They Gave My Crown to an Adopted Daughter. The Queen Raged novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Barred

The king denies the sealed letter that promised her the crown, the Chancellor produces a death report, and the husband who could break the room keeps his sword in its sheath; Marigold smiles, and Conroy looks like he has seen a ghost.

I did not have a speech ready for being called a stranger by my own father.

I had a letter instead.

It was folded inside my coat against my ribs, where it had ridden for nine days and three years.

I took it out and held it up so the whole hall could see the red wax.

"This is your seal, Father," I said. "Your hand, your words."

"Bring me the peace and the heir's crown is yours before any witness I can name."

"I am the witness, and so is every lord in this room who watched you read it to the council behind closed doors."

Nobody in the front rows moved.

Three of them had been in that room, and each one found something very interesting on the floor.

"Allow me, Majesty," said the Lord Chancellor.

His name was Ambrose Fenn, and he crossed the dais in his dark red gown with his hand already out.

I closed my fingers around the letter.

"You may read it from where I stand," I said.

He smiled, and two guards stepped up on either side of me.

They were polite about it, which was worse.

One took my wrist, and the other peeled the paper out of my hand.

I was the Crown Princess of Merrow, and I had not been touched by a guard since I was nine.

I heard Conroy breathe in behind me.

He still did not draw.

Lord Fenn broke the wax with a thumbnail, and read the first lines under his breath.

"A very fine piece of work," he said to the king, mildly. "The seal is the old one, from before your illness."

"Anyone with a drawer of your father's discarded papers could manage this."

"It is not forged," I said.

"Your Majesty has been unwell," Fenn went on, as though I had not spoken. "Grief takes the memory."

My father shut his eyes.

I watched his hand tighten on the arm of the throne, and I knew he had read every word.

He just would not say so.

"My wife is the heir of this kingdom," Conroy said at last, into the quiet.

His voice was low and level, and every head in the hall turned toward it.

"By the treaty signed in this house, an insult to her is an insult to Skarn."

"It is a treaty, Prince Conroy," Fenn said, "not a declaration of war."

"No," Conroy said. "It is not."

His hand opened and closed at his side, where only I could see it.

I reached behind me without turning, found it, and pressed it flat against my back.

His fingers were ice cold, and they shook once before they went still.

I did not know yet whether I wanted to kiss him or hit him.

"Where is my mother?" I asked.

"The Queen is resting," Fenn said.

"Take me to her."

"Her Majesty is not to be disturbed."

I looked at my father.

"Osmund," I said, and I had never called him that.

"Where is she?"

He opened his eyes, and they were wet, and he looked at the wall above my head.

"You will be housed as guests of the crown," he said, "in the Tower of Larks, until this matter is settled."

"You will be attended."

"By guards," Conroy said.

"By attendants," said the Lord Chancellor.

He lifted the circlet gently from my hair.

He turned and set it back on Marigold's head.

She had been kneeling the whole time with her eyes lowered, and now she lifted them.

The hall let out a murmur.

She rose in a rustle of cream silk, pearls bright at her throat, and came down one step so she stood level with me.

"Welcome home, sister," she said softly.

She had a small sweet voice, the kind that made grown men want to carry her over puddles.

"I kept your bed warm," she added, only for me.

Her smile never moved.

I looked at the pearls at her neck, and my stomach turned over.

They were my mother's wedding pearls, and my mother had never taken them off in her life.

Then I felt Conroy go still behind me.

It was not the stillness of a man holding back a war.

It was different, and I felt it through my back.

I glanced round at him.

He was staring at Marigold's face.

His grey eyes had gone wide, and the color was draining out of him.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend