Chapter 33

I was unsure of how I needed to portray myself. I felt overwhelmingly hypocritical. First, we had forced Thomas and Teresa to tie the knot and then here we were, breaking the news to poor Rosemary.

She had always had, had a quiet disposition so it was not shocking when she took the news serenely.

That was probably the worst part about betrothals, losing your only source of actual power.

"I assume that this arrangement will lead me to renounce my claim to the Brittaniccan throne?"

Antonietta set her teacup into her saucer before she answered. "That will most likely be the outcome. Parliament will not approve of the marriage contract if there is a chance of Auribian influence later on."

In the same breath, she gave me a pointed look. "Hopefully by the time the contract is signed, the matter of succession will not be a difficulty."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"And how long is it until…until I should expect to be married?"

Newt decided to pipe up at that point. "About a year from now, it will take time for the contracts to be negotiated and the terms to be agreed upon."

Rosemary nodded and smoothed out the handkerchief on her lap.

"I understand it is my duty as to do what is best for the kingdom and its interest."

Rosemary was the daughter my mother had always wanted.

Antonietta gave a radiating smile. "Wonderful my dear. Now, we should probably get started on your transition…"

I felt someone kick the bottom of my foot and immediately knew who it was. I turned to look at Minho. He subtly pointed his head towards the door and I nodded back in comprehension.

"I must excuse myself I have some business to attend to." Minho stood and gave a slight bow of the head.

"I as well shall take my leave, Agnes is … waiting for me."

I made sure to avoid eye contact with anyone in the room. I did not want anyone to question my real motives.

Once out in the hall, Minho looked around for eager ears before he spoke.

"Rosemary might dismantle this whole contract if we don't stop her."

I furrowed my brow "What do you mean?'

Minho looked around again. "We can't talk about this here. Follow me."

The maze guard started his way down the hall, he walked rather fast so I hurried to catch up to him.

He pushed a curtain aside and pushed through a door I had never seen before. I looked around the hall, making sure it was empty before I entered.

It was a small closet, all it held was broken candelabras and boxes of fresh candles.

It was rather dim and the only light was coming from a small window on the top half of the wall.

In a very hushed voice, Minho began to speak.

"Do you remember a letter you found? About a couple meeting in the northern gardens,"

I nodded. I had forgotten about that entirely.

"Well Newt had me look into it. I found more letters…strewn in specific places and half were from a knight and the other were from…"

Minho let the implication hanging.

I took a step back when I realized.

"You mean to tell me Rosemary has been cavorting with a knight?!"

"Shhhh!" Minho exclaimed waving his hands at me, "I am not going to tell you the rest if you can't keep quiet."

"There's-," I tried again after Minho glared at me, as quietly as I could I began to whisper " there's more?"

Minho shook his head "So much more. I began to poke around and found out that, the knight in question is one of Rosemary's personal guards. About a year ago, Rosemary's previous guard mysteriously disappeared and then this knight appears, and receives special payments each month on the sixth-"

I blinked in shock "From who?"

"That part I don't know. It might be Rosemary, I'm not sure but Roan about two weeks ago Rosemary went to see a herb woman. The herb woman won't let me in if I don't bring a female with me. Something about ensuring, she gets her share. I need you to go with me and see what this woman knows."

I nodded my head in slow comprehension. "All right but what about Newt? He'll certainly notice if we both go missing."

"We can't tell him yet. Not until we fully know the truth. That is why tonight around midnight, meet me in the north wings greenhouse. Make sure you wear riding boots."

"All right what about payment? What does she want?"

There were so many questions to be had about Minho's covert plan.

Minho looked down at my arm and then met my gaze. "Don't worry about that bit. I've taken care of it."

I narrowed my eyes but let it go. I doubted Minho would divulge more information.

"The sooner we tell Newt the better. I don't like keeping things from him." I said, crossing my arms.

Smirking, Minho replied, "I've noticed, you two are as thick as thieves now."

I rolled my eyes. "On a different matter, Isabelle needs to be taken care of. She's making threats towards Thomas."

Miho sighed. "I thought she had been taken care of. Janson's blackmail should have worked but then again she has a powerful lord to back her now."

"How powerful?" I asked. I guess I did not know enough about Lord Benjamin.

"Well, I thought you knew. He's only third in line for the throne."

I tried to walk at a normal pace but my racing mind made it difficult.

Third in line, Third in line, Third in line,

But with Rosemary renouncing her claim to marry Prince Winston, that would have to make him second in line.

I was not sure but I had every intention of finding out.

The palaces library was for the most part empty. Only a couple of scholars and scribes mingled.

It was so quiet that my entrance made a little scene. Heads turned and eyes unglued themselves from leather bound books.

A young boy approached me. On his head was a mop of brown hair and he had a wide smile.

"I am here to offer any assistance, your majesty." He was short and couldn't be more than 12, his plump cheeks were still ruddy with infant youth.

"I need to see the royal hereditary order. I'm sure it must be kept around here somewhere."

They boy began to bounce off "If you follow me your majesty, I can show you where we keep it. It's an important log so we keep it in a safe place under lock and key."

The boys, whose name I probably should have asked, led me down the long winding book aisles.

He led me to a closed off small door. It was hidden by a curtain and he had to hold it open while he tried his keys.

After a couple of failed attempts, he turned towards me with a sheepish smile.

"I probably should have mentioned that I don't have access to the entire library."

I did my best to hide my annoyance. After all, it was just a child.

Before I could say anything, a chastising voice began to echo.

"Chuck! What are you bloody doing?! You cant go in there-"

A teenage boy stopped his tirade when he saw me. His eyes wide open in mortification.

"Your majesty, I must apologize. I was not aware…Is there anything we can help with?"

"She wants to see the hereditary log. I'm guessing she wants to make sure its still there after the break in."

The teenage boy leapt and squeezed Chuck's shoulders tightly. I figured an attempt to shut him up.

"A break in?" I asked, my interest pricked.

"Yes, when the fake cranks attacked som- Ow!Jeff!"

Chuck pulled away; he held his shoulder in one hand and glared in anger at his cohort.

"My apologies, your majesty. But yes during the false attack someone breached the library and we found the lock broken but we did a full catalog of the library. Every book and every page is there."

Jeff gave me a reassuring smile and then quickly turned to glare back at Chuck.

"Well that is interesting but regardless I need to enter and take a look at the hereditary log"

Jeff jumped into action and quickly started to look through his thick ring of keys.

"Of course, your majesty. We are here to serve. "

Jeff entered a large key and turned the lock. The door was heavier than it seemed and Jeff had to give it a good shove for it to move.

The private room was a circular tower. Light seeped in from long circular panes at the very top. The tall tower was lined with books as well. There was a small and dusty table in the middle. It made the room feel crowed and tight.

"The hereditary record is carefully kept and constantly watched. There is a log that must have signed after each use." Jeff said as he brought out a large and heavy book. It had metal hinges to keep its massiveness together. "The current heir order is marked. We received word we might need to remove Princess Rosemary."

I flipped through the pages; some of the older ones were brittle and delicate to the touch. It would have been interesting to look through all the names but that would take too long and I didn't have the luxury.

As the hereditary line became more recent, the pages became more crisps and they turned from a cream to a stark white.

I found my name next to Newts, it was written slightly smaller and there were a couple dashes next to it. Probably intended, in hope, for my future children.

Beneath our names was Rosemary's and then there was Zart's crossed with the day of his death next to it.

A pang of nerves hit my stomach when I saw that. How simple it was to erase a life.

I felt a different pang when I saw the next name.

Lord Benjamin of Frankfurt; Heir to the Norden Dukedom.

"Jeff, educate me, what is the duchy of Norden?" I asked looking up at the duo that had been enthralled in a quiet argument while I searched.

"Of course your majesty, the duchy of Norden is the largest part of the kingdom. Traditionally if the royal family fails to provide an heir, parliament votes in the duke who owns the largest duchy. Usually the Duke of Suden or the Duke of Norden have a claim to the throne due the size of their duchy. The Norden line recently took their place when Lord Benjamin married his sister to the….I cant recall his name… that awful old bloke who beats his wife. Anyways, he now has the largest Duchy. I assume that is why he is marrying Lady Isabelle Winchester. To make sure the Sudens don't add the Winchesters land to their duchy."

I sank in the load of information. "That's odd don't you think? The overt land grabs."

Jeff shrugged "Lord Benjamin's blood purity isn't all that prestigious. I'm guessing it's a move to make himself more distinguished."

I nodded, not buying it, but I didn't need to divulge my doubts to the teenage staff.

"All right so what log do I sign so you can get back to work?" I asked, looking around the tight quarters.

Jeff scrambled around once again. He plopped another thick book in front of me, he flipped the log until his fingers froze at a torn out page.

I watched the blood drain form Jeff's face, he turned to meet the equally panicked eyes of Chuck. Jeff picked up the book and flipped through the pages, he even turned it over and shook it in an attempt to find the missing page. Sadly, he found nothing.

"We need to report this, please pardon us your majesty, but missing a page from the log is very serious. Our records are now all incorrect."

"But I thought you said you checked all the books?" I asked, Jeff was already leaving so I had to turn. I was pretty sure he was breaking etiquette by giving me his back but he seemed rather frenzied.

"We did check all the books but not the logs. It did not seem important at the time, I apologize your majesty, but I must really take this to the head librarian."

Jeff rushed off in between the stacks and I turned towards Chuck.

He seemed to know what I was wondering.

"If they ripped the log page it must mean they have access to the library archives."

"But why would they rip a log page?" I asked, that part didn't really fit.

Chuck shrugged "Sometimes if someone has been poking around too much it doesn't go over well with the Health and Safety Committee."

I thanked the boy for the information and left the library. I would need to report to Minho. He was surprisingly a good sounding board.

However, I couldn't help the guilt that started to course through me.

Newt had made it evident that he did not like royal intrigue but it was not as if we could just ignore it. These matters needed to be handled; one of us had to take care of it.

I couldn't keep my meeting with Minho or what I had just learned from Newt. The mature and smart thing to do would be to have a conversation with him as soon as possible. However, how I would do that, I was not sure.

And besides, Thomas must have been settled in by now. It was time to harass him.

I threw the doors open as dramatically as I could.

Teresa jumped at the bang of the doors and dropped her embroidery. I looked around and found an already annoyed Thomas shinning a sword.

It was never a good idea to pick a fight with an angry man holding a sword. However, I doubted he would do much of anything.

"Why are you here?" I started, crossing my arms, defensively.

Thomas kept polishing his sword and did not look up at me.

"Thomas…why are you here?" I asked again. I began to feel a childish frustration course through my veins.

After a couple seconds of presumptuous evasion, Thomas finally looked up at me.

"I am a grown man. I don't need your permission to go anywhere nor do I need to explain myself either."

I fought the urge to let him know that he indeed needed to do both things but I did not think that would help our already frail relationship.

"Regardless, I would like to know. You are in danger here. We had a plan."

Thomas stood and his sword clattered to the ground. "No you had a plan. You made us marry and you sent me away."

The resentment in Thomas's voice was almost blistering.

"What else were we supposed to do Thomas? Isabelle was planning to report you! She still is! So I beg to know what you are doing here?!"

Anyone walking past the room would have heard us clearly.

"I don't have to have a reason. I simply didn't want to be there. And besides Isabelle has no room to be making threats. Teresa made sure of that a long time ago."

I was ready to retort when Thomas words sunk in.

I turned to look at a shrinking Teresa.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning back to Thomas.

He waved me off and picked up his sword again.

"Isabelle was seeing this village boy back in finishing school. Teresa snitched and they killed the boy."

I felt the spit get stuck in my throat.

So that was the reason behind all the animosity.

I hated the fact that I almost sympathized with Isabelle Winchester.

"I did not know that…"

Thomas rolled his eyes and resumed his polishing "That is precisely the problem Roan. You walk around thinking you know best but in reality you know absolutely nothing."

It was hard to come back at Thomas considering his recent revelation.

"Well despite that…she has made it clear she has every intention of reporting you to the health committee unless she is made royal mistress. So you being here puts you even at a greater risk."

Thomas looked up from his sword, finally intrigued instead of irritated. "But I thought she was marrying Lord Benjamin? Why would she want that position?"

"I don't know but I'm sure we'll find out but right now what matters is protecting your sorry self from your poor timing."

Thomas eyes jumped around and he tilted his head to the side.

"Her father has a couple of bastard children. Do you think she wants Newt to protect her siblings from the health council?"

It was odd to humanize Isabelle Winchester but it would provide reason for her determination.

It had been weeks since I had heard Teresa's voice so I was slightly shaken when she spoke. I had almost forgotten she was in the room as well.

"Her sisters both married well. If that's her reasoning, she wants protection for her three brothers."

That would be a compelling reason to try to slip into the king's bed.

"Very well, Teresa, now that you are back, set up a ladies tea with Isabelle Winchester as soon as possible. Well negotiate a position for her brothers and hopefully she backs off."

I couldn't believe the words had come from my mouth but what else were we supposed to do?

As if I didn't have enough to tell Newt for one day.

Anges had already come and gone. I had given her a tight hug when I finally had the chance. Sonya did a fine job but there was no one quite like Agnes to brush and braid my hair.

I hadn't seen Newt after tea, he had some meeting or other. I apparently wasn't invited due to my sex.

However, I planned to interrogate him as soon as he deemed it fit to show up. I understood in theory that Newt would be busier nowadays but even on the worst days, he never took this long.

I could not help but poke my head out the door to see an empty hall with only two guards positioned at the very end.

I was not going to try and sleep, I didn't want to miss my rendezvous with Minho due to oversleeping.

Agnes did not need to know about my nighttime activities so as soon as she left, I redressed myself in simple riding gear. I still had my plain dresses from back home.

If I was honest with myself, there was a main conversation I was avoiding with Newt.

I knew that I was subtly avoiding the real elephant in the room.

After we had kissed, there had been many and plenty things to take care off. I wondered how long I could avoid talking to him about well….what would we even talk about?

We both knew there had been a kiss and besides if Newt wanted to talk about it, wouldn't he have brought it up? After all, he had kissed me first.

So by all logic he should be the one to bring it up.

But, what if he wanted me to bring it up? What if he had this idea of chivalry where we didn't talk about it?

I let out a load groan. The best thing would be to keep my current strategy and fill all space and time with business and royal matters.

I had no idea how to divulge all the information I had picked up today. I should probably tell him about his sister first. Minho had told me otherwise but I knew that if Newt found out about our cover mission without me telling him …I didn't think the outcome would be favorable.

If felt like an another quiet eternity before the bedroom doors pushed open.

I felt my breath catch in my throat and the stability in my legs seized to exist.

"You still up love? Its rather late don't you think." Newt started to pull at his cravat while simultaneously pushing the bar to lock the door.

Once he turned towards me, I balled my hands into fist and then released them repeatedly.

Newt seemed to notice my nervousness; I mean I was not exactly trying to hide it.

With a furrowed brow and pressed lips, he approached me.

"Whats wrong?" Newt asked, the closer he walked, the more I tried to shrink into my skin.

"I suppose I don't really know how to start…do you remember that letter we found? The knight and that contraband couple?"

Newt nodded his head, his expression still contorted in concern and confusion.

"Minho…well he told me what he found and," I took a deep breath and fought the urge to close my eyes, "Its Rosemary, Newt. Rosemary and her personal guard are responsible."

I felt like ice watching the blood drain for Newts face.

He was already pale enough, so the color he took was rather starling.

"What do.. Rosemary? Is Minho sure?"

I nodded my head, my tongue felt like it had needles weighing it down. I didn't know how to comfort the clearly struggling man before me.

"Minho also discovered that she saw a herb woman recently and we are going to go see what she knows."

Newt stared at me intensely, his eyes were burning with emotion.

"Is that why you're wearing your ridding gear?" He asked, motioning to my boots and belt.

I nodded my head "I'm actually going to meet him soon…to see the woman. I didn't want to go without telling you."

Newt nodded his head slowly.

"We best get going then." He said tilting his head towards the door.

"What?" I asked, confused and slightly scared.

"You didn't think I was going to knowingly let you cavort around at night by yourself did you?"

Minho was not going to be happy with me.

Oh my lordy lord lord. I dont know why this chapter was so hard to write lololol..

Okay so while traveling around this summer, I used my transport and airplane rides to re-read this whoooole thing. Its not as bad as I thought it was. There are definetly some issues hahaha but I did start it when I was 16 so major whoops. I think Roans emotional immaturity was due to my own 16 year old emotional immaturity. I found some plot holes and I wrote them down, so I hope to resolve them the best I can.

Im not gonna lie, I do sometimes feel like not finishing this fic but its enjoyable for me to write at time and you guys seem invested so I push myself to keep going. I am trying to edit much more carefully now. My goal is to finish this thing by the end of the year lololol. like ive put it off enough as it it is. I might write more just for me for funsies and post it if people want to read it. Idk we'll see what I decide to end up doing.

Also, more importantly:

THANK YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH FOR YOUR REVIEWS, i REALLY DO ENJOY AND CHERISH READING THEM. Its my main motivation ngl

BTW I wrote this authors note while i have covid for the 3rd time. So sorry if it does not make sense, my lungs hurt lolol.

Aight see ya next time 'yall. Iggy out.