<em>A brother?</em>Count Manfred von Holstein was like<em>a brother</em>to his beloved Queen?  It wasn't until then Gilberto realized how frighted he had been by the prospect of an armed confrontation, or any other type of confrontation, with the more experienced courtier.  Soon the young prince was laughing along with the others, but wanted to cry -- cry out his thanks to God for this turn of events, realizing he might likely have died by this man's hands.<br/><br/><br/>Of course there was the other possibility.  Two children, raised together, but not blood relations.  What might have passed - physically or emotionally - between them besides brotherly affection?  The prince, not wanting to face up to the possibility that anything of that sort may have passed between the woman he loved and the Count, refused to consider it.<br/><br/><br/>This also excused the wink in the King's mind, and he made some elegant remark (despite the churning in his belly) about thinking of the noble count as "Our brother" and even more justification for closer bonds between their two peoples.  He was none too happy with the Queen, though.  It was not seemly for her to hide this information from him, to allow him to be surprised before the whole kingdom.  Obviously it was not maliciousness on her part -- merely intended as a little practical joke, but she needed to learn a king must not be "surprised" like this in front of the nobility.  It worked out well in the end, but something like this might have had far reaching effects regarding relations between king and subjects.  He leaned close to tell her they would speak more of this later, but instead, he found his eyes staring down into her abundant cleavage, and what came out was "I love you."<br/><br/><br/>Hopefully, this pain in his belly would pass quickly enough, for he intended to ravage her all night long and show her why he was not yet ready to make his beautiful queen the<em>dowager</em>queen.  But first, it might be a good idea to seek some relief from this growing tempest in his belly.  Not wanting to offend his guests, he tried to make light of the situation.  "We only hope our physician can avail of himself to provide some relief to any who found they overly indulged on this sumptuous fare as foolishly as their king."