cuddling with Alfie. The now slightly rounder Belinda had a bust seeming to grow every day as a result of all the mother’s milk in her. Belinda had never ever having felt so womanly, so motherly, so tender, never wanting to leave Alfred for a second. Steven, inspired, called himself “Sir Belinda” and had his main task written on his own parchment insignia: taking care of my family.

Sunday, August 29th, 1423 A.D.

The baby boy was baptized Alfred Simon Alexander Steven Winsletenna and was healthy. It was a quiet celebration. The baptism occurred in St. Michael’s Chapel at Iuventus Sacrum. Both mother and father wanted a more quiet ceremony than their own wedding.
The family and the Archbishop were there. Cretan was there. So were the new royal friends Ariana and her family with father the physician and medicus in the middle of the first row. Innkeeper Rumus had been given a new coach, his old one destroyed by stately enemies. He came in it with pomp and circumstance, only to discover that the baptism was a quiet family event. His son was invited and was quite honoured to be there, having arrived in the new coach with his father, his recent promotion to Second Lieutenant in Command of Army Camp North being good reason for celebration. Steven’s long time friend Tom came and got to say hello to Alfie, who, slightly cross-eyed and blinking, in his crumpled cuteness wondered what the man with the tooth gap actually was all about. Who was the strange fellow with the tooth gap, the boy wondered? Who was the man saying ‘ga-ga-goo-goo’ to him?
Some people came by after the service whilst Belinda breastfed the babe.
Alexander complained that Belinda had people join while she nursed. Slightly shocked, he walked out shaking his head. Belinda told him later that she did exactly what their ancestor in Wandiffia had done just to be different than the Romans: they had public breastfeeding, a ceremony with a few friends gathering in quiet distance to enjoy the company of mother and child.
She felt so at one with her child that she insisted on carrying it around herself, as opposed to having someone else breastfeed it, which was