Page 12 of Wicked Queen

Alexander

I dressed in the bathroom off my office, splashing my face with water in lieu of a shower. Shaving was trickier, but, unfortunately, a necessary evil today. A new suit had been delivered—one of Clara’s favourites. I didn’t ask who sent it. I suspected it was Norris, who would want to see me looking my best for today’s press conference. I would have preferred it was my wife. But it wasn’t as if making certain I had clean clothes was a sign that she’d reconsidered how she felt about me. I was a starving man searching for crumbs.

I’d considered sending her roses for our anniversary, but flowers weren’t going to cut it this time.

As I opened the office door, I came face-to-face with Prime Minister Clark. His was the last face I felt like seeing this morning.

“Good morning,” I said, feeling it was anything but. “I had no idea the Prime Minister attended press conferences.”

Didn’t he have more important things to do? Somehow, though, we were still locked in a battle over who was in control of this country. I’d hand it over to him in a heartbeat—if I thought he could handle it.

“I will not be attending, obviously,” he said, as if the time and place for us to be seen together was definitely not a press conference. I couldn’t agree more. “No, I wanted to speak with you about how you were going to handle it.”

“Handle what?” I barely kept my voice even. If the news had leaked to Parliament there was no telling who else knew. I hadn’t been made aware of the story spilling. Yet, here was the sodding prime minister come to advise me once again.

“I assume this has to do with the motion Parliament is considering.” He glanced into the office as though he felt uncomfortable speaking of it in the open.

Relief washed over me. That was a problem for another day. I stepped to the side and beckoned him inside. Closing the door behind me, I chose my words carefully. “This is about another matter.”

“The Sovereign Games? I should think a press release would do.” He was needling me for information, but he wasn’t going to get any.

I didn’t need to see another disappointed face. Not before I was about to come clean to the world about my family secret. I also knew he’d make it worse by spouting off some fatherly bullshit that I didn’t need or want to hear.

“It’s a family matter.” It was best to keep things as simple as possible. “I don’t think I need to address the motion before Parliament. These types of legislation have been suggested before. They never gather steam and—”

“It’s moving forward,” he interrupted me, looking rather shocked that I hadn’t heard.

“It won’t continue past that.” I sounded more sure than I was. I’d made a few enemies in Parliament over the last couple of years. Since it had been discovered that I was holding one of their own on charges of treason there had been a sort of reverse witch hunt directed at me. Why, I couldn’t fathom. I understood wanting to avoid suspicion, but this was something more. How many enemies had my father made inside Parliament that so many were now turning on the crown?

“You’ll have to appeal to them,” Clark advised. “You haven’t done enough to court your father’s allies and he had many of them in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. If you want to retain your family’s power, you’re going to have to start playing the game, son.”

“I thought the King was above games.” I thought no such thing, but I enjoyed how Clark squirmed when I reminded him exactly who I was to this country—and him. Plus, he seemed to need the reminder.

Clark didn’t squirm though, which was disappointing. “If your father had a fatal flaw, it was his arrogance. I’d hoped you wouldn’t follow down the same path.”

I bypassed the fact that the Prime Minister had just insulted me to my face, and did my best to shake off his comparison between me and my father. It was the last reminder I needed today. “If my father had a fatal flaw it was that he stepped in front of a bullet, Prime Minister.”

“You don’t seem to understand.” He ignored the tasteless joke. “This motion would strip the majority of the powers the monarchy still holds. It would withdraw your right to declare war. It would significantly reduce your holdings and strip your family of a number of its estates. You would simply become a man living in a castle playing at being king.”

“Better than a man who wishes he was King.” I had no idea why I was pushing things so far with him. Maybe because I needed to get it out of my system. Maybe because I couldn’t stomach one more person telling me that I was doing a shit job. None of them understood what was really at stake.

“Your father thought nothing could touch him, too. I suggest you remember what happened to him.” He stood and straightened his jacket before walking out of the room and leaving me to my ghosts.

Not only was I running late, I was now in a foul mood. Rounding the corner, I took the private corridor that led between my offices and the state rooms. The press conference was being held in the white room where only a few weeks ago Clara had publicly announced her withdrawal as host of the Sovereign Games. At the rate we were hosting press conferences, we were going to have to rename the room.

Norris met me halfway there, looking unusually flustered. “I’m told the Prime Minister paid you visit.”

“He was delivering a message,” I said through a clenched jaw. My mood wasn’t going to improve until I could let this go. “Or rather, a warning.”

“Which was?” He pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his brow. It wasn’t like Norris to get this anxious. Then again, it wasn’t every day that someone publicly came back from the dead.

“The measures limiting the monarch’s power are moving to a vote.”

“They won’t pass without public approval,” he said swiftly. I wasn’t sure which one of us he was trying to make feel better.

“And he compared me to my father a bunch of times,” I added.

Norris winced. If anyone understood how I would take that, it was him. Before my father married my mother, Norris had worked for him. Then, Norris was placed in charge of the family’s security. I’d grown up under his watchful eye. More than once, I suspected he’d gone toe-to-toe with my father regarding his parenting choices. Norris had been more a source of guidance than he’d ever been.