Chapter 61: Grandfather or Puppeteer

Basil frowned into the distance. He’d been sitting in the same position for at least an hour, thinking and letting out little frustrated sighs. It had been a full day since the confrontation in the ballroom. She knew that he went to talk to Adolph about Laurel again after that, but he hadn’t said what they’d discussed.
It was unnerving and only added to Delia’s current stress. The vial Eden had given her was burning against her skin, tucked safely in the bust of her gown. She hadn’t dared to leave it in her room where someone could find it and get suspicious.
“I’m having doubts,” Basil said softly. “About… my mother and father’s relationship.”
Delia slid closer, seizing upon the chance, “Why?”
“… a feeling,” Basil said, making Delia’s stomach jolt in fear. “Just… an instinct I guess.”
He sighed as Delia tried to calm her heart. Adolph had impeccable instincts. Was there a chance that Basil had inherited some of them and they were waking up now? Why now?
She thought of Eden’s cold stare again and shivered as a jolt of would lose her new status if he ever found out.
“Well, Tina wouldn’t lie to you.”
“You think my father would?”
His voice was a bit tense and she shrugged trying to play off the anxiety that it evoked. He’d never taken that sort of tone with her before.
“I think an older man had more reason to try and justify his interest in a seventeen-year-old woman than your nanny has reason to lie about her late mistress…”
It was a gamble, but Delia held her breath listening for Basil’s reaction.
“… maybe.” He stood. “I need to talk with someone.”
Delia frowned, “Who?”
Basil closed the door behind him, not hearing Delia’s question as he left her room. He walked down the stairs until he reached the suites they were staying in. He knocked carefully as he heard laughter from beyond the door.
His aunt answered the door, looking just as much like his paternal grandmother as ever. She tilted her head with a curious lift of her brow as if his appearance at her door was strange but not unexpected. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she considered him before she stepped aside.
He felt a bit like he’d passed some sort of invisible test only to start another one.
“Is it my dear cousin?” Irene called coming from the sitting area with a bright smile. Her smile faltered, and her shoulders slumped before she crossed her arms and eyed him dismissively.
“The… other cousin, then,” Irene said with a stiff little nod. “Your Highness.”
“Irene,” Raven said with a warning, leading him to the sitting area.
He nodded politely at the rest of the women, all of them were cousins of his father, but he didn’t know them well. He had only come to speak to Raven. They looked at him curiously with similarly assessing gazes as Raven. Some of them turned away quickly, dismissively. Others let their gaze linger before turning back to their conversation.
“Well, don’t look as though we’ll eat you,” Raven laughed as she sat. “What brought you here?”
He swallowed, “It’s… about my father… and his marriage.”
Raven frowned, “What about it?”
He looked down, “You have to talk to him. She’s seventeen!”
“And? Your father is in his prime and they’re mates.”
Basil’s eyes jumped up to meet Raven’s gaze.
“You… believe that?”
Raven gave him an amused smile, “I can understand why you don’t, but I do. Most importantly, your father and Laurel do.”
He huffed, “How can you be okay with her taking my mother’s place? They—“
Raven’s gaze turned cold, “What does your *mother* have to do with anything?”
Basil flinched at her tone, “What kind of question is that? She has—”
“Nothing to do with it,” Raven said. “*Nothing.*”
Basil’s face heated. Anger boiled in him and he felt his lips curling in fury, “My mother and father were—”
“A matter of convenience,” Raven picked up her drink. Her eyes were cool and assessing, unaffected. “Laurel is a matter of love. They have nothing to do with one another.”
Basil glared at her, refusing to listen or even entertain her. He stood, “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“Of course,” Irene said lightly. “Why not just ask your grandfather?”
“Irene—”
“No,” Irene said. “He’s old enough now to take responsibility for himself.”
Basil glared at Irene as she turned to him. He growled at her, “Grandfather was right about you.”
Irene burst into laughter, “I scarcely think Gavin Mirabelle has ever been right about anything that didn’t involve manipulating people and hoarding money.”
Basil rounded the couch in a huff and stormed out of the room, grumbling to himself. They were wrong. His grandfather would understand. They were the ones who didn’t seem to get it. He crossed the castle to get to Gavin’s office and heard him cursing to himself inside.
