One of the elders spoke. “Princess Hanne, the only child of King and Queen Barclay, Highborn of Dahlia Valley and Baccara Lands, the time of your ascension is upon you, but yet, you have not secured a suitor, despite the overwhelming interest in your hand.”
I lifted my chin and looked at Tomlinson, Voice of the Ring of Elders, the oldest one of all.
Like a goat put up to auction for the butchers, I’d sat there and watched men I didn’t know petition for my hand. Some were honorable, soldiers in the army, blacksmiths, and members ofthe church, and others were farmers who simply came to gawk. It had been an all-day affair, during which I had to sit there and endure the obscenity of it all. “If I marry, it’ll be for love.” My father had loved my mother, and he’d loved her far longer dead than alive. That was what I wanted, to have a love that carried on beyond the veil.
“Duty to your people always comes before love, child,” Tomlinson said, giving me that disapproving stare, like I was nothing more than an obnoxious child.
“Everyone in this kingdom has the privilege to love whom they wish. Seems barbaric that I’m not entitled to the same freedom.” I knew Tomlinson could make my life a living hell and I should tread carefully, but the idea of taking a stranger to bed and letting him claim me as his queenjustbecauseseemed wrong.
“You’re a woman, Hanne.” He didn’t raise his voice, but I saw a flash of frustration across his eyes that he didn’t release. “You’ve had plenty of time to find someone, and you have not.”
As if his palm had struck my cheek, I felt the heat flush my skin. I had to swallow the profane response I wanted to unleash and replace it with something more savory. “Not every flower blossoms in spring. Some of the most beautiful flowers bloom in the winter, like cyclamen, crocus, and primrose, and some blossom in the dark, like the firefly petunia, which glows in the night. Do not tell me when it is my time to bloom when I do not yet know what flower I am.”
Tomlinson stared in silence, my words seeming to have some sort of effect. “Put it as eloquently as you wish, but you lack the experience to rule the Kingdom of Baccara. Without a king to rule at your side, your leadership can’t be trusted.”
“So, if I married one of the farmers or butchers who propositioned me, I would suddenly be fit to be queen?” I asked incredulously. “You trust a peasant before a royal just because of the dangler between his legs?—”
“Hanne.” Vulgaris rose from his chair but didn’t rush to my side.
I shut my mouth, but the flames continued to burn on my tongue. “Perhaps you could continue your provisional rulership until I’ve found my husband.” I didn’t desire the crown like most people would, but I felt obligated to take it because it’d been in my family for generations. It was my legacy. But I didn’t want to rush into marriage for the sake of wearing a crown upon my brow, and I didn’t want to have to deal with these stuffy old men all the time. My father had mocked them in private many times.
“The law cannot be undone,” Tomlinson said. “You’ve come of age of rulership, the same age your father was when he wore the crown. Marry someone who gains our approval?—”
“Excuse me, Elder. Did you just say I need your approval to wed?”
“Yes,” he said. “A majority vote from the Ring of Elders.”
I wasn’t sure how long I stood there and stared, how long it took me to talk myself out of drawing Vulgaris’s sword and chopping off all their damn heads. “Remind me, did you vote when my father wed my mother?”
Silence.
“Has the Ring of Eldersevervoted on a spousal choice?”
Vulgaris continued to stand there, visible in my peripheral vision.
Tomlinson didn’t need to converse with his fellow elders to give me an answer. It was written on his face. “This is the first time a king of Baccara did not sire a son since the Ring of Elders was established.”
“My father never once cared.” He said he was grateful for the child he had with my mother. He always said I was enough for him, and one day, I would make a beautiful and mighty queen. He would have handed me the crown sooner, but he had to wait until I came of age. And unfortunately, he didn’t live long enough to see that happen. “He never questioned my ability to continue his reign.”
Tomlinson’s hands rested on each of the armrests, and he gripped the edges. Then he glanced at Vulgaris, the look quick and fleeting.
Vulgaris said nothing.
The old man straightened in his chair, wearing a black robe lined with gray fur on the inside, whatever he had left of his gray hair combed back, huge patches of snow-white skin visible in between. “Perhaps. But the Ring of Elders must protect the people who put their faith in us. Without your having a husband for experience, support, and guidance, I don’t believe you’re fit for the position. Choose a husband and submit that name for a vote, and we will consider it.”
I was a forest fire confined inland, but I wanted to burn all the lands to the sea. My anger was trapped within my flesh and bone with no way to escape, but it continued to pound on my walls as it tried to find an exit. If steam would come out of my ears, it would whistle like a boiling teapot.
I was tempted to let the fire on my tongue burn forth, but fire couldn’t destroy a mountain, only singe the surface. Without a curtsy or manners, I turned on my heel and walked out, my boots loud against the tile in the silent room, my rage hotter than the fire in the hearth.
I sat alone in my bedchambers. Darkness had fallen, and the fireplace blanked the room in a powerful glow. I got lost in those flames, seeing myself reflected in the light. It cracked and popped, just the way my heart did.
A knock sounded on the door.
I already knew who it was. “Come in.”
Vulgaris walked inside, blue eyes that were light like the sky, completely different from my royal cobalt, his hair light brown that was closer to blond than brunette. He was still in his royal uniform, the general of the army when he’d served and the steward of the castle after my father’s death. My father had sometimes referred to Vulgaris as my uncle, but there was too much distance between us for that.
He took a seat in the other armchair on the rug, crossing one ankle on the opposite knee, his eyes on the fire.
