Chapter 4
Proposing to the queen wasn't exactly how Jake planned to spend his evening. He hadn't technically proposed, not yet. Giving her a real proposal was on his to-do list now that he knew it needed to be done.
He watched as Catherine held up both hands. "Wait a minute. Not only do I have to be married, but you've also already chosen someone?"
"Not exactly," her father started. "Why don't we go upstairs and have this discussion somewhere a little more comfortable?"
Jake found himself being very glad that he wasn't on the other end of the queen's glare. "Very well."
She turned on her heel and walked off. She didn't quite stalk, but it was close. The rest of them trailed after her, but she didn't go the direction they likely expected.
Instead, she went to her office, shoved the door open without saying anything to the aide on duty outside, and took a seat at the head of the conference table on the far side of the room.
Jake looked over at her parents and found her father trying to hold back a smirk. Why?
"Have a seat, ladies and gentlemen." She motioned to the rest of the table, making it quite clear she was in charge.
Or at least trying to project that image.
Rather than sitting right next to her, Catherine's parents sat a little further down the table, likely so they could see her better. Her younger sister sat across from them. She still hadn't looked at anyone since they finished evaluating how the documents interacted with each other.
Jake chose to sit next to Catherine, on the same side as Issy.
This affected him almost as much as it did her.
He did carefully note where he put his arms on the table to make certain he didn't touch her.
She likely wouldn't want someone she barely knew brushing against her when what he suspected would be the second biggest news of her life was explained.
"Go on." Catherine said, glaring at her parents. She appeared to be studiously avoiding him.
"We already explained most of what we know," her father told her.
"They were going to force Gilead I to marry someone, likely chosen by his uncle-slash-stepfather, to help Uncle Gilead's own ambitions. They never made it that far. He was found lying at the bottom of a staircase less than six months after his father’s death.
The official story was that he slipped and fell.
Whispered rumors said his uncle assisted him down, allowing his uncle to become king six months after the death of his brother and still used the planned coronation for Gilead I as his own. "
"In actual, real, terms, what does it mean? What happens if I'm not married? How is it enforced? Are we sure it was never rescinded?" Her list of questions mirrored his own a few hours earlier.
As the Royal Historian, Madeleine took over.
"It is highly unlikely it was rescinded.
By the early 1700s, the true Gilead I had essentially been erased.
He's never mentioned in the histories or other documents discussing our history.
The only Gileads known are his uncle and later his cousin.
Since it was discovered fifteen years ago, historians have scoured documents looking for something we might have missed, but there isn't anything.
He was erased. Given that no one knew he existed, the chances of it being rescinded are slim. "
Catherine closed her eyes and exhaled sharply from her nose. "I understand why you think that. For the moment, let's assume that's correct. What happens? How is it enforced?"
Her father leaned forward. "We're required by law to make this information public within sixty days unless it's deemed to be a threat to national security.
As much as we would like to keep this private, we can't. If it ever came out that we did, the result would be the same - a vote of no confidence from the Council and referral to Parliament for removal from office. "
"So, I have no choice except to marry or step down." A slight crack in her voice was the only indication it affected her. "How was the decision made without consulting me from the beginning?"
"No decisions have been officially made," her father told her gently. "If you wish to remain queen, you have to marry. As soon as we reached that conclusion, Jacob offered, unless we believed there to be someone you'd prefer. If there is, he'll go on his way with no hard feelings."
Jake wasn't quite certain there would be no hard feelings, but the rest was accurate.
"We'll continue looking for information," Madeleine said softly. "I'll talk to the best researchers I know and see what we can find, but I would be surprised to find evidence that would allow this to happen any other way."
"Why was this just discovered?" Catherine’s voice remained matter of fact. "Why didn't it come to light in the last fifteen years?"
Issy cleared her throat. "It's my fault."
"How?" Catherine was as confused as Jacob had been.
"Not her fault," Madeleine clarified. "She is the one who found the document while working on a cataloging project. Once she read it, she called Jake to make certain she'd understood it properly. Then they called me. I called your father."
"And you were going to tell me... when exactly?" Catherine leaned forward slightly. "On my wedding day?"
"If we didn't have a chance before, we would have talked after dinner. Your father had just contacted your office and was told you'd already left for the day." Madeleine gave her daughter a look of compassion and checked her watch. "It's been less than three hours since Jake called me."
Issy stared at her hands and cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, Kins."
Catherine stood and walked to her sister's chair.
Leaning over from the back, she wrapped an arm around Issy and gave her the best hug she could.
Issy's hands grabbed onto Catherine's forearm and held on.
They stayed like that for a long moment.
Catherine whispered something in Issy's ear that made her sister smile, at least a little bit.
After letting go, the queen returned to her seat. "How do we proceed?"
"You and Jake need to have a long, very frank discussion and make some decisions.
Once you've done that, we'll have a longer conversation based on those decisions.
" Her father stood. Her sister and Madeleine stood with him.
Each one stopped and gave Catherine a hug and whispered something to her.
Each of them made her smile, at least a little bit.
In just a moment, they were alone in the monarch's office. Jake waited for Catherine to start the conversation.
"Let's move to the chairs by the window." Catherine started to walk toward the sitting area across the office. She chose her chair before Jake arrived. He picked one that gave him the ability to look her in the eye rather than next to her where they could both look out the window.
He waited longer for her to begin the next portion of their conversation.
"I appreciate your offer, Jacob, but you don't need to do this. We can find another way." She looked his direction, but not straight in the eye.
"It's my pleasure, Catherine. I wouldn't have offered if I didn't mean it.
" He leaned forward, his forearms resting on his knees with his hands clasped between them.
"Please consider the offer. If you decide not to, I understand.
If there's someone else who would be a better option, just let me know.
Like your father said, no hard feelings. "
She shook her head. "There isn't anyone.
I'm just having a hard time accepting this is the the direction my life is going to take.
" She stared out the window for a few moments.
"I'm not going to have dinner with the family this evening.
If you would like to join me, you're more than welcome to, or you can join the family, but you are under no obligation to have dinner here at all. "
Jake looked directly at her and smiled. "I'm not going anywhere. I’m with you for the duration."
Rather than return to her usual quarters, Catherine decided she'd stay in a different portion of the palace.
She made sure her senior aides and security team knew where she was, but one disadvantage of living in the same place as her entire family was that.
.. she lived in the same place as her entire family.
It wasn't the first time she'd stayed elsewhere. Sometimes she needed space. It likely wouldn't surprise her parents when she didn't return to her childhood bedroom in the Monarch's Quarters.
She had clothes stashed in her office and a couple of other places.
Grabbing a pair of yoga pants and an over-sized t-shirt, she changed in her office then slipped out a back way and stuck to passageways very few people ever used.
Thankfully, she didn't see anyone as she made her way to a spare suite.
If she wasn't mistaken, it was the one Mumeleine had used for several weeks before her marriage to Catherine's father.
There was a strange sort of symmetry to it.
She laid in the bed, with the curtains open so she could see out the window.
In the distance, the faint shimmer of the Northern Lights began to glow.
Maybe she should plan a trip to the lake house just outside of Novilacu.
Thanks to the Dark Sky Initiative her mother had spearheaded, the sky was so free of light pollution that you could see the vastness of space.
Millions of pinpricks of light from billions of miles away always made her feel small and insignificant, but in a good way.
It was a way of reminding herself not to let her head get too big.
Catherine might be queen. She might have authority very few others did. But that didn't mean she was more important than anyone else in the larger scheme of things.
It served to remind her to treat others as she would want to be treated.
In some ways, she had far fewer freedoms than most people could imagine.