Chapter 3: Explanations

We squeezed our way into the relatively large throne room. I looked over and saw Jonas sitting on a stool with a guard on each side of him. At least the throne room had bigger seats so we could sit in a chair. In front of us, a few moments later, a man came out.

He called out, "Her Royal Majesty Queen Angie."

Then a woman with a crown on her head who was no doubt the Queen came out, and at down on the throne.

Mave and I got out of our seats. We bowed and then returned to them when told to.

"Greeting to you Lord Robert, and to you, my Majesty Maeve," the Queen said.

"I am but a common earth woman, your Majesty." I noticed that the way she pronounced Mave was different than the way I did and realized it was the Gaelic pronunciation. Here being a Boru should have had me remembering that it would be Maeve and not Mave.

"You will always be my Majesty, Maeve."

I was looking around at all of this, and everyone else, no doubt seeming like 'a deer in the headlights'.

"I take it from his look that he does not know."

"No, your Majesty"

"You would like to tell him in your own way?"

"Yes, your Majesty."

She gave a little smile and then turned to look at Jonas. Maeve put her hand on mine and gave it a squeeze.

"Major Quinn, if you would be so kind as to bring Jonas in front of us."

Jonas stood and Quinn brought him in front of the Queen, us sitting behind him.

"Do you have anything to say for yourself, before I pronounce sentence."

"No, your Majesty."

She was just about to say something when I coughed. Maeve squeezed my hand and the Queen looked over at me.

"Would you like to say something, Lord Robert?"

"If I might have a word with you in private, your Majesty?"

Maeve squeezed my hand harder then.

"Of course, you were the one wronged by him. It would be most appropriate if you were consulted."

I made my way over to Her Majesty Angie, and we whispered back and forth for a few moments. She got a smile on her face, which she lost, when she returned to her throne.

"Jonas, who was it, that had your beard shaved off?"

"It was you, your Majesty," he was having trouble holding her gaze.

"And yet you didn't seem to learn anything from that."

"I went to retrieve the amulet, but I was not successful. Now he has it, and can come here at any time, just as they could before."

"I see! And this is your defense for your actions?" she asked. She gave a hum and then continued. "And how did he come to be in possession of it?"

"I had to drop it to be found property, or he would have taken my pot after leaving me all night in a tree his devil of a hound howling out my position."

"So, you gave him the amulet rather than your pot."

"It is my pot! You know as well as any, that a Leprechaun without a pot is nothing!" He had raised his voice but given that it was his pot Her Majesty let it pass.

"Yes, that is true indeed. But you would have broken the law of these lands, and killed him after he refused challenge two times."

"Yes, your Majesty."

"That is a serious crime, Jonas."

"Yes, your Majesty."

Maeve was watching this go on and would look over at me every so often. No doubt wondering what I had told Angie.

"So I have no choice but to forfeit your pot."

"Yes, your Majesty."

The depth of his despair was evident to all in attendance.

"Lord Robert, since you were the one wronged by Jonas, I award his pot to you."

He cried out, then. I now had his pot and there was nothing he could do about it, and then the Queen spoke again.

"Jonas, that was for the first refusal! For the second, I place you in Lord Robert's custody, to do with as he sees fit."

Jonas looked at me and glared. There was hatred in his eyes as they lead him away.

Angie looked at me and winked, then. I looked over and Maeve had seen that I was sure. That will be all. Now I would like all of you to clear out with the exception of Maeve and Lord Robert. And the rest of them did just that.

Once they were gone Queen Angie came running from the throne while Maeve got up and then went to one knee and lowered her head. They hugged each other tightly and then Queen Angie said.

"I wondered if I would ever see you again. God you look so different and yet so beautiful. Is this one the true love you went in search of?" And then she covered her mouth having known she said too much.

"Angie" Maeve cried out. "I haven't told him anything about this and you have gone and spilled it before I..." I reached over and placed my hand on her shoulder.

"It's alright my love. We have plenty of time to talk it all out."

"Maeve, he is everything you had hoped for. I can just tell it," she said. She turned to me and added, "Please! Please, call me Angie."

"Yes, Angie. I would be delighted to."

"Angie if you don't mind I would like to tell Robert now."

"I'll leave you to do that. I want to see you again before you leave Maeve, Lord Robert."

"I think it would be better if she told me when you were here Angie," I said with a wink at her.

Maeve looked at me and smiled. "You know that Angie won't let me gloss over anything, you crafty man."

"Not me, I'm just a simply a Lord."

I gave a laugh that I was certain most of the castle heard, then.

