The War of Queens

Chapter 9

Evelyn

 Lady Sybil Renell was positively enraging. Not only was she in no way worthy to be Queen with her limited skills in stitching, dancing and playing the flute and her plain looks at the very best, she was also unbelievably stupid and her courtesies were hopelessly northern. She was clearly not used to attention, for if anyone looked at her for longer than five seconds, she would become flustered and extremely anxious.

 No, this shy girl was not meant to be Queen, and Evelyn told her mother as much as soon as the opportunity arose.

 “Well, at least she is not likely to cause any uprising,” Adrianne reasoned dismissively as she let her handmaiden pull her hair back into a simple braid. “If she is afraid of being looked at, I doubt she will have the bravery to stand up to anyone.”

 “She does not need to. Did you not see Caterina during the dinner?” Evelyn shook her head at it all. Why could her mother not just have found someone suitable for Christian? “You could at least have let him marry Anne. She is very pretty, and well mannered. She was glancing towards her sister so often during the dinner, undoubtedly she would have been more than willing to take her place on the throne.”

 “Evelyn, we have already spoken at length about this,” Adrianne said with a chastising tone of voice. “Anne is older and has therefore spent more time under Caterina’s influence. Besides, her self confidence would do us no good.”

 Evelyn sulked and stared out the window. “She is the closest thing you can get to a proper queen in this godforsaken place.”

 With a sigh, her mother stood up and walked to go through her jewellery. “House Renell is traditionally amongst the three great houses of Etheron, no matter if they had an unfortunate mix with the Bad Family.”

 “If we are talked traditions, shouldn’t you say the four great families of Etheron?” She raised an eyebrow at her mother. “The four protecting families – Renell in the North, Lamarck in East, Turell in the West and the Kahari in the South?”

 Adrianne shook her head slowly, sighing. “You know very well that the South is barely a part of Etheron anymore.”

 Evelyn sprung up from her seat. “Well, if you were still fit to be Queen, you would not let it slip,” she told her, eyes narrowing to her mother who could do nothing but turn around and look at her daughter with wide eyes.

 “How dare you speak to me like that?” The Queen’s voice was levelled, but only barely so.

 “Strike me,” Evelyn dared. “You know you want to. It is not as if you haven’t before. Is that why that doctor visits you? Because you are sick to your soul?”

 “Shut up.”

 She flinched at her mother’s words, the way they had been spoken, and tears welled in her eyes. Those were not tears her mother would see however, so she marched out of the room without another word. The tears blurred her sight and trying to blink them away did no good. The halls of Brightsnow were unknown to her and she hoped by all the gods that she would not bump into anyone.

 She did, however. She did not see who it was and she did not turn to look. Instead she continued down the halls, not looking back, hoping he would not see who she was. When a firm hand closed around her upper arm and stopped her from making her escape, she shrieked.

 “I’m sorry,” she quickly sniffed, trying to pull away.

 “Sis,” a familiar voice said. She breathed in Christian’s scent as his fingers went to dry away her tears. “What happened?”