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Is the king’s father at his end? But surely, he would have brought Princess Eliza and the queen.
Is the king just wanting to see his parents? But again, why is he not with his wife?
Is there trouble in their marriage already?
Everyone seems to be sure…this is not a good sign.
Chapter 25
Evaebury was the biggest country estate in the country. It was often called the second palace because it was the home of abdicated kings. There hadn’t been one in about two hundred and twenty years, so it always functioned as a summer getaway for the royal family. My parents liked it here because of the ponds and gardens the estate overlooked. The one in the back was surrounded by eight hundred rose bushes. As a kid, I’d often watched them take walks alongside it as if they were in some Regency romance novel. Just laughing and talking, sometimes they’d have picnics where they ate and read. It was picturesque, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t think back to a gloomy day here. It felt like the grass was always green, the trees were always full, the sky was always blue, and the sun was always shining in Evaebury. It always filled me with laughter, with family.
And yet now…now it felt cold and empty like some wicked curse was hanging over the whole palace. It wasn’t like the place I remembered. The halls echoed with how silent it was when I walked through the halls. The portraits on the wall felt more suited for a haunted house now…and when I reached the door and saw my father on the bed with my mother beside him, it hit me—it was like a tomb. He was so still, his face so pale, if not for the oxygen they were giving him, I would have already thought he’d passed.
“Mother.”
She jumped, startled, turning to me with her eyes wide and filled with tears. “Gale?”
“I came as soon as I heard.”
Her lips quivered, and when she got up, even she was different, her hair frizzy and the thick sweater on her worn. She walked up to me and hugged me tightly. Hugging her back, I felt so guilty for not coming sooner. And even more guilty for not bringing Eliza. But then again, I didn’t want her to see this.
Letting go of her slowly, I walked to his bed. “I knew from our call he wasn’t doing well, but I didn’t think…I wasn’t expecting there to be a turn so quickly. Did the doctors say anything else?”
“No, it’s been pretty hard for him. They gave him something to help him rest,” she said as she clasped both my hands on his. He felt so fragile…because he was.
“Hi, Dad,” I whispered and felt like lying down beside him. Instead, I brought his hand to my head like he used to do when I was a kid. “I miss you, old man…so much.”
I sat there quietly watching, waiting, hoping that somehow someway he’d open his eyes and talk to me. But it didn’t work like that. I couldn’t just show up and expect a miracle, even though I so badly wanted one. I wanted not to bury another family member so soon. Blinking the tears out of my eyes, I looked away only to see the large chair and blanket that was now on it, the teacup and book that rested on the table beside it.
“Mother, please don’t tell me you’ve been sleeping there,” I said, turning back to her, and the sight of her made everything worse. “Are you all right? Where is your help? Your staff? The whole estate is nearly empty. If you needed more—”
“I let most of them go,” she said, moving back to the chair, folding the blanket herself. “I don’t need that much; his doctors and aids are the most important. There is someone who comes to cook. Someone else comes to clean once a week. It’s not like I spend much time anywhere but here anyway—”
“Mother, you are wearing yourself down. I can see it.”
“No, what you see is…is me being normal again.” She smiled, sitting down and clasping her hands together, and slouched forward. “For over thirty years, I’ve been Queen Elspeth, having to mind how I look, how I speak, how I sit, and how I move. Always watched, always expected to do something or be somewhere. Before that, I was the type of woman who loved to climb trees and wear comfy clothes…dance in the hall or the kitchen—anywhere I wanted with no reservations. I’m not good at the dancing bit anymore. But everything else I’ve gone back to. For the first time in a long time, I feel like normal me.”
I swallowed hard because hearing your mother say she felt…unable to be herself all my life made it feel like she was far away from me and wouldn’t come close again.
“I’m glad you feel…you have that small job. But may I be selfish for a little bit?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t want to stop being normal to myself…and I don’t want Odette to change, either, and she has. We’ve changed her…if you knew what has happened—”
“You know,” she whispered.
“What?”
“She told you, didn’t she? About your grandmother.”
My eyes widened as I looked at her. “You…you knew, too? You hid it from me, too? You’ve all been lying to me.”
She stared at me and tilted her head to the side. “Did you say that to her?”
“I—”
“Did you fight with Odette?”