"Robert, in the 'Wee Lands', the Queen is not born into being Queen. We hold an election every 7 years. If the people so choose she can continue to reign. Or she can be replaced with another. She can also choose to step down and then another is elected."

Maeve stopped to look at Angie. I heard a door open and saw that Quinn was coming back in. He walked up to Angie and gave her a kiss.

"Hello, my Husband."

"Greetings, my Queen."

That answered a question for me, as Maeve continued.

"So I chose to abdicate the throne. I had never known the love of a husband and being Queen, just made it that much more difficult find a suitable one. Little did I know that I would have just as hard a time, after I had abdicated."

There were tears in her eyes. I pulled her to me and hugged her.

"I was so heartbroken that I appealed to Angie to use the draíocht, and allow me to become a human."

She stopped to regain some composure. I looked at her trying to remember what draíocht meant. No doubt it was some type of Gaelic magic or charm.

"Angie, the dear friend that she is, knew of my plight and sadness. She allowed it to happen. Of course, I didn't know she would have been born a Boru. That was a little bit to trickery on her part I think."

"Guilty as charged," Angie and Quinn spoke together and then looked at each other and kissed.

"So let me see if I understand this. You were the Queen of the Leprechauns in the Wee Lands and would live a life measured in centuries. But you gave it all up to look for true love."

"Silly isn't it."

"Not in my eyes," I leaned over and kissed her.

"I am confused about how you ended up in my motorhome."

"I saw the ones that were chasing after Jonas. I was so scared, that I needed to find somewhere to hide."

"But why did you eat all of my cookies. I loved those cookies."

She threw her arms around me and kissed me so hard.

"You are such the goof! I was hungry and that was all you'd left out."

"But then you went to sleep in my bed."

"Hey! You let Sam get into bed and sleep with me. I think we're even for the cookies, and the sleeping in your bed."

"I don't know. You assaulted my virtue in that same bed."

I looked over and Quinn was holding Angie from behind whispering something in her ear. She had a big smile on her face.

"Yes, I did, but you took me back to that bed that same night."

"I agree that I did indeed do that. Guilty as charged."

I leaned over and kissed her.

"Ok, so now what did you and Angie discuss? I am certain it has something to do with Jonas's pot being awarded to you and Jonas also now being yours."

"Executive Privilege," I said with a big smile on my face.

"What do you mean Executive Privilege?"

She looked at me, and then at Angie, who was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"I mean, that is on a 'need to know' basis, and you don't need to know."

"Angie," she cried out then.

"Oh no, Maeve! You know there is no questioning the Queen about a decision after it has been decided by her."

"But what are you going to do with him?" she asked me.

"Well, I can't help it. I actually like Jonas, even as gruff and tough as he tries to be. So I am going to try and redeem him, in his own eyes."

"But he hates you! I saw that before he left."

"Well hate and love they say are the same emotion just in opposite directions."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, my dear Maeve, that with the ones from the cold world are going to be searching for the amulet that Robert wears. Jonas is the best protector you and Lord Robert could have. He killed the terror that plagued these lands for centuries and took the amulet without being killed, himself," Quinn said.

"But he would just as well see you dead so he could get his pot back," Maeve said.

"I think anyone that would risk their life to get this back," I said. I stopped and pulled the amulet out. "Because he wanted to save his people, he has his heart in the right place. Getting him over hating me will just be a little more difficult."

"He might well indeed want to have Lord Robert dead. There is no real telling when he would do at the exact moment. But if we don't give him a chance he is lost forever," Angie added.

"But this is your life were talking about." She was near tears.

"I can not save my own life from those who are coming after this. I don't have the skills to do that. Only Jonas has those skills. I just have to help him realize that me having the amulet, is much better than them having it."

"He knows that; but he could kill you, take his pot back, and the amulet. Then he could just return here."

Quinn spoke then.

"He has no life here, anymore, Maeve. If he came back with his pot and the amulet, everyone would think he killed Lord Robert just to do that. After having been shamed two times after no challenge was accepted he would still be shunned. No one here would ever associate with him again."

"He is a dead Leprechaun walking. He has to come to realize that I am the only way to ever return here with any kind of a life," I said.

"But he could not realize that, and still kill you. I would die if that happened."

She started to cry. I held her close and put her head on my shoulder. Quinn and Angie left us there while I just held Maeve.

We stayed two more days with Angie and Quinn. Maeve was better the next morning and we had some happy times just laughing at the issues of being the ruler of a people. Some of the stories that they shared were side splitting. But in the end, we had to return to our world, even with the danger that was there.

