Chapter 3 #3
The double coronation was set to start in a few hours, and we all had to wash and dress for the occasion.
“Do you have to visit Miriam to collect your gowns?” I asked the women.
“No,” Tanell answered. “She said she’d have them delivered to our suite this morning, so I expect they’ll be waiting for us.”
“Excellent,” I said. “I can’t wait to see them.”
“You’re going to love mine,” Yori said with a playful waggle of her eyebrows.
“You really are,” Serra agreed. “It’s beautiful, and the color really suits you, Yori.”
“Oh,” Yori’s brown eyes softened. “Thank you.”
I was so pleased to see the way Yori and Serra’s friendship had grown over the last month. There had been an inherent tension between them that I was pretty sure derived from their vastly different backgrounds.
Serra had found Yori to be crude and undignified, and Yori had thought Serra was little more than a snobby rich girl. Neither of them had been wrong, per se, but I was so happy to see they’d come to recognize neither of them had to be defined by those facts.
They were much deeper than any of that.
“You could wear a potato sack, and I’d still find you beautiful.” I smiled at my dark-haired lover.
“Well, if you insist,” Yori teased.
“No, no!” I laughed. “Please wear the gown.”
“Oh, alright,” Yori laughed and rolled her eyes playfully.
“Do you know how you’ll fix your hair?” Tanell asked Yori.
“Uh…” Yori grimaced. “I have no idea.”
“May I offer some suggestions?” Tanell asked.
“Oh, my goodness,” Yori sighed with relief. “Yes, please! I obviously want the crown to fit properly, but I also don’t just want it to look like this, you know?”
Yori grabbed a lock of slightly sweaty black hair and flapped it like a wet paper towel.
I chuckled and leaned back in my chair.
“We could weave it into a chignon at the back,” Tanell suggested.
“A sheen-yon?” I asked. “What’s that?”
“It’s a type of twisted bun,” Tanell explained with humor in her eyes. “It’s very elegant, and it won’t interfere with your crown.”
“I’m guessing it needs to be pinned?” Yori wrinkled her nose in distaste.
“Mmm,” Serra hummed and nodded. “A lot of pins, actually.”
“Oooh,” Yori hissed through her teeth. “Is there anything we can do with it down?”
“Definitely,” Tanell said. “Come on. Let’s get cleaned up first, and my lady’s maid and I will help you.”
“Thank you,” Yori almost moaned with gratitude. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’d be crowned looking like a peasant,” Serra said, but there was no venom in her tone.
In fact, there was a teasing glint in her brown eyes and a smile twitching at the corner of her lips.
“Serra!” Yori gasped with laughter.
We stood up from the table, and almost immediately, four footmen appeared to begin clearing away our lunch, the chairs, and the tables.
“Come on,” I laughed. “Let’s go get ourselves ready.”
“Oh, I’m so excited!” Yori bounded ahead several paces and looped back around to us like a bouncing bunny.
I smiled at her, but when I turned to look at Serra, the nervous tension had taken over her body again.
“Hey…” I put a comforting hand on the middle of her back. “Don’t worry. You’re going to be amazing.”
“He’s right, Serra,” Tanell said in a reassuring tone. “You don’t really even have to do much. It’s mostly standing there and looking beautiful.”
“You’re already an expert at that,” Yori pointed out.
“I’ll be fine,” Serra insisted. “I’ve spent my whole life training and working to be the visually perfect companion to a king. I can figure out the practical stuff later.”
She took a deep breath and looked a little more self-assured.
“Right?” Her eyes flared with a hint of panic.
“Right.” Tanell nodded firmly. “And I’ll be there with you the whole way.”
“Thank you, Tanell,” Serra breathed. “I know I wasn’t always the friendliest to you, or to you, Yori–”
“Hey,” Tanell interrupted her. “That’s all in the past. None of us were at our best when Oberis was still king.”
“Ken really brought us together,” Yori giggled. “Didn’t he?”
“He sure did,” Serra agreed, and she shot me a look filled with affection. “Thank you, Ken.”
I didn’t know how to put everything I was feeling into words, so I just smiled at my women, and we headed into the castle.
“I will see you all in the throne room,” Carissa said when we hit the split in the corridor between our apartments.
“See you there,” I said.
Before Carissa walked off, she took one of Serra’s hands in both of hers.
“You’ll be amazing,” Carissa murmured. “Don’t let them make you forget who you are.”
