"My dear, you had agreed to this."
"I thought my little girl would have more sense. Now she is wandering the dangerous countryside alone."
"This Daniel is with her."
"That makes it worse!"
He is not going to win by saying their being grandparents within the year is not so bad, so the king tries a different approach. "I know it is dangerous, but she is in danger here too, dreadful danger.
"Radigan has given us a choice, war to the death or he marries Isabella. And of the dozen women he has been intimate with, half are dead, the lucky half.. We can't subject our daughter to that, even if we believed his promises, and he lies constantly.
"The war goes badly, and almost certainly will go worse, maybe quickly. Unless a miracle happens, his armies will overrun this castle, and Isabella will be much safer in the countryside then.
"And if we need a miracle, Isabella is our best hope. The Prophecy says..."
"!@#$ the Prophecy. It doesn't have to mean my daughter! There must be a hundred versions of it."
"Radigan is the expert on the Prophecy, and he is convinced she is the one. And I agree. Even if she is not, Radigan is not going to stop until too late."
"But she is out there unprotected. What happens when Radigan finds out?"
"No problem. Only the 2 of us know..." Then his glance falls on a trembling Anna... "Hmm, did We forget to dismiss you?"
"Y..yes, your highness."
"Oh dear. You have learned what We simply can't have anyone knowing... We are sorry, but..."
"Wait!" The queen interrupts. "I may have an idea."
Closely looking at the quite worried girl, the Queen confirms "Yes, she can be very helpful. Look at her. She looks a lot like our daughter, and we can disguise her enough to hide the differences. So we parade her around as our daughter and Radigan never finds our child."
The King agrees "Yes, that would be a much more pleasant solution.
"What say you child? Will you do your duty to the kingdom. You can live the life of a princess. It will be dangerous should Radigan try anything, and he surely will. But it will be often pleasant, and you will never do maid work again."
"And the alternative?"
"Well, We can't have you running around with what you have heard. We don't want to kill you for innocently learning secrets, but... We suppose We can keep you in a dungeon where you can't talk to any one..."
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