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“What of her?” I asked.
“In order to show that we are… Reforms are truly supported by the royal family. Many have thought that it would be a great show of support if Her Majesty were the first to be given her new identification. In so doing, you are showing the people there is no harm in it. Ersovians will get a new identification showing they are Ersovians. Simple.”
It was not simple!
He wanted to use the queen as a prop! The same queen he had disrespected, the same queen he tried to warn me against marrying. Ersovians would get a new identification showing they are Ersovians. Of course, the queen would pass and be accepted for that identification. But the common people, those who I did not know, those no one really knew, the poor, the immigrants, anyone his government decided was not Ersovians, would fail to gain this new documentation.
“Sir—”
“As you said, the royal family and I are above the fray,” I said as I smiled at him. “So no, the queen will not and cannot do as you hoped.”
“It’s only a show of—”
“As monarch, we do not need to provide proof that we are Ersovians. The crowns placed on our heads yesterday are our identification, Prime Minister. Or do you disagree?”
“Of course not, sir—”
“Then I see no need for her to do such a thing.” I should have stopped there, but I could not bring myself to. “And as your re-election approaches in a year’s time, it would be unwise for us anyway.”
“Are you suggesting the people will lose faith in the government I have created?” His eyes narrowed, and his legs uncrossed.
“I am suggesting that I wait for direction from my people. After all, it will be my first election as King. Therefore, it is very important.”
“All elections are important.”
“Yes, they are,” I said, rising from my chair before I went too far. “Thank you for seeing me, Prime Minister. Due to my upcoming tour with the queen, our conversation will have to be over the phone next week.”
“Yes, sir.” He stood as well, bowing his head and taking a step back before turning to leave. I noticed how much more tightly he was gripping that cane of his.
When he left, I sat back down, really wishing I could take off my damn tie and be back in bed with Odette.
Right…oh Odette. Sabina.
Shit.
“Let’s go, Balduin.”
I wanted to drop-kick her into a bottomless pit. I wanted to pull her hair and curse her out using every language I knew. Instead, I was standing like a doll, with a polite smile on my face as I spoke so softly to all the guests in the red western stateroom, trying to forget that she and any other of Gale’s former lovers ever existed.
I hated all of them.
I didn’t realize how badly I hated them until I saw them.
I was never the type of person who was overly possessive or violent before, at least not with anyone but my mom. Now I felt like this crazy woman who was thinking of how joyful it would be to rip them into little shreds. Stomp them under my feet. Wasn’t love supposed to make you a better person? Why did I feel like I was becoming worse?
“Your wedding dress was so beautiful, ma’am,” the Baroness of something of somewhere said to me.
In all honesty, I was still not used to all the titles yet. And it wasn’t as if they were ever easy to say. It was always a mouth full like the Marchioness of Streufeaburn, the Countess of Bluicridge, the Lady of Chymburmli…on and on it went. It was actually the biggest saving grace that I was Queen now because I no longer had to worry about who curtsied to whom and for how long and how many times a day. They all curtsied to me, and I curtsied only to the king. Simple.
“Thank you, a great deal of work went into it. The tailors were a godsend,” I replied back gently. Always gently.
“And your shoes,” another woman gushed. “They were so elegant.”
Part of me wondered if they were serious or if they weren’t just teasing me. But I knew they weren’t because of the same type of jacket I had worn on one of my previous meetings with the nobility, they all now had. I was a catalog to them.
“Thank you,” I said again. I didn’t know how to carry on a conversation about elegant shoes; they talked enough that there was never a moment of dead conversation.
“The palace announced that you and the king are going via royal train for your first tour of the country at the end of the week. Do you all not prefer flying?”
