Hello everyone. Here is chapter 11. I hope that you will enjoy it. :)
While Albert was marching his army north to confront Swain, Banderas and Maria are becoming ever more smitten with each other as they showed their love to each other in private and flirting with each other whenever no one was looking as their relationship blossomed between the two.
The two even got married in secret and they vowed to love each other till death do them part before they made love in the nearby forests as they continued to enjoy each other's company while continuing to show their love to each other, even if they do it out in public, if they have to.
Which is exactly what they did as they held wings and they watched a few plays, during which Maria snuggled against Banderas as she laid her head on his shoulder, before they toured the rest of the kingdom and they went back to the castle while having no idea that the peasants were becoming nervous.
They were quite unsure about what to make of the lovely couple, though, this quickly became local gossip as they tried to act normal as possible, though, they are having a tricky time doing so as they knew that disaster could very well be looming if they aren't being careful about this.
The nobles, themselves, were becoming nervous about what was happening between Banderas and Maria with the latter using her position as Queen to make Banderas more politically powerful as the temporary King returned the favour by making Maria the most politically powerful Queen in her kingdom's history.
Banderas, also, created a law that would allow Maria to lead the kingdom while her husband is away or has died in battle as well as dying from disease as the peasants cheered at the agreement of the law while the nobles could only pray that things won't get worse, though, their prayers weren't answered.
To their horror, Banderas and Maria even kissed each other during their meetings with the nobles while they embarrassed the nobles as the latter were forced to pass laws that made the people happy, though, they were about to find out something very horrifying, indeed.
Queen Maria was bestowing honour after honour on Banderas as the nobles could do nothing, but, watch as the events unfolded and some of the nobles even got into the habit of showering Banderas with honours and they were doing the same to Maria, while the other nobles became more nervous.
The people, themselves, were becoming anxious about the affair between Banderas and Maria as they knew that Albert is not going to be happy if he finds out that his best friend as well as his own wife were having an affair behind his back with this knowledge making the people stay quiet out of fear.
If the nobles thought that bestowing honours on Maria would win her respect, they were very wrong as they found out when they came to see Maria in order to bestow more honours on her, though, Maria was getting rather tired of the nobles being so persisted with her and she waved them away.
They were outraged at the fact that Maria didn't stand up to greet them as it was custom to stand up for your superiors and Maria, clearly, wasn't following that tradition as she remained sitting while the nobles walked away with anger in their every step they took as Maria could only watch on with contempt.
Arthur and his family are very much split on what they think of the affair with Arthur and his older sister, Lucy, as well as their father, who is currently fulfilling his duty as a royal messenger, were in favour of the affair while Cassius and his sibling's mother, Leofric's wife, Lou, were against it.
"We can not accept, this outrageous affair" said Cassius as he became angry. "This has gone too far, guys".
"Come on, Cassius, they're in love" said Arthur as he tried to keep the peace. "We can't afford to let our anger, get the better of us".
"I agree with Arthur, we need to stay calm" said Lucy as she agreed with Arthur. "If this affair is going too far, we would tell them about it".
"Arthur, Lucy, this affair is causing problems" said Lou as she looked at her two older children. "His majesty and her majesty should end this affair, while they still can".
That one sentence sounded like a threat to Arthur as he knew that his mother firmly follows tradition and he could only hope that his mother doesn't try to turn words into actions if, what she has just said, turns out to be a threat to the life of King Banderas and Queen Maria.