Reborn as the Villainess's Bodyguard, I Refused to Stop at Bodyguard novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Queen's Offer

The Queen received her in bed.

It was a vast four-post bed in a cold stone room.

A fire burned at one end of the room and a physician's tray of bottles stood at the other.

Queen Imelda sat in the middle of it against a mountain of pillows, with a shawl round her shoulders.

Without the crown she looked like what she was, a tired woman of fifty-eight.

"Sit," she said, and coughed. "Not there. Where I can see you."

Haruka sat in the chair by the bed.

"I offered Aldric a great many things," the Queen said. "None of them were mine to take away. I would like to try again with someone who has earned them."

She lifted a paper from the quilt.

"I make you Duchess of the North March. The pass, the garrison and the Ardwyn border, with a seat on my council. You will have a castle at Hollin, a hundred men, and a pension for life. Corwin Braithwaite may be your marshal."

It took Haruka a moment to find her voice.

"That's a great deal, ma'am."

"It is the least the Crown owes you. You carried my best secret out of Lantern Square in a box and brought back the man who wanted my pass. I have had a hundred and twelve Captains, and not one of them did that."

"I can't take it."

The Queen's eyebrows rose.

"I have never been refused by a captain."

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because a duchess lives in a castle with a hundred men and sits in council, and I'd be good at none of it. I'm good at carrying things." Haruka looked at her hands. "And I don't want to live anywhere Seraphine isn't."

The Queen studied her in silence.

"I will tell you something," she said. "Five weeks ago Eleonora Delamere came to me at midnight and asked to be allowed to write the entry herself. She had read the sentence. She said she knew the Lady Ardwyn was innocent, and that the Quiet Hand was the only honest tool I had. She wrote it that night in the vault."

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