*Zelene's P.O.V*
"So explain again to me why exactly we need all this stuff?" I ask Duchess Grey as we are riding back in her carriage, surrounded by all her purchased stuff. At least all the stuff she could fit. The rest of it is being shipped to her place later.
"We don't... it was just cute and I have rooms to spare. Why can't I have a useless playroom, toddler room, or nursery? Plenty of people refuse to change a room after it serves its purpose and the Queen's castle is the perfect example of that! It has so many useless rooms that are never changed that it's mind boggling! I mean, it has a bedroom from a queen that has been dead for at least a 100 years!" She says while continuing to lay down across her seat, covering her eyes with a folded up hand towel. I knew vaguely that she didn't like carriage rides from Lady Euphemia but I was not expecting it to be so bad!
"Don't try to change the subject with irrelevant things! You know they aren't useless things or rooms! These are for her Majesty to use and I want to know why." I point out, deciding not to play her little game and get distracted. This earns a sigh from the Duchess but she still doesn't remove the towel to look at me and have a proper conversation.
"You know why, as we have talked about this repeatedly and I'm tired of explaining it to you over and over again. Why does it matter so much anyway? What is your real issue here? If you are afraid she will start slacking off now and push the work onto you, trust me, it's going to be the far opposite or she will be one sorry child. If we actually do this, we will be far more involved in her everyday life and we have always expected the best from her." Duchess Grey says, trying to turn the conversation away from her majesty and onto me, which I gladly accept as it allows me to bring up my next point.
"Why was I involved in this whole scheme then... I have no role in it, as far as it seems. It's just between her Majesty, yourself, and Lady Euphemia." I tell her, finally getting her to remove the towel and look at me.
"One, it's not a scheme. Beth getting what she wants is not some conspiracy for us to take over the kingdom like you make it sound. Trust me, neither of us lack anything and have no desire to play politics again. There is a reason my house rarely attaches itself to anything anymore. Two, we didn't involve you. You involved yourself..." Duchess Grey says, throwing me completely for a loop.
"I did no such thing! I just showed up and was all of a sudden involved in this by you and Lady Euphemia!" I defend with, having no idea why she would claim I wanted to be involved in all this at all.
"Exactly... you showed up, unannounced and uninvited, and could have left whenever you wanted. No one forced you to stay. You stayed though because you wanted to. You wanted to be involved in our planning. You wanted to give your input. Whether that was to help us plan this out or complain about it, that is still involving yourself. Whether you stay involved or not is a whole other matter but seeing as you seem to struggle not to involve yourself at every turn, I'm sure you will find a way to do so." Duchess Grey says, leaving me at a loss for words as I process what she just said!
I have not been involving myself. Yes, she does have a point about how I arrived and I guess I did force them to catch me up on what was happening after I was told to wait and ask them later... but that doesn't mean I wanted to be involved! I never wanted to be involved! In fact, I was arguing against even them being involved and not encouraging this type of behavior from her majesty this whole time!
"But you are partially right, in a way. We don't necessarily want you fully involved in this endeavor but it would go a lot smoother if you were mildly involved." Duchess Grey says as she covers her eyes and gets comfortable again.
"Are you okay? Should we find a physician?" I ask, noticing for the first time how sickly she is looking right now. I might not agree with her statement but that doesn't mean I wish her unwell!
"I'm fine. Traveling has never been kind to me and has only gotten worse as I've gotten older. I used to ride horseback to avoid all this but now even that presents its own type of problems. It's why I leave the trips around my provinces to my husband and children, and stay close to home nowadays. They always enjoyed being out and with our people more than I did anyway. Call me stuck up or whatever, I just am not one who particularly enjoys getting their hands dirty and calloused." She says while waving my worries away.
"So is that why you rarely attend anything anymore?" I ask, curious to resolve one of the reasons for the many rumors floating around about why the Duchess almost disappeared from all events.
"It's one of the reasons. When you are expected to show up in your fanciest carriage and said carriage leaves you feeling sick, you question how worth it said event is. Few are ever close to worth it so I ignore most. The other major reason, and the one that trumps how I'm getting there, is I hate playing the political games and they are always being played there. It's a thing for the young and I am reminded everyday by my body how I am no longer that. Especially when I'm riding in one of these blasted carriages." Duchess Grey says, bringing the conversation full circle. Deciding it's better to just let the conversation end there, rather than talk about how old she is, I go back to our previous conversation.
"So what exactly would you and Lady Euphemia expect me to do while you two... Make her Majesty... Act younger?" I ask, stumbling over my words as I do so.
"Smooth... my age isn't that sensitive of a subject, you know. It's not like I'm not constantly reminded of it by how long I've been a Duchess, or how long I've been married, or how old my children are, or how old Beth is, or me being a grandparent already! Some of my friends are even great grandparents already, which just feels weird to say!" Duchess Grey says, peaking an eye out to smirk at me before covering it back up again.
"But, to answer your question, not much. Mainly, we need someone to manage her while she's the Queen. Manage isn't the right word. We need someone to make sure she stays the Queen and not our little girl. We need someone to be the middle... woman. Our plan is to force her to get things done during the week and then relax at one of our places during the weekends. It would be easier to do if we could trust you to let us know if she was doing that or if she needed a reminder of how to act but we can always find another solution if you are truly unwilling. We could just do it ourselves but we are busy, and it would raise questions we would rather not need to answer if we all of a sudden were always visiting the castle and her majesty. Especially, as you pointed out, I don't travel much these days and people have noticed." She tells me, leaving me to decide if I want to proceed in their plan or not.
It does sound like they just want me to be the adviser in a way and I am technically doing that already, I think. Now I'm not really sure if her Majesty gave me the job or not. I sure hope so because I have been doing it while she's been gone. Back to the important question though, should I do this or should I tell the Duchess no?
YOU ARE READING
Queen's Adviser
FantasyElizabeth has been ruling her kingdom for 3 years now. She's gone through countless advisors in those 3 years. When she's finally ready to give up on finding herself one, she meets Zelene.
