My Sister's Prince

Chapter Eleven:

     Eulalie and Alaric were in a little riverboat, navigating the watery passageways of Navira. All around them, windows were bedecked with floral arrangements, and many locals were shouting and waving out of their windows at them. Not the both of them, actually, just Eulalie.

     Alaric didn't mind in the slightest. They've been in Navira for several weeks and his wife's celebrity was beginning to rise. Her ensemble at the opera had wowed guests, and it seemed as if all of Navira was in attendance that night, hoping for a glance of the new King and Queen. Word spread through the region faster than wildfire of his wife's interest in Naviran politics and empathy for the liberal cause. 

    "Long live Queen Eulalie," a young girl shouted from her window down towards the river below, throwing a posy of daisies to the boat. Eulalie caught the flowers with ease and waved an excited hand up towards the child.

     "It seems you are the most popular woman in Navira, my wife," Alaric teased. He was sketching in his sketchbook during their river ride, and looked up from the pages to smile at his blushing wife. He could tell she was unused to this attention. Back in the capital, the Queen-Mother handled most of the public engagements, leaving Eulalie indoors to attend to her tasks. He was so pleased to watch her shine and get the attention she deserved here, in this foreign land. 

     All of his advisors agreed that Eulalie's policy toward the Navirans was making political strides that haven't been achieved in decades-perhaps centuries. The day after the opera, Eulalie had insisted they walk through the town and engage with the people. This had surprised Alaric, but he wanted to trust his eager young wife.

     As they walked through the streets of Navira's capital, people from all walks of life came out to greet them. They met with the upper-crust of Naviran society as well as the city's poorest paupers. He smiled as he saw Eulalie sneaking ducats to the poor children from her own personal purse during these meetings. 

     One thing they noticed during their journeys in the city was the startling amount of royal guards posted throughout the capital. It seemed that on every street corner there were royal guards and knights on high alert, with weapons at the ready, antagonizing the Naviran people. Alaric's own father had posted these guards, in order to suppress unrest, but seeing them here, in person for the first time, the couple noticed that the presence of these armed men only upset the locals.  That very afternoon, Eulalie had publically begged of her husband to disband the guard and some of the restrictions on political gatherings placed on the Navirans.

     Alaric was unable to deny his wife her request, not after seeing the militant forces with his own eyes, and especially not after she begged him in front of a street full of Navirans. When he made the order to do away with three-quarters of the royal guard, he could hear the cheers and rejoicing throughout the streets even from the inside of his office.

    Whenever they went on excursions throughout the region, Eulalie made sure her outfits reflected and respected Naviran customs, and she was dusting up on her Naviran daily. It seemed overnight, his little wife had become a policy-changing celebrity in the region that had once been rife with disorder and anger towards the royal family.

     Back on the little riverboat, Alaric opened a letter that had been handed to him on their way out that morning. He immediately recognized the frantic hand in the letter's address, as did Eulalie. She eyed the letter with suspicion, and for one of the first times since their arrival in Navira, he watched her tense.

      He sighed and rubbed his temples. He knew things were becoming more difficult between his wife and his mother. His mother resented Eulalie and her insistence on doing things her own way. Eulalie resented her mother's controlling nature-especially after they discovered what she was up to with the tea. He never knew himself to become upset with his mother, but when he discovered that Violet was slipping contraceptives into his wife's tea, he saw red.