The Queen's Admiral

Chapter 14: Rumors and Royal Lies

My heart raced on long after my mother and aunt left the drawing room together arm in arm. The revelations I heard from them kept me pondering in my hiding place.

Admiral Westergard tried to take the throne from my aunt but with what means wasn't clear.  Did he try to conquer Arendelle by force? Was this what my aunt meant when she accused him of trying to destroy their lives?  And yet based on my aunt's story I really felt like he sincerely cared for Arendelle.  I was inclined to give him a second chance just as she did.  If only I knew more of what happened to them before. 

If I wanted answers I knew I wasn't going to find them staying in the drawing room.  I figured my aunt and mother must be long gone by now so I got up and opened the door.

And found my father right outside.

"Fredrik?" he asked gently.  "Have you been in that room all this time?"

"Papa, I..." I couldn't meet his eyes.  I knew I was caught trying to eavesdrop and there was no way to deny it.

He sighed and shook his head.  "Okay just this once I won't tell Elsa and your mother you've been sneaking.  He led me back inside the room and closed the door behind him.  "If you tell me what they've talked about."  His lips formed an easy smile that made and I realized he was just as curious as I was. 

We sat together on comfy chairs and I told him everything I heard.  He didn't interrupt once but from his expression he looked worried.

"What did Admiral Westergard do, Papa?" I asked when I finished my tale.  "Did he start a coup?"

"No," Father shook his head.  "Hans was a lot more devious than that.  He tried to marry into the throne."

Of course!  Why didn't I think of that?  If anyone wanted to obtain power in Arendelle, the easiest way was to marry my aunt.    I didn't really see it as something devious.  Political marriages were normal.  I too was expected to marry some princess in the future to seal a good alliance as my aunt's heir.

"You mean he tried to marry Aunt Elsa?  What's so wrong about that? Unless of course she really didn't like him and—" A horrible thought suddenly occurred to me.  "He didn't try to er…  force her, did he?"

Father shook his head again. "It wasn't your aunt he tried to seduce.  It was your mother."

"What?!" Did I just hear right? Did he just say my mother was involved with the Admiral?

"And he nearly succeeded. She agreed to marry him the same day she met him which was on Elsa's coronation."

"Wait—what?” I blurted again. This story was unbelievable.  “Mama agreed to marry a man she just met that same day?  Was she crazy?!"

"I know!" Father agreed as he rolled his eyes heavenward.  "That was exactly what I told her when I met her that same evening when we went looking after Elsa after she set off an eternal winter.  Hans' engagement to your mother was what got your aunt to go ice crazy and reveal her powers in front of all the ambassadors during her coronation ball." 

And father continued an incredible tale of the winter my aunt unintentionally unleashed on Arendelle on the first eve of her reign.   I heard about this before often as a reference among the servants as the "Great Thaw" where my aunt learned to control her powers.  But it was only now that I ever heard the full details of it.   When he reached the part where Prince Hans revealed to my mother his true intentions and left her to die in the library, I suddenly realized why Mother reacted the way she did.  And the vow she asked my aunt was made all too clear.

Father’s tale ended like something out of a story book with the power of sisterly love conquering fear and ending the winter.   I was fascinated by it and we talked a great length about what happened afterwards—how my aunt learned bit by bit to control her powers and grew in strength as a ruler.