A/N: Sorry if this chapter has too much description/exposition. There are lots of changes happening, and I wanted to get them out all at once instead of making a chapter out of each of them. I promise Chapter 8 will slow down and have actual things happen.
Chapter 7
Isabel's long absence had not done much to improve her standing with the council. In the past they had always been dismissive of her opinions, and Lord Francis always tried to tell her as politely as he could that her opinion was uninformed. But nobody, not even her father had ever bothered to help her rectify that. Isabel had known that the Foretlands were not as progressive as they appeared to be. Women were allowed to be landladies, heads of noble households, members of the royal council, and even the queen, but they were still expected to defer to the men to make actual decisions. The council and Prince Henri had always found Isabel troublesome because she constantly wanted to bring forth her own ideas instead of simply following what they decided.
However, having had time to reflect, Isabel now realized that she had been rather headstrong and stubborn in her opinions, getting upset when she was contradicted and had never put in sufficient effort to understand the full context of the issues brought up at the council. Andrei always knew what he was talking about, and she observed, some of her resentment still lingering, how seriously everyone took him. But she had also noticed a change in the behavior of the council. Now with someone charismatic and energetic leading the council, they were all motivated to take initiative. Lord Francis was no longer putting everyone to sleep. In fact, he seemed to be attending fewer meetings because he had been accused of mismanaging funds. Isabel had often wondered about this because every time she wanted to implement an idea, he would always tell her there was a lack of funds. In the recent few weeks, the council members had actually started to question him and monitor his transactions closely, leading him to claim that he was getting too old for council duties. He had served on the council since her grandfather's time, and it was through his recommendation that her mother had married Prince Henri. Perhaps Henri had never challenged Lord Francis out of a sense of loyalty, but Isabel had to be glad that at least Andrei had motivated the rest of the council to the task.
She continued to study more about the effects of industrialization, and fought with the council when she felt they were disregarding the townsfolk's interests. She argued that the expansion of the bloomeries should go further south, rather than towards the towns, even if that meant increased transportation costs. And this time she found that her arguments carried more weight, being well researched. At first her ideas had been turned down as if on a knee-jerk reaction, but Andrei was the one willing to hear her out. Once she had swayed him to her side, the rest of the council actually listened, and then were genuinely surprised that for once she knew what she was talking about.
Since the building of the bloomeries was a joint effort with Lavigne, it fell upon Andrei to convince the Lavignian council as well, though he seemed to manage them quite easily. Andrei and the council were much more focused on the building of the southern town. Lavigne was not heavily involved with that, but King Ioan had managed to convince the council to allow Lavignian blacksmiths and ironsmiths to settle there, since Jardinia had so few of them. He and Andrei had also requested to bring in smiths from Fier to settle there as well, so they could train more people in the trade, but the council was very opposed to the idea of immigrants from so far away. They insisted that, instead, they should send young men from Jardinia to Fier as apprentices at forges, and then come back to set up their own trade. Andrei was somewhat reluctant to begin these negotiations, but he did so anyway.
Isabel thought it sounded like an exciting opportunity. It would be wonderful for the people of Jardinia to get better training in a trade. She had always complained about the state of education and requested the council to consider building more libraries and schools, but Lord Francis had always turned her down. When Andrei mentioned during one meeting that improving the education system should be made a long term goal, she felt so vindicated she almost wanted to look for Lord Francis (who was absent) and gloat. She satisfied herself by telling Andrei later about all her ideas that were turned down, and he seemed genuinely interested to hear more. But he began to question her on several aspects of feasibility that she had not thought through yet, and she got the impression that he thought her ideas were not very sound. Isabel felt very cross at first, but upon reflecting further, she had to agree that she had never made any long term proposals, and simply building more schools and libraries would not fix the issue. He surprised her, however, when he approached her a few days later with a roadmap for improving the education system, which incorporated her ideas into a long term plan. Isabel became very excited and immediately began to study his plans in great detail.
Andrei wanted to do some actual field research and asked whether she would ride with him to town to visit some of the schools and libraries. Isabel declined right away. She was not ready to interact with people directly. That was why she had been avoiding attending court.
"Well, you needn't speak with anyone then," he insisted, "just stand in a corner."
