Chapter 72 #2
I faced forward once more, watching as the palace came closer into view.
The building sprawled out in every direction, the warm sandstone covered with ivy and moss, showing its age, but it looked charming in a way with its dark red roof.
Built right on the cliff’s edge, the side facing the ocean had many windows that gleamed in the sunlight.
My future was in there. If I somehow survived planning and executing a ceremony in a week, our future promised to be happy and fruitful.
Surviving the week—that was the trick.
There was one vital thing left to do, in fact.
I had to get Valentina out. We still hadn’t heard from her parents, and it left me to wonder if perhaps they, too, were desperate to get rid of a problem child.
If some foreign princess had whisked Victor away, we wouldn’t have been too keen to get him back.
Valentina was very much cut from the same cloth.
Hospitality rules be damned, I no longer cared how this looked—I wanted her gone.
With Victor annulling the engagement, we had no reason to keep her here, so back home she went.
I didn’t give birth to that child. She wasn’t my responsibility.
All right, so assuming Ascor wouldn’t take her back readily regardless of her relationship with Victor, that meant I had to get rid of her somehow.
My conversation with Judge Galbraith had made me think, and honestly, I couldn’t think of a single reason to wait.
A trick that had been recently used against Helena sprang to mind, and I felt a plan blossom in my head.
Just a few tweaks from the last time this happened, so none of my people could be blamed... Oh yes, perfect. And with this, she’d be gone before the ceremony.
Win-win.
The very second I arrived back at the palace, I snuck into the record room to retrieve some select files. I picked a few that looked more important than they were, carried them with me, then went hunting. I had a few maids in mind, and I’d take the first one I could find.
Sir Seymour and Sir Collins followed me, and I could practically hear Sir Seymour’s confusion. Sir Collins seemed to have an idea, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
I explained over my shoulder, “Sir Seymour, what’s more powerful than truth?”
“Er…is this a trick question?”
“The answer is belief. What people believe will trump the truth every time. Keep that in mind when you’re dealing with palace politics. Right now, you’re about to see it in action.”
“I, uh, am?”
“As soon as I find—ah, perfect. Tabitha!”
The maid in question held a basket of fresh-cut flowers in one hand. She was likely updating the floral arrangements in select rooms, meaning she was the perfect person to “trip over” the files.
I think she suspected I was up to something, as she curtsied then stared at me, a woman waiting for her mission.
“I did not give you this,” I started off, giving her a speaking look. “Nor did I order you to place it in Princess Valentina’s rooms. I absolutely didn’t tell you to do so and then promptly report to me, in an official capacity, that the princess of a foreign country has files she shouldn’t.”
Taking the three files from me, Tabitha regarded me quizzically. “I have no idea what you mean, Your Majesty, but I’ll be sure to alert any knights I see on the way back so the princess can’t escape before she is questioned.”
“I knew you were the woman for the job. Theater tickets?”
“Opera house?” she countered. “For four. My parents’ anniversary is coming up and I’d like to do something nice for them.”
“Consider it done.”
“How quickly do you need this done?”
I made a show of checking my pocket watch. “An hour enough time?”
She laughed. “More than enough. See you again shortly.”
Was this playing fair? Not at all. Was it necessary? Yes. I was out of fucks to give. I wanted this bitch gone. She’d caused James and myself enough stress. Her reign of terror could end the same day as Victor’s. I was quite all right with that.
Since I had a mountain of work to do, I returned to my office.
Might as well put the time to use, and besides, I needed to look convincingly busy when Tabitha reported back.
No one else but the two of us could catch on or my trick wouldn’t work.
Well, Sir Seymour and Sir Collins knew, but they were also chortling like kids pulling off a prank, so they were on my side. It would be fine.
I became so focused on the work in my hands I actually startled at the knock on my open door.
“Er, Your Majesty?” Sir Seymour called from the doorway. “There’s a maid here who says she must urgently speak with you.”
Look at him, how factually he reported, and not even a twitch on his face. He had an excellent poker face. “Oh, of course, send her in.”
I checked my watch discreetly and pursed my lips in a soundless whistle. Thirty-four minutes. Tabitha had certainly moved with speed.
Tabitha was an actress who should have been on the stage; her expression was the perfect mixture of nerves and distress. She even wrung her hands. I didn’t know people did that? The action was absolutely convincing, though. I’d set her on this task, and I was still half convinced.
She certainly had the attention of everyone in the room. All had stopped their work, studying her with worry, as if wondering what had happened this time. To be fair, we did seem to be jumping from crisis to crisis these days.
All right, me, match her acting chops. Let’s sell this story.
“Your Majesty, I’m so sorry to burst in like this, but I just saw something that I’m—I’m not sure if it’s right, but it…” She bit her lower lip and gave me a helpless shrug. “Your Majesty, is Princess Valentina supposed to have files with your office seal?”
People gasped, and a murmur tore through the room.
I hardened my expression. “No. No, she is not. Where did you see these files?”
“In her bedroom. I was in there refreshing the floral arrangements and saw them and I just…just rushed out to report it.”
“You absolutely did the right thing. Sir Seymour!”
Sir Seymour still hovered inside the doorway, and even he looked appalled. He straightened abruptly in a semi-salute. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Grab your colleagues. I need at least six knights. Tabitha, go and inform James of what’s transpired and tell him I’m throwing her out right now.”
I could just call him on the ring, of course, but this way I had more witnesses.