He opened the door, finding it unlocked, and Gavin looked up, the anger faded and he smiled.
“Ah, my dearest grandson, come in. What’s brought you to see me?”
“It’s about the wedding,” Basil said closing the door behind him. “I talked to the luna of the Black Mountain pack, and—”
Gavin scoffed, “I have told you before and I will tell you again. That woman and the rest of them know nothing.”
“That’s what I said,” Basil said. “I just thought father may have told them what he’s thinking… marrying that girl...”
“Yes, if my poor Olivia were here now…” Gavin shook his head. Basil smiled, listening to his grandfather talk about Olivia’s great love for Adolph. How she’d send him letters every week and cherish every reply she received.
How she pleaded with the ministry to go and see him on the front lines and had been refused.
How she… had done everything.
“To think a great woman is to be replaced by a rude little girl from the country,” Gavin scoffed. “What is His Majesty thinking trying to give control of the kingdom to a child?”
*Didn’t you ever think?* Laura’s voice asked from the back of Basil’s mind. Laurel’s cold condescension flickered in his mind’s eye as he listened to Gavin. When he was a child, he had loved the stories he’d tell about his mother, feeling some sort of connection to her through them.
“And what about my father?” Basil asked. Gavin stopped, staring at him.
“What about him?”
“You never told me how he loved my mother…”
Gavin blinked, shuffling papers as he stammered and sputtered. For a moment, Basil glanced at the pages on his desk. He’d always thought his grandfather was always busy, but he couldn’t exactly remember what his grandfather did all day.
He wasn’t the minister of finance or justice. He wasn’t the minister of trade either.
“Well, it’s a long story. The details are a bit fuzzy,” Gavin said with a nervous chuckle. “I can’t say Olivia ever shared such things with me, and I never pushed…”
He frowned looking at the books on his desk. He glanced around the room, really taking stock of it. When he was a child, he’d only spent a handful of hours in his grandfather’s office. Seeing it now, something wasn’t right.
Was it something in the books or the placement of the pages? Maybe he was imagining things.
“I have a great deal of work to do, dear Basil. Perhaps we can continue this conversation some other time.”
“Grandfather,” Basil started. “What… do you do for the kingdom?”
Gavin looked up and flushed, “After all these years, it seems you’re still lacking in your education. You should know what position I hold in the court by now!”
Basil frowned. He remembered as a child Gavin would always say that he shouldn’t ask questions as a prince would know the answer, but how was he meant to know anything without learning it?
*Didn’t you ever think?* Laurel hissed at him from the back of his mind with Laura’s tear-ridden gaze.
He didn’t know what to think.

******
Delia found Tina sitting alone in the gallery of portraits, crying in front of Olivia’s portrait. She was the only luna not painted with her husband in the entire room.
“Oh, Tina,” Delia simpered coming towards her. “You poor thing. I’m so sorry…”
Tina sniffled, “It’s that wretched girl! If only… If only…”
She looked up to the portrait, heart filled with grief and clutching a vial in her hand. Olivia had given it to her, the last gift before she died in exchange for a promise. Never would she serve another of Adolph’s wives after serving his greatest love. She had only come to pay respects.
“What’s that in your hand?” Delia asked, Tina turned away.
“Never you mind it,” Tina said softly. “A promise I’d made a long time ago.”
Delia eyed the vial and kept herself from smiling as she looked up at the portrait.
“She was beautiful,” Delia said, letting her gaze drift over the painting. Olivia was perhaps even more stupid than Laura had been, but she was far more useful if the vial in Tina’s hand was what she thought it was. “I can understand why you guard her place in the kingdom.”
Tina looked at her as Delia pat her hand, “The king will change his mind once I give Prince Basil a son.”
Tina’s eyes widened and her gaze dropped to Delia's stomach. Delia felt a rush of glee, knowing she had Tina in her hands. All she had to do was give a convincing lie and the whole plan would fall into place.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else to raise Basil’s son other than you,” Delia smiled, seeing the glimmer of hope and the idea in Tina’s eyes. “It won’t be much longer, so hang on in the kitchens, okay?”
Tina nodded stiffly before Delia left, smirking as she heard Tina’s sobbing stop. She heard Tina stand and start to walk briskly towards the kitchens and practically skipped back to her room.