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The marble floor, polished black and white squares with tiny semi-precious turquoise corners on each one, stretched out for many yards in front of me, and I recognized something my parents apparently hadn’t considered important. Or all the rulers before them. Not a single chair was available to those who came to see me. And there were dozens, not all young or strong. While I did feel they should stand when addressing me, out of respect for the crown, I could see no reason that those waiting their turn, or who had come to lend moral support to their family or business associates, should wear out their bones standing on the hard floor for what might be hours. I crooked a finger at Candace, who stood a distance away and behind us, holding a clipboard, and she came to my side. Taking the clipboard from her, I made a note.Chairs!Then handed it back to her.
She glanced at it, and her eyes widened, but then so did her smile. She bobbed her head and returned to her previous position, but I knew she’d fill in the blanks. Candace got me. Always. Without her friendship and kindness, I don’t think I’d have survived those dark years under Uncle Bors’ regency. I needed to elevate her from maid to a position more suited to one as loyal as she.
But my first petitioner approached, or rather a pair of them. Two women wearing business suits adorned with an embroidered patch bearing the sheaf of wheat and rolling pin of the baker’s guild. Candace stepped forward again and handed me a sheet of paper with the details of their request. We’d decided having each fill out a form ahead of time would make it easier for me to follow if my lip-reading skills fell short.
“Majesty,” proclaimed the older of the two, “we would like to bring to your attention the matter of a shortage of flour due to the drought last year…” And we were off.
With each petitioner or group of them came more bad news. Of course, I tried to tell myself it made sense that nobody would be here just to say everything was going well. Those had been few and far between even in my parents’ time if my few experiences sitting on the steps beside Mother’s throne during these sessions offered any indication. They’d felt it important that their daughters, even the one not expected to be queen, learn from a very young age what it meant to wear the crown. Odd, but now that I thought of it, Jillian, or Callista as she’d been known then, had never had the patience or interest I did. Usually after a half hour or so our nurse would have to take my fidgeting sister away, while I clung to every moment of the events.
Since we spent nearly all our time in the palace, even as a four-year-old, I drank in the details of life beyond the walls. Details brought us by these guild members, farmers, cottagers… As I listened to each person, I was sometimes frustrated by the fact I felt I missed to many words. Next time I would have Candace make notes on a copy of their petition because I didn’t want to miss any details.
Of course, I could always have conducted these sessions in wolf form, but for some reason it wasn’t regarded as appropriate. Still, there were a few whose issues I wanted more depth on, and I didn’t see a better way to communicate than in mind speak. While tradition’s value could not be denied, innovation would mark my reign. Slow, but steady innovation, leading my people into the century in which we dwelled, while maintaining everything that made us special and unique.
With careful management we —
A hand brushed my shoulder, and I jerked back into the moment with a grateful glance at Leif. Plans were all well and good, but it served nobody for me to woolgather while a man in overalls over a blindingly white shirt looked at me with expectation.
“He wants to add the acreage of the abandoned farm next to his to his holdings, Your Majesty,” Leif mouthed.
I returned my attention to the farmer. “We shall look into the matter and present you with an answer within one week.” By mail or by messenger. Something else we’d have to look into improving, modernizing.
The farmer thanked me and stepped back, to be replaced by another with a similar request. He received the same answer. I wanted to encourage those who had left under the regency to return if they wanted to. Technically, the crown owned all the land in the kingdom, so if someone had walked away, they gave up the rights to use the land or live in the home…to run a shop in a village. But, many had lived there for generations, and if they were willing to give it another try, I considered it very important they could return to their ancestral home.
As the footmen closed the doors behind the last of my subjects, I stood and stretched. “I think that went well, don’t you, gentlemen?”
Without waiting to read their answers on their lips I started for the doors behind the thrones. “I am sure you’re hungry, so eat something then meet me in my study. I have many thoughts from today to discuss with you.”
Only the complete modernization of our kingdom. Starting with making sure each home, farm, and business had access to the basics of modern living. And while my advisors ate, I wanted to make a video call to my sister.
Candace bustled into my office where I was waiting to connect to Jillian. My maid set a tray beside the computer. Lunch. I hadn’t asked, but she’d always seen my needs before I thought of them, and at the sight of the egg-salad sandwich, bowl of sliced fruit, and tall glass of iced tea, my stomach growled.
Just then Jillian picked up on her end, so I offered Candace a smile of thanks and turned my attention to my sister. As had become our habit, I would speak and she would speak and also type, making it easy for me to follow the conversation. “Sister, I have some questions about a concept you mentioned in one of our discussions. I believe you called it green energy?”
My sister offered many good ideas about bringing the modern world to my people without ruining the pristine air and water and soil of our land. The barriers that kept the modern world from intruding into our homeland made it difficult if not impossible to be part of things like the “power grid” and the limited electricity we used came via an underground connection that siphoned off power from nearby transformers in a way I didn’t understand and also had come to recognize as the theft it was. We needed a better solution, one all our own, but building a plant using fossil fuels seemed dangerous, expensive and polluting.
Jillian suggested some things like solar power that could make each home provide its own electricity and pointed out that we had some possible geothermal sources in a hilly area with several hot springs. Also, wind power might be something.
I wanted to return as much money as possible to the tenants, but now I had to consider where some of the funds in the coffers might be best used. Being queen was not as straightforward as I’d once thought.
Chapter Fifteen
I sent Candace to request Leif join me in the tower room just before sunset. It was an unusual thing to do, but I wanted privacy for our conversation. And I feared if I’d suggested any other location, my other advisor would show up to join us.
No one would dare attend the queen in her private quarters without an invitation. And I needed someone to let me bounce my thoughts off him. Someone besides Gunnar. I just didn’t think he was the ideal person to listen to my ideas. The one I could hear best.
Okay and I didn’t have any desire to talk to him. I wondered what would happen if I sent him Jillian’s way and told her she’d have to take him on because he’d been hers to start with. The high council would probably take issue with it, but I didn’t actually care about that.
Much.
They’d expressed their support of my reign, however, and perhaps it would be best not to be negative and confrontational, yet. Not that Gunnar was unattractive—I just didn’t want these guys one by one shoved at me without the ability to decide for myself, as queen, who I wanted to be with. Despite the fact I realized I could hear him nearly as well as Leif.
I moved to my favorite spot in the tower window. With my suite almost ready, I could relinquish this place, but somehow I didn’t want to. It had brought me comfort in all the times when I felt helpless. Even though I worried about what I saw in the distance, as fewer lights lit the countryside each night, as people moved away to a place where they didn’t have to give everything they earned to a greedy regent, the ones that remained told me people were still out there. People who needed me to find a way to help them.
And now, thanks to the high council and my sister, I’d gotten my feet under me and begun my work as queen. Perhaps if I allowed a bit of time to pass, I would think of a way to let Gunnar down easily, to break the contract without anyone’s feelings getting hurt.
I didn’t have time for mates right now. I had too much work to do.
Outside the window, I could see the increased activity as people went about their business. The grants that had started to be distributed had already led to some new building projects, and the fields held more grazing animals than I’d seen since I was a little girl. It was a start.
