Protector Of The Empress (GxG)

Two

Catherine woke up the next day from a good night of peaceful sleep. Arthur didn't snore which she was grateful for. He was still sound asleep beside her which she groaned too. She always had to wait until he woke up to get ready because the maids were too loud for him and of course, they couldn't wake him up from his precious beauty sleep.

After an hour of waiting, he finally stirred awake. He turned to Catherine and wished her a good morning, but his breath was awful, she held her breath while smiling. She was close to requesting her own private room, but she knew Arthur would never agree to it. 

The maids came in to help both Catherine and Arthur. Catherine requested a bath, he was already finished and ready for the day when she went in. The empress stepped into the hot bubble bath and sighed in relief as she relaxed. "Em, wash my hair please." The maid stepped close to her and started to wash the empress's hair. "Are you okay my lady? You seem tense today." she started to rub the shoulders of the empress the way she liked it.

"I am surprised you have not heard of it yet, you maids have a way of chattering about such things." The empress said mostly to herself. Those girls knew everything that happened in the castle and rumors were always being spread. The empress chooses not to get involved in such drama. "The resistance has been sneaking around our property, they are becoming a threat and I do fear for my life," Catherine confessed.

"I had no idea, it seems to be getting worse these days," Em replied and Catherine nodded in agreement. She choose to let the subject go and just relax while Em worked wonderfully on her hair. She managed to completely relax during the bath and after that, she got dressed for the day. She didn't feel like painting that day as she couldn't start on her winter landscape painting. She was stuck inside her home until they acquired some real protection.

She wandered the halls of the castle not knowing what to do. Since it was winter she'd usually go downtown to the market and buy something for herself, but she could not do that and that annoyed her. "My damned husband is at fault for all of this." She mumbled angrily to herself. She remembered that Arthur had another meeting with the council that day and she was curious if they had made a plan on what to do.

She opened the back door to the council room, hid behind a column and listened. "It is settled then, everyone agrees?" They all replied with yes. Catherine wanted to groan, she had just missed the whole meeting. The empress silently walked back out of the room and decided to wait and ask Arthur what they had discussed. She ran to the main entrance to say goodbye to the council members. They all greeted and said goodbye to her.

When they were all gone she went to the emperor who was sitting on his throne while being deep in thought. "Arthur," Catherine said, letting her presence be known. He looked over in her direction and smiled at her. When she was close enough to talk in the voice she was comfortable with she asked. "What were you and the councilmen discussing?" Arthur took a hold of her wrist and forced her to sit on his lap. She thought it was rather distasteful of him, but did not comment on it. His hand cupped her cheek and she tried not to look repulsed by him. Of course, after all the years spent with him, she was good at hiding what she really felt.

"My beautiful wife..." He trailed off as his eyes were set on her cleavage, she wanted to slap some sense into him, he acted like such a pig sometimes. "The resistance and trespassers will be arrested or executed. For your safety, I have hired a personal knight for you." I arched an eyebrow.

"A personal knight? what is that?"

"Someone who will be there beside you at every hour of the day. They will protect you if someone were to attack and they will look after you." A personal knight who would spend every hour with me and my husband was fine with it? He was a jealous and insecure man, she would have never though he would do such a thing, but she was grateful.

"You do not mind?" She asked.

"Of course not, my wonderful lady. Why would I? Your safety is my biggest concern." The empress nodded.

"I will have one too, our knights are on the way, I believe they will be here in a week or so."

"Why did you not get a knight from our kingdom? there are plenty of skillful knights here." Catherine asked.

"I want knights who has no knowledge of who we are, completely different lands and kingdoms. That way they cannot betray us." For once Arthur had made a smart choice, but she doubted he had come to that idea himself. One of the councilmen must have come up with that idea. A maid approached them and handed Arthur's medicine, he suffered from an illness so he needed the medicine every day, without it he would most likely die. He took his medicine and drank it all. "I must take my leave now," Catherine said, she wanted to talk to Anja about the emperor's plan.

Catherine wandered the halls trying to find Anja until she heard Anja's voice in the common maid chambers. The empress opened the door and saw the closeness of Em and Anja, they immediately parted when the empress had opened the door. Catherine thought they were acting suspiciously. The two women seemed flustered or scared. Were they plotting the death of the me and my husband? No, they would never, she thought to herself. The empress choose not to ask them about the strange atmosphere in the room and rather pretend like she had not noticed something was going on. "Anja, I wanted to talk to you."

"O-of course my lady." Em greeted Catherine and left the room. She sat down in one of the maid's beds and Anja followed after. "Arthur has a plan, I am getting a personal knight."

"Oh?, that is certainly interesting my lady, have you seen him?" She asked.

Catherine shook her head. "No, but apparently he is from a kingdom far away. It is not often I meet someone from another land. I do hope I still have my own private life."

Anja chuckled. "I am sure you will still have a private life, you can just order him to stay outside the room." The empress nodded. The way Anja and Em were when she walked in still lingered in her mind, she wanted to know what the two women had been talking about, she wanted to know something. "Are you and Em friends?"

Anja's eyes widened, she looked down and the empress was sure something was going on. Her maid was acting very suspicious. "Yes, we recently became friends." Catherine hummed in response not knowing what else to say.

The two women continued to talk for a while and the day came to an end, as usual, Catherine went into her bed chambers while waiting for her husband. She pretended to be asleep so he would not bother her and ask for intimacy. When he was very aroused he would wake her up anyway which she hoped he would not do that day.

Luckily for her, he just kissed her goodnight and went to sleep himself.

short chapter oops.

Words: 1280 

posted: 2. March 2022