The Heiress Queen (Season Series Prequel)

Chapter 26

The next morning, Isabelle obediently joined the rest of the debutantes in the queen's reading room. She selected a book of silly love poems to bring with her from the solar, but she had no intention of reading it. Instead, her eyes roved around the room, attempting to determine who else would benefit from the new inheritance law.

Most of the other debutantes had brothers, which precluded them from ever inheriting their lands or titles . Cora was the eldest in her family, but she had two younger brothers. Henrietta Barclay had an older brother whose wife had given birth to a son, already securing the line of the Dukes of Richmond.

Isabelle's eyes stopped, however, when they landed on Violet, seated between Cora and Henrietta, the three of them chatting amiably. Violet had no siblings and no cousins. As far as Isabelle knew, the only blood relations on her father's side were aunts, meaning there were no direct male heirs in her family either...

Isabelle's feet moved of their own accord, crossing the room to stand before the trio of debutantes. Henrietta looked up at Isabelle with a scowl, while Cora ignored her outright. Violet's brow furrowed at the look on Isabelle's face.

"I must speak with you, Violet. It's urgent," Isabelle said, ignoring the others.

"Goodness me, is the sky falling?" Henrietta quipped. "There's no need to be so brusque, but then they wouldn't have taught you any manners way up north, would th-"

"Excuse me," Violet said, rising and cutting Henrietta off. Cora watched the pair of them with narrowed eyes as Isabelle led Violet to a corner.

"You probably haven't heard yet, but the king is signing a new inheritance law," Isabelle started, her voice barely above a whisper. Violet's brow remained furrowed.

"It would mean that women can inherit the lands and titles of their father provided there are no direct male heirs," Isabelle said, watching her friend expectantly. But rather than comprehension dawning on Violet's face, her frown deepened.

"My father would never pass his lands and titles to me," she said. "What a ridiculous law, no woman is fit for such a task!"

Isabelle blinked. Then blinked again.

"Vi, it would mean that all your lands would be yours, not your future husband's. You wouldn't need to marry-" Isabelle started, changing tack as she took her friend's hands. Violet pulled away, her frown slowly turning to anger.

"Is this some sort of joke?" Violet demanded.

"Of course not, I'm only trying to-" Isabelle started.

"Cora warned me that you'd try to convince me to leave Byron," Violet said, hurt lurking behind the anger in her brown eyes. Isabelle cursed Cora so violently in her head that it was a wonder she didn't speak it aloud.

"I'm not trying to convince you to leave anyone!" Isabelle protested. "I'm trying to tell you that you don't need to marry anyone if you want to remain in charge of your father's estate!"

"Byron will run my father's estate far better than anyone else could!" Violet fired back. "And I want to marry him. He loves me!"

"Vi..." Isabelle said, her heart breaking. She was too late. She'd gotten so caught up in her own affairs that she'd allowed her friend to be duped by an unscrupulous shipping heir. The Fletchers did not have lands, but they had wealth. Violet's father's lands would give Byron both the title of Lord and a sizeable seaside estate that any shipping magnate would kill for.

Or marry for, as was the case with Violet.

"Just because you've been loved and cherished your whole life doesn't mean we all have! You've had Leopold since we were girls and you've never let us forget it!" Violet continued. "How selfish and petty must you be to try to take that same happiness away from me? I love Byron and I'm going to marry him. If you are at all my friend, you'll support me rather than try to drag me away from him."

"Please, Violet. Promise me that you'll at least speak to your father about the new law," Isabelle said, studying her friend's face. But Violet's expression was unyielding. Isabelle had crossed a line that she hadn't even known was there, but now it was clear that Violet's heart was set on Byron Fletcher. No amount of persuasion and no change to an inheritance law would alter that.

"I will speak to my father about marrying Byron Fletcher, not about some ridiculous law," Violet said, taking a step back towards Cora and Henrietta. "I have no interest in lands and titles, I'd rather be married to the man I love."

Isabelle watched her go, wondering if their friendship would ever recover from this.

She returned to her seat, flipping open the book of love poems with a sick feeling roiling inside her. Violet was so blinded by her infatuation with Byron that she couldn't see what was happening. Or perhaps she didn't want to. The realization that her friend valued a man's love over lands and titles whallopped Isabelle in the stomach. This was probably the exact argument any opposition in the king's council had made against the new law. They'd scoff and say that women were dainty, brainless things that cared more about dresses and love poems than lands and power.

This was the reason the law did not mandate that an heiress would automatically inherit her father's lands and title, but rather that the father would decide. Maybe Violet hadn't dared to allow herself to consider Isabelle's words because of her tenuous relationship with her own father. Isabelle desperately attempted to reassure herself that that was the case, but a terrible dread that Violet really wanted nothing more than to be loved argued the contrary. Byron had noticed and exploited that desire, and now there seemed to be nothing Isabelle could do to change that.

"Pssst! My lady!"

The voice had Isabelle whirling around. Lissa's head was poking out from behind a tapestry, her worried eyes darting across the room to where the queen was playing bridge with some of her ladies.

"Lissa?" Isabelle whispered in disbelief.

"You must come quickly," Lissa said. Isabelle didn't bother with any more questions, abandoning her book and sidling stealthily towards the tapestry. She cast her eyes around the room, but the only person watching her was Cora.

Flashing her once-friend a decidedly vulgar gesture, she slipped behind the tapestry into the service corridor behind Lissa.

"What's happened?" Isabelle asked, as her maid set off at a frantic pace through the darkened corridor.

"I was instructed to fetch you straightaway," she said. "The others mustn't know you've gone otherwise they might not let you leave."

"Leave?" Isabelle repeated, her dread mounting that her father had perhaps changed his mind and summoned her home.

"Yes, my lady," Lissa said, pulling open another service door. They emerged into a busy hallway filled with servants. When Isabelle tried to press her maid further, asking if there had been a letter from Kentshire, her maid shook her head, nodding towards the servants bustling around them.

"Too many listening ears," Lissa whispered.

They hurried through the hallway until they emerged near the debutantes' wing. Lissa nearly jogged to Isabelle's suite door, pausing to pull it open for her.

Isabelle's feet froze in place when she took in the man standing near the fireplace.

Leopold turned to face her, his face melting into the heart-stopping smile she'd fallen in love with so long ago.

"Darling," he said, opening his arms.

Isabelle swallowed.

**A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNN!! He's back! How do you think Isabelle is going to take it? How do you think Leopold is going to react if she stays true to what her father says? Will he manage to convince her? What about Graham, how do you think he'll react to the foreign prince showing up?

As always, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote and comment!**