Serra looked like she might burst into tears, but she maintained her composure and grasped Carissa’s hands in return.
“Thank you,” Serra whispered.
Carissa headed off to her rooms, and my lovers and I went into the hallway that led to our private apartments. I nodded to the two soldiers who were standing guard outside the door as they opened it.
Yori grabbed Serra’s hands and dragged her off to get ready together. Tanell laughed softly as she remained at my side.
“I’ve never seen her so nervous,” I said.
“She’ll do great,” Tanell said. “I think it’s just a big shift in what she’d expected for herself. Being queen is a much higher responsibility and duty than being a member of the royal harem.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said.
“There’s a…” Tanell waved her hands like she could pull the right word out of the air. “A weight to the royal title of queen. It comes with a lot of expectations, and I think Serra is worried she won’t be able to rise to the occasion.”
“That’s silly,” I said. “She’s incredible. She’ll be great.”
“I know that.” Tanell smiled softly at me.
“But it wasn’t something she ever prepared herself for, and I think that’s something Serra needs.
She needs to prepare, plan, and educate herself before she can feel truly confident in something.
This was never something she expected on the horizon for herself, so she’d never prepared for it. ”
I let Tanell’s words sink in for a moment, and I started to understand what she really meant.
I nodded slowly. “Thank you.”
“For what?” Tanell asked.
“For putting it in those terms,” I said and pulled her into my arms. “For helping me understand.”
“I’m glad I could help.” She smiled. “Now kiss me and let me get ready.”
I laughed and captured her lips in a long, passionate kiss that took her breath away.
“Go get yourself all dolled up,” I said. “I have to clean up, too.”
I playfully slapped the perfect curve of Tanell’s ass, and she giggled as she sauntered away with a little extra sway that I was pretty sure was only for my benefit.
I sighed and raked my hands through my sweaty hair as I was left alone in our sitting room. It looked a lot different than the first time I’d entered the space, and it felt a shit ton different.
When I’d first come to the royal apartments, I’d still been a bit in shock at the insane developments that had left me as the king of an entire country. Nothing about the space had felt like mine. It had been more like a super-ritzy hotel to me, but now the apartments were home.
Tanell, Yori, and Serra had all helped me completely redecorate the sitting room. At first, they’d tried to insist that I pick everything because I was king, but that hadn’t seemed right to me. The sitting room was as much their home as it was mine, and I valued their opinion and comfort.
They’d finally agreed to help me decorate with the condition that I had total say in my bedchamber. They almost always slept in my room with me, but they each had their own private rooms within the royal apartments, so it felt like a good compromise.
I’d insisted on letting every member of my household staff have a chance to choose items from the sitting room, and about sixty percent of it had been picked by housemaids, footmen, and soldiers alike.
The other forty percent of items, which had mostly consisted of a few armchairs, some end tables, and a lot of paintings, vases, and small sculptures, had been given away to my non-noble subjects who lived in the nearest cities and villages.
My ladies had helped me pick out several new sofas, armchairs, and chaise lounges to fill the space and make a cozy place for us to relax in the mornings and evenings.
They were all constructed of beautiful, old-wood oak that had been stained such a dark shade of brown, it was almost black.
The upholstery had been custom-made for us with a rich chocolate-brown material that was somehow sturdy and soft, and we’d chosen a variety of jewel-toned throw blankets that brought color to the otherwise dark space.
The walls had previously been so jam-packed with art that I hadn’t even known what color they were. It turned out they’d been painted in a deep navy blue, so to bring a little more brightness into the space, I’d had them repainted with a soft pastel yellow that was almost the color of butter.
Serra had practically demanded we choose some paintings to fill the space because “blank walls are for peasants.” I’d expected Yori to take offense to the statement, but she’d just laughed and agreed.
Now there was a gorgeous painting of the sun setting over the ocean, a still life with a massive bouquet of flowers, and a curious abstract piece that my women still didn’t understand my preference for.
I couldn’t quite understand it, either. I’d never much liked abstract art, but the swirling rainbow colors reminded me of the portal that had brought me here.
The first time I’d seen it, there had been a sensation of rightness deep in my soul.
Now it hung over the small dining area near the windows.
That was another must-have that I’d insisted upon. We had a formal dining hall for events like the coronation tonight, as well as a private dining room for more intimate meals, but I’d wanted a place for us to eat in real privacy.
“Hold still!” Serra’s voice demanded from within her bedchamber.
“I’m sorry!” Yori shouted back.