Chapter 65: The royal engagement!

Selena scowled in displeasure at the council of elders as they approached her with their rather ridiculous proposal to keep the late King, her father’s last wishes. This was the very council who had not hesitated in breaking off their relationship without even asking the individuals in the marriage what they about it, when they had found out the truth about her identity and now here they were, bugging her to marry Caro Silva as if nothing had ever changed. Now they were pretending as if they cared deeply for the late king’s last wishes.
She felt sick of being manipulated into decisions that she didn’t quite want and spat at them in an annoyed tone, “And what gives you the right to worry about my personal affairs?”

One of the council members shook his head at his empress timidly and murmured in a small, feeble voice, “You are our Queen….our empress. There is nothing that’s ever going to remain personal as every single thing you do, every relationship you get into, affects the general public as a whole.”
Selena let out a huff of indignation and finding no point in arguing back with stubborn fools who insisted everything they were doing were for her own damn good and kept her mouth firmly shut. Her head was splitting because of the headache they were giving her. Dominic was already on an edge because of these rumors going around and there was quite a strain on their relationship and she could tell that he was trying to be understanding and failing miserably at it and as her people weren’t yet fond of the Vanhuesans after the last stunt they had pulled, she had no choice left but to keep their relationship a secret….at least for now.
She suspected that like her initially, her citizens too would suspect Dominic Vanhuesans pure intentions of pursuing their queen, just after he had challenged a King’s duel and lost terribly. There was a big chance that they might misunderstand his feelings and judge him for it, thinking he only pursued after her for the throne of Valyria and they would never accept him in that case.

The council head stepped forward and addressed his empress politely, while bowing his head formally to both the Queen dowager as well as the Empress, “Your majesty, we already approached Caro Silva with the proposal and he seemed rather keen on the idea and despite the fifty years, it seems as if he still madly in love with you and cares for you deeply.”
Selena’s face paled and she shot a horrified glance at the council. She had tried so hard to maintain allyship with Caro and she had been on a thin ice with him and the council had to go ahead and mess everything up and make it plain awkward between the two of them once again. Now if she were to reject him, she may loose both a friend as well as an ally. She cursed the Council’s impulsiveness and was about to scold him for it when her mother who had been watching everything silently till now stepped forward from her seat and tutted at the council head disapprovingly. For once, Selena was glad that someone was on her side. She wanted to flick the male vampire who just spoke on the forehead out of fury.

“I absolutely forbid this engagement”, the Queen dowager declared haughtily and the council head raised an eyebrow at her determinedly and asked icily, “And pray, may I ask why is that?”

She titled her head up proudly and said stoically, “My daughter is the empress of Valyria, not a mere pheasant you can just marry off without taking her opinions. Besides, she will never be betrothed again to Caro Silva for he had already taken in a concubine.”

The council head muttered warily, “It’s been fifty years, Your Highness, the human concubine had passed away long back. Your daughter will be his only wife.”

The Queen dowager shook her head firmly at him, completely disagreeing with his opinion and stated coldly, “But he already has a child, he already has a heir to the throne who isn’t my daughter’s offspring. Enough is enough. There will be no more further discussion of this. My daughter shall be a wed to an honorable man who promises that he will have only one wife for all of his lifetime, my daughter. The empress of Valyria deserves nothing short of this.”

All of them council members smartly kept their mouth shut, knowing not to further irk her out when she was in such a sulky mood.
For the first time in her life, she felt eternally grateful with her mother and smiled at her, but another part of her knew that her mother was definitely going to disapprove of her relationship with Dominic too.

The council members left from the throne room, one by one, resigning trying to convince the Empress and her mother that Caro Silva would make a good husband as well as a king.

She shot a grateful look at her mother who nodded at her.
Selena pursed her under lip tightly and said worriedly, “Now how will I ever deal with Caro? We were just starting to get along fine after putting everything of the past under the bridge and now this mess, I fear would be the end of our supposed allyship. If I reject him directly after the council having gone to him first, I felt not only hurt his feelings, but also his pride and that’s something we will never recover from.”
Her mother nodded at her, worrying along the same lines.
She patted her daughter’s head affectionately, worried that she had put her in a place for responsibility far too soon and had robed her off a carefree and jubilant life. Selena didn’t even attempt to steer away from the Queen as after that one argument when she had come back to Valyria when she had found out by the Queen’s hand in destroying hers and Caro’s relationship, Selena had found to her surprise that she was getting quite along with her mother and they were starting to get closer like real mothers and daughters as time passed and Selena was starting to get more and more comfortable with her that she even began trusting her.
As Selena moved forward determinedly, the Queen dowager frowned at her daughter’s retreating back and shot after her, “Where are you going?”
As they were slowly getting closer and closer, the Queen dowager found herself becoming more and more greedy for her daughter’s love, affection and warmth as she had been deprived off that and shunned for so long a time, that she didn’t quite want to let her go from her eyesight.
“To meet Caro to fix this mess that the council had created”, she said simply as she walked herself out of the throne room.”