If you want a woman to be healthy, you must first make her happy, and then find ways to nurse her body—this was a principle that Thomas Foster understood deeply. So, how do you make a woman happy? There’s probably nothing more effective than driving away her rivals. Even a woman as open-minded as Julia Carter once was, wasn’t she also capable of jealousy? It’s just human nature.

“No... my lord, if you do this, you will make me a jealous woman. The other ladies are still young, and if they are sent away from the residence, it will be hard for them to find good matches. Wouldn’t that ruin their whole lives? I beg you to reconsider…”

Thomas Foster’s first attempt failed—unexpectedly, the Princess of Shu stood up to oppose the decision to expel the concubines, and even put herself in their shoes, worrying that with the status of a concubine, they would never find a good family to marry into and would suffer for a lifetime.

“I have no children…” Seeing her husband Matthew Bolton at a loss for words, the Princess of Shu quietly added another sentence.

“Ah… oh, that’s not a problem. Once you’re healthier, you’ll have children soon enough… So, they can’t be sent away?”

Now Thomas Foster began to understand why Charles Bennett had been so troubled. The princess had married into the family in the seventh month of the second year of Xining (1069), when she was eighteen and he was twenty-one.

Now it was the sixth month of the second year of Yuanfeng (1079)—they had been married for exactly ten years without having a child. In ancient times, this was considered a great unfilial act, and the blame usually fell on the wife.

So how should she take responsibility? The simplest and most effective way was to find concubines for her husband. If one of them bore a child, it would be considered the wife’s duty fulfilled.

“My lord, you need not blame yourself too much. You may follow the princess’s wishes, but in the future…” Seeing her husband still troubled by the matter of the concubines, the princess quietly nudged Nanny Bennett. This nursemaid seemed to hope that Charles Bennett would dismiss the concubines, but since the princess disagreed, she could only follow suit and oppose it as well.

“From now on, all matters in the residence will be decided by you, my lady. I will no longer go out to gather with friends, and will stay home to recover from my illness—is that acceptable?” Nanny Bennett’s underlying message was clear to Thomas Foster: she was afraid his old illness would relapse. It seemed that this Charles Bennett had really caused a lot of trouble before, to the point that no one dared trust him anymore. Well, no complaints—he’d just have to take the blame himself.

“…” The princess and Nanny Bennett probably hadn’t expected Charles Bennett to be so harsh on himself. They looked at each other in silence.

Chapter 6: Dongjing Bianliang

You can always find new concubines, but if you lose your friends, there’s no way to make up for that. Most importantly, Charles Bennett had also handed over the right to manage the household, meaning that from now on, the princess’s word was law at home—no one but Charles Bennett could go against her. With this, the concubines’ hard days had truly begun; at any moment, they could be dismissed by the mistress.

“Mm, mm…” The little maid in green kept nodding, even signaling with her eyes for the princess to quickly agree. If her mistress rose in status, she would naturally benefit as well.

“No manners… Go fetch water for the lord to wash up!” Well, it’s not that she’s ignorant, just that she’s not observant. The princess and Nanny Bennett were still unsure whether to accept Charles Bennett’s terms, so they used the little maid as a pretext to change the subject.

The prince consort’s change was drastic—jumping from one extreme to another. Except for the immature little maid, no one really believed it.

Whether they believed it or not, Thomas Foster himself did. Now, he was just a proper Prince Consort Commandant, and apparently also held the title of General of the Left Guard. That sounded impressive, but in reality, it was an empty post—he didn’t command a single soldier, just drew a salary for nothing.

From this day on, there was a new dizzy, crazy prince consort in the residence. As soon as he opened his eyes, he would run all over the courtyard with the little maid in green, Lily, even inspecting the latrines.

From the princess down to the old women sweeping the yard, he would chat with anyone he met, and wouldn’t let them leave. In his words, “You can work slowly, but you must finish the conversation. If you don’t, I’ll dock your pay!”

So, the rumors of the crazy prince consort spread from the servants in the residence like a plague, and the news traveled fast—even the children playing at the gate knew about it. Whenever they saw Charles Bennett standing at the gate looking around, they would all shout in unison, “Crazy Prince Consort!”

“Shout in unison and you’ll get candy!” Thomas Foster didn’t react to any of this. Not only did he not let the servants drive the children away, he often brought out medicinal candies to share with them. As a result, not only did the local children often gather at the gate for candy, but kids from farther away started coming too.

Thomas Foster didn’t do this on purpose; he just couldn’t change his habits in a short time, so he simply kept up the act of being crazy—it was more comfortable that way.

At the same time, it allowed him to gather more information and enjoy greater freedom of movement. Who would bother about etiquette with a crazy prince consort? No one cared if he spoke oddly.

Through these days of visits and investigation, Thomas Foster had basically figured out the situation of the Prince Consort’s residence, Dongjing city, and the Northern Song court.

The Prince Consort’s residence was located on the west side of the inner city of Dongjing Bianliang, that is, the west side of the imperial city. Not far to the north was the Jinshui River; to the north of the river were the Tianbo Yang Mansion and Xiaoyan Temple; to the south was the Huayan Nunnery, and further south, a cluster of imperial guard barracks.

This area wasn’t densely populated or bustling, but the scenery was quite nice, and it was very close to the Xihua Gate of the imperial city, so one could enter the inner palace at any time.