AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Sir—”
“Call the team, Balduin! And get me all our lawyers, too! Now!” I hollered.
If the prime minister thought he was just going to steamroll me into doing whatever he wanted, the bastard had another think coming.
If he wanted to fight, so be it. Let’s fucking rumble!
Chapter 24
He was stubborn, competitive, and driven.
I knew that before, but right around the time we were getting married, I realized that when all of these things merged—his stubborn personality, competitive notions, and desire to push through—he became narrow-minded to the point of self-destruction. I remember thinking, how could it be that he didn’t message me for six months. That he couldn’t even find one moment in the day to reach out. Then I got here and saw how the palace worked. It was hard enough for me to ever find time to call my mother now. But Gale was even worse than that whenever he was on a “mission.” He locked himself away, buried himself in work, and barely ate or slept. Before that mission was to fill the hole, his brother left…and so he sort of forgot about me and everything else that didn’t align with his mission. Now his new goal was something about beating the prime minister…and he’d forgotten about everything else once again.
For two days, I’d barely even seen him. He’d been locked away with lawyers and the team, working nonstop over something he and the prime minister argued about during his weekly meeting. I wanted to go in and drag him out of there. Tell him to go sleep, to eat something. But the first evening I’d gone to check in on him, after not seeing him all day, I was met with two dozen eyes all turning to me. It was intense. They all stood at once, bowed, and said “ma’am,” then just stood there, waiting to see why the hell I’d interrupted the meeting. And there in the center of that boys’ club was Gale. It almost felt like one of those Mad-Men-era office dramas. Not a woman in sight…and there I came to remind my sweet husband to please eat his dinner and watch his health.
I chickened out and hightailed it out of there. I didn’t understand the politics of anything yet. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself and just be seen as an idiot or nuisance. So that was how I failed my day-one rescue mission of my husband. On day two, I sent in food. Not just to be a good wife, just so I could get a spy in the room. Seeing as how I couldn’t get in touch with Balduin anymore.
Wolfgang was my spy.
He’d returned and reported to me that the prime minister was trying to force Gale to get me to be the poster child of his new Nationalism Reform Act policies. Gale was against it and not just because he loved me but because this would mean the monarchy would be getting right into the heart of politics. It was major, apparently.
And so, if it was about me…and also stealing my husband’s time from me, I was determined to start learning more. To do that, I needed a tutor.
That was going to be Dr. Ameeta Banerjee.
Mr. Tabellion highly recommended her after seeing how curious I was about Trinity Row and the inner workings of the government. She was only about forty-five, with dark eyes and tan skin. She was a very slim woman and a bit short, so I felt like an Amazon next to her, and she was insanely smart. She taught both law and government at Royal University and had a law degree and a doctorate degree in both.
“Thank you for coming,” I said to her, motioning for her to take a seat.
“It’s an honor, ma’am. Truly,” Dr. Banerjee said nervously.
“Mr. Tabellion told me you immigrated to Ersovia when you were only eight?” I asked, hoping to get her to relax a bit.
“Yes, my father brought us over. I was born in Jaipur; my father was a medical doctor and received a scholarship to come here when he was twenty-two. The whole family has been here ever since.”
“That’s amazing. Dr. Banerjee, I have a lot of questions. As you know, I’m still new here, and so I would love your guidance on so much. I want to understand why some things are such a big deal around me.”
She smiled. It was the first time she seemed to loosen up. “Yes, that’s how I got my love for government, too. If there is any way I can help you, that would be my greatest honor. What is your question on?”
“The Nationalism Reform Act,” I said, and immediately she tensed back up. Crap, that was not a good sign. “Is it that bad?”
“In my opinion, ma’am, the law is flawed,” she said.
“Why?”
“It basically gives the government the right to question every person’s national identity at any time for any reason. They could even strip their status from them, no matter how long they have been here,” she replied.
“On what basis?”
“That’s the problem. There is none. It can be anything from a clerical error they believe they have found on any past document. It may even apply to citizens born here; the language in the bill was not clear enough.” The more I listened to her explain, the more I felt like I understood why there had been so many protests since it had passed last year.
“So, what would happen if I were the first to get this ID?” I asked.
She did her best to keep her face straight as she spoke. “Half the country, most likely the ones who support you, would feel like you betrayed them.”
“Betrayed? For following the law? Even if people disagree with it, it is still the law, right?”
“By saying nothing and staying out of it, the monarchy is neutral. If you would step in here, you would have picked a side…and it would be the side against those who came to this country like you. Ma’am, it is in your best interest for you to keep being ignorant here. Do not support and do not reject it.”
