The Queen

Chapter 7

   The palace  left Victoria in awe but on second thought it was only befitting of a Great nation like Vreur. It was a hundred times Grander than the palace at Carveiq. Victoria busied herself looking through the halls as a guard Led them somewhere because she didn't want to think about what was happening. She wanted to run away but she thought about her family, and the people and that horrible dream and she couldn't. She couldn't shirk her responsibility.
  Arriving at what she supposed was a receiving room the maid announced their arrival.
"Come in " Victoria heard a feminine voice with a warm tone call. She entered the room with Tim to find an elegant middle aged lady who Victoria assumed was her mother in law to be .
  Bowing Tim introduced them to her
" Your Grace, Lady Victoria Bordeaux"  he said presenting her to the queen. Victoria gave a small curtsey. She had expected the queen dowager to be more refined not that the queen was lacking or anything like that but she pulled Victoria towards her and she was really nice and chatty. Victoria had the misconceptions that the queen would be snobbish and snooty but she was extremely nice and almost too friendly. She hoped everyone else in Vreur was like the queen at least then her stay here wouldn't be turbulent.

" It most have been a long journey, tell me all about it" she said after Lord timothee excused himself.
"Your Grace,..." Victoria was about to reply only to be interrupted by the queen.
" No need for formalities with me, just call me Freya," she said smiling. Victoria looked up at her, For the first time she had a chance to examine the queen's face. She was a rare beauty with Auburn hair and hazel eyes .If the king looked anything like his mother then he would surely be stunning.
" Yes your gra... Sorry Freya" she said blushing.
" So tell me all about Carveiq, and your journey here" Victoria told her Everything about Carveiq the food, land marks, people and what not but she omitted the failed assassination attempt in order not to foster any misunderstandings, things were going well and it would be better to let sleeping dogs lay.
When The Queen heard Victoria talk she was pleased. She had asked her several questions to test her wits and Victoria's answers had definitely left her satisfied. She knew about the assassination attempt but she decided not to bring it up since Victoria didn't mention it, another piece of evidence that Victoria was wise enough to assume the role of Queen. She was impressed with her choice of a daughter in law. She only hoped her stupid son wouldn't mess things up.
  Victoria really enjoyed the time she spent with the Queen Dowager.She began to let herself believe that things would not be as bad as she had previously imagined. She was led by a maid-who introduced herself as her lady maid Heidi- to her room, which was more magnificent than she had imagined, the décor was tastefully assembled in away that it wasn't too much but still looked elegant and refined. It was already late in the evening and Victoria was very tired especially after the events of the last few days. She hadn't had a proper rest in over a week and although the inn they spent the night at yesterday was fairly ok, she was too anxious to get any sleep. Reflecting on the events of the past week she realized that she was happy to be here, after all anything was better than being hunted by a group of maniacal assassins and the treatment she had received so far wasn't half bad. Victoria was exhausted, in every sense of the word, with the help of Heidi she took a long relaxing bath and went straight to sleep.
      Yoren had wanted to see Victoria all day but his mother had other plans seeing as she'd occupied the lady all day. He wanted to see the look of surprise on her face when she saw his face and recognized him. He was curious about his bride, something about her intrigued him, maybe that was the reason he found himself floating towards her chambers in the dead of the night because he had no other excuse. He stood by the door wondering whether to knock or to go back to his own chamber. He didn't like this feeling of uncertainty, so he did what he wanted to, he knocked.
"My lady,"
Maeve turned towards Monique expectantly.
" Well, quickly now tell me what she looks like" Maeve asked in atone that was full of anxiety. She had worked so hard to come this far, from being a harlot's daughter to being the king's mistress, but in a few days some girl from nowhere was about to rip everything out of her hands.
" My lady, if I may say she's quite pretty, she has a beautiful skin tone a rich dark hair and her fac..." Noticing that the expression on Her lady's face was quickly darkening she added "Although she's not as pretty as you, she can't boast of a tenth of the charm you possess and her posture is rather off putting" she said hoping to alleviate Maeve's frown.It didn't work.
" Has she meet the king, yet"
" Oh she spent the entire day with the Queen but I did see the king walking out of her chambers"
Maeve's expression darkened even more and Monique wished she hadn't mentioned that incident.
" When was this?" Maeve asked brimming with uncontrolled fury.
" Just a few minutes ago, when I was coming here"
It was already an hour past midnight. why would the king go to her room at this time.
Maeve had lived a hard life straight from birth, she had seen every dreadful thing life had to offer and this she had little that she feared. Her greatest fear was the loss of the king's favour and it seemed that if she didn't do something about this Carveiqian girl her fear would become a reality