"King Francis, your Majesty."
Alaina glanced up from a letter her English ambassador had just presented her in time to see Francis striding into the room, his hands behind his back.
"Ladies," he inclined his head, signaling for them to leave them in private. Neither Anne nor Maria waited for Alaina's approval, they abandoned their work on the table, stood up from their chair, and curtsied before taking their leave.
"What brings you here?" Alaina sat up straight in her chair. The letter from the English Queen, lain forgotten by her.
Francis took a deep breath, "It has been brought to my attention that Mary has positioned Kenna among your ladies."
"She has, yes, why?"
"You've accepted her, willingly?"
"Francis, Mary is merely a child compared to me. Of course, I accepted Kenna."
"Are you aware as to what she is trying to uncover?"
"Any possible thing she could use against me to blackmail me into defending her country?"
"Yet you willingly accepted Kenna amongst your ladies?" he closed the distance between them. "Alaina, there are things you and I do not want others to know about. "
"Then perhaps you should speak to Kenna's husband, it was his mouth that led to her suspicion. Why am I always the one you come to?"
"Bash? Why would Bash let slip something to arouse her suspicion?" he asked, now taking up the empty seat across from her.
"He didn't mean to, he just couldn't think of a way around it."
"Even now you defend him," he scoffed, his chin resting on his hand as he turned to look at the stained glass window.
"He's your brother, Francis," Alaina rose to her feet, her chest rising and falling with every deep breath she took. "Francis, it's not that I am defending, I am just telling you that your brother had no intention of letting anything slip. That is why he has been avoiding both his wife and Mary."
Aside from the crackling of the fire and a few birds chirping right outside the window, Alaina's chamber was silent. Neither she nor Francis spoke for a moment, his attention now on the letter Alaina had forgotten.
"I want Kenna removed from your ladies immediately," he commanded as he rose to his feet, the chair scraping against the floor as it was thrust back. Alaina said nothing and kept her eyes to the ground as he made his way out the room. "I'm sure you can come up with something." He said at last, taking his leave.
"Was that Francis?" Kenna spoke as soon as she entered Alaina's chamber, her head still turned toward the doors that were now closing behind her. "What did he want?"
"To discuss some things. What is it, Kenna?" Alaina turned away from the young Scottish girl, her mind elsewhere. She then mentally shook her head, reached for the letter and tried her best to read it.
"Oh nothing really, just to see if you needed anything."
"No, I'm quite well, thank you. You are free to go," but then she paused and looked up from the letter in her hand. "Dear God, please do not let that ruckus be who I think it is."
The doors to Alaina's chambers swung open to reveal a fair skinned woman with dark curls dressed in her finest velvet gown and a fur trimmed traveling cloak. "Sister," she called out, a large smile on her angelic face. "I've just received word from mother and of course, I rushed over here as soon as the carriage could take me. It's so good to see you!"
Lady Kenna, grinning from ear to ear, turned to Alaina. "I did not know you had a sister," she said.
"We try not to speak of it," Anne and the other ladies had now returned, standing next to Kenna.
"Jane," Alaina motioned for Anne to take the letter so that it would be placed somewhere safe and away from prying eyes. "At least tell me mother came with."
"Oh, no! She said she was to bring Elizabeth to see Francis tomorrow, so she'd come then."
"Of course," huffed Alaina under her breath.
"I haven't seen Francis since the night of Edward's death, how is he?"
"Well, I'm sure," replied Alaina as she tried her best to remain calm on the inside and out.
"Come, Lady Jane, your journey must have tired you a little. Allow me to escort you to your chambers and see to it that you are well looked after," Maria motioned for Jane to follow her as the two woman turned Alaina's sister in the direction of the door.
"Oh you're quite right," she said practically beaming as she followed the ladies out of Alaina's room.
"She is quite something else," said Kenna. "I quite like her."
"Good, you could be assigned to her then," Alaina began to rub her temples as she collapsed into her chair.
"Majesty, I do not think that wise," Anne had returned. "Perhaps leave it to Maria and Jane, they seem to get on with her well."
"Right," she ran her fingers through her hair. Removing pins from their place as she did so. "Then Kenna can spend time with the princess tomorrow, I will be too busy."
"I'd be delighted to. I have yet to spend time with her and I'd very much like to. Perhaps I can even convince Bash to join us."
"Oh Sebastian would be delighted to join, it's Elizabeth who you will need to convince."
"If you don't mind me asking, why is that?"
Alaina sat up in the chair to look at Kenna. "If you must know, Lady Kenna, Sebastian and I did not marry because marrying me meant he would have to leave France. He did not want to leave France at the time, so it complicated things. I was away in Egypt when I learned of my condition, and I stayed there all throughout it. It was not until she was but a year that I decided it was best if my mother looked after her while I learned how to be a queen.
"By then, any feeling Bash ever had for me, faded away. He does love Lizzie, she is his daughter after all, but he failed to be there for her, to develop that bond like she has with Francis. And it's much easier to love your parent when one can provide you with a title and the other can not."
"How cruel, to love a parent based on what they can offer," said Kenna.
"Yes, I agree. It seems sending her to live with my mother was a mistake that will haunt me even when she is queen."
"How were you to know she'd turn out like this?"
"Valid point. I thought because I turned out so well, Lizzie would too. I forgot I was also often at court more than I was in my mother's care. Don't get me wrong, I do not blame my mother, but she could have raised her other daughter much better than she has."
"Your sister! She's the reason for Lizzie's attitude toward her father?"
Alaina smiled, "My sister is much like you, Lady Kenna, titles blind her."
"Is she not a princess as well?"
"Goodness, no," said Anne.
"My sister looks down her nose at Bash because he is a bastard. I too, am one, but I am a Queen, she can not look down her nose at me."
"You're a bastard? Really? I would have never known!"
"That is a tale for another time, Lady Kenna," Alaina stood up. "I think we shall go for a ride today."
I tried to get all the typos out of this one. There were quite a few since I wrote this chapter with my phone and I was dead tired. lol Kinda explains why it's a little all over the place too, but it seems Kenna does find out some things.
