Chapter 9: Queen Catherine

The sun gently shone on to my face and my eyes fluttered open ready for another day. I thought back to the previous night. Prince Wilfred had treated me so kindly yesterday and I felt so happy to see that beneath his cold exterior was a kind heart. We had chatted about our countries, the princes' personalities especially Prince Roberto who Prince Wilfred explained that he found exhausting to be with. Despite who he was, I still wanted someone else.

My thoughts were disturbed by a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in"

The someone else I wanted walked through the door and bowed.

"Good Morning, your majesty, I have your schedule for today and the Princes all returned late last night. Would you like to join them for breakfast?"

"I will dress and quickly join them. Thank you Zain".

"Very well. Is there anything else you require?"

You...

I shook my head.

"No. You may take your leave"

"Then...Excuse me"

Zain bowed and then left quickly as he came. I sat on my bed saddened by his reaction, I thought I would get used to it but the same wave of pain hit me each morning.

XXXXXXX

After Queen Maria was sentenced to death, a new Queen was appointed name Queen Catherine. She was approved by the nobles and eventually King Xerxes himself. Although she never produced any children for King Xerxes, she became a prominent figure in court. She was famous for her decorations and knowledge of architecture in court. As current queen, she is entitled to find a suitable spouse for the future Queen or King of Xerxes. Although she has power to make the heir attend meetings for potential spouses, however she does not have power to force marriage without the heir's consent.

XXXXXXX

I entered the hall and I saw a new figure. She had red long hair and looked about in her 30s. She came running over to me and jumped on me.

"PRINCCESSS ANNNAAAA!"

She kissed me brashly on both cheeks then gave an enthusiastic smile.

"YOU LOOK SO BEAUUTIFUL! JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER!"

"Good morning, Queen Catherine. I'm so surprised to see you here"

I guided her to the breakfast table and glanced over at the princes. They are seemed so purposefully busy this morning. I gave a small smile then diverted my attention back to Queen Catherine.

"Oh please! You are my daughter now. You can call me mother".

I gave a stiff smile.

"m-mother"

"Yes that's right"

I began to eat my meal. Zain whispered.

"It's Altarian Omelette with a tomato sauce freshly made from the Pompadour Gardens"

"Thank you, Zain"

I gave him a smile and he quickly looked down to serve the tea. A pang of disappointment hit me.

"You have an exceptional butler", commented Queen Catherine.

"I thank you for your compliment. But I only do what is expected of a butler", said Zain who promptly bowed in humbleness.

"Well… when you become Queen, Anna, you have to bring him back to Xerxes!"

"So...What can I do for you, Queen Catherine?", I asked changing the subject.

"Well...I thought it was time of course! It's been about 6 months since you began here in Noble Michel and I thought it was best to start"

I put down my cutlery and stared in surprise.

"Start what, Your Majesty?"

"Why...finding you a suitor for your marriage!"

There was a wave of uncomfortable silence. Somehow, Queen Catherine didn't seem to notice. I broke the silence.

"But, mother, I am only 22 years old. Isn't that too early?"

"22 years old is old enough. Do you know how long it will take to find you such a exceptional husband? Aren't you glad that I am your current Queen? I have such refined taste in men!"

"I'm sorry. It seems I am unprepared for such a situation. You must understand, I am very busy with the work of the Kingdom. I really don't have time to meet potential suitors"

Queen Catherine leaned forward smiling.

"Sweetie. I know from the advisors that you work far too hard. I'm here for a week. So I asked Robert to take care of all the work and I can bring you all the suitors to meet you for this week. By the end, I hoped to have found you one so you won't have to worry about this problem anymore".

I shot Robert an evil glare. He winced in response and looked away averting my icy glare.

"But I am surprised..."

"I'm sorry, mother?"

"You have these 6 princes here. Surely, there is not one you thought might be suitable to join with in marriage?"

"They have their own kingdoms to run. It would be a problem to have Xerxes to run as well"

"Ah but you would still have to run Xerxes singlehandedly and Xerxes is connected to all 6 kingdoms. A marriage to a prince of another nation is not a problem".

I ate my food in silence.

