Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“What of Sophia?”
“I said you and Eliza for a reason.” He did not clarify further. Then he turned to me. “You start with the kitchen staff and allow the police to do the other guests at dinner. Record their statements before releasing them. If it takes all night, then so be it. If they complain, remind them that at least they aren’t lying intubated in a hospital bed. I do not want to see you until you give me a name.”
“Yes, sir.” I bowed, stepping out into the hall.
Yes, there was a shift.
He was no longer playing the role of the future king.
He was being the king.
Chapter 27
“How can they keep playing it?” I asked my mom as we watched Odette choke on the screen. It was all the news had been playing for hours. It was on all social media and on every news channel here and abroad.
One of the worst nights of our lives, captured live on camera for all the world to see. Instead of cutting the feed, the cameramen kept rolling, zooming in to Odette’s terrified face before she collapsed as if this were some film and not a real person. But it wasn’t, and she was real, she was part of this family, our family, and someone...someone—
“Do you really think they did it on purpose?” I asked, looking at my mother, who sat still watching the coverage, only moving to change the channel when there was a commercial.
Ambrose had brought her tea to calm down, but she would not drink it.
“Mom?”
“You should go get some rest, sweetheart,” she finally said but didn’t look to me. “It’s already morning.”
It was, and the sunlight was fully in the room now. We’d been stuck in here for hours. I had no idea what was going on outside, rarely anyone coming inside.
“Gale said we should remain here.”
She paused, tilted her head as if she forgot. “Oh, right. Then lie down for a bit—”
“Mom, I’m not tired. I’m confused, worried. How could someone do this? It had to have been an accident—”
“Do you know your grandmother was the first queen not to carry around poison?” she stated randomly, finally turning to look at me. Her whole face crushed. “Before her, every other queen carried a small dose of poison on themselves, either in their jewelry or the lining of their clothes. Why? Just in case something ever happened—war, kidnapping, coup, revolution. Queens carried poison to either protect themselves or take their own lives. When I first heard that, I remember telling your grandmother, ‘Thank God, we have evolved. That the world is not like it once was.’ And do you know what she told me?”
“What?”
“We’re lying to ourselves if we think we have evolved that much.”
“So why did she stop carrying the poison?”
“Because the king ordered it. He said it projected fear, and he wanted his people to know he trusted them to keep him and this family safe. We stopped because we were told to stop, not because people became better or the world shifted,” she whispered. “So how could this happen, sweetheart? Easily. Bad people exist, and they hurt others, whether they are royalty or not. Sometimes, being royal is a bigger cause for others to hurt us. But we can’t show that because the public does not see that. They want to see our dress, our crowns, our ceremonies. They want the innocent fairy tale, not reality.”
I wasn’t sure what else to say to that. I looked at Ambrose. “Have you heard anything? From the hospital? Anything about what is happening in the palace?”
“Most of the guests have been able to return home this morning. The prime minister has sent his condolences.”
My mother coughed but did not say anything.
“Other than that, nothing, miss. Not even from the hospital.”
“What about Gale?”
“He was in his study, last I was told.”
I wanted to go to him, see what was happening, help in some way. Do something other than just sitting here and watching the news.
This was what I hated the most about being a princess. I was useless. I could save no one and do nothing but sit and wait.
I hated it.
“Do I get a trial, or will I simply be dragged out by my hair to the guillotine?” I asked, cleaning the lipstick from my mouth.
“Are you admitting to something, ma’am?” Iskandar, who once was Arthur’s loyal guard, asked me as he stood at my door, arms behind his back, all of him ridged as stone.
“I’ve already spoken to the police, Iskandar. I’m tired—”
“The Adelaar told me to remind anyone who complained that they should be thankful they are not intubated in a hospital bed. They did not lose a child today.”
I froze. It was as if ice were injected into my veins, and I looked all over his face to see if I had misheard, but his face was void of anything. “Child? What, child?”