The Queen

Chapter 9

     The wedding was now only a few days away and the days following up to it had been very hectic. The royal seamstress had been at the palace every day for dress fittings and there were so many decisions to be made. Victoria was surprised by how they made something as insignificant as the colour of the dinner table napkins seem important. The excitement however was inevitable after all this was the first royal wedding in Vreur in over four decades. The town folk hardly had anything to be excited over so this was a massive opportunity to escape from the boring routines of their daily lives. Victoria had settled down quite well and she was grateful for Freya who had been making her very comfortable and helped her with the wedding preparations which probably wouldn't have been able to do alone. She had gotten over the encounter with her husband-to-be and she was glad not to have encountered him in the past few days. 

   Victoria decided to take a stroll in the garden after her afternoon fitting, she liked the garden because it was the only place in the palace that didn't seem to be demanding something and it reminded her of her own garden. Everyone treated her well but it was obvious they didn't like her much and it would be a full-on task to win them over but it was a task she had to undertake if she planned to live peacefully. Victoria walked around aimlessly for a while before deciding to go back in when the red-haired lady from the other day appeared before her. It wasn't appropriate for a lady to describe another lady as beautiful but Victoria thought this woman was not just beautiful but several other adjectives like astonishing, attractive, gorgeous e.t.c.                                                                                                                                       

 "Hello, I must have startled you. I just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Maeve" she said with one of those wry smiles that  Victoria thought served as a warning flag.                                                                    "I know who you are, " Victoria said quietly.                                                           

 " Oh, then I take it that you also know that I'm your husband's mistress," she said smiling proudly. Victoria was dumbfounded, the audacity of this lady was really unexpected.                                                                                             

" I guess you also know that since you are not shaken, Then I will just say what I have to, Yoren doesn't love you and you will be doing yourself a favour by calling off this sham of a wedding because even if you marry him nothing will change and sooner much rather than later he will leave you. He can't live without me " Victoria was annoyed by this woman's guts, she had been trying to get past these days quietly but life kept throwing annoying situations onto her path. She had been doing her best to ignore these situations but suddenly her anger broke free.               " Yes I know who you are, my future husband's mistress, and yes I know he doesn't love me. I didn't come here looking for love. You are his mistress so you should focus on your duty and keep him happy in bed, I will be his wife and his queen and I will fulfil my own duties, so let's try not to get in each other's way." Victoria was satisfied when she observed the colour change on Maeve's face. No doubt she had won this round so she turned to leave but she liked this feeling of victory so much she turned to face Maeve once more and  smiling said
 " You are right, one of these days your Yoren might gather the courage to leave me but till then I should hold out don't you think, after all, you are doing the same thing." after this, she turned to leave. Victoria was smiling from ear to ear the entire day so much so that  Heidi had to ask why she was so happy but Victoria told her she was just feeling joyous which wasn't exactly a lie.                           Meanwhile, somewhere else in the palace, a certain red-haired lady was brimming with rage. How dare that stupid Carveiqian girl talk down to her like that? Maeve had led a life full of insecurity and uncertainty since she was young. Her mother had been the proprietress of a less than appropriate brothel her father no doubt a noble man hadn't wanted her as she was undeniable proof of his indiscretions. Her mother had been more interested in the dust floating in the air than in her child and so Maeve spent her childhood in the perpetual agony of longing for love and affection.                                                                                                                                                                                                        The first time she got an inkling of the power her beauty held had been when a farm hand of the estate a few miles away from the brothel had professed his undying love for her. She didn't like the farm hand nor was she interested in becoming a farm hand's wife but something in her knew that for the first time in her life she was in control of something and she loved that feeling of being in charge of how things turned out and where things went, So she told the farmhand (who was unaware of the fact that the proprietor of the brothel was her mother)that he would have to buy her from her mistress so they could get married. Poor, silly naive tom (for that was the farm hand's name) gave her his life's saving with the expectation that he would gain a beautiful wife. He did gain something, several things even such as hurt, disappointment and betrayal when he went to the brothel the next day and found out that his sweet, innocent Maeve had run off with his money.                                                                                                                                                                    Maeve would eternally be grateful to Tom who had not only given her the means to escape but had also given her a glimpse at how much power her beauty could wield. A power she planned to use to get everything she wanted.