Chapter 21
“You look rather pleased.” The apt commentary halted the redhead king’s footsteps midway entering her cabinet room. She turned to see her mother walking towards her in all her majestic glory and with her fawning stewards in tow. “Am I right to assume that it has something to do with that beautious oil canvass hanging in your chancery?”
Nicole sighed and waved the knights and the stewards away to give her and her mother their preferred regal privacy. “I was, a while ago.” She answered indifferently, turning back towards the door where she reached for the handle, gripping it tightly to ground herself, as she was not so favourably inclined to have a normal conversation with her mother after their apparent wrangle the day before. “Now, not anymore.” She continued, subtly pointing out the change in her enraptured mood was in relation to seeing the queen.
She pushed the door to her cabinet room open for her mother to pass through because despite their difference of opinions, she’s still obliged to fulfill her devout comportment expected of her as the Queen Mother’s pretend son. And though her refined gentility was prefabricated and instilled at such a young age, it is also undoubtly a quality she innately possesses; her contretemps with her mother, or anyone else for that matter, will never affect the way she conducts herself.
“Oh my child, are you still upset with me?”
Before she sat at her table, the king managed to take a quick stock of her mother, who even in her regal glory, could not hide the dark circles around her eyes and the worry lines that formed on her face during the night. She could tell that her mother was also dwelling on their current issue at hand and probably hadn’t had a proper sleep the night before either.
Overcome by guilt, Nicole sighed and reached out for the nearest book to hide her face with, and pretended to start her reading.
“As long as you have not changed your mind still, then yes, yes I am.” She answered, but there were no sharpness in her tone, no real bite.
Petty as she might sound now, but she will not concede to her mother’s monumentally cruel decision of taking people’s lives despite the grave crime they have committed. She still believes that these malefactors can live the rest of their lives lamenting their wrongdoings in the cold dark grounds of their dungeon and that alone should be more than enough of a punishment.
The Queen mother shook her head as she took the chair across the King’s table. “Oh Nicole… believe me when I say I am merely doing all these things for you.” Her mother said, taking her hands in hers and continued her sentiment. “I will not be in this world forever. I can only protect you for as long as my breathing will let me. I would turn the world upside down and will burn it for you, if need be. For your sake. To keep you safe.”
“But Mother,” Nicole squeezed her mother’s hand back. “when I agreed for you to act on my behalf, and know that I have always, always, trusted all of your decisions, but killing people isn’t the legacy I want to have. Surely, there is another possible recourse we can do that does not involve any bloodshed.”
“There isn’t.” Her mother pulled her hands away as she said so. Her usually radiant face turned grim and Nicole knew she was serious but she still tried to refute.
“How can you say that, Mother? Death is not our last resort. We can…”
“They know.” The Queen mother interjected. “They know, my child.”
“Know what?” The redhead king asked, confused as to what her mother was on about.
“That you’re not supposed to be who you are.” Her mother replied, eyes closed and her eyebrows knitted in distress.
She had seen her mother in all kinds of pertubations before to know that this particular affliction was reserved only for her. That the strain on her face, the frown lines on her forehead and the puffiness under her eyes that never seemed to fade but only pullulate over time had always been because of her.
The redhead king blanched, and all she could mutter was a faint and shaky “How.. how is that even possible?”
“I do not know yet, my child.” The queen mother heaved a sigh. “Nedley is trying to pull that particulars from them as we speak. But they have yet to break, no matter what he do.”
Nicole’s features dimmed.
She has known Randy Nedley as a callous butcher who kills indiscriminately and brutally without questions asked and at the right price - a cold-blooded murderer said to be at her family’s beck and call if he is not so hard-pressed occupied on mutiliating someone. She did not believe it before but now, everything just made perfect sense. He’s the reason why no one dared to cross the queen. He’s the reason why no one had dared to question any of the royal decisions her mother ever made for their kingdom prior to her coronation and even after that. It’s all in fear of having the wickedly callous butcher in front of their doorstep.
The redhead king do not doubt that Nedley could break the prisoners - he is more than capable of doing more than that - but she also knows that once he’s done with them, the prisoners would most likely beg to be killed - and that alone speaks gravity about the skilled butcher’s quality of work.
“I want to see them now.”
Nicole doesn’t know why she suddenly had the urge to see the malefactors who have tried to hurt her mother, the criminals who apparently knew her deepest and darkest secret, but the words were already out of her mouth before her mind even allowed her any considerations.
She was overcome with this inexplicable need to be able to look them in the eyes and still see her reflection in them before Randy Nedley doused the light off of them. She was overcome with this sudden want to ask them personally how they could have possiblh known a two decade’s worth of secrecy and manipulation, and have them answered her while they still have their sanity intact and their tongue attached. She wanted to know them, to know their names and to know why, after twenty four years of her and her mother’s deception, did they only made an appearance now.