She gave me a dazzling smile and dropped a quick curtsey. “Immediately, Your Majesty!”
Tabitha left at a near run, and I stood, cautioning myself against smiling.
Well, maybe a little smile. No one would blame me for being happy to finally kick Valentina out.
I waved to my secretaries to keep going as I left the room, as I didn’t want anyone following me out and hearing the true story.
Still, I kept a serious expression on as I speed-walked for Valentina’s apartments. It took long minutes to get there, since she resided in the guest apartments on the far side of the palace. I got there with my knights and found the door closed. No sounds of a tantrum being thrown?
Had Tabitha sneaked the files inside and then left without a word to her? Seemed so.
I didn’t knock, just opened the door and entered.
Valentina was perched at her dressing table, having her hair done, looking bored. Upon my entrance, however, she abruptly sat up, indignation turning her expression stormy.
I turned to my knights and ordered, “Find the files. There’s three, with my seal on them.”
“What are you doing here?” Valentina sneered at me. “Get out!”
I ignored her and watched the knights.
Valentina’s stare became more intense, and she spoke with a harder, colder tone, with an authority that shouldn’t be questioned. “You, look at me. You are not to undermine me.”
I gave her an odd look. “You, princess, have no power here.”
She blinked, as if not expecting my response, and then hastily stood, glaring me down. “I said, come here, and stop trying to undermine me!”
What was she even on about? Was she on drugs? Or did she still think of me as James’s toy who could be ordered about?
It didn’t take long to locate the files. Sir Joseph found them on the bed, half hidden under a pillow, which had been clever on Tabitha’s part. Made it look like Valentina had been reading them in bed. Sir Joseph immediately grabbed them and brought them back to me.
I made a show of looking them over before growling, “These are not files you should have, Princess.”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “Where did those come from?”
“Won’t admit to stealing these?”
Knocking her maid’s hand aside, she stood and screamed at me, “Are you playing games now, false king?”
Well, yes, but it was such a fun game! Plus, I got an amazing prize from winning. You, gone.
Sir Collins brought a lacquered box to me with a grim expression. “Your Majesty, take a look at this.”
I had no idea what he meant until he came in close enough for me to see inside the box. Four bottles were stacked inside, and when I lifted one up, the label declared it a mild poison. The same type my peppermints had been doused in.
There was, needless to say, only one reason why she would have this.
Well, this little she-demon was both full of herself and stupid to keep the evidence on hand.
I hadn’t expected this windfall. While it was circumstantial evidence at best, it was grounds for investigation.
I had the option to throw her into a holding cell and put her on trial, but I still wouldn’t be able to really punish her.
Sadly. I’d keep this as evidence to revisit later, assuming her parents ever responded, but for now? I just wanted her out.
“Princess Valentina of Ascor, your engagement with Victor has been annulled. Your excuse to stay here has ended, and because you have broken the rules of hospitality, I hereby banish you from my country. You are not allowed to return. My knights, seize her, throw her on a ship going to Ascor. If none are leaving today, order a naval vessel to take her. She is not allowed back into the city or the palace, no matter the reason.”
Valentina started screaming the second knights grabbed her arms. “I should have done it myself! I should have fucking done it myself! You! How dare you still live?”
I startled. Surely she wasn’t alluding to my poisoning attempt? So blatantly?
“You’re like a damn cockroach!” Valentina raged, trying to hurtle herself free of the knights’ hold. Small as she was, strong as they were, they still had a hard time keeping hold of her. Her rage was that incandescent. “Why won’t you die and stay dead?”
Wait, that sounded like…she couldn’t possibly remember our first life, could she? Or was that just my paranoia speaking? Or did she think her poisoning attempt had succeeded and I was somehow brought magically back to life?
I was making the cardinal mistake of trying to decipher crazy, but still, the things she was saying…almost like there was some basis, some knowledge she held.
Surely I was being paranoid. Surely.
The knights dug in their heels and hauled her out of the room, even though she screamed and kicked at them the entire time.
Her maids dithered in place, but I ordered them taken as well.
Her things I’d have shipped to her. I was fine with Valentina being stuck in the same dress for the whole voyage. A little suffering would do her good.
Valentina continued to scream even as she was hauled down the stairs, mostly obscenities and promises of what she’d do to me. All music to my ears. She was finally, finally gone.
All that remained was me and Sir Seymour when Tabitha showed up with James in tow. My husband pointed at the files in my hands.
“She really had some of our files?”
“She really did. Nothing too sensitive, fortunately.”
His eyes narrowed suspiciously, probably in recognition of this having been a ploy. I almost told him what Valentina had said but chose to hold it back for now. I didn’t know how to explain the theory with two people listening in who shouldn’t know anything about regression.
I turned to Sir Seymour. “Escort Miss Tabitha to Knight Commander Harland and inform him of all that has transpired. We’ll need to keep a good record for when the inevitable argument with Ascor breaks out.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
James waited until the two of them were well out of earshot before turning back to me. “So Tabitha found files in Valentina’s room?”
“She did.”
“And how many theater tickets did that take?”
“Four opera tickets, in fact.”
James threw his head back, laughing so hard he was almost crying. I knew he’d appreciate my method.
“I seriously love you,” he choked out, still laughing. “Come here, I need to kiss you senseless.”
Ooh, I got rid of Valentina and got kisses?
I should get rid of problematic people more often if this was my reward.