The Seventh Queen

Berenice

'It should have been me'.
I said out loud in frustration, digging my sharp nails into my palms to relieve the anger I felt at being cheated.

For an accident of birth and a mere eight minutes, it could have been me as Queen of the four Kingdoms and Empress of the Samirians. And more importantly, me getting married!

The only reason I wasn't was because of my lazy mother Princess Numia. She had been born second. The younger twin of Queen Zalina, she had been the Crown Princess before Alia had been born ruining my chances all over again.

I am thirty six years old, I thought to myself, and have to curtsey and debase myself to my thirty two year old cousin the Queen.

I did have a beautiful suite of rooms at the Rospoint, although most of the Royal Family did, so I wasn't unique in this, overlooking the harbour where the Empress's ships docked bringing their wares and travellers from all corners of her Empire.
I sat at my loveseat by the open balcony and let the air refresh my skin with its coolness.

I still wasn't satisfied, and rolling my eyes and looking back into my rooms, I compared what I had to Alia.

My red velvet bed hangings were not as fine as the Queen's, who had the imperial purple.
My bed was not as large as Alia's, who had the Bed of State to lay her majestic head upon.
My gowns not as sumptuous, my pale beauty nothing compared to Alia's golden haired loveliness, my suitors not as handsome or magnetic as Arnolf had been or Darius was.

Treasonous thoughts I knew, I just didn't care. There must be some way for me to take back what should have been rightly mine.
'For who could really tell who had been born first?' I questioned silently.

Only that stupid witch Gwinn, who had thought the sun had shone out of every one of Zalina's orifices. She must have switched the twins at birth, I thought excitedly, yes, thats exactly it! I exclaimed, slamming my hand down on a gold-bound book of poetry, sent to me by an imbecilic lover. The only problem was who would believe me?

'Your Highness, I am come to dress you for the procession'. My mouse like maid Rosalind, even though she spoke quietly, had torn me sharply from my pleasant revery.

I smiled at her, hopefully sincerely.

It wouldn't do well for my plans to treat the servants badly at this stage. I would need all the help I could get.

Rosalind looked at a loss for words, clearly discomfited by my sweet demeanour. I knew she had been expecting a slap or a kick for disturbing me.

'Very well, show me your talents girl and make me the best looking of the congregation, except for the Queen of course'.
My fake grin was hurting my face, so I turned back to gaze out over the open sea, so Rosalind couldn't see the lie behind my eyes.

'What's today's gossip from below then girl'.
I enquired of Rosalind, about the other servants, who was busy sticking pins into my cream organza and cloth of gold gown. She looked up at me guilelessly.

'Not much, Your Highness, everyone is much too excited and busy for the wedding to do much else'.

'Yes, yes of course they are, can you open that box upon my dresser.'
I pointed at an antique gold miniature chest that contained my weekly allowance, a gift of charity from the Queen, seeing as I had lost both my parents in her mother's conquest of the four Kingdoms.

'Take a dacma for your help and service today'. I said to an astonished Rosalind, who never having received as much as a thimble from me before, stared at me with open mouthed gratitude.

'Thank you Your Highness, thank you'. Rosalind kissed the hem of my expensive gown, her mousy brown hair glinting in the reflected light of the sun from the sea. A dacma was more than she received from me in a month and never all at once.

'There's more where that came from if you keep your little ears alert and tell me of anything that you hear, about anything and I mean anything'.

A favourite saying of Alia's was to know more of your enemy than they knew of themselves. Well, well, I will take that advice and stuff it down her throat, I thought happily to myself, thinking I might just enjoy this wedding after all.