I looked about the rest of the room. “Any other questions?”
Marquess Emanuel hit his desk light and was given permission to speak. “Your Highness, I see here on the last page you’re leveling a fine for any landlord who doesn’t abide by these new laws. The fine’s rather exorbitant. Where does it go?”
“To the people wronged. The tenants who were unfairly paying a property tax for a land they don’t own.”
“If the landlord can’t pay it?”
“Then he has one of two choices. He can either go on a payment plan, where he’s locked into garnishing his own wages until the fine is paid, or he signs over his property to the wronged party.”
A hiss of shocked breath, but I’d expected them to be surprised.
Helena rose as well. “You must understand, we have to give them a very strict punishment. We didn’t do so the first time andyou see what it led to. They just found a loophole and chortled about how clever they were being. This must be punished in such a way they don’t find it worth the risk to disobey.”
Some more murmurings around the crowd, people discussing it all, but I also saw more than a few shrewd expressions. People realized we were right. We’d had to come back and talk about this again, after all, which meant our system the first time hadn’t been perfect.
Speaker Stanhope looked around the crowd, judging in her own way, then said, “Please vote.”
A flurry of people’s hands moved, and she looked down at the panel before announcing, “Twenty-three in favor, two abstained, two declined. Motion has passed.”
Phew. I felt better about being able to squash the greedy bugs now.
A few others had some minor motions, which I heard out, and two of them passed. The third was so ridiculous it wasn’t worth hearing—a plea to reinstate Victor as crown prince—and was absolutely trashed. Only two people voted in favor.
Victor had burned far too many bridges.
Speaker Stanhope looked at her agenda and then quirked a brow at me.
I’m sorry, what did I do?
“There is a motion here from the nobility to put forth Prince James as crown prince.”
No.
The instinctive answer was so strong I almost blurted it out and barely caught the word behind my teeth. Hell no, I was not sitting here while people tried to strong-arm me back onto the throne!
I immediately stood, a hand raised to stop Speaker Stanhope. “That’s legally not possible.”
A murmur went through the crowd and the smiling faces fell, turning into frowning ones.
Knowing I had to explain this properly or face somehow being manipulated back into being king, I explained, “My contract for joining the royal family clearly states I cannot be made king. Even if, by some disaster, both Helena and Royce were taken out of the running, I still could not take the throne.”
The murmur exploded into a full debate. I’d rarely seen the council this noisy. I didn’t glance down at Helena because I knew she’d not be on my side. I understood why, but it didn’t change my feelings on the matter.
I gave Speaker Stanhope a look. “The matter is closed. Anything else on the agenda?”
Her mouth in a flat line—she clearly didn’t like how this had been twisted on her—she shook her head. “No, no other agendas. This session has concluded.”
With that, the session was closed and we all made our way out. Helena waited until we were in the hallway before linking her arm with mine.
“It wasn’t you who put the agenda forward, was it?” I asked her.
“No. I believe it was the Crovans, although Countess Doughtry supported it.”
Ah. Not surprising, but I really wished they’d approached me about the idea before trying to sneak it into a council meeting. Well, they had talked to me about it, I supposed. I’d told them firmly I wasn’t interested but hadn’t explained it wasn’t even legally possible. My mistake.
“But you do agree with them.” I sighed, put upon. Everyone seemed to be against me on this.
“Sorry. I do feel like you’re the best fit. In fact, James,” she mused in a way I didn’t entirely trust, “I’ve been thinking. Ireally, truly love your business. So why don’t we do this: I’ll run your business for you, and you can be king.”
