A Royal Predicament: The Royals of Heledia (Book 2) Read online

  A Royal Predicament

  The Royals of Heledia

  Victoria Hart

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Afterwords

  Also by Victoria Hart

  Excerpt from A letter to a Prince The Royals of Heledia - Book 1

  Copyright © 2017 by Victoria Hart

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, events, and incidents are the products’ of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously, and or not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  It was the first time I’d been at a party and didn’t enjoy it. I was taught to excel at parties, to make myself as available for conversation as possible, and to know the names of as many people in the room as possible. I knew the home country of all the wine and the food and what dress would cause a scandal and what dress would keep people talking all night. It was part of my training, part of my education. Some kids sat in school and tried not to fall asleep while they learned about the quadratic formula, and so was I. But I was also sent to memorize types of China plates.

  I was good at parties, but for the first time a party was for me – and I didn’t know what to do.

  The coronation had gone off with engineered precision. I’d memorized the ceremony and my words in it since I was a child, even though there was no reason to think I’d need to know. The spare was a spare for a reason. But I think my parents always knew what they knew about . Our birth order should have been reversed. And in the end, it all worked out for everyone. He was happy with his fiancée, and I was given the position I’d trained myself for since I was a child. Everybody won.

  Except for me, the night of this party in my honor.

  I was glued to the throne at the head of the room, left to sit there and greet well-wishers as they came by. Every conversation went the same way. They walked up, they smiled, they bowed, they said congratulations, and then, having done their duty, they went off to a more fun part of the party. My duty never ended. I knew that was how it would be, though; it’s what I signed up for. I just didn’t think it would begin so strictly with having to sit still at my own party.

  “Your Majesty,” Alexis said, standing with a straight back. He was training to take over the full position of majordomo from Demetrius. “The Duke and Duchess of Hanover.”

  Two people that I’d known only from pictures stepped forward, decked out in as many colors and medals as you could imagine, bending a knee to bow low, just inches from the floor. They rose.

  “Our most joyous congratulations to you, Your Majesty,” they said. I nodded, and they were off.

  It was like that with all of them.

  It was interesting to realize that none of them wanted to look me in the eye. I knew why. This was the most unorthodox coronation ceremony the country had ever seen. Back in the beginning of the 20th century, England faced its own abdication with Edward the VIII. It’d caused quite the stir and crisis, according to the history books.

  ’s abdication seemed to be causing a much quieter scandal. Like the English, the people here were too polite to make comments as my brother was announced and entered the room.

  He’d taken a vow to protect the country and serve as its king until the day he died. He let that go – rather quickly – for a girl. That’s how the general public saw it, anyway. I, of course, knew that Isabel had been destined to be his wife since they were kids. As far as I could tell, our parents had known this too. It was on everyone’s minds and it was, perhaps, cruel of them not to stop to the train of and Isabel’s friendship from careening into romance, knowing what they knew about the rules governing a monarch’s consort. Perhaps my father assumed he’d be around to find a way to allow it to happen.

  “Your Majesty, the Baron of…”

  I vaguely paid attention, nodding. I was learning very quickly how to turn on autopilot and stay there. My father said he often got that way during social events where he was expected to stand in one corner and watch everyone else have fun. I just didn’t expect to have to master it so early.

  From across the room, I watched and Isabel. He was dressed to the nines in his full dress uniform in various colors, with medals hanging from the lapels. She was dressed in an evening gown. One day soon, that evening gown would forever be marked with a blue sash denoting just who she was: a princess. Good for her; she had achieved every girl’s dream. She got to be the princess without ever worrying about becoming a queen.

  always shone at social events, even knowing when the quiet gossip and sidelong glances at him might have made him a social pariah of the whole event. Many of my advisors had suggested that I not allow my brother to attend the coronation. I outright refused to bar him, because first and foremost, he was my brother. And to deny him entry would only fan the flames that I wanted to disappear entirely. I didn’t want to be remembered as a replacement monarch, and I didn’t want my brother to be forever labeled as the boy who was never ready to be king, and gave up before the going even got tough.

  My duty was to protect my citizens and Nik was once again one of them. And besides, Isabel had done nothing to deserve any of this. I didn’t want to drag her down either, because she couldn’t help her friendships or who she loved. She was like family to me, and would officially be family soon.

  I looked at the clock. It was nearly 21:00. The party was far from over, but surely the politics and duties of it were done for the night. There had to be business hours for this sort of thing. I was only human after all, even if the coronation was designed to make me seem godly. I believed in my divine right – that was the point of the coronation – but I didn’t feel very powerful up on that throne, watching everyone else carry on with their lives without me.

  But then again, maybe that’s exactly how a god felt.

  “Your Majesty,” said a familiar voice that, for once, wasn’t Alexis or Demetrius.

  I saw my brother standing there with his slick, tamed hair and Isabel on his arm. They both dipped their knees and bowed in unison and I wanted