Chapter Fourteen
The marble floor of the throne room was covered with lying cattle when Helena got there. She knelt over one of them and saw the pain in its eyes. She rubbed the animal's head and she knew that it was dying. All of them were dying.
"It's the mad cow disease. You shouldn't be here." – said a familiar voice behind her back.
She stood up and turned around to face the other woman. She wore riding clothes and she popped a whip while she walked through the cattle.
"Who else should be here? You, Dominique? These are my father's cows." – the Queen snapped at her.
The girl burst out laughing.
"It's not the first time you envy something from me. Anyway, they are all yours. What do you want to do with them?"
They both knew that there was only one solution.
"We have to end their suffering." – Helena sighed.
Dominique shook her head like a teacher when her student gave the wrong answer.
"I already tried it. I gave them enough poison to kill a horse…"
Queen Helena frowned when she heard the last words.
"Just a figure of speech... I hope you are not offended." – added the other woman with ease.
"Of course not." – replied the Queen with a forced smile.
"Of course not." – Dominique repeated. – "Yet, please send my regards to Mommy dearest."
Helena wanted to get out of the room badly, but something stopped her. She couldn't take a step, it was like her dress was caught on something. She turned around and realized that she wore a black train attached to her gown, so long that she couldn't see where it ended. Something was wrong, she knew it. First, she tried to drag, then to tear the fabric, but it was all in vain. Dominique silently watched her for a while before she spoke again:
"Stop trying, it won't work. You have to go back and find the end of it."
Helena looked at her defiantly, but she didn't feel enough strength to resist. She followed the path marked by the dark lace veil with Dominique walking right behind her.
To the Queen's surprise, she found the end of her dress at the children's new playground. It was wrapped around the tower of Robert's castle or rather it was tied to it. There was something else that immediately caught her attention. Instead of the three swings, Helena saw three little coffins.
"What are these?" – she asked in a shaky voice.
Her companion popped her whip as she spoke:
"Like you don't know." – she snorted in disdain. – "…'And pride, and power, and king, and clown shall be Death's slaves at last.'…"
"No, no, no! I don't believe you." – the Queen shouted, but she already felt the tears running down on her cheeks.
"Please, open them up!" – Dominique replied with such excitement as if she had given a Christmas present.
When she saw Helena's hesitation, she shrugged and decided to do it for her. With one gentle move of her wrist, she snapped the whip on the coffins and their lid magically opened.
Queen Helena screamed aloud as she saw her children or what was left of them and jumped on the woman.
"You did this, Dominique. You murdered them. I will kill you."
"Again?" – Dominique laughed at her and pushed her from herself. – "I didn't do it. You did it."
It wasn't the first time King Simon had to wake his wife from a nightmare. In the past week, it became quite a routine. Though, he never heard her saying Dominique's name in her dream before.
"It's all right. Helena, wake up! Wake up, love. Come on! You are scaring Robert." – he whispered while he gently shook his wife's shoulder.
Helena was still kicking and screaming, but her husband's voice slowly reached her mind and she finally woke up.
Given the exceptional circumstances, Robert was allowed to sleep in his parents' bed, which was proved to be a wrong decision. As usual, he was also awakened by the screams of his mother and burst out crying.
"Mommy? Are you all right?"
"Yes, of course. I'm sorry, darling." – Helena mumbled and looked at her son with guilt. – "Go back to sleep."
She carefully tucked him and stroked his head, trying to avoid her husband's gaze.
"We need to end this and ask Katie to sleep with him instead of us." – Simon said softly to his wife.
Helena wanted to object, but she knew he was right. The King watched her as she got out of the bed, put on her night robe and as part of her new routine, she headed to the door.
"They are fine. Please, stay." – he asked, almost begged her.
"You know, I can't. I have to see them." – she whispered and she left for the twins' room.
