"What do you mean the king is sick?" Lord Halverson questioned, above the rest of the noise that had started up in the house since Christine made the statement. "This is ludicrous! If he has only a cough and a slight fever does not give him a reason to stay in bed!"
"Lord Halverson," Christine said quietly making the men around her hush a bit and look gruffly at her. "And the rest of the Nobles, I understand that you tire of the absence of the king but let me assure you he does not have just a cough and a slight fever. Your king, His Majesty has the plague of which his daughter has recently died of."
They fell silent, in question, and she was somewhat pleased.
"Gentlemen," She continued. "I will serve in the king's place until he is better. I know this disappoints many of you but His Majesty trust you, so shall I."
"Did the king give you his permission?" Lord Benedict stared at her with his soulless eyes.
"The king has said enough before his sickness that demanded changes." Her speech was steady and she refused to be intimidated by these men. "And these changes will start immediately, because this is what the king wanted."
"What would these changes be?" Lord Davison called out.
"One of them you see before you." She indicated herself standing in front of them. "An equal government…"
"We have an equal government." Benedict crossed his arms.
"Lord Benedict," Christine cocked her head. "We have had this discussion before, and this is now the king's words, not just my own."
"You have poisoned the king's mind with your outlandish thoughts and words!" He accused her.
"Gentlemen," She took a breath and decided that perhaps it would be best to switch the subject before anything that was said which would be regretful or repeating. "Are there any more questions?"
"Majesty," Carvie made a motion.
"Yes, Lord Carvie?" Happy to pick someone who was not completely against her.
"Nadir is not here." He explained quickly. "We need to record this meeting to send to him, as we do every meeting."
"Well then," She gazed around the room, "Who would…"
"I will Majesty." Benedict offered before anyone else could volunteer.
"Thank you, Benedict." Her eyes met his again and she could not help but notice how men of the same thought as he seemed to have the same dismal aura about them, not to mention the eyes of coldness. "Now tell me of your lands and any information that is critical to them."
The majority of the men looked at her as if she were an oddity; however there were a few who were happily making regional and political speech with her. The House continued for about three more hours, although she remembered that Erik was sometimes in this room for more than five hours at times, but she shrugged it off as they were becoming new to the idea of having a woman in the room.
Christine watched as each man came to her and bowed some making idle chat with her. When most were out and the ones that were leaving were, the ones that tended not to enjoy her company. When the doors finally closed, she went to sit in the chair that she saw Erik sit in before. Sitting back she closed her eyes and enjoyed the silence.
"Majesty," A voice called her from her thoughts, she opened her eyes and saw the stern face of Lord Halverson.
"Yes, Lord Halverson?" She looked at him puzzled, wondering whatever he could want to speak to her about.
"I have been meaning to talk to the king and…"
"He is not well." Her sigh was quiet. "Hopefully…"
"Well it is a matter of importance." He went on, "And it concerns…"
"He has the plague." Feeling weary that this gentleman did not understand what she was saying. "I am sorry but…"
"It concerns you as well!" His voice rose just a bit.
"What concerns?" She questioned, sitting a little bit straighter.
"Majesty," He sighed. "You are in grave danger."
"What do you mean?" Her brow lifted. "In danger…"
"Both, Your Majesty and His Majesty's lives are in danger!" His voice lowered a bit, but no less urgent. "There is a rebellion on the horizon!"
"A rebellion," Christine could not help but feel her stomach drop, she had lasted through much but could she last through another fight, she would not be as quick and agile soon. "What do you mean a rebellion?"
"Some of the Lords are not pleased with the performance of His Majesty and yourself." He explained. "They have come up with plans."
"Lord Halverson," She said seriously. "You are not pleased with the performance of this court."
"Yes." Halverson agreed. "However, I would never plan to rid of royalty, unless I thought they were completely damaging the country, which you are not. Perhaps I am too old to understand the younger logic of today."
"I will take that as a compliment." Her nod, made him give way to a small, vanishing smile. "But how are they planning to rid of us?"
"That I do not know." He sighed.
"Do you know the persons responsible for this quest?"
"Not all." His eyes met hers in a heated gaze. "But Benedict is one of them as well as Davison, I know there are more but unfortunately they are beginning to scatter, and they no longer hold meetings."
"Were you part of these meetings?" Her eyes did not break from his.
"I went to one." He confessed, "But it was too radical for me, before there were meetings of how we could banned together to make the government more stable, well, at least, what we thought would be a more stable government, but it never dealt with overthrowing the ruling."
"Thank you for admitting your connection," Christine nodded. "And thank you for this information."
"You need to have spies watching Benedict and Davison."
"Lord Halverson." She smiled and stood, coming closer to him. "As much as I would like to do that, orders of Borswan can only be given by the king, the queen does not have any power in this country, and you should know that."
"I thought…"
"No, Lord Halverson." Her head shook sadly. "Borswan's women only have power over small, meager processions, even the queen can only watch as her child is taken from her and put under her husband's name."
"I did not know." He looked downwards.
