67 Penny For Your thoughts

"Tell me more!"

"I. I don't know what to tell you…. I told you everything; I went in, met him, and cut his hair; he trimmed his beard, which is quite impressive for a 16-year-old." Wilfred said as he was holding a sack of flour. "I meant the beard; the cut was somewhat unorthodox."

"Yeah, but what did he say? How did he look like?" Miranda, his wife, asked as it was the 9th time she had pressured her husband to tell her about the interaction with the Prince. 

Currently, at the time, the Colombian Empire was seen as the second coming of the United States. It was the union of multiple countries into one, just like the 13 states united to form the United States of America, and even though Peru was not in the Empire, everyone could see how it was already being swallowed by the Empire with the emperor being the King and also going for Santiago—future Chile.

All that, plus the fact that they have beaten a superpower-ish nation and were not only in an economic decline but an economic boom. Plus, the romanticization of the Colombian Empire has seeped into the average person who reads the Golden Globe News Paper and any other local editorial owned by Felipe. 

"Well, he is tall… a lot of muscles… his eyes are blue… em… he has scars… his hands are huge, making everything he holds tiny." Wilfred began listing qualities as he caved a bit under the intense gaze of his wife.

"No, no, I mean, how he is… how he acts." She complained again as she did not know how to express her curiosity. "Things that you can only notice when you talk with him."

"Ah… He is easy to talk with… surprisingly for a royal member or any of the high society, you know, they look and act too pompous… he was the opposite, like a mate at the pub, but with a clear social difference between him and me… but he was not like a scholar… but he felt like a scholar."

"Uh, a scholar?"

"Yeah… Aside from that, there is nothing else… he was just unique… it feels like you would not meet someone like him." Wilfred said as he was frantically organizing to start helping his wife. "Now, please help me." He said worriedly.

"I still don't know what you are doing?"

"Making Cookies, didn't I tell you?" he explained. 

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, but why?" She asked while getting ready to go on with her husband's idea, as she could see that he was already set to do so.

"The Prince liked your cookies a lot; he told me to bring cookies for his men and sailors. 23 People, he said." Wilfred said as he did not like going into details. 

"He liked them that much? Uh, for his people, not for himself?" She asked a question to the already answered answer, but she wondered nonetheless. 

Wilfred stopped and gently put his hands to his wife's cheeks, and with his face close to hers, he said: "… Honey… The Prince Loved your Cookies; he asked a batch for his men… he told me he would compensate us handsomely."

"But… but…. We don't have any more raisins." She said as she quickly made a lot of calculations for how many cookies she would make. 

"I can go buy them; how much are they?"

"They are quite expensive. I don't think we can get them."

"Don't worry… I will just ask some favours." Wilfred said as he remembered who of the people that owed him favours would have Raisins. 

"Okay, you do that… is this for tonight? It'll be hard to make many; soldiers must eat lots, then 3 per person. We can make 10 in the furnace…"

"No, no, For tomorrow. He told me that the carpenters were already finishing repairing his ship and would most likely leave tomorrow morning. Not Sure." Wilfred explained. 

"Okay, then we have time… get the raisins." She said seriously. "Go go go, no time to waste."

"Alright. Okay." 

--

"Humm…" Felipe looked at the people working on the ship that had made him travel across the North Atlantic. 

The end of the central mast broke; aside from that, everything else was working almost flawlessly, though the people working on the boat had to de-rope the mast to work something out. 

He gave the carpenters a price to do things in a very expressway, and they exceeded his expectations. 

"Oh, your majesty." Edward, the leader of the Coast Guard, said as he got near Felipe. 

"Pretty impressive… I assumed they would need more… it does look like a temporary fix; it looks like a permanent one." Felipe said he was pretty happy with the results. 

"Ah, yes, we got complaints of noise… they kept working all night. They burnt some pints of Whale oil just for that." The coast guard pointed to the spent lamps not put to the side in a corner of the dock. 

"Is that so?" Felipe smiled at the conveniences that being an empire's crown prince gives a person. 

"I slept like a wee baby… as a matter of fact, it was the best sleep I have had in weeks." Felipe chuckled as he had a bit of eyebags under his eyes. 

"That is good to know…. Your majesty." The captain of the coast guard stopped and added, "What I was going to ask is that the Royal Navy is willing to escort you to London." He said as he looked at the open ocean where multiple warships were anchored. 

"Please, I have to save some dignity as a monarch." Felipe chuckled, "Your King is quite big on appearances, no? It is already bad that I don't have 3-4 Warships escorting me across the North Atlantic." 

"Right! I am sorry."

"Don't worry. Plus, the mast breaking was a blessing in disguise. After a week of wobbling, I got a much-needed time on the ground."

"Ah. I see, at your service." Edward said as he did not know what to say anymore. 

A sailor arrived next to them and took them out of the trance of silence that a dead conversation had left. "Your Majesty… Captain…" The soldier Saluted Edward as an officer of the Coast Guard; he did it in Spanish so Edward would not catch it.

"Yes?"

"We caught a boy… he was stealing from us."

"… Then let him go," Felipe said as he raised one of his eyebrows and looked at his soldier. 

"Right… I am sorry."

"Hum." Felipe didn't even try correcting them; he was already tired of doing so. 

Even though there was a clear difference in rank, Felipe was still the youngest person in their party! And even then, the people he brought with him barely had some maturity; they were in their late teens and early 20s! 

That was the result of a war campaign that lasted more than a decade against the Spaniard's last stand, and even though everyone matures at an earlier age than 21st-century humans, they were still kids, especially in the eyes of Felipe. 

He has surpassed the notion of what was usual way long ago, yet every time he thinks about the capital loss of losing thousands of young souls, it is imaginable. War is not profitable! Especially when it is a civil war like the one he had just fought and was still vividly in his mind. 

"Please, tell them to anchor the ship at high tide after they are done; we leave at dawn. Maybe we reach London at an appropriate time." Felipe explained softly as he turned around and left. 

"Aye, aye," Edward said in a small voice, not to mean heard. He now wonders how a to-be prince could be and act like the person walking away from him. 

'He is more of a savage than a future emperor.' Edward thought that the consequences of his thinking would not even be relevant in a conversation at the pub. 'Maybe a real monarch, that is how they used to be.'