"Can we take a carriage then?" she asked.
"It would only impede us," he replied. "Horseback would make it easier to travel to several locations quickly."
Isabel grimaced underneath her veil. "I don't like horses," she finally admitted.
Andrei thought that was outrageous and that she should definitely try to get better at it, but Isabel was not to be thus swayed. So he rode into the towns by himself and spoke to the lords about the ideas, and they seemed very amenable to them. In fact, the ones in the larger towns were quite eager to help him gather the information he needed, because they agreed that the conditions of the schools were not as good as they could have been. Andrei wondered that the council had never bothered to look into this. Much of it was because under Lord Francis and Prince Henri's leadership, the council was not very motivated. He had had to work hard to get them excited about taking initiative.
In the meantime, he had found a good way to improve his relationships with the Jardinian landowners. He was starting to think that it was actually very valuable to have Isabel around. Her ideas were dismissed because the council did not take her seriously, and because she did not have the experience to frame them in an appealing way. He may have dismissed her ideas too if he were not specifically trying to be nice to her, but once he paid attention to them, he realized that she always thought of the duties as ruler of the people rather than ruler of the kingdom. She provided a valuable perspective and so far, they had actually helped him gain even more popular support.
Isabel picked up on the fact that he was getting popular throughout the kingdom, and she couldn't help but feel jealous. She knew that she could never develop the kind of charismatic personality he had that always swayed people to his side. But she really appreciated the fact that he actually valued her opinions, which eventually made many council members start to take her seriously as well. In fact, working with him was giving her much better training than she had ever received from her father, who usually wanted her to do as he said and always started fretting when she wanted to do things her own way. Working with Andrei, she learned to examine her ideas and identify their strengths and weaknesses, and in time she had developed a sense for when her ideas would be well received and when they would not.
As the autumn wore on, Isabel gradually made a few trips to the throne room. The harvest was approaching, it was the largest topic brought up at court; and Isabel found herself digging through books on agriculture. She accompanied her father on his annual visit to the farmers, though she kept her distance. She could always feel the stares on her and the whispers about her. Andrei had not been able to accompany them on that visit since he had been summoned to Lavigne by King Ioan. As harvest approached, there would be a number of balls and festivals at Lavigne, though King Ioan had limited the number this year; but Isabel would not be going to any of them.
However, Jardinia had always had a tradition of having its own festival during the harvest moon, and Isabel was uncertain if she should attend. As preparations for the festival were underway, there was a frenetic energy around the palace and Isabel found herself wanting to go.
Lisette agreed that she should go, and not give heed to what people said about her. These days, the prevailing theory was that she had lost the child that had never existed in the first place.
"You mustn't let the curse keep you from your life, your highness," Lisette told her, as she dressed her hair.
"I suppose you're right," sighed Isabel. "Especially since I don't believe it will ever be broken. I haven't lost my temper in weeks, and I have tried really hard to be kind to everyone and patient with everyone. I don't think improving my behavior is going to help."
"You have come very far, your highness; don't give up hope yet," Lisette assured her firmly. "Perhaps you need to find your true love. In all the stories I heard as a child, curses were always broken by true love."
Isabel laughed. "I've told you so many times, Lisette! Those are just stories!"
"But that does not mean they are untrue," the girl insisted. She knelt down by Isabel's stool, her eyes sparkling with a long awaited question. "Forgive me for my impertinence, Princess, but do you think Prince Andrei loves you after all?"
Isabel's smile faltered. "I… shouldn't think so," she replied slowly.
"But he has been so attentive of late," Lisette persistent. "I have heard the servants talk about it."
"But he is always attentive to everybody," sighed the princess. "Why do you think my father and everyone else are in love with him? I have observed him interact with people," she added thoughtfully. "He is very good at displaying whichever emotion suits him best at the moment. He is always speaking with all the councilmen, and especially the councilwomen, looking very interested as he asks them mundane questions about themselves about which he really does not care."
"Well, then if his affections aren't sincere, then there is someone else whose are," Lisette informed her, eager to get back on topic.
"Who?" asked Isabel sharply.
"Why, Christien of course. You must have noticed."
"Oh, that," scoffed Isabel, "is only a passing fancy, pay no heed to it."
But Lisette was not convinced.