After her latest dream, Queen Helena felt that she couldn't rest until she found out who their attacker was. First, she thought she should go immediately to Cyrus, but she quickly realized what time it was so she continued her way to the nursery instead.
When she got there, Eleanor stood in her crib with one hand holding on to the bar and the other one stretched forward, demanding her mother to lift her up.
"You shouldn't wait up for me. Susan is right, I mess up your sleeping routine." – mumbled the Queen, but she took the baby out anyway.
With her daughter in her arms, she threw a glance at her other baby. Liam peacefully snuffled in his sleep. Helena adjusted the blanket on him and wiped the saliva off the edge of his mouth. Then she turned to Eleanor:
"Do you see your brother?" – she asked. – "You should do the same."
Eleanor let out a baby sound which was between somewhere 'na' and 'no'. Her mother decided to translate it as a sign of objection.
"You are not making it easy." – she acknowledged with a laugh. – "I hope you never will. It's always harder for a girl in this world. I wish you would remain like that, strong and stubborn, even if it means that you drive me crazy sometimes… rather than doing bad things and making wrong choices because someone pushed you to do them."
The sun was already up by the time Eleanor fell asleep. Helena gently kissed her on the forehead and put her back to the crib.
King Simon couldn't go back to sleep after his wife left. He had a hard time accepting her recent behaviour. Some days, she didn't return until dawn, but once it happened that a maid found her in the morning, sleeping on the floor of the nursery. It became very difficult to hide it from the palace employees. This time the King was lucky. Helena made it back in time before the staff began the morning shift.
"I just came back to change." – she said in a low voice after she realized that her husband was awake. – "Rachel comes home today. She will be here soon."
The King looked at her with worried eyes as she tossed her dress she was about to wear on a chair, and sat down to put on her makeup.
"You should sleep." – he remarked.
The Queen rolled her eyes.
King Simon knew that it wasn't the time nor the place with their son sleeping next to him, but he couldn't help himself. He had to ask her about her dream.
"Come here, please." – he asked her softly.
Helena walked over him and sat on the bedside.
"What is it?" – she asked impatiently.
Simon didn't know how to start so he decided to ask a safe question:
"Do you remember your dream?"
The Queen shook her head.
"No. I never do, I told you."
"I think it was different from the others." – the King continued with a big sigh. – "Tonight you called someone… you called Dominique."
The Queen slightly winced at the mention of her. Of course, she remembered her dream, but she couldn't tell him that.
"Really? That is strange." – she said with ease.
Simon looked at his wife suspiciously, then he asked in a pleading voice.
"Please! Can't you remember anything?"
"For God's sake Simon, I can't believe you are still so obsessed with her." – hissed Helena, who couldn't keep her cool anymore.
"I'm not." – her husband objected.
Queen Helena looked like a wounded deer. The King could not stand her gaze and he fiddled with the blanket instead while she was speaking.
"After all these years… Can't you think of me for once? I got attacked, my son was attacked… not hers, mine! And when I wake up screaming from a nightmare, the only thing you can think about is her."
"You are not fair." – Simon mumbled, but it added oil to the fire.
"To hell about fairness!" – Helena shouted, forgetting about her sleeping son. – "I'm your wife. I don't have to be fair when it comes to her."
The King realized that he made a terrible mistake, but he had no idea how to fix it.
"You are right. I shouldn't have had to ask." – he said with guilt. – "But I love you and I care about you, only you. I'm worried about you and I just tried to help. It came out wrong."
The Queen nodded and let him grab her hand and peck a gentle kiss on it.
"Don't talk to me about her ever again." – she said firmly and pulled away her hand.
An hour later the Queen was at the other end of the Palace, knocking on her assistant's door. When she entered, she acknowledged with surprise the presence of an older couple in the room. Once they were introduced to each other, the woman couldn't stop talking.
"Your Majesty!" – she started as if she was speaking to an old friend. – "It's so nice of you to take care of our Rachel. My Lord, that hospital was so posh and her medical bills must have cost you a fortune."
