Karel the Thief

Karel the Thief

She slipped off the windowsill and into the night just like her father did many years before. She met the boy where they had planned to. She looked at him for a moment then motioned that they must move. She followed the boy through all kinds of alleyways and even over some. When they were far enough away she told him the story as promised.

“When our father was young,” she began, “he wasn’t really interested in being a prince, No he wanted to be a robber. Like the Grey Fox so many minstrels had sung songs about. So he did. Yes, he ran away from the castle and lived on the streets. Stealing bread and meat from bakers and butchers windows. Eventually he became known through the city. Karel the thief they would call him. He took pride in his thieving abilities.”

The young boy sat staring at her with eyes filled with wonder and amaze. She continued, “Yes our father was a great thief. But what he couldn’t steal was the heart of the woman he loved. She was a maidservant to the king, his father. She didn’t want to marry a thief. She felt that a thief spent too many nights away and she couldn’t live with the worry of him being on the run always. This was her real fear. She did love Karel though. So Karel went to the palace in his finest clothes and demanded to speak to the king’s maidservant. ‘Niami,’ he said to her, ’if I reclaim my throne as prince, then will you marry me?’ Niami, of course, said yes. But only two years after their marriage Niami died of a terrible sickness. Our father grieved for many years and I believe he still does.”

The boy was still staring at her with his big brown eyes.

“I never knew that, and I would have been too afraid to ask.” he said. “Now I know about the man who we call our father.”