So this time it was just Maeve, Jonas, Sam and I. Word of Jonas's punishment for his deeds had reached everywhere we went. I looked over my shoulder as every Leprechaun we passed would see Jonas and then turn their back to him. I don't know if he hated me, or himself, more, by the time we had made it back to his town. We left the unicorns there, and started to walk out to Rupert's. He was pleasant with us but shunned Jonas just like the others. Since we would be headed back to the motorhome, and the Wee Lands were a safe place, we decided to walk back to the portal after dinner with Rupert.

It was a slow stroll as Maeve was breathing in deep breaths of what was home as we walked. Every so often Sam would growl at Jonas. I would have to ask him what he had done to Sam to make that dog hate him so much. But that would, and could be done later.

We had come to the end of the path, and were at the portal. Maeve was looking back and Jonas was just staring ahead.

"Jonas."

"What?" Was his surly reply.

"I accept your challenge. Here is your sword. Kill me take the amulet and your pot and go back to your home." Maeve gasped what I said that.

He took the sword and simply placed it in his belt.

"I have no home, here, no family or friends. You have seen to that, by parading me all the way back here."

"So killing me is no longer important to you?"

"It gets me nothing. My life is over and we are leaving the lands of my forefathers forever. For Maeve must have told you that with no pot of my own I cannot cross through the portal."

"She told me that. And it is why I am allowing you challenge."

"It is of no use. I lost these lands and all of it, myself. Better that I go with you than remain here."

"Then the right of challenge I gave you, is hereby revoked. You had your opportunity. Until I give it to you again, you live under my rule, in what ever world we are in."

"Agreed" he spat out.

"Take a hold of me now and we will all go through, together."

We made it through and it looked to be about the same time as we had gone through to the Wee Lands. We walked back down the trail to the motorhome.

It was right where we left it, so I opened the door with the key, and we all got inside. I didn't see any reason to leave now, as it would be getting dark in a while. But I did get a whiff of Jonas. There was no way he was not going to get a shower.

"Jonas, come with me."

He got up with out saying a word.

"I brought him over to the bathroom and showed him the toilet and how it flushed. Then I turned on the shower and discussed how he would be having one before he had dinner. He was not very agreeable to that but I suggested that only Sam smelled as bad as he did and I would be happy to arrange for them to spend a night together.

That was a bit of motivation for him. When I explained that it would take about twenty minutes before the warm water was ready for him to have his shower, he was much more understanding. I guess a hot shower was better than a cold one. I also told him that he could not take a very long one, as we would run out of water if he did. That took some more explaining about how we carried water in tanks but he grasped the idea.

Next I took him over to the bunk that was above the driver's seat and explained that this was where he would be sleeping. He got up there and tried it out for a minute.

He had brought some extra clothes along so at least he had something clean to change into. Maeve worked on dinner and we enjoyed it. We took Sam for a walk so Jonas could shower. When we returned, I could hear him snoring away in his bunk.

Maeve and I took our turns in the shower then and crawled into bed together. I had thought about washing Sam but decided that being with Maeve in bed was much more important.

We tried to be quiet in our lovemaking, but it just wasn't to be. I didn't know if Jonas slept through the night or not but we were quite sated when we fell asleep, a while later.

I awoke with my morning condition and thought about waking Maeve. I decided against it when I looked at how peacefully she was sleeping. Instead I tossed on yesterday's clothes and made my way to the bathroom. That finished, I went out to the kitchen to find my coffee maker, and get a pot started. I looked up and saw that Jonas was not in his bed. I glanced at the door and noticed that it was unlocked. That concerned me so I slipped on my shoes and headed outside.

The woods were quiet as I scanned them for Jonas. I slowly walked around the motorhome until I came upon him. He was sitting on the front bumper looking back down the path where we had come.

"Good Morning, Jonas."

"Good Morning, Lord Robert," his voice flat, as he spoke.

"It's quiet out here this morning," I added wanting to continue the conversation with him.

"She really loves you doesn't she?"

His voice held that same flat tone.

"I believe she does. I love her too."

"Everyone thought she was crazy when she left to be born a human. It just wasn't done."

"She didn't tell me about that, until I met the Queen."

"We Leprechaun men aren't the loving type that she was looking for."

"I don't know about that. Quinn seemed quite loving with Angie."

"Oh, we can be, but it isn't in our nature. Besides, Quinn is a special case. There is a long history between their families," he said. He stopped for a moment before he continued, "While she was Queen, many would have wanted to bed her and have that known. When she abdicated she didn't have the same appeal. Oh, they wouldn't have kicked her out of their bed, but she would have likely just been a bedwarmer and entertainment."

"That's why I left. There wasn't real love for me there any longer," Maeve spoke as she placed her hand on my back.