Helena couldn't hold back a genuine smile when she saw Rachel's embarrassment.
"I assure you, I can afford it." – she remarked kindly. – "Besides, Rachel is my right hand and she saved my son's life. She deserves the best."
"We can agree on that." – the woman replied enthusiastically. Then she turned to her husband. – "How sweet she is. She looks even younger than the pictures."
"Margaret!" – cried the man next to her. – "Mind your manners."
That was the point when Rachel felt the need to intervene.
"I think you should go now. Her Majesty has a very tight schedule and we have to discuss some important matter."
The couple seemed a bit disappointed, but they didn't dare to contradict her and they left the room. After the door was closed behind them, there was a moment of awkward silence.
"Your parents are very nice." – started the Queen, suddenly realizing that she and Rachel never talked about other than work before.
"They are not my parents. They are my in-laws." – replied Rachel, ashamed.
Helena was stunned by that revelation.
"You are married!" – she cried. – "When did you get married?"
Her assistant shrugged. The last thing she wanted was to discuss her personal life with the Queen of England, but she had no choice now.
"When I was seventeen. I wanted to get out of the foster system and marriage seemed easier than getting emancipated." – she said indifferently and in order to avoid further questions she quickly added. – "He died four years ago."
"I'm sorry." – Helena mumbled.
Rachel decided to change the subject to something more comfortable.
"I hope that my absence didn't cause any inconvenience for you." – she finally said.
The Queen shook her head.
"Not at all."
"Then you were pleased with the man I sent." – continued Rachel, reassured.
"Lucius? Yes." – replied Helena with a strange smile on her lips. – "He is a bit weird, but he seemed very professional. He didn't have much to do though, since I cancelled all my events."
Rachel looked disappointed at the Queen, who could detect a slight anger in her voice as she spoke:
"You shouldn't have done that, Your Majesty. It's not good for your image. The people need to see their queen. They need to see that she is the first woman of this country for a reason, that even a thing like this can't break her."
Helena took a deep breath. She didn't know if it was because of what they went through together or because she was too tired to control herself, she turned to her assistant with an unexpected honesty:
"I know. But the truth is that I'm scared, Rachel." – she sighed. – "Sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to be queen. What if the people think that I'm not worthy and they want to punish me… or my children? Take for instance the War of Roses. All those kings and queens: Lancasters, Yorks, Warwicks, Tudors… And what happened to them? They all believed that they deserve the crown and they are destined to be rulers."
Rachel didn't seem affected by her words at all.
"Because that was the only way." – she answered simply. – "Doubt and fear lead nowhere. If you want to move forward, you have no choice, but to believe."
"I guess you are right." – agreed the Queen. – "I will address to the people today. I would be glad if you sat on the couch with me and Robert. Besides, it is good press. Simon wants to honour us for our so-called bravery and he is going to give both of us the George Medal. So it would look good on camera if you were there as well when I'm talking about the attack."
"It would be an honour, Your Majesty." – said Rachel, who was finally satisfied with the way things were going.
- QUEEN HELENA ADRESSES TO THE NATION -
"Good morning! Today I would like to talk to you about tenacity. We British people are famous for our stiff upper lip and as the Bible says: 'our strength is made perfect in weakness.' A week ago an armed man attacked our car and tried to kidnap my son. If it wasn't for three people: our driver, George Hopkins, our bodyguard, Peter Banks and my assistant, Rachel Moore who was with us in the car and risked her own life to save Robert, I don't know what would have happened. Therefore, I'm grateful for her with all my heart. Fortunately, our attacker was captured on the spot and the police finally confirmed that he acted alone. My family and I are ready to put that awful incident behind us and I encourage all of you to do so and move forward with us. However, whoever out there wants to harm my family or my extended family, England, I have a message for you too: we are not afraid. We won't let fear control our life because fear leads us nowhere. Our family is strong and it will keep holding on. God save the King and God bless you all!"