Chapter 20
Twenty
James
“This meeting is now in session!”
I sat at the very front of the room, on a slightly raised dais, a voice magnification charm engraved into the very long table in front of me.
Helena sat at my right, the Speaker—the one actually in control of moderating the meeting—to my left.
On the far right, King Patrick attended only as an observer, as he wanted to see my first meeting.
Well, and he also wanted to see for himself if Victor showed up.
He promised me this meeting was wholly in my hands and he wouldn’t say a word.
Par for the course, we had a half-filled room. The only time I’d seen it filled with every noble was during a dire emergency affecting the entire country.
Like demon kings and their armies.
So, honestly, I felt relieved to see it only half full because it was a sign the country wasn’t on the brink of despair.
The room was arranged on tertiary floors, each level one step up, much like a theater, so that everyone could see the front of the room without issue.
Aside from carpets in the royal red and a gold phoenix emblem emblazoned into the wall behind me, the room was sparsely decorated.
This place was meant for business, not socializing.
Speaker Messalina Stanhope rose to address everyone. She looked quite demure in the fine dark purple dress she wore, spectacles resting on the tip of her nose. Or she would have looked demure if she hadn’t recently dyed her hair bright pink. Personally, I thought it looked good on her.
“We have two items on the agenda today,” Speaker Stanhope declared, her strong voice carrying to every corner of the room.
“First, there are three projects Prince James wants to spearhead. One of these projects is rebuilding the seawalls. Crown Prince Victor is currently in charge, so we must shift the responsibilities over to Prince James and Princess Helena before we can discuss it. All in favor of shifting responsibilities?”
Each desk had four charms engraved into the age-darkened wood—yes, no, neutral, and a fourth one that allowed them to speak with voice amplification.
Multiple taps played out, everyone touching the charms on their desks.
All the results of the voting were immediately channeled into the Speaker’s panel and tallied so she could see the result at a glance.
“Twenty-three voted yes, four no, three neutral. The motion is carried.”
I hadn’t expected any other outcome. In truth, I’d made damn sure I would get the carrying vote.
The four naysayers were the ones who were staunchly Victor’s people.
Nothing I said or did would make them change.
Well, not until he’d completely fallen out of power.
I had leverage on them, but it wasn’t something I could use yet.
I wasn’t supposed to know any of it. I had to choose my moment with them.
The three neutrals were fence-sitters, willing to give me enough rope to see if I hung myself with it. Fine. I’d win them over eventually.
Speaker Stanhope made a show of looking at her agenda. “The two other projects Prince James and Princess Helena would like to propose to this august body are a veterans’ hospital and a motion for rent control of private property. Prince James, the floor is now yours.”
Helena had pleaded with me to speak the majority of time today.
She’d never done something like this before, and trying to propose something without ever seeing it in action scared her down to her stockings.
I’d assured her I’d go first and let her watch me, then properly prep her for the next meeting. Today, the floor was completely mine.
I stood, inclining my head toward Stanhope.
“Speaker, I thank you. Hello, everyone. I’m sure you’re tired of long, dragging meetings.
Let’s make today short and sweet. First, let’s address the veterans’ hospital.
The first five pages of the binder I handed out at the beginning of the meeting show you all the statistics, base budget, and so on.
I’ll just hit the highlights. First, we have no care for our veterans.
These men and women laid down life and limb for our country, and it’s appalling to me that as soon as their usefulness is done, they are tossed aside and forgotten.
I propose we have at least one hospital in every major city specifically for our veterans, where they can receive free care, with whatever health benefits they need.
This includes prostheses, if called for. ”
A light went up to my right and Speaker Stanhope gave Viscountess Lisney permission to speak. “Is the veterans’ pension not enough to cover such costs?”
“It is not. Please look at page two. I have an example breakdown of a common citizen’s household budget.
Now, compare the budget to the pension we currently offer them.
They can survive—barely. Assuming they bought a house when they were twenty, had no children, and their spouse always worked.
Ninety percent of our veterans do not fit that description.
They are beyond struggling to make ends meet, and health care is something they ignore because they can’t afford it.
I spoke with a decorated knight, a man who served the palace for forty years, and if not for his daughter living with him and paying some of the bills, he’d be homeless on the streets. ”
All right, time to make this personal. “How many people remember Knight Commander Philomon White?”
Quite a few people raised their hands and a murmur went up around the room.
Of course people remembered him; he’d been the commander of the palace guard for decades before retiring. Very well loved and respected, no one had a cross word to say about him.
“It’s he who gave me the breakdown of the budget and how little the pension actually covers.
He’d saved what he could over the years, but the man also had three children, an ailing wife, and an old house in need of many repairs.
He basically has no savings. We simply cannot let this continue.
The first step must be to offer the health care that all our veterans, knights, and soldiers, should have.
I’d also like to increase the amount of the pension by twenty-five percent to adjust for inflation.
The pension amount hasn’t been raised in sixty years. It can’t begin to cover today’s costs.”
Again, another round of people speaking and conferring with each other. I saw many a thoughtful expression and a few angry-looking people, but the decision seemed to be going my way?
Helena surprised me by standing. “In addition, James and I will pay for the first twenty hospitals to be built out of our own pockets. This is something we strongly believe in. Royce has also agreed to help design better prostheses and get the first veterans’ hospital underway.”
Look at her, finding her feet and voice. I couldn’t be prouder. “Indeed. We want to spearhead this project so it gets off the ground quickly, lessen people’s suffering. All in favor of creating a budget, committee, and official plans to start this project?”
A flurry of votes quickly winged its way toward us.
Speaker Stanhope glanced at the panel before rattling off, “Twenty in favor, four noes, six neutral.”
The four noes were never going to agree with whatever I proposed, so I didn’t care about them. I did care about those twenty yeses—anything over eighteen was a carrying vote. I had squeaked by, but that was enough to get it done.
“I thank you. We’ll start immediately. Second topic: rent control.
It has recently come to my attention that our citizens are being priced out of their homes because of greedy landlords charging up to five times what the landlords actually owe on the property.
I saw for myself how some people are barely affording a roof over their heads.
I put this motion forward: We cap rent at twenty percent over the value of the property, whatever that is.
It will allow the landlords to still make a profit but drop the rent down to something everyone can afford. Questions?”
A light flicked on and Viscount Gooding spoke in his slow, effortless way. “Prince James, when you say all buildings, do you mean all? Including commercial properties and those held by the royal family?”
“I mean all.” I made my tone firm. “Greed needs to have limits. If people can’t set those limits for themselves, then we need to. We must not forget, we enjoy prosperity upon the backs of our citizens. We’ll lose our workforce if people can’t afford to live. Any other questions?”
I didn’t get any so I mentally shrugged. “I call for a vote. All in favor?”
Another flurry of votes came through. I kind of held my breath on this one, as I didn’t know which way the tide would go. Most nobility were landowners, after all, and rental income was a major tide of money. Asking them to cut back wouldn’t go over well in some circles.
Speaker Stanhope grunted. “Eighteen in favor, four noes, the rest have abstained.”
Phew. I’d just made it by the skin of my teeth.
Buried in the proposal, which no one seemed to have bothered to even skim, was the fact I’d called for this new law to go into motion now.
Next month’s rent would be controlled. I had three weeks to get the word out, but I was good at advertising, so I wasn’t too worried.
“Thank you, everyone. All right, to the last topic of the day: seawalls. I’m sure you’re all sick of this topic, having rehashed it for nearly five years now.”
A collective groan and some sighs went around the room. I grinned, silently inviting everyone to share my mood.