Chapter 153
Kit awoke alone late the next morning, surprised that her mother hadn’t sent for her, though she wasn’t too startled to realize Eli had left her. There was a note on her nightstand thanking her for a night unlike any he had ever imagined and promising to see her soon. She hoped he had not been summoned. When her ladies entered to get her ready for the day, they assured her he had not and that they’d seen him with the other Representatives not long ago.
It was past the midday meal when scar face showed up at her chamber door again. Kit was dressed regally in a lavender gown, the closest to royal purple her mother would allow, her hair piled atop her head, her largest crown secured in place. When he announced the queen would see her, she didn’t blink only headed out into the hallway with her shoulders back and her chin held high. Galter and another guard, Sil, walked alongside her, and Kit felt confident that whatever came out of her mouth, she would find a way to appease the queen without tipping her hand.
The queen was seated on her throne when the door opened, and Kit was pleased to see Junno, Zora, and Nill also awaiting her arrival. Kit didn’t dare spend too much time looking at her grandmother, but she did catch a bit of a glint in her crinkled eye. Bowing, Kit recited her greeting and waited for her mother to signal she may rise.
Rona took her time, deliberately forcing Kit to stand there and think about her power. Kit wasn’t fazed, though. She understood that power can be drained and extinguished quickly given the right forces acting upon it. When Rona finally signaled she could stand, the princess took the same confident stance she’d had in the hallway.
“I understand you had visitors in your chambers last night.” It didn’t seem to be a question, so Kit didn’t answer. “I thought you would be with Jate—alone—so he could pleasure you.”
“I was with Jate last night,” Kit replied, “but he didn’t wish to stay after grandmother and the others left.”
“Why is that? Is there something wrong with the boy?” the queen asked, her tone conveying she thought there must be.
“Not at all. Jate and I had a private discussion, Your Majesty, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to disclose our exchange in front of Yourself and the council when it hardly seems to matter.”
“It does matter, Katrinetta, when I ordered you to invite him to pleasure you, and instead you spent the evening with...” she seemed to have Eli’s name stuck somewhere between her throat and her tongue, “someone else.”
Kit fought to keep her tone pleasant as she didn’t wish to stir the pot too harshly just now, not when she didn’t fully understand the extent of the movement against the queen. “Mother, if you’d like to know every intimate detail of every conversation I have with each of my Representatives, I suppose that can be arranged, but for now, please just take my word that I did invite Jate, he declined, and I spent the evening with Eli—who had actually won the competition yesterday.”
“So you say.”
Kit bit her tongue. “He was declared the winner.”
“I believe there may have been some underhanded tactics.”
“I know you’re right there, but how Pierce became aware of the path I’m uncertain. I’m trying to decide whether or not to investigate.” The queen’s face went pale. “That is what you’re talking about, isn’t it? The fact that Pierce knew exactly how to get through the maze?”
Rona folded her arms and leaned back in her seat. “How do you know that?”
Shrugging, Kit said, “Everyone knows that, Mother. Pierce has very loose lips.” She was bluffing now, but her mother seemed to buy the idea that Pierce had said something to someone, and having gotten to know the man herself, Kit didn’t doubt that was likely the case—that just wasn’t how she had come about the information herself.
“Well, if that is true, no harm was done. He certainly didn’t capitalize on that information.”
“True,” Kit nodded in agreement. “He is a bit of a dimwit, I’m afraid.” She tried to look disappointed, as if she’d had high hopes for the Representative from Metfirth. “I’ve simply learned not to tell him anything I don’t wish the entire castle to know.”
“Indeed.” Rona took a deep breath and adjusted her arms. “I was given false information last night as well, I’m sure you know. However, just because Eliason happened to be with you and not sneaking around with Sephorina this time, that doesn’t mean you should fully trust him. I believe there is some truth to the idea that he still has feelings for her.”
“I honestly do not think that is the case, my Mother the Queen, but I shall keep it in mind. I fully trust Eli—and Seph. She’s never given me any reason not to trust her. She told me of her prior relationship with Eli and said she harbors no feelings for him now, and I believe her.”
“You think that’s the truth?” There was a hint of a smile in the queen’s eyes.
“Yes, of course,” Kit answered quickly, hoping her mother would continue to have faith in Seph herself. “I find it hard not to trust someone until they’ve proven themselves to be untrustworthy. But then... once I’ve lost my faith in someone, Mother, it’s very difficult to ever have it fully restored.” Each of Kit’s words were carefully chosen, and while she was certain they would fly right over her mother’s head, Kit knew the person in the room she should’ve been able to put the most faith in would also be the first one to jab a knife into Kit’s back.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, daughter. There is a thin line between trust and foolishness, and I’m afraid you seem to walk along the wrong side most of the time. Perhaps you are growing wiser as you age.”
“Or perhaps I’ve simply slipped off of the edge one too many times.”
Rona’s eyes flickered up and down her daughter as she considered her statement. “Katrinetta, if you are to be queen one day, you must realize that there will always be people you cannot trust, those who swear they have your best interest at heart and then do their best to rip that organ right out of your chest and eat it while it still beats. Do not be so quick to trust those who have the power to tear you apart from within.”
Kit’s eyes bore into her mother’s black orbs as she spoke, and once she finished her statement, Kit raised her chin slightly higher and said, “I am not as weak as you think I am, Mother. I know more about deceit than you give me credit for.”
The queen studied her daughter for a long moment, hearing the challenge tossed before her and choosing whether or not to acknowledge it. In the end, a smile broke across her face, and she said, “Keep an eye on them, Katrinetta. Trust must be earned.”
“Yes, Mother. If there’s one thing you’ve taught me it’s that those we hold most dear are also the ones who can cause the most damage.”
Again, there was a flicker in the queen’s expression that she understood what her daughter was saying between her words, but she didn’t challenge her. Kit assumed she was also biding her time, waiting to see what else might need to be done before she tipped her hand. At this point, there was no reason for Rona to suspect her daughter might go on the offensive, and Kit was certain the queen only expected Katrinetta to try to defend herself against the queen’s onslaught, not to wager a battle herself.
But that’s where she was wrong. As Kit observed her mother on the throne, the sickening feeling within her stomach began to bubble to the surface again. She thought of the horrific conditions she’d witnessed in the village, Pim and her poor children. She considered the stories Cassius and Jate had told, the images they’d created in her mind of a realm where the citizens were hungry and sick because the queen robbed them blind and broke their backs for her own glory. Rona might be her own mother, and she might wear the crown, sitting on a throne made of enough gold to feed all of the children in all of Ironton for a month, but if it were up to Kit, she would find a way to force the queen to change her wicked ways or else claim the throne right from underneath her.
“If there is nothing else, My Mother the Queen, may I go?” Kit tried to keep her voice pleasant, though she was certain her mother would hear the fire beneath the surface if she listened carefully.
Rona raised an eyebrow, detecting something different, no doubt, but she simply nodded in her daughter’s direction, and Kit forced herself to back toward the door, thankful when the doors shut and she could rise again.
Out in the hallway, the castle shook as thunder rumbled outside. Kit locked eyes with an unexpected group of escorts. It wasn’t Galter and Sil waiting for her outside of the throne room. Instead, as she proceeded back to her own side of the castle, she was joined by her men—Cassius, Reeve, Jate, Landon, and Eli. Outside Castle Wrenbrook, a storm raged, but inside the castle walls, the storm was just beginning to brew.
End of Book Two Loved by the Princess
Keep reading Book Three Ruled by the Princess
