A Timely Knight

A Toy to Play with

Estella Rose Lovegrove sat on her husband's throne, watching as he walked around the crowd, drinking, hugging and even kissing all who crossed his path. Samuel always loved being the centre of attention. As king of Makina, he was. Yet, over the gears, his love and need for adulation turned court into a parade of sycophants and hypocrites, a place in which it became increasingly hard to breathe in.

Already on her fifth glass of wine, Estella felt warm and light-headed. Yet, she gulped it as it was grape juice. To her, maybe it was. She never enjoyed the taste of wine, she preferred jenever. An atypical drink for a queen, it had no place in court. Estella had two choices, then: wine or nothing. As the gears went by, she found herself in need of alcohol to get through her days. And so she drank what they had, what they served her, as she always did. As she always would.

The servant beside her, already used to her heavy drinking, didn't even wait to be asked and poured her a sixth glass. With a gentle smile, perhaps her only sincere one, she thanked the man, her ally for the night, the one that would get her through that party with some of her sanity still intact. As it turned out, she felt a kinship to the servant. For a moment, she even loved him and she internally laughed and how pathetic that was.

Two figures made their way through the sea of people in the room and she didn't recognize them until they bowed before her.

"My Queen," said the Baron Lurcock, an old and promiscuous man famous for his depravity and shamelessness. "What an honour to attend this most prestigious event. I understand both you and His Majesty just returned from Aronport."

"Indeed, last week. We were there for quite a while, for Electa's engagement party," Estella replied, words tripping on their way out of her mouth. "You brought a companion. A different companion."

Her eyes travelled to the woman beside the Baron. Their gazes met and the woman's heart-shaped face tightened into a toothy smile. She curtsied and rose to meet Estella again, hands clasped together, chest inflated, innocence intact.

"Your Grace, I cannot begin to tell you what an honour it is..."

"Yes, yes, a pleasure, I'm sure," Estella interrupted her. She had no tolerance for buffoonery. "This one is a bit younger than the previous one, isn't she?"

The woman's smile faded and she turned to the Baron, searching for help. The man, however, didn't notice the negative undertones of the comment and absently replied.

"A tad, Your Grace, but I want to experience the joys of fatherhood again and we all know childbearing is a young woman's game."

The woman, whose name remained a secret, smiled again, this time shy and uncomfortably. Estella turned to her ally. Without further instruction, the man passed a new glass of wine to her, which she, in turn, gave to the woman.

"Here, my dear. Take this. You'll need it."

The woman stayed still and turned to the Baron once more. He no longer paid attention to them and now waved at someone in the crowd.

"I don't want it," she politely declined but Estella insisted.

"Oh yes, you do. Take it. Take it!"

With every hair on her arms stood up, the woman complied. She curtsied again before she and the Baron entered the party once more. Estella's eyes followed them until they faded in the crowd. Fortunately, she found another thing, a better thing. A toy to play with.

"You, boy," she called the nearest servant. "Go and fetch that girl for me. The one with big hair and dark skin, right there. Go."

The servant rushed to the crowd, reaching the girl and telling her to go meet her Queen. The moment the girl turned and saw Estella on the throne, her face turned white and her body went livid. It was quite the show, actually. After the servant repeated the order, the girl nodded and walked towards the throne, slowly, as if she didn't want to reach it. She finally did, and after showing her respects, she mumbled a weak My Queen that barely even registered.