Chapter 37

Iris spent most of her day looking out of the window at the gardens below and watched as more and more guests arrived, wishing she could be part of the celebrations.
She looked down at her son in her arms before lifting him to her mouth and gave him a kiss on his head, “at least I have you to keep me company.”
‘I am going to miss you so much,’ Iris thought as a tear escaped her eye, “but don’t worry my little prince,” she whispered, “I will be back before your first steps.” Iris wondered how long the journey would take as she had never been to Prince Remington’s Kingdom and wondered if it was as far away as King Evander’s kingdom
where she was born. Iris doesn’t remember much about her early childhood and lived with mostly the stories her parents told her.
‘I love a monster,’ Iris realized, but didn’t care.
Iris heard a commotion outside of her door and sent a servant to open the door, “go see what is going on.”
Before the servant reached the door, the door flung open. King Evander forced his way past two of Prince Remington’s guards, “how dare you to define me in my own kingdom?” King Evander pulled his sword and wounded both of them.
“Evander!” Iris yelled out in horror as the blood spat across the walls.
“Evander!” Prince Remington barged in, sword in hand.
“You will not deny me in my own kingdom! Who the hell do you think you are, ordering your guards to take me on?” King Evander roared.
“Get yourselves to a healer,” Prince Remington told his men and put his sword away.
“She does not belong to you anymore and if you want to ensure her safety, then I will do so,” Prince Remington informed him.
“My son is in this room and since both of us want to be with our son I am forced to be in the same room as her,” King Evander roared, even though he knew his son was not the only reason he wanted to be in the queen’s room.
“Very well then,” Prince Remington said and turned around to walk out of the room.
“Why do you walk around as if you are the king? I should hang you for treason,” King Evander shouted, but Prince Remington just ignored him.
“You are making him cry,” Iris said, trying to calm a screaming baby in her arms.
“Leave us,” King Evander sent the servants out.
“Not so fast. First, clean up the blood,” Iris ordered like a true queen.
King Evander gave large strides over to her and enveloped her and his son. “I am such a fool. I overreacted and now I am losing you,” he whispered.
“You are not losing me,” Iris assured him.
“I will find a way out of this. I am not letting you go with him,” King Evander said firmly, before storming off.
“Evander, stop!” Iris called after him. “Let us spend time together now while we can.”
King Evander turned around and walked back to where she was sitting, thinking, ‘I will take care of my cousin later.’

Later that morning, shortly before lunch, King Evander was in his office and sent one of his servants to call Prince Remington for a private audience.
“Nothing you have to say will change my mind,” Prince Remington said as he walked into the office.
“Wine?” King Evander signaled the servant to serve the prince wine.
“Wine will not make me soft,” Prince Remington declined the wine.
“You can have my kingdom, which is next to your parent’s kingdom,” King Evander offered.
“Well, thank you. A kingdom and a queen, how generous,” Prince Remington chuckled.
“You know what I mean!” King Evander slammed his fist down on his table.
“All the kingdoms in the world cannot buy her back,” Prince Remington spat at his anger.
“What about what she wants?” King Evander questioned.
“She is a woman. They want what we tell them to want,” Prince Remington said smoothly, even though he would never expect the queen to do anything against her will. Prince Remington had heard far too many stories about how the king treated Cerena by letting her stay behind and believed he was taking her away for her own good and not for his own selfish desires.
“She is more than just a woman. She is a queen!” King Evander raised his voice.
“Perhaps you should remember that before you speak with such impulsiveness again,” Prince Remington said calmly, and stood up to leave.
“Sit down,” King Evander demanded.
Prince Remington stood standing and challenged, “or what?”
“Why are you so anxious for us to be enemies?” King Evander tried his calmest tone.
“Just because I want what was mine before you took her from me and forced her to marry you?” Prince Remington questioned; his tone was not so calm anymore.
“You had a brief romance. She was never yours, to begin with,” King Evander said firm.
“We were arranged to be wed, but I got delayed in my travels,” Prince Remington informed him.
“Delayed in your travels? Ha! You and your parents stayed out of sight because you knew what was good for you, but now it seems you don’t,” King Evander laughed sarcastically.
Prince Remington clenched his jaw, making it stand stiff as he knew his cousin’s words were true.
“You can have my sister and all the bed slaves you desire,” King Evander offered.
“Ha,” Prince Remington burst out laughing. “Nothing will make me change my mind.”
“At least give her time to heal. She is in no condition to travel such a long journey,” King Evander requested.
“My parents should arrive later. I already received word that they are near. The queen will travel back in luxury with my mother. I will ensure a full and robust recovery,” Prince Remington said and stepped towards the door.
“Our son is so young. Let her ween him first, please,” King Evander pleaded.
“You were going to send her away, so what is the difference?” Prince Remington questioned.
“Who told you that?” King Evander questioned.
“The walls,” Prince Remington said, and took his leave.
King Evander looked up at his court official, the one he thought he could trust with everything.
“Your majesty, I swear on my life,-“ the court official fell to his knees and pleaded.
“Find the traitor,” King Evander barked at the top of his lungs.
The court official hurried away on all fours, relieved to still have his head on his body.

Marchelle strode past the court official that was crawling out of King Evander’s office and wondered what was going on.
“I see you are in a lovely mood today,” Marchelle pointed out and signaled the servant to pour her a goblet of wine.
The servant poured her the wine and gave it to her. With a thank you, Marchelle took a sip and sat down on the daybed.
“You are proving yourself quite useless these days,” King Evander remarked.
“Meaning?” Marchelle questioned, wondering if he was referring to sex or running the kingdom.
“Three months ago you were competent in all areas of my life, but it appears the birth of my son has affected you somehow,” King Evander insulted.
“I won’t stand for these insults,” Marchelle said and took her leave. Even though she appeared confident, she was worried, thinking, ‘I need to spend more time with Iris before she leaves.’

Marchelle made her way over to the queen’s room and on her way there she stopped one of the servants that were carrying a tray of food, “please bring me a tray of food to the queen’s room.”
“This is for the queen. Her lunch,” the servant said with a little bow of her knee and head.“For me your stupid servant,” Marchelle spat.
“Yes, princess,” the servant turned around to hurry off.
“First, take the tray in your hands to the queen, you moron,” Marchelle sighed.
The servant turned back and bowed again before hurrying off while Marchelle slowly strode over to the queen’s room.
Marchelle walked so slowly that by the time she arrived at the queen’s room, the servant also arrived with the second tray.

“What on earth?” Marchelle questioned when she noticed her tray was short a small vast with a flower in it, unlike the queen’s tray.
“Anything not to your liking, princess?” The servant asked, keeping her head bowed.
Marchelle slammed the tray to the ground, “you figure it out.”
Marchelle composed herself before walking into the queen’s room. “Hello, sister-in-law or should I say, soon-to-be sister wife?”
“Your majesty or your highness will be just fine,” Iris responded sarcastically, making Marchelle snort in disbelief.
“Leave us,” Marchelle demanded and grabbed the servant by her arm and walked her to the door before shutting the door and leaping over to Iris. “Listen to me, you little winch! You are a servant and nothing more!” Marchelle sneered as she grabbed Iris by her throat.
Iris had a table fork in her hand and pressed it against Marchelle’s neck. “I will end you if you ever call me a servant again,” Iris said, ready to end Marchelle right there.