Chapter 11

 

This chapter has been transferred without any additional editing.

~*~

Malene looked at her rich bedroom. It was more than she had hoped for in the palace. Her suite took up nearly a fourth of the palace, which looked bigger than it actually was. There hadn’t been a place available to Remon, her personal attendant, so he currently slept on an ottoman at the end of her bed. He didn’t snore louder than the noise of the fire, so it didn’t bother her so much. It wasn't like he hadn’t seen her undressed before, he was her attendant. The queen had two ladies in waiting, she had a male attendant. It wasn’t weird.

The new mistress and future queen were what bothered her. She hardly seemed suited for the role of public monarch. She seemed to be the type who would be shy in a crowd, but raise hell in the home, quite the opposite of what a good queen should be. She needed to be trained in how to be a lady, how to speak, how to act. But she needed Galant’s input on the matter first.

“First I need the queen to be gone, first and foremost.”

“What’s that, my lady?” asked a groggy Remon from the foot of her bed.

“I need to send a letter. The queen needs to be taken care of.” Malene scemed.

~*~

“Miss Cupshire, The queen requests you in her quarters. May I escort you to see her?” one of the new guards of the palace knocked on her cracked open door. She had been trying to learn to paint, like Sir Reed had suggested, but it wasn’t turning out. All the fine paintings she had ever seen had small brush strokes, nearly invisible to the eye, but her strokes were large and ungraceful.

“Yes, I’ll come along in just a moment.” she tidied up her work area and dusted herself off. She exited the door and walked through the king’s sitting room. The novelty of it had worn off, but she seemed to spot a new detail every time she entered the room. Like today, she noticed that there was a bookshelf set into the wall. She must have noticed it before, but now she knew she had some books to read.

It was a short walk across to the other side of the palace. Just the other side of a hall, really. It was surprising how close everyone was in this place.

“You may enter, I’ll be standing outside this door.” the new guard said. He wore gold plate armor, and for a moment she hoped that Sir Reed didn’t have to wear the same. She liked his ruggedness.

He opened the door and ushered her inside. While Anwyn had thought that the queen’s colors were reds, the place was adorned in turquoises and blues with tribal pieces decorating the walls. Was the queen from the south? Anwyn wasn’t sure exactly where she was from.

Anwyn let out a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was Sir Romeo guarding a door. “Miss Cupshire. The queen is expecting you, please enter.” he opened the door for her and she entered the queen’s private bedroom. It was even more exotic than the sitting room had been. The walls were paneled, the floor was intricately tiled. The bed had accents of gold, clearly the queen and king had similar interests, wealth being one of them.

But the queen wasn’t visible. Anwyn didn’t want to snoop around, but she also didn’t want to be in the den of the queen. Anwyn felt that the queen was like a venomous spider who had it’s poison removed, but it’s bites could still hurt if not maim.

Anwyn heard water sloshing around behind a corner and took a peak. At that moment, the queen came out of her bathroom without a scrap of clothing on, and Anwyn blushed and turned away. She had not meant to see that today.

“Child, relax. We are all women here, there is nothing on my body that you do not already possess.” She said in a humored tone, her accent ever present. “Give me but two moments and I will be with you.”

Anwyn stood with her back to the doorway of the dressing room, stiff as a board. The queen touched her on the shoulder and Anwyn nearly jumped out of her skin. Thankfully the queen had put on a robe made of expensive silk.

“Now, there are a few things we should discuss,” she began, the humor draining out of her face. Anwyn tried to look her in the eye, but she was having a hard time. “I know that my time here is nearly done and that I will be disposed of like all of his other mistresses, though I do not believe that I will survive as they did. The king will most likely have me killed, though I believe it will be quick. He isn’t one for long punishments, and if it is a private affair he will want it to be over quickly so that he may continue his war mongering. Are you listening to me, child?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Anwyn stammered.

“You need to listen to all of this. I have been with the king for ten years, and in that time I have become very good at being queen. The first thing you need to know is that he spends most of his time in his office reading reports from the different fronts. He will be stressed if things are going badly, he will be elated if things are going well. On both of these occasions, he will want you to share his bed. On days where little happens, it is unlikely that he will bother you, but that will not be true if the lull lasts long. He will grow bored and seek your affection.

“The second thing is that you need to develop friends. Allies. Otherwise you will feel like you are here all on your own and in a den of thieves. From all the staff I have seen, only the king is out for blood, though I am not sure how the new Duchess will behave. As the king’s mistress people will not take you seriously. Find someone who will.”

Anwyn looked at her hands in her lap, feeling like she was hearing a dying woman’s last wishes.

“Child, I am not jealous of you. The others, yes. Many of his prior mistresses wanted his attention, but I have seen that you do not. You have been afflicted with this, and soon I fear you will also bear the title of queen. Be brave, and don’t let people walk over you.”

“Child, look at me.” she said softly. Anwyn looked up at her with shaking knees. “You must survive, and you must enjoy the life you have to live. Find something to focus on and be happy about.”

~*~

The next day, the king requested Anwyn in yet another sitting room in the palace, this one adjoined the dining hall. He had some important matters he needed her to understand.

“Anwyn, my girl, please sit down.”

Anwyn looked between the king and the duchess. She seemed to be always in his presence now, murmuring in his ear about, influencing his choices.

“Miss Cupshire, you are going to be the next queen. With the title comes quite a few responsibilities, so we want to make sure that you understand exactly what is expected of you.” the king explained.

We. She had said ‘we want’, not the king wants, but also what the duchess wanted. Why didn’t this woman just take the throne for herself?

“The first rule is that you are to bear the king an heir.” the king spoke. “My royal line is to remain in power, and you are to bear a daughter for the son of the duchess to marry. Bear me a son and you will have no son, understand?”

“Yes. I understand.” Anwyn said, trying not to be afraid. What was it about these royals that scared her so much? Why was she afraid of them all the time?

“In public, you will be the perfect vision of motherhood and grace. You will not speak, instead you will treat your silence as a sign of your humility. I will answer any question asked of you, and you. Will. Smile. You will obey or there will be consequences.”

“I understand.”

“Good.” the king smiled and stood up, caressing Anwyn’s cheek as he made his way out the door. “Because I wouldn’t mind a reason to punish you again, darling. Come see me tonight to work on our family.”

A shudder ran down Anwyn’s spine.

~*~

“I need to do something. I can’t let him hurt her. She needs protection. I have to find a way to get her out-” Liam vented to Sir Romeo.

“Man, if you do that, you’re going to be sent to the northern front and you will die. You will die a cold and painful death and even if you don’t you will not be the same. The last time you came back you were a different person. You didn’t talk, you didn’t hear, you were a shell. It took a very long time for you to be a person again. She doesn’t need you to protect her, she needs you to be a friend. She is a strong person, but she will be stronger if she knows she can lean on you.”

Liam sat down on the bench defeated. “I can’t get that close. If she starts to think that I’m there to help her, she’ll- I can’t. It’s too hard to watch and do nothing.”

“You already are that close, and you aren’t helping yourself. I know I told you not to get involved, but she seems to be staying here longer than we originally thought. I don’t want to like here either, but- she’s pretty likeable. Be her friend, we can all be her friends. Well, maybe not Montoya, he’s too serious to get along with a queen casually.”

Liam let out a choked laugh. “Be her friend."