The Oversight


Emilia Thorne, the royal head secretary in the castle of Corona, smiled to herself. A very smug, superior smile.

It wasn't that Emilia was a harsh person, or one who looked forward to tearing other people down. No, really, she was a good person.

But when it came to the pompous Captain of the guards, well, Emilia didn't mind in indulging in a little bit of revenge. No, not at all. Normally, her strict upbringing frowned upon such things, but not in this case.

If anyone deserved to be knocked down a few pegs, it was definitely the Captain, pompous blowhard that he was.

And speak of the devil…

Captain Ennis walked into her cramped office in the castle. The Captain had on his face a look of confusion mixed with…something else. He almost looked pleased. Why would the Captain be pleased about visiting the royal head secretary?

Emilia resisted the urge to smile maliciously. Good. It meant her plan was working so far.

Emilia had to admit that her plan was two-fold, and it was rather cruel. Revenge had to be cruel, after all (cruel really was much better than cold). First, make the Captain think their appointment was about pleasure, not business (that she'd finally reconsidered his offer to court her after rejecting him repeatedly for months).

Second, and even better: let the leader of all imbeciles know what an imbecile he really was.

The Captain, appraising Emilia boldly, almost lasciviously, took a seat at Emilia's desk without even greeting her, much less being asked to sit down. What a gentleman.

Another sign of his gentlemanliness – lighting his pipe in her space even though he knew Emilia despised all type of tobacco. There was just no end to his good qualities.

Emilia was the first to speak. "I suppose you know why you're here, Ennis?" If he wasn't going to bother with social niceties, well, neither was she.

The Captain smiled arrogantly. "I suppose you've changed your mind?" He leaned forward suggestively.

Emilia resisted the urge to laugh in his face. Not yet, not yet. "Hardly."

Now the Captain's expression changed from pleased to confused. "Then why did you ask to see me?"

It was Emilia's turn to smile. Coldly. Arrogantly.

For months now, Emilia had been in charge of helping to plan the royal wedding. Flowers, guests, cake, ice sculptures, coordinating everything had been her responsibility, right down to making sure that no, er, double-booking took place.

But of course she couldn't be in charge of everything, particularly matters that were outside her latitude and jurisdiction; after all, weren't those types of things handled by the people who were supposed to be handling them instead of her?

Security and handling the prisoners in the dungeon, for instance, were not her department. Emilia knew she should leave these particular matters to the Captain of the guards of Corona.

Emilia leaned forward and wordlessly tossed her appointment book to the Captain. "Are you aware the date on which the royal wedding is to take place, Ennis?"

Ennis looked at her as though she were crazy. "Of course. Two weeks from today."

Emilia went in for the kill. "Then tell me something: why on earth would you possibly schedule the Stabbingtons' execution to take place on the same day as the wedding?"

Emilia sat back now, not bothering to hide her satisfied smile as she watched the blood literally drain from the Captain's face.

"WHAT?"

"Check the prison schedule book yourself, Captain. As per your own scheduling, the Stabbingtons were to be executed the third day of the third week of the next month after the sentencing. That's this month, Ennis, and it falls on the same day as the princess and Eugene Fitzherbert's wedding. The exact same day."

Ennis snatched the book off her desk and thumbed through it frantically, his jaw scraping the floor. He found the appropriate page and read and confirmed the news.

"Uh, I, wha-" He looked up at Emilia now, on his face a look of utterly cold fury. "How could you let this happen?"

"Me, let it happen?" snapped Emilia, outraged. "You are the one in charge of keeping your execution scheduling straight, Captain. You! You dare pin this on me?"

Ennis's eyes narrowed. "You're the head royal secretary!"

"A secretary in charge of appointments for the castle only, you jerk! You know very well what goes on in the prisons is not my department, it's what you're in charge of! Not only that, but this wedding date has been set for over a year! The execution date was set only a few weeks ago and it was your responsibility to make sure it wouldn't conflict with any other important events, such as, oh, I don't know, the princess's wedding?"

Glaring at her, the Captain was at a loss for a comeback. He took out his handkerchief slowly and wiped the sweat off his face. "What am I supposed to?" he murmured numbly, more to himself than to Emilia.

Emilia shrugged coolly. "Oh, I don't know," she said sarcastically. "Go to their majesties and explain there's been a little oversight? The kingdom's worst criminals have to die the same day she's GETTING MARRIED? I'm sure the king and queen will love that." She crossed her arms across her chest.

Ennis looked up at Emilia helplessly. "Emilia, you've got to help me."

"Not a chance."

"But – but," he sputtered. "How am I going to explain this to their highnesses? They'll have my head for this!"

"As well they should."

The Captain started pacing around her narrow office. "What am I going to do? We can't schedule the execution before the wedding – there's not enough time, too much to do, besides it'll appear in poor taste to the visiting royal guests and dignitaries." He stopped pacing and looked at Emilia wildly. "But we can't do it after the wedding, either! The king insisted those two not be allowed to live another second past their scheduled execution date! We can't have them locked up any longer after that, posing a threat to escape!"

Emilia examined her fingernails, bored. "Got quite a problem there, don't you, Ennis?," she said sardonically. "Why can't you just leave them in the dungeons?"

(She knew the answer to that question, of course. She just wanted to needle him.)

"Leave them there? Are you out of your wits, woman? I can't leave them unguarded down there while the ENTIRE REST OF THE KINGDOM is attending the wedding! They'll escape and burn the palace down and us down with it!"

He was practically having a temper tantrum now. And Emilia was enjoying every second of it.

"Emilia, please," he pleaded. "You have to help me! You're the secretary, you know about these things! What am I supposed to do?"

Now he was pleading. This was just getting better and better.

Emilia snickered. "Bring them to the wedding."

"Bring them to the – what?"

Emilia shrugged completely indifferently. "Well, what's two more guests? I'm sure we can find a nice place for them at the reception hall," she said sarcastically. "I'm sure the king and queen won't mind them sharing a table with the very criminals who almost sold their lost daughter into slavery, well, as long as they know not to pick their teeth at the table," she sneered.

The Captain buried his head in his arms. He was really, really starting to hate this wedding.

He was starting to hate it more than Rider himself, and that was really saying something.

Without another word, Emilia stood up. "Now if you'll excuse me, Ennis, unlike you, I won't be losing my employment soon, so I have a lot to do. Kindly get out of my office and go see the king. Given the circumstances, you don't want to be late for his appointment with him now, do you?"

He looked at her fearfully. "Appointment with the king? What appointment? I don't have an appointment to see the king."

"Well, I thought you'd want to discuss this, er, oversight with his majesty as soon as possible, so I took the liberty of scheduling you an appointment with him…in ten minutes," said Emilia sweetly. She got up and held the door open for him. "Bye-bye now, Captain."

Stymied, not knowing what else to say, he got up and started toward the door.

"Oh, and Captain?"

He turned to look at Emilia as she flashed a final, cruel parting smile. "Good luck."

He left, slamming the door as hard as he could.

Emilia chortled. The kingdom's most wanted goons present at the big day? This was going to be the best wedding day ever.

Revenge was indeed just as sweet as she'd hoped it would be.