"Well if you haven't chosen one then I shall begin. Each meeting takes about an hour. I introduce Lord Timothy Maxwell"

A man in his 30s wearing thick glasses and a giant spot on his nose entered. I dropped my cutlery in surprise. Oh God...please no.

"He's very impressive. He runs his own factory and has several businesses spread all around Xerxes"

He bowed and walked closer.

"It's v-vewie nishh chu meetch chu chor machusty"

He had a lisp. He then proceeded to kiss my hand and slobbered all over it. I looked away at the Princes in disgust. Prince Keith seemed close to dying of laughter and the other Princes pitied me.

"It's very nice to erm...meet you", I quickly wiped my hand on a napkin. Lord Timothy sat down and proceeded to knock over a cup. Zain promptly caught it before it fell.

"Thank you", I whispered to him. He smiled and bowed.

"Sho...Yoour Majeshty. What kind of hobbiesh do you like?"

I placed my head in my hands.

This is going to be a looong week.

By the week, I met the most horrendous suitors. Most of them were in their 30s were not handsome, incapable of walking across a flat floor without falling over. The men in the 20s that did come were cocky, arrogant and stupid. My patience wore thin. The princes were fairly amused by my stories of the suitors during dinner.

"I met Lord Charles Vandell today. He was a 25 year old man who works in accounting and all he talked about was numbers. The worst thing was that he didn't even count right. Then I met Lord John Devlin, who works as an international butcher businessman who gave me a long lecture on how to properly dissect a pig to get the best flavour"

Prince Edward smiled.

"Well…at least you know now how to properly dissect a pig to get the best flavour"

"Princess Anna, What kind of man did you hope to marry?"

I thought for a moment.

"Well...He has to be able to look over difficult texts quickly, make informed decisions and help to rule my country"

"That is a given. I meant what do YOU want?"

My eyes slowly shifted behind the princes to Zain in the garden who was pruning.

"A man with good eyes. Eyes are important because it's the connection. Someone who loves me to the point where they might die to protect me. Someone who is kind and gentle. Someone who I can talk to about everything and knows me so well, they can get what I want before I even ask. Someone humble and doesn't even understand his worth. Someone who makes me go crazy because he's able to stay calm"

In the end, I ended up describing Zain.

"He sounds like a good man," said Prince Roberto who smiled gently at me.

"Yes... Yes, he does indeed..."

"ANNA DARLING!"

Queen Catherine ended up marching through the room.

"Hello, mother"

Ew. I still haven't got used to saying that.

"Darling, I'm so sorry. I must return to Xerxes as they are building the new auditorium and I have to make sure the design is perfect!"

"Oh...That's such a shame...", I responded with a hint of sarcasm. Queen Catherine was nice but I'll be honest...there was only so much patience I could take.

"But, just to let you know that I will be returning next month with a new string of suitors. It's such a shame you didn't like any of the ones but you know that there is plenty of fish in the sea".

I gulped.

"Um...Queen Catherine. I'm sure you are really busy. You really don't have to!"

"But I must insist".

She smiled and then gave me a hug.

"Well I'll be off! Now have a good rest of the month!"

Queen Catherine came rushing off like the wind. I was overcome by a wave of exhaustion and collapsed on my seat.

"You have one hell of a mother, Anna", commented Joshua.

"Tell me about it..."

XXXXXX

As soon as Queen Catherine left, I threw myself back into work. Robert, as I found, was not exactly thorough when doing my work. I was quite irritated because now I had twice the work load because I had to go to dates with the most useless people I have ever met".

"Don't work yourself too hard", said Prince Roberto as I threw another sigh at the pile of documents I had to sign.

"I need to catch up", I replied.

As if by magic, Zain brought my evening tea.

"Chamomile Tea, your majesty. I must insist on a 5 minute break. You've been working for 10 hours straight".

I gave another sigh and then drank my tea. Robert came rushing into the room.

"YOUR MAJESTY!"

I stood up surprised.

"Whatever is the matter, Robert?"

"K-king Xerxes has issued a n-new percentage of work for you", said Robert panting.

I became astonished. Well it's to be expected...It would probably be about 40% since I've just gotten used to 20%.

"How much work has he given me now?", I asked.

"It's now...", Robert looked at the letter.

"75%"

My face grew pale.