"Most do not," She shrugged. "Do not feel bad, I highly doubt you will be the last. Truly, though, thank you for coming forward, I will keep my eyes and ears extremely open, thank you."
"You are welcome, Majesty." Lord Halverson bowed, and then left Christine alone in the middle of the House.
Sighing she looked around the room, one last time before leaving and going towards the records room. Going in, she saw papers spilled out on the table while the professors that she began to seemingly trust early on when she arrived, sat there looking at the new records of current holdings, finances, lands, demands and everything in-between.
"Anything interesting, gentlemen," She questioned, as she walked towards the window.
"It seems that one family was inspired by you, Majesty." One of the professors named Dr. Jekle, spoke, seeming amused.
"Really," Her attention turned to him.
"Yes." He nodded. "It seems that a husband wants to put his wife on his will and on the land deed."
"Honestly?" She felt a little spark go through her heart as the others gave approving looks towards each other, they were always quite the thought provoking bunch that she enjoyed.
"Indeed, we never had anything like that before." Dr. Jekle smiled.
"And it seems to become more frequent also." Another name Dr. Lichistien added.
"Oh and Majesty," Dr. Gridle spoke up; she turned to him. "You may go to the king and rest; we do not need our queen running herself out of energy, especially on her first day taking control of the House."
"I do have a question though." She walked towards the table; they all looked up at her. "Tell me what you know of Lord Benedict and Lord Davison's plans."
"Plans?"
"For what?"
"To overthrow the king," She stated plainly. "I have received news that these two Lords, as well as others, are planning a rebellion and I would like to know how I can find a way around the laws to put emissaries on these men and find out who the rest are."
"We do not know any way around this." Dr. Gridle sighed dejectedly.
"You could put spies on these men." Dr. Jekle suggested.
"I thought of that." Christine nodded. "But who? There are very few people who are even in support of His Majesty and I, many just do not plan an uprising."
"It is a difficult situation." Dr. Lichistien agreed. "Very unstable."
"Do I just wait for the rebellion to begin or can I do something?" She questioned.
All of the four people in the room looked at each other, knew the answer but knew that it would now be impossible, for now.
"Well, I suppose I will leave you to your thoughts." Her heavy weighted mind needed much rest, but there was one more placed she needed to go before she lay down to sleep for a bit. She headed to her room, opened the door and then went to the door that connected with her husband's room.
She walked in quietly, hoping that she would not disturb him, but knowing that there was not a chance that she would disturb him. They had told her many times that she was not supposed to go into the king's room, but she found that they did not guard the connected doorway, early in the morning after she had gotten ready.
Sitting besides her husband on the bed, she gently brushed a stray hair from his head, and it was drenched in cold sweat. He looked awful, his skin the similar ashen shade to Cecile's skin before she died, with the spot marks. She squeezed her eyes together to make the image of her dead daughter leave her mind for the moment, hoping that it would improve Erik's chances for survival.
"I know you miss her." Christine said quietly to the sleeping Erik. "But please, do not leave me alone. I refuse to let you leave a country that cannot stand a female ruler, or will not even let one rule. You cannot leave because you wanted so much change and did not even put into action yet," She smiled a little,
"Well one was, and I must admit it went pretty well, but it would have been so much better if you would have been there. They would have would have accepted me more." A sigh escaped her. "I suppose that I need to stand on my own two feet again and let go from you." Tears, that were building up in her eyes began to leave them, leaving traces down her cheeks. "But I'm not ready to. I have stood alone for so long and now I have someone that I can hold on to…
"You cannot go," She bit her lip, from her sobs becoming so apparent. "If you cannot live for me, then live for your country!" A pause. "For your unborn child that I am so afraid to tell you about because I want to see your face break out in happiness rather than pain of losing Cecile." Christine sighed. "Am I asking too much from you?"
"No you are not." A voice said from behind her. "You can never ask too much from the person you love, and they can never ask too much of you."
"Comforting words, Madame," Christine looked to her. "I was planning on telling him today."
"I figured as much." The woman came closer to her.
"He was speaking about change." She licked her dry lips, and looked down at her husband's face again. "And I thought that today he would want to hear about the change that we…I would be going through."
"Things do not always happen the way they want it to." Madame Giry smiled softly. "But you will be able to tell him soon enough."
"I am glad you are so confident." Her eyes rolled.
"Many need to be confident in times like this." She defended her words. "Especially royalty, if they are confident in what they do then the people are bound to follow. Even if a king is on his deathbed, there needs to be some sort of comfort that their world will be satisfactory and well." The younger woman looked at her in question. "Besides, Cecile should have never lived the first day. She should have never lasted more than three hours."
"And Sorielli," Christine could not help but question.
"I thought she would make it," Giry sighed. "But I knew in my heart of hearts that she was not going to last the third day." A silence came between them for a moment before Madame Giry broke it, "Come now, I cannot let you stay by the king's side with his child and the future of Liren and Borswan in your womb."
Oh wow been really busy! Sorry about that, but good news, I am working on a new story, bad news this one is finishing up, I would say maybe three or less to go. So please review and let me know what you think!
EV
