Page 17 of Falling for the Queen Mother

Did the fact that it was a forced marriage rather than a love match change how she might feel about it?

Neither of them said a word on the walk to the archives. The area was roped off and guarded, but the doors were open.

Odd.

Members of the security team looked uncomfortable as they asked her for identification.

She had none.

Why would she? This was her home.

Using the mum glare she'd perfected through decades of parenthood, the security team blinked first. They let her enter a code into a touch pad rather than needing physical identification.

Nathaniel wasn't so lucky. He hadn't set up that kind of bypass - why would he have needed to?

Rather than being motioned through, he was sent back to his quarters with a member of the team.

Alaina found herself breathing a sigh of relief, but managed to keep it to herself at the same time.

"I apologize, ma'am." The head of this particular team couldn't quite look her in the eye. "We've been given strict instructions about who is allowed to enter the archives. Even His Majesty King Frederick would need to have his identification checked or confirmed through the passcode system."

"I understand. It is far better to be a little over zealous with security than not zealous enough." She gave him a slight nod as he bowed his head her direction.

Rather than going to the back of the gallery, she chose to head for a dimly lit area with ancient paintings of kings hanging on the walls. The paintings were lit from above, but otherwise only a very low soft glow illuminated the area.

She did something very few would have the nerve to do.

Alaina sat on the floor and leaned against the wall as she stared up at one of the kings.

The reason they were in this mess.

The king who died suddenly, leaving his wife pregnant with their first child.

King Alexander had died far too young. Alaina remembered learning about him during her schooling. He'd been quite popular and was effecting change in the way things were done. He had elevated a woman to a relatively high position in the treasury. She was said to have been quite sharp and excellent with numbers. If Alaina remembered correctly, after his death, she lost her job and very nearly her life.

There had been speculation at the time that she was King Alexander's mistress, but with the benefit of centuries to look back, the current belief was that it was far more likely she was an unacknowledged relative - perhaps even his half-sister - rather than his lover.

His death had affected far more people than just his wife, unborn child, and nephew.

What would women's rights have looked like if he'd survived?

She searched the edges of her memory to try to recall one more fact.

Had he been killed? Murdered perhaps? Or had he died from natural causes? Was his nephew part of the conspiracy they'd been researching?

The facts surrounding his death didn't immediately come to mind.

Leaning her head back against the wall behind her, she decided it didn't matter.

"Your Majesty?"

She looked up to see that Nathaniel had returned. "Yes?"

"Are you all right?"

"How could I be all right? Are you?" The defensiveness in her voice made her wince.

"Not really." He took a seat on the floor himself, but in the middle. He didn't lean against anything. "Like you said, how could I be?"