Chapter 31

Rona watched Eliason leave the room, her eyes staying on him as if he were an insect, and she might need to squash him at any moment. Thoughts from her past intermingled with the present for a moment, and she narrowed her eyes even further. Why she had allowed him to stay in her castle for so long momentarily escaped her, and part of her wanted to fling him out into the world, sending him as far away as he could go.

“It’s a shame,” Zora said quietly. Rona’s head swiveled slowly to face her cousin. The queen did not speak, only waited. “I know he hasn’t spent much time in his home province, but Katrinetta has always been fond of him.”

A chirp escaped the queen’s lips. “You can’t actually be suggesting Eliason Goedwig would’ve been a good choice for my daughter?”

Zora shrugged. She was one of the few council members who never seemed to care if she raised the queen’s ire. “I’m only saying, I’m not certain the vote was the same as it would’ve been had he spent more years at home, that’s all.”

“I’m not sure the vote was fair anyway.” Rona’s mother’s eyes tipped to her daughter, but she said no more, and Rona wondered if it was still regicide to kill the queen if she no longer wore the crown.

“What shall you do with him?” Nill asked. “He was an excellent commander when he served the princess. Shall you put him back in his previous place?”

“That would be torturous,” Zora noted, looking at her other cousin. “Clearly, he is in love with the princess. I can’t imagine how miserable it would be to watch her go through her Choosing and know he couldn’t even be considered.”

“Do you think the princess feels the same way?” Sian, a distant cousin to the queen, asked, her light voice wafting across the room to the queen’s ear.

It wasn’t the queen who answered however, it was Nill, her sister, Avinia’s mother. “According to my daughter, who has been in service to the princess for years, there is certainly some affection there.”

“Bull hockey!” Rona exclaimed. “My daughter knows she is far superior to that muskrat. He isn’t even nobility. They have a friendship, but that is all. Katrinetta has many fine young men to choose from. Not once would her eye even fall for a second to that man if he were back in her service.” Rona knew every word that escaped her lips was a lie—except for the derogatory remark about Eliason; that was true. Nevertheless, the thought that her daughter would likely prefer him to any of the Representatives made her abdomen swim up her throat. She wouldn’t hear of it.

“Well, if that is the case, at least if you decide to put him back in her service, you will only be torturing him.”

Zora had a point, and even though Rona knew what she’d said about her daughter wasn’t true, she did think there were enough candidates presented that day alone to sway the princess. She knew that any sort of romantic contact with a male who was not part of the Choosing would mean certain death for that man. Perhaps placing Eli back into the princess’s service would result in putting an end to him once and for all.

“I shall think on it another time,” Rona declared, leaning her head back against the plush fabric of her throne. “I am exhausted from standing outside for so long and liable to make a hasty decision. For now, he shall stay hidden away in the army barracks as I come up with a solution.”

“I am sure you shall do what is best. For everyone,” Junno said with a sly smile, and Rona wished she hadn’t opened her eyes to take her mother’s expression in because it only served to anger her. Nonetheless, she smiled back. She could be sly as well.