When she left the other night to check on the village and appraise the wreckage the culprits have left upon their wake, the red head king decided to pay the malefactors a visit after hearing that they were being taken to a separate quod that her mother’s guards personally oversee. But when she arrived at the chokey, her mother refused her entrance. It was the very reason why she found herself at the bottom of a glass of ale two nights ago. She didn’t understand then why she was not permitted to see and talk to the culprits but now, she does.
The realization that she had been acting like a complete nincompoop while her mother, as always, had been safeguarding her all this time had her teetering on the edge of apologizing for the way she had been behaving towards her mother and all the while still feeling upset that her mother does not regard her sagacious enough to include her in these matters concerning their, apparently, not so well-kept secret.
The queen mother shook her head as she said, “Later, my child. I believe you have something important to do today.”
“Obviously not as important as this mother.” The king said as she stood up from her chair and was about to walk out of her cabinet when the queen stopped her by blocking her way.
“Nicole, no. I would rather have you enjoying yourself planning for the masquerade ball than agonizing yourself over this.”
“It is quite too late for that now mother,” Nicole stated as she tried to circumvent her mother but only to be obstructed again by the queen. “Mother please, I am already worrying about our safety as it is. If they have told others about our secret, if they so much so as whisper my true nature to someone else, then this could be our end. Our downfall. Our death.”
“Nicole!” The queen warned sternly, halting any movement of her daughter. “This is exactly why I do not want to tell you why I was so adamant to end their lives. I knew you were going to be fretting over this and you’ll be distracted with your royal duties.”
“Planning a masquerade ball does not fall on any of my royal duties, mother.” Nicole replied and notes the way how her mother delivers ending another person’s life so casually and so impassively as if she already had done it countless of times before, and that thought alone sent shivers down her spine. Now she wonders even more just how many lives could her mother have taken just to safeguard their secret. But it is a thought she would best ponder later, much later, when the malefactors have been properly dealt with. For now, she has to rearrange her priorities, if her mother will ever let her.
“It is. If it has anything to do with the possibility of you marrying the debutant.” The mother firmly insisted.
Nicole was about to refute again but her mother sat her back on her chair. “We will deal with them later tonight, so do go on with your day for now, whatever it is that you have planned for yourself.”
The red head king wanted to rebut for she knows that anything she had planned today was already ruined by the news she had just learned. She would be racking her head over and over again of the knowledge that someone else have known her secret. She would be thinking about it again and again and again, till her wits have been rendered indisposed of and none of her royal duties were ever done, much like yesterday.
But she still acquiesced. “Fine. But have Nedley stop his torment, I very much like them to have their sanity still intact once I talk to them.”
“You have my word, my child.”
Nicole sighed in between relief and feeling burdened - relief because her mother have listened and burdened even more because of the possibilty of more people knowing her secret.
“Was it not to your liking?”
The redhead king’s trail of thoughts halted at the sound of Lady Wynonna’s voice.
“I beg your pardon?” Nicole asked back, not understanding what was asked of her.
She was walking towards her chancery to meet her council to discuss the soiree she wanted to host when the older french lady saw her from across the hall, and Lady Wynonna, as bored as she was, decided to pester her only friend in the kingdom.
“The painting. Was it not to your liking?” Lady Wynonna repeated. “I thought it would have improved your excessively contemplative mood, but as it seemed so, it didn’t.”
“It was rather an ingenious gift, Wynonna. It did served its purpose. I was amused. And I have yet to thank you for your rather ingenious effort.” As Nicole saw that the french woman seemingly still waiting for more explanation, she added, “I just have a lot in my mind right now.”
The older Earp nodded her head in understanding. “I do supposed that being a king in a kingdom this scale can definitely have that effect. Do you need any distraction? Do you want me to call upon my sister? She’s just reading in her room. I’m quite sure she would love to spend some time with you all the while drawing your attention from whatever it is that’s troubling you, Nicolas.”
“Probably not today, Wynonna. I do not want to pass my sour mood unto her.” King Nicole said despondently as she realized that the few times the younger french lady seemed to ever stumble upon her was when she’s on the verge of despair. It is rather becoming a peculiar habit.
She regarded her knight Xavier to open the door when she was about a foot away from her chancery before turning her attention back to the older french lady. “How about you help me plan your sister’s ball for now? I’d reckon you would know more about what your sister fancies than any of us inside that room combined. And besides, more heads are better than one, is it not?”
Lady Wynonna’s lips curled into a smile, obviously inclined to the idea of taking part in a royal conclave, even if it’s only for a mere masquerade ball. “Well, if the king firmly insist so himself, who am I to say no to that?”