"His father, King Fulke, died suddenly. Speculation was that the man who became Gilead II was responsible for it. He was Gilead I's uncle. He forced Gilead I's mum to sign a codicil to the Letters Patent Fulke had signed. They would be legally required to make her the regent, but only if she was married. So Gilead II married his brother's widow just a couple of months later. Gilead I's death was suspicious, but no one has found proof Gilead II was behind it. What is more certain is that Gilead III, born before Gilead II became king, did have his father assassinated somehow."
"That's messed up."
"What's even more messed up is that Gildead III tried to force his aunt-turned-stepmother to marry him as well."
She leaned in to get a closer look, her shoulder brushing against his arm as she did. "There's no real proof of most of it. Even this book only alludes to some of it. You have to read between some lines, but that's what it implies."
"I wonder if the proof exists." Wouldn't it be amazing if he was the one to find it?
"At least my stepmum never tried to make sure I died under suspicious circumstances." She didn't look up at him.
It took a few seconds for what she said to really sink in, but even then he didn't quite understand "Make sure you died?"
"Yes. Of course, she's not my aunt, so she wouldn't become queen anyway. Patrick would be king."
The wheels in his brain turned too slow, but he finally realized what she meant. The pieces that hadn’t quite fit suddenly clicked into place.
He took a step back and looked at her more carefully. "You mean to tell me you’re the queen?"
3
She’d started to wonder if he had been unaware of who she was. That was kind of nice.
"Yes, I am." She gave what she hoped was a regal head tilt. "I am Queen Catherine Julianne Caroline of the Armstrong Dynasty in Eastern Novigardia."
The happy feelings inside dimmed when Jacob straightened, practically snapped his heels together, and bowed at the waist. "My apologies, ma'am."
Her shoulders drooped. "Please don't. I don't have very many people I can be just Kinsey with, not outside of my family. If I was that concerned about protocol and everything, you would have known from the moment we met or at least before dinner. There’s a reason I told you my name was Kinsey."
She watched him relax slightly. "Even if you are 'just Kinsey' to people outside of your family, there's still protocols to follow."
"I know, but that doesn't mean I like it all the time. It's exhausting." She folded her arms around herself. "I need to get back upstairs. Can you please put that away?"
Disappointment flitted across his face, but he nodded.Carefully, he closed the book and returned it to its protective storage area.
When he was done, she turned on her heel and started to walk toward the door to the rest of the palace. She was queen. No one was supposed to walk in front of her anyway.
If she could just keep the tears from falling until she was alone.
As she walked she sent a quick text to the security office so someone would escort him out of the building and to his vehicle. So much for someone she could be herself around. She should have known he didn't know who she was based on how he talked to her from the beginning and how he walked right next to her.
No one did that, not since she was a little girl. It had been nice. But fleeting.
Catherine could hear Jacob walking behind her as she approached the door.
His hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks, but she didn't turn.
"I'm sorry, Catherine. I would like to get to know you better. We'll both have to figure out how to navigate a friendship when there's so many other outside forces and situations to deal with." He sounded sincere.
It would take time to tell if he really was or not, but it would mean she had to take the chance.
Could she do that? She'd tried - and been burned - more than once before. There had been several friends who she later determined only wanted to get to know her because of her title and influence and the chance to be known as someone intimately connected to the queen.
It had been painful, each time worse than the last. You'd think she'd have learned after the third or fourth time, but each time the opportunity arose, they took advantage of her longing for connection outside of her family unit. The last time hadbeen the most painful, when she'd started to think a young man was interested in getting to know Kinsey, not Queen Catherine.
Then she'd found text messages he was sending to a school acquaintance, one who had tried to work her way into Kinsey's small circle before, but Kinsey had never particularly cared for her. She never did figure out what favor they wanted, even after it became clear she wasn't a friend but a means to an end.
After that, she persuaded her father to let her finish her studies remotely rather than returning to the university, even though it was only ten or fifteen minutes away by auto. Instead, she spent her time almost as a recluse outside of her official duties and appearances.
