Chess Piece

The Grace of a Queen

She did not stay for longer than it was necessary.

After the small quarrel between the two sisters the breakfast had been uneventful then, the Princess had reduced into a more composed self, no more of her expressing through the gestures of her hands, though still her smile remained for the dignitaries to enjoy while the Queen had once again settled to eat her breakfast quietly. The dignitaries had not addressed her further until the end, taking her recent outburst as a sign of her unwillingness to talk business so early in the morning, and it resulted in a pleasing public appearance with no incident for her.

While some of her guests had remained in the dining hall to converse among each other before moving to attend to their daily activity around the castle that had housed them for the full week, Elsa had excused herself to leave, claiming that she had paperwork already waiting for her to attend to in her study, which really wasn't a lie in the first place.

Her main reason was to get herself out and away from the people, one successful breakfast was not a sign that she had total control of herself, and should she was not being careful someone could get hurt and secrets would be revealed, she was no fool to stretch herself beyond the limits that she had made herself.

"Your Majesty," the masculine voice calling out for her stopped her abruptly, turning to look at the man even when she had memorize his voice from the moment they had conversed in her coronation ball, raising an eyebrow at his direction for him to explain himself on why he had addressed her. "You seemed to be in a rush."

Reminding herself that she was not to fall for his attempt at engaging her in a pointless conversation, no matter who he was and who he was going to be for her, a person is a person and they could get hurt should she slipped. "Some of us have works to do, duties to attend to." It was not her intention to sound so cold, but it seemed like the only way to shake people off of her.

"Then I shall walk you down to your study." He moved to offer his hand to her yet pulled it back when her eyes had narrowed. She had beginning to open her mouth in protest, he had interrupted her. "Please, I insist."

Realizing, from the look on his face and the glint of confidence in his eyes, that the Prince would not take 'no' for an answer to this, Elsa had no other choice but to accept his company before anyone else would join them. After all, a moment with he who would soon become her husband was better than staying completely in the dark, unmoving like a sitting duck by the pond.

"I take it you don't like being touched, Your Majesty?" Hans had kept himself at a respective distance, at the very least, yet his attempt of having a conversation with her had made her mentally cringe at his poor choice of discussion. "It is not that uncommon, yet still don't you think you had been a little too harsh on your sister? After all, people do make mistakes."

Her lips were pressed in a thin line as her jaw tightened; perhaps she have just insisted harder on declining his offer instead of letting him walk with her, truly if this had been his whole personality then she couldn't even imagine how her life would become once they were married, a pestering husband was the absolute worst choice of addition to her already complicated life. "She took me by surprise." It was the best way she had come up with to explain as direct as possible.

"You don't like surprises in your life?" One of his eyebrows was raised as he addressed her once again, tilting his head to a side in wonder.

"No."

She would have run, should she had no company with her, when she finally saw the door leading to her father's study, her study now, yet instead she held herself back and willed her mind to hold on just a little bit more. When her gloved hand could finally reach and hold onto the knob, she almost breathed a sigh of relief before turning to the man that had stopped just beside her. "Thank you, Prince Hans," she said, nodding her head politely. "Your company has no longer needed now."

He bent forward in a respective bow; with one arm over his stomach while the other on the small of his back. "Of course, My Queen. I am pleased to be your company, no matter how brief it was."

He should have just stopped at the 'of course', it would have been more than enough for her own personal preference, thus why she had only given him another nod as she opened the door and walked in though had only managed to swing the door halfway closed before she stopped when he had begun to speak again.

"Do tell me, should you need company again." His voice was; if she had not been imagining it, far more sincere than before, enough to make her glance over her shoulder at him. "I would hate to have you feel so alone."

--

What does he know about being alone?

He has twelve older brothers, from what she had read about his kingdom when it was decided by her parents that she would wed him, and he surely had never have the need to isolate himself away from anyone, he would not understand what it was to feel alone.

Unlike her, who had spent half of her life behind closed doors, Prince Hans had traveled to so many countries, earned himself the title of Admiral through hard work instead of birthright like she did with her title as Queen; she and him had shared nothing in common.

Pushing the paper she had been signing away, the newly appointed Queen rested her head on her folded arms that she had on top of the mahogany desk, fists clutching tightly that they began to shake from both force and the coldness that had started to risen back up.

Anna would have done a better job than she would ever do.

She was everything the people would need. Her friendliness was beyond measure, her kindness would brighten the world, people loved her the second they met her. With proper training and lesson, she would have been an extraordinary Queen.

Hans would have loved her, she would very much appreciate the sincere attention that he had struggled to express to the frigid older sister, she would have been a good wife to him; she would not cause him trouble like freezing the bedroom whenever she lost even a friction of focus and control.

Anna was preferable.