"75%...?"

Here I was just getting used to 20% and now father had given me 75% of the work. Just as I was getting used to the idea of a triple workload, several new assistants walked in with bucket-loads of paperwork.

Oh crap

xxxxxx

The next 4 weeks, I was working to the bone. I worked from 8am-3am in the morning and trying to adapt to the workload. I could myself getting thinner and I only ate when Zain forced me to eat which wasn't often enough. I was so exhausted and I could see that my health was starting to decrease. Currently, I am in the library looking over the accounts and annotating new ideas that my extra 10 assistants had brought me. So far it was paying off and Xerxes was improving in every section. I felt proud that father was giving me more work but I was shocked he would give me so much work so quickly. There was always documents to look over and sign, new laws that must be implemented and checked, people to meet, scientists to discuss new ideas from magazines, and ensuring that my people were happy. I flew often from Xerxes to Noble Michel and I still had my Royal Education to complete. The princes saw that since Xerxes was such a large country, the workload was far more than their workload put together.

I glanced at my hand as I signed another batch of documents, it was shaking. I looked at the financial documents and realized that I needed a copy of the Dictionary of Financing, so I started walking to the shelf.

I took one step and felt a bit dizzy.

Must keep going.

"Princess Anna?"

It was Zain. Go away. I have work to do.

I grabbed the book of the shelf and suddenly... Everything faded away and went black.

"ANNA!"

Zain...

XXXXXX

Zain

She had been working herself from the bone every day ever since King Xerxes implemented the changeover of workload. I grew so worried because she was getting thinner that the bones on her cheekbones began to show. Her eyebags grew and although she was still beautiful, she was beginning to lose life. I helped her in the little ways that I could since I understood a lot of the work she was given. I was so worried about her. She wouldn't eat unless I stood by her and reminded her. I tried to leave her food in the first 2 weeks but they would be left untouched 2 hours later. I realized I couldn't even leave her alone. I knew something was wrong because this morning because she tripped up when she got out of bed. She was breathing particularly heavy and she was sweating a lot. I should have been more careful...

Princess Anna, I will make it up to you...

XXXXXXXX

I woke up in the morning to find a maid sitting there. I rubbed my eyes and waited till they adjusted to the light. I felt well rested although I was a little dizzy still. I tried to get up but the maid stopped me.

"Princess Anna, please rest"

"Where is Zain?"

"Zain is currently attending to matters", said the maid smiling and started preparing my tea.

"How long have I been sleeping?" as I received the tea from the maid and brought it to my lips.

"3 days, your majesty"

I choked on my tea.

"3-3 days? I must be so behind on work!"

My face went white again.

"Princess Anna, do not worry! Zain has taken care of everything"

"What do you mean taken care of everything?"

"Why, he's helping to do your work. The assistants have checked everything and Zain has done it just as well as you have"

I became confused.

"But...He's a butler..."

"Zain has been working none stop to ensure that the paperwork doesn't build up. He has also perfected your signiture. He's been helping you during the time you were ill as well"

The maid smiled warmly.

"It's obvious that he sincerely cares for you"

I frowned.

"He should not have to go to that extent but..."

I sighed.

"He's probably just doing it because he is my butler".

"Have you woken up yet, Princess Anna?"

We looked at the door to find Theo and the rest of the princes. I checked I was decent, and realised I was wearing my one piece. Fairly decent. Excellent.

"About time. Thought you were never gonna wake up", moaned Prince Keith.

"Thanks. I bet you would have liked that", I replied dryly.

Prince Keith grinned.

"You gave us quite a fright though", commented Prince Edward.

"Well...At least now she's better...", said Prince Wilfred who smiled softly at me. I felt my heart quicken a little.

"Thank you for your concerns. I hope I didn't worry you too much...", I replied to the princes who shook their heads. Pleased with their response I looked to the maid once more.

"Where is Zain?" I asked the maid.

"He is currently working in the library. Would you like me to fetch him?"

I shook my head. I didn't want to bother him especially since he was helping me with work. I wanted to thank him in person.

"It's fine. I'll shower and change. Please bring me some food and then I will return to my duties"

The maid stood up and curtsied.

"As you wish, your majesty"

,