Upon finally plucking up the courage to approach the house she was greeted by an unexpected sight, Errol bowing (not by choice,) his mother holding him in position as she did the same herself.

“Forgive my son please Princess, apparently when I told him to visit next time he was passing through he took it to mean interrupting a royal convoy to do so.”

“Oh it’s no problem,” Mibbet replied with a smile, “it’s nice to finally put a face to the names. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She extended a hand and put on her best Princess smile, hoping to bail him out before anybody noticed the only name she knew was the sister, because that would lead to questions about the stories he told that his mother probably didn’t approve of. (Oh parents without a doubt know prank wars happen, and in fact probably share a laugh and a wager on the outcome, but there’s still the information war to consider, and parents are very good at hearing just the bits you don’t want them to. At which point they are obligated to act and deal with the situation that had been unspoken previously. Kind of like when a politician apologises really.)

“Pleasure to meet you Princess, Amelia Flynne at your service, now we were just about to have lunch, and it looks like you’ve all had a tiring trip, so how about we all sit down to lunch, and you crash for a few days down time hmm?” Mibbet had to admit as comfy as Trundles was she did miss a nice warm bed, and the grumble from her stomach was a bit of a hint that she could use a snack too.

************************************************************************

Well Mibbet thought as they sat at the table, it’s safe to say we would never be late for dinner here. Apparently Errol’s family even treated food as an heirloom in the form of something they called “century stew.”

According to the family this particular pot had been bubbling away since the foundation of the house had been lain, never once being allowed to go cool. On a night the fire was carefully banked so as to keep the temperature constant, and whatever ingredients could be scraped together were added to the pot at the end of the day, meaning that the dish never tasted the same two days in a row.

“Umm would you mind if I offered something?” Mibbet asked “what was there has been in my storage bag awhile but don’t worry it does have preservation magic on it.”

Upon hearing that Errol’s blood ran cold, he knew enough of The Princesses tastes in food to dread any potential outcomes, but it was too late to object now as his mum gave permission, rather curious what delicacy a Princess could possibly have stored for such a long time, was it caviar or something?

Nobody quite expected what came next (well except Errol, Elvira, and Sir Leeroy, oh and the poor coachman who had been there for the incident in question, but you get what I meant.) It came as quite a shock to them when The Princess reached into her bag, and pulled out a carefully shaven chunk of gigantic arachnid limb.

“COOOOLLLLLL” Mary said, (a rather unexpected reaction for most little girls, but anybody who knew Mary would understand the reaction as business as usual,) as the arachnid appendage was joined by a number of dried crickets. This left poor Amelia somewhat flustered, and unsure as to the action to take here, as adding something like this would one way or the other make her already famous century stew even more of a local legend, but she definitely had concerns.

“Ummm Princess, are you sure this is safe to eat?”

“Well I ate it raw before, but then the others made me cook it. I’m so disappointed the rest of it got away,” Mibbet said sighing sadly. (By this point Errol who remembered only too well was turning a rather fetching shade of green.)

“By got away, you mean you hunted this thing?” Amelia asked aghast, when she had heard of a Saintess Princess she had expected Errol would be guarding some dainty delicate thing, instead it seemed she was very much a royal in the old school sense.

“Yups, only got one leg though” Mibbet pouted, “the rest of it got away.”

“Still most people wouldn’t try to eat the giant spider, Princess.” Amelia tried, she was not equipped for this many surprises in a day.

“Why not? It tried to eat me first, if it can’t take it it shouldn’t dish it out right?” She asked with a grin, keeping an eye on Rascal who was creeping closer by the second, they still remembered the taste from last time.

“The crickets too?” Amelia asked.

“Oh no they didn’t try to eat me they just taste good.”

Mary meanwhile was holding back a cackle at the sight of her brother going greener by the moment. “Oh I like her, can we keep her?” She asked with a grin.

“I think the king might object dear” Amelia ventured, (and she was right, Ethelred would definitely object to his daughter being kept by anybody.) She took the leg, “What does it taste like?” she asked nervously.

“Like a pig, chicken and lobster loved each other very much” Rosalind replied, really hoping Mary wouldn’t get it.

Amelia readied her cleaver, and added the last of the spider leg to the stew, after some slicing and dicing to make sure everybody had to suffer equally of course. As for the crickets, she had heard from Millicent, who heard from Tom, who heard from Jill that they were all the rage in the capital right now, so maybe there was something to that, so into the pot it went.

Soon enough lunch was served, and Errol finally plucked up the courage to try some (NOTHING got between Errol and century stew, not even bugs, this had been tested once when his brothers tried to prank him with an earthworm in his bowl, he ate it while making eye contact to acknowledge he knew and would not hesitate to grass them up to mum by faking a tummy upset later if they messed with the stew again.) Rascal too dug in with obvious enjoyment, though the horses outside were more than happy to stick to grass.