Work Text:
Aside from the thick, dark hair passed down from his mother, Hynce looks just like his father. Slender face, eyes the color of a cloudy sky at midday, and a straight nose that screams royalty. Eight years later, and not a day goes by that looking at the child doesn’t cause Henry’s heart to ache.
Christ be praised that Hynce didn’t take after Lord Capon’s infamous bratty attitude. The smallest of mercies in their broken lives. Saints were looking down on Henry for that, at least.
The slaughter of Lord Hans Capon and Jitka of Kunstadt happened in the middle of a cold night. A guard, upon finding two year old Hynce still alive in his nursery, had brought him straight to Henry. An order, apparently, that had been in place from the beginning of the couple’s rule. Should anything happen to us, bring him to Henry.
And in that moment, with the familiar guard handing off Hynce to him in the night, Henry knew exactly what he’d just lost. Only in the next tower over. A few turns of a sandglass and he could've been there, could've protected them, could've saved him like always. If only he’d known.
“My Liege requested with his last breaths that I tell you, in his words…” The guard had cleared his throat, clearly overcome. “It was the pleasure of a lifetime, my Henry of Skalitz.”
Despite the all-encompassing need to cross the courtyard and go see Hans for himself, he couldn't. Not with Hynce in his arms, his sudden responsibility. If there’d been evil still lurking within the castle walls and he put the boy in jeopardy? He’d have betrayed his lover’s dying wish.
So he’d rode out immediately to someone he could trust, thrusting the boy into a very confused Theresa’s arms.
“Please help me,” he begged. And in that moment, she'd known.
They’d already closed the pairs’ eyes when he arrived back at the castle. Already covered them in blankets. He left Jitka be, but Hans? He had to see. He had to.
He doesn’t remember, memory always going dark after he falls to his knees beside the then most precious thing in his life. Later, one of the guards with a wrapped wrist said Henry had bit him when he tried to pull him off. Told him it took a few strong men to drag him away.
Most not in the know were under the impression that the young lord had been killed along with his parents. Hanush appointed a cousin to rule over Rattay until Hynce came of age—offered to take him under his wing until the time came, just like he’d done with Hans.
Henry objected.
He would raise the boy. It was never even a question in his mind who Hynce would go to. He was already practically the child’s third parent—it would be in his best interest to be with someone he was already familiar with. Moreover, it was his duty as a Godfather. Not officially in the eyes of the law, but to Hans and Jitka. It’s what they wanted.
Jitka had known, of course. Even before the wedding which Hans had put off as long as possible. One look at Henry by his Lord’s side and she’d had them completely figured out. Maybe she'd recognised something in herself. Blessed, they were, for her compassionate heart and understanding head.
“This is all a political farce to me just as much as it is to him. You should know I do love my husband-to-be. He’s grown so dear to me in the short time I’ve known him. I’m sure you can relate. I just can’t love him like you do, Henry,” Jitka had confessed to him after a stressful day of pre-wedding festivities. She hated being in the public’s eye—under their scrutiny and speculation. She and her husband were alike in that way, though Hans would never admit it.
From that moment on, there'd been truth and safety between the three of them.
Hans and Henry couldn't have been more lucky. Only the luck ran dry far too soon.
There had not even been time to grieve before he was thrust into fatherhood.
He and Theresa married out of convenience and desire for companionship. They were among the first to settle in a slowly rebuilding Skalitz, far enough away where nobody would raise an eyebrow at a couple suddenly acquiring a two year old child who looked suspiciously like the young heir of Rattay.
Of course there had always been love between them as each other's oldest friend. But as Jitka had said…not the same love Henry held for Hans Capon. Nothing could ever come close to that sacred bond.
He wonders, frequently, if Hans would approve of how Henry is raising his son. Hynce has enough kindness for the whole of Bohemia, and a tongue sharp enough to outwit the most esteemed scholar. Surely those things count for something.
He wonders if Hans is watching from Heaven or from nowhere at all.
Each day of their lives fill him with more unease about Hynce’s birthright coming to pass. The curse of nobility is what killed the great love of his life. He couldn't bear it if his son ended up with the same fate. How easy it would be to take his family far away from this land, never to return. The only thing he wants is to protect them. The only thing he has left.
He understands now, the agony Ma and Pa must have went through all those years.
Someday, he will tell him the truth. He’ll tell his son about how he witnessed the boy he loved become a man after Hynce’s birth. He will tell him how his parents loved him more than anything—about how Henry had loved him from the moment he saw him just the same. Henry will tell him how similar their lives turned out to be, and that maybe it was fate all along.
Every choice further on will be Hynce’s to make. And when the time comes, Henry will support him down any path he wishes to take.
Sometimes he rides out to Rattay to sit at a pair of gravestones in the churchyard. Sometimes he catches Hans and Jitka up on their son. Sometimes he sobs, messy and ugly. Sometimes he aches to dig up the earth with his bare hands and crawl into the ground beside Hans. Sometimes he just sits quietly.
For now, he teaches his boy the way of the forge and helps him tie flowers into a wreath for the woman he knows as Ma. He takes him for rides on an aging Pebbles, teaches him to read, and shows him proper archery because Hans would kill Henry if he didn’t.
For now, Henry does the best he can for Hynce of Skalitz, Heir to Rattay.