My Sister's Prince

Chapter Eight:

     The Queen Mother slowly swishes her golden spoon back and forth in her teacup, steam from the hot beverage swirling beneath her upturned nose. 

      Eulalie wasn't sure why she had been summoned to the Queen's quarters so early the morning after her wedding. The sun was nearly up, and she thought she'd be allowed more time to enjoy her marriage bed. A flush rushed to her cheeks as she recalled the hazy, passion-filled events from the evening before. Her toes curled within her slippers with a desire to return back to the silky sheets in which she left her sleeping husband. 

     "Girl, are you paying attention?" Violet hissed, slamming her spoon down on the table. The smile that had appeared on Eulalie's lips vanished, and she straightened up in her chair. 

     "I'm sorry, Queen Mother, I must still be exhausted from the events of yesterday," she said. "What was it you needed that couldn't wait until later in the day?" She asked with a hint of bitterness in her tone.

     "If you're so tired, sip your tea for energy," Violet said, nodding towards Eulalie's untouched teacup. "The reason I called you to my chambers so early is because we must get ahead of your daily duties now that you're the queen. When I was Queen," she held a delicate, gloved hand to her breast, "I started my days far before the sun came up. There is much to do now that you and Alaric are ruling."

     Internally, Eulalie groaned as she realized that the days following her coronation were sounding almost exactly like her days before. How foolish she had been to think that the Queen's (now Queen Mother's) domineering personality would be quelled by her change of title. 

      Eulalie took a sip of her tea and held back a scowl at the tea's bitter taste. "Is something the matter?" The Queen Mother asked, her eyes watching Eulalie like a hawk. More like a vulture, she thought. 

      "I hate to be rude, but I usually drink raspberry tea in the mornings..." She pushed the teacup and plate away from her, only for the Queen Mother to push it back towards Eulalie's seat. 

     "This is a special blend from my own gardens. If I were one of your guests or a diplomat from a foreign country, it would be incredibly rude of you to shove your plate away. What if you were traveling as a representative of Absalon and offended your host? You could nearly start a war with your picky palette. Drink up!" She looked at Eulalie eagerly as the young Queen picked up her cup and daintily sipped from the incredibly sour tincture. 

     "Now, your advisors and I have come up with a list of tasks for you on your first day as Queen," she said, offering a scroll to Eulalie the length of her arm with tasks she must see to. 

     "Reception in the throne room, portrait sitting, oversee the running of the gardens, discuss table settings in the dining hall," she listed off, "you did all of this, every day as Queen?" Eulalie questioned. 

      "When I was a young Queen like yourself, there was no task that was too big or too small for the Queen to see to. Surely you don't think that you're too important to condescend to these crucial tasks?" Eulalie's head was starting to hurt as she began imagining her day running around. To make it even worse, she felt like she constantly had her guard up around her mother-in-law, as if the wrong answer or the smallest reminder that she was a human being before she was a wife, a queen, could set this strange woman into a torrent. 

      "No, Queen Mother, I assure you I'll see that it all gets done," she said, rolling the scroll back up.

     "Splendid," the Queen Mother said as she rose from the table. She patted her hand upon Eulalie's head. "Finish up here and meet one of my assistants, Ms. Downey, downstairs."