The Stars|| King George III

15

Slowly Amelia ran the sponge over her husband's back, Reynolds repeating what she was doing. She was confused and scared and wanted to know what was wrong with her husband, her George.

"Your majesty, if you would like to retire to bed, Mr Reynolds and I-" Brimsley took a step forward and Amelia looked up to him, "Am I not allowed to wash my husband?"

"Is it only, unusual."

"I confess I have much to learn about palace procedure. For instance I just pulled the king out of a hole in the vegetable garden, where he was talking to the sky, screaming actually. Certainly that is not usual."

"No your Majesty, the King has not been himself lately" Reynolds answered, Amelia dipped her sponge into the water and slowly begun washing his arms.

Abruptly Amelia stopped and looked between Reynolds and Brimsley, "What is this? What is happening? What has happened to my husband?"

None of them answered her, Amelia huffed and went in to finish wash George. Once clean, Amelia dressed him and led him to his head chamber where, with some help from Reynolds, she got him into bed.

****

The next morning, Amelia dressed, wrote a note for George and got into the carriage, making her way to St' James Palace. To Princess Augusta.

She wanted answers, she wanted a explanation. Amelia didn't know what happened last night, yes she can recall everything in detail but she wanted to make sense of it all.

She wanted to know what was wrong with her George.

Upon arriving, Amelia didn't wait to rush out of the carriage and into the palace, the passed one of the guards, "Where is the princess?"

"The drawing room your majesty" Amelia thanked the guard and made her way towards the drawing room. Without knocking she entered, finding Princess Augusta having breakfast with a Lady.

"Ah, Amelia I did not expect you. The Danbury ball was a triumph."

"Augusta, there is a brining question I just ask you. Have you ever tried cutting mutton, specifically English mutoon with a full knife?"

"I beg your pardon."

"The knifes at Buckingham house used to be sharp enough, then one day they were dull. I did not pay it any mind that it happened the exact day the King joined ne there. Odd, I thought but maybe a coincidence, surely a coincidence that on that very same day the windows were shut on the upper floors and there were a number of locks around my house. On the armoury, the kitchen, the shed were the gardeners keep the sheers. What I do not think is a coincidence is the fact that suddenly King Lear was missing from the Shakespeare set."

Princess Augusta shrugged then used her napkin to wipe her mouth, "Forgive me. I am not a Shakespeare enthusiast."

"The one about the mad king, I have seen it with my very own eyes Augusta, the king is mad. Why did no one tell me?"

"Do not forget yourself Amelia."

"I was fine on my own, in that house. Then suddenly a man comes, my husband comes, back into my home. I slowly get to know him and then he makes his way into my heart but then it turns out that George is not who he seems to be. The king, he is-"

"The king is not mad!"

"He is merely exhausted from holding the greatest nation on his shoulders! How could you know about that? The weight of that on a boy. The weight on his mother as she watches her son start to crack. If, God grant, you ever bare a heir then you may start to learn and your first lesson would be this. You would do anything to stop the cracking. You would engage in hideous doctors and a thousand disgusting treatments! You would scour the entire Europe and beyond for a Queen grateful enough to aid him and yes, if necessary, you'd leave the roughyedges of his nature for his bride to discover in due course."

"Roughy edges? He was talking to the sky! George is not a boy, he is a man grown and if I do bare a heir, I will know he is not perfect because no one is, none of us are perfect. I love my husband, I would not leave him but he was taking to the damn sky."

"And what if it? You were nothing, you came from nowhere. Now you sit at the helm of the world. What matter if your husband has his peculiarities."

"I do not mind his peculiarities, Augusta. What I do  mind is the fact the no one told me, no one even mentioned it. You gave giving everyone a lie, George is living a lie, you are making me live a lie. And gods be damned I will not let that stand."

Amelia turned around and headed for the door but as her hand reached the doorknob she turned around, "I am your Queen, you will not speak to me in the manner you just did. If you do that again, I will behead you."