Chapter 4: Breakfast with the Emperor

The Emperor took his breakfast in the Sun Room, at a table laid for three.

Iseult walked in with her hair pinned up and a plain grey gown buttoned to her chin.

She had washed in the cold water from the tower basin, and she still smelled of Ilarion under the soap.

Caelum rose to meet her, smiling the smile that had fooled her for six years.

"Iseult. You look well."

"Your Majesty."

"Caelum. We're family now, nearly."

Lady Adelheid sat at his right hand in white silk, buttering a roll.

She gave Iseult a soft, sorry look.

"Sit," said Caelum. "Eat. You've had a very strange night."

Iseult sat and did not touch the food.

A servant poured her tea, and she remembered how many cups of this tea she had drunk across this table, nodding at whatever he said.

"I'll be plain," said the Emperor. "You were upset last night. Your father tells me you've been nervous about the betrothal."

"My father is a fool."

Adelheid's roll stopped halfway to her mouth.

Caelum's smile did not move.

"Withdraw the proposal at noon," he said. "Say you were overwhelmed."

"The Chancellor will find a form of words."

"My brother goes back to his kennels, you take the crown, and nobody remembers a thing."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you are a Valcour who has shamed the throne, and your father loses his ministry before supper."

"My father sold me for that ministry. He can lose it."

"Iseult."

"I'm marrying Ilarion."

The Emperor put down his cup.

For a moment he looked at her as if she were a stranger who had walked into his house.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Executed Empress Proposed to His Scarred Brother from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.