She looked between the two of them. "And who exactly am I supposed to marry?"
Jacob's answer shocked her. One simple word.
"Me."
4
Proposing to the queen wasn't exactly how Jake planned to spend his evening. He hadn't technically proposed, not yet. Giving her a real proposal was on his to-do list now that he knew it needed to be done.
He watched as Catherine held up both hands. "Wait a minute. Not only do I have to be married, but you've also already chosen someone?"
"Not exactly," her father started. "Why don't we go upstairs and have this discussion somewhere a little more comfortable?"
Jake found himself being very glad that he wasn't on the other end of the queen's glare. "Very well."
She turned on her heel and walked off. She didn't quite stalk, but it was close. The rest of them trailed after her, but she didn't go the direction they likely expected.
Instead, she went to her office, shoved the door open without saying anything to the aide on duty outside, and took a seat at the head of the conference table on the far side of the room.
Jake looked over at her parents and found her father trying to hold back a smirk. Why?
"Have a seat, ladies and gentlemen." She motioned to the rest of the table, making it quite clear she was in charge.
Or at least trying to project that image.
Rather than sitting right next to her, Catherine's parents sat a little further down the table, likely so they could see her better. Her younger sister sat across from them. She still hadn't looked at anyone since they finished evaluating how the documents interacted with each other.
Jake chose to sit next to Catherine, on the same side as Issy. This affected him almost as much as it did her. He did carefully note where he put his arms on the table to make certain he didn't touch her. She likely wouldn't want someone she barely knew brushing against her when what he suspected would be the second biggest news of her life was explained.
"Go on." Catherine said, glaring at her parents. She appeared to be studiously avoiding him.
"We already explained most of what we know," her father told her. "They were going to force Gilead I to marry someone, likely chosen by his uncle-slash-stepfather, to help Uncle Gilead's own ambitions. They never made it that far. He was found lying at the bottom of a staircase less than six months after his father’s death. The official story was that he slipped and fell. Whispered rumors said his uncle assisted him down, allowing his uncle to become king six months after the death of his brother and still used the planned coronation for Gilead I as his own."
"In actual, real, terms, what does it mean? What happens if I'm not married? How is it enforced? Are we sure it was never rescinded?" Her list of questions mirrored his own a few hours earlier.
As the Royal Historian, Madeleine took over. "It is highly unlikely it was rescinded. By the early 1700s, the true Gilead I had essentially been erased. He's never mentioned in the histories or other documents discussing our history. The onlyGileads known are his uncle and later his cousin. Since it was discovered fifteen years ago, historians have scoured documents looking for something we might have missed, but there isn't anything. He was erased. Given that no one knew he existed, the chances of it being rescinded are slim."
Catherine closed her eyes and exhaled sharply from her nose. "I understand why you think that. For the moment, let's assume that's correct. What happens? How is it enforced?"
Her father leaned forward. "We're required by law to make this information public within sixty days unless it's deemed to be a threat to national security. As much as we would like to keep this private, we can't. If it ever came out that we did, the result would be the same - a vote of no confidence from the Council and referral to Parliament for removal from office."
"So, I have no choice except to marry or step down." A slight crack in her voice was the only indication it affected her. "How was the decision made without consulting me from the beginning?"
"No decisions have been officially made," her father told her gently. "If you wish to remain queen, you have to marry. As soon as we reached that conclusion, Jacob offered, unless we believed there to be someone you'd prefer. If there is, he'll go on his way with no hard feelings."
Jake wasn't quite certain there would be no hard feelings, but the rest was accurate.
"We'll continue looking for information," Madeleine said softly. "I'll talk to the best researchers I know and see what we can find, but I would be surprised to find evidence that would allow this to happen any other way."
"Why was this just discovered?" Catherine’s voice remained matter of fact. "Why didn't it come to light in the last fifteen years?"
Issy cleared her throat. "It's my fault."
"How?" Catherine was as confused asJacob had been.
"Not her fault," Madeleine clarified. "She is the one who found the document while working on a cataloging project. Once she read it, she called Jake to make certain she'd understood it properly. Then they called me. I called your father."
"And you were going to tell me... when exactly?" Catherine leaned forward slightly. "On my wedding day?"
