Royal Pain

Chapter Four

"You sure you're okay?" Moira asked her daughter as she paced the study while Constance laid on chaise, buried in a book.

"I'm fine, mother," she smiled, looking up slightly before returning to her book. When she and Bucky got to the castle, her mother requested her audience, in those words exactly. "Just everything has been coming at once and I sort of freaked out a little. I guess it was like a panic attack. I wasn't expecting to become the monarch before I was sixty."

Moira gave her a turse nod, her body still moving around the study, wringing her hands to the point that her fingers were starting to be red and knuckles white.

"Momma, I'm okay, really. B-James took me somewhere he knew I would be safe," she reassured, "He said he called you."

"He did, but I was still concerned. What if you have this sort of attack after coronation? This country cannot be seen as weak." Moira let her hands go, brushing the imaginary wrinkles from her light green gown. "We cannot be seen as weak at this time, last thing you need to worry about is an invasion."

"Momma, I don't think they do invasions anymore, more like the people have an uprising and overthrow their government...Not like that is going to happen!" The look on her mother's face gave Constance's heart a heavy thud. "I won't let it, Momma. I will die before another country or family tries to take Ryfa and Lyorfa."

"Neither of those things give me comfort Connie," Moira murmured as she stood in front of her daughter. "Tell me the truth, did you go to the Hive last night?"

Connie sighed and sunk further down on the chaise, arm moving over her eyes. Thankfully Bucky sent for comfortable clothes for her, the oversized sweater and loose trousers let her feel more at ease and less formal. "Momma," she groaned.

"Constance Reese, you know your father hated that you went there."

"He was the reason I went."

"Do not use him as an excuse for your poor behavior."

"Poor behavior? Momma, the man drank almost every day since I could remember. It was embarrassing as fuck. At least at the Hive no one looked at me with pity."

"No, but as an easy lay."

The words stung as much as a slap to the face.

"I didn't go there to have sex..."

"Oh yes. You assume I don't know what happens there. Rapture and Ninth Cloud are drugs that this country has been trying to get rid of, but those dance places cart it around. Evangeline is the name you use, no?"

"How---"

"Steven might have been your guard, but who do you think he reported to? Myself and your father. Every night we had to listen to him and Samuel give details on what you and your sister were doing. Samuel is the one that had suspicion that Renard's family may be the ones behind your father's death. But you cannot go to that club again, ever. You are going to be crowned queen in three days and you need to get your head on your shoulders and grow up. Mr. Barnes won't be able to protect you in a place like that. It would take days to vet everyone and everything in that building."

"Momma...I just need a place to breathe."

"And we haven't been able to provide that? You could have went to Eyrtian, stay in our villa there to recharge. Or maybe go to Junai? No one can get to the island without passing the guard. No, you chose to drown yourself in strangers, sex, and drugs. You are just like your father, each have their own vices."

Constance stared at her mother, the shock of her saying things unconventionally was out of character. Not to mention how much rancor laced her words.