Chapter 139
RYKER’S PO.V
For the next three days, things were quiet and it had me feeling uneasy because I knew that silence was only a covering for something more sinister at play. Camilla tried to get me to focus on the good, on the fact that nothing was happening but I knew better. She spent most of her time with the girls so she couldn’t feel the tension the same way that I did, she couldn’t feel the unease in the air. To an extent, I was glad that she couldn’t because I didn’t want her to worry more than she already was.
She told me that she had an encounter with Alara but wouldn’t tell me what it entailed. She just explained that it didn’t end well and since then, Alara had all but disappeared into her room and refused to come out. That was what had me worrying because I knew that she wasn’t someone who would take a perceived insult lying down. She was planning something and not knowing was the hardest part.
On the bright side, Christine was supposed to return any day from now. She hadn’t written us a single letter so there was no way for us to know how the trip was going and if the search was fruitful. I tried not to worry about it but it was hard. It was almost as if everything was turning upside down and I didn’t know what to focus on first.
A knock on my door snapped me out of my thoughts and Camilla walked in. She looked exhausted but she was still nothing less than beautiful. Her hair was flowing down her back but the sides were pinned away from her face allowing me to see the faint bags under her eyes and her dress was more on the simple side with barely any embellishments.
“Aurora is asleep,” she exclaimed as she made her way over to me. “I got one of the maids to watch her.”
“You look exhausted,” I pointed out and she rolled her eyes playfully.
“Haven’t you been told never to comment on how a woman looks? You just called me ugly.”
“I said you were exhausted, you couldn’t be ugly if you tried,” I corrected and I saw the corner of her lips tilt up. I reached out to her and she wasted no time in intertwining her fingers with mine. She sat on the edge of the table in front of me and just looked down at me with a small smile.
I didn’t know what it was about her smiles but they always managed to make everything feel right. For a split second, I didn’t care about Alara or Christine or the fact that my life was about to be pulled up from the root. I simply existed in that moment with her and chose to focus on that alone.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispered and I shrugged. “Is there something on my face?” She reached up to touch her face but I stopped her by grabbing her hand. “Tell me, is it bad?”
“There’s nothing,” I assured her and she narrowed her eyes at me for a split second but chose to believe me. “I was just thinking about how incredibly lucky I am to have you. If it were someone else, they would have left me by now and honestly, I wouldn’t blame them. This whole thing is a cluster f*uck. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me after we get rid of her,” she crinkled her nose in disgust. “Have you noticed that she has been awfully quiet over the past two days? Is it because I finally stood up to her?”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but-”
I was cut off by a knock on the door. Camilla was the one who answered and I frowned at her because I was more than content with leaving the person knocking until they got the hint that I didn’t want any interruptions. I was shocked when my door opened and Caius made his way into the office.
I immediately stood to my feet. “What is going on?”
“It is the town’s people,” he explained. “I think you need to see it for yourself.”
That was how Camilla and I ended up rushing to the front gate of the palace. I was shocked at the sheer number of people who were being held back by guards. The people kept watchful eyes on us as we made our way towards them. I recognized some of the people from the town where we met Alara the first time. I knew that whatever was happening had to be tied directly with her. As we got closer, the people began to whisper until one woman stepped out to meet us.
“What is going on?” I heard Camilla ask but I couldn’t respond. I didn’t know what was happening and I made sure to keep her behind me in case anything was to happen.
“Your majesty,” she bowed although I could still see the anger in her eyes. I gave her a curt nod and waited to hear what she would say. “We want you to free Alara. She shouldn’t be kept as a prisoner because of your actions.”
I raised a brow.
“My actions? Please tell me what exactly my actions were.” I didn’t yell or raise my voice but the deathly calmness was enough to have her second guessing her next words. “I am waiting for a response, you cannot go around throwing accusations against the crown and not have proof to back it up. That sounds an awful lot like treason.”
Her mouth fell open. was a rumor that-”
“I was just repeating what we heard from the other towns. There
“You took a stance against the crown based off a rumor?” I asked in shock and she fell quiet. “That is either incredibly stup*id or incredibly brave.”
“It has to be true. If it wasn’t then you would have come out to deny it.”
“Did you ever consider the fact that I felt it too stu*pid to even talk about?” I shot back and she flushed. “Also, what is this business about her being a prisoner? Did you see her in a cell?”
“No,”
“Did you see her in chains? Perhaps you saw her being tortured or unfed like the other prisoners.”
“No, but-”
“If neither of those happened then where did you get the absurd idea that I was keeping her as a prisoner? Did you imagine it or was it an act of boredom that led you down a line of insane thoughts.”
The woman’s cheeks were flushed red in embarrassment and I could see the others beginning to doubt whether they were taking the right stand by going up against us. I should have felt bad about embarrassing her in front of everyone but she decided to make a stu*pid choice. She signed her warrant, not me. I was going to put an end to this rubbish and I didn’t care if she was a casualty.
“I will say this once and make it clear, unless you have heard it directly from the mouths of the crown, do not make stu*pid assumptions. It will only look bad on you.”
I turned to leave when I heard her speak. “I got a letter.”
I turned back to her instantly. “What letter and who was it from?”
“It was sent from the palace and although it had no signature, I knew it was from her,” she hesitated before saying her next words and I knew that they were definitely not good.
I gestured for her to come closer and she obliged. When she was close enough, she dropped her voice into a whisper. “It said to burn immediately after reading so I did but in the letter, it claimed that you had forced yourself on her and gotten her pregnant. It said that you were keeping her locked in the dungeons and if we didn’t come to protest
would kill her.”
then you
“You trusted an unmarked piece of paper and decided it was enough evidence to go against your Queen?” I asked and shame filled her features as she realized the extent of what she had done.
“Please don’t kill me,” she pleaded. “I have a grandson, he is five and I am the only family he has left. It was a st*upid mistake and I understand that now.”
I glanced over at Camilla who hadn’t said a single word yet. The wheels in her head were turning and I could tell that she was trying to process everything to the best of her ability.
“We won’t kill you,” she said finally. “But you will fix the seeds of doubt that you planted. You will tell the people that you were bored and jealous and so you decided to make up an absurd story,”
Her eyes widened. “They will hate me, I will be an outcast. Nobody will ever trust me again.”
“You should have thought of that before you came here.”
I stared at Camilla with a mixture of pride and disbelief. She may not know it yet but she was turning into a fierce queen. The girl who stumbled onto my pack terrified and frightful was not the same girl I was looking at right now. The girl in front of me was a full bred royal and she was not afraid to make hard decisions.
The woman nodded and bowed. I watched as she went back to the people and gave them the news. I didn’t stick around to see the results, I grabbed Camilla by the hand and led her back towards the palace. That was a close call but we needed a permanent solution to Alara before she wrecked everything we had struggled to build.
“What are we going to do about Alara?” Camilla asked once we were at the doors to the palace and I shrugged because I didn’t know what to say. “She is only going to cause more problems for us. I say that we just let her go.”
Before I could respond, the sound of loud hooves filled the air. I turned just in time to see Christine on horseback rushing as if she were being chased. She barely managed to skid to a halt before she hopped off. There was a flush to her cheeks and she looked vastly different from the usual put together version I saw in the palace. Her hair was in a curly mess around her shoulders and she was in breeches.
“I found something. You will not believe everything I managed to unearth,” she exclaimed as soon as she got to us. “I know how we can get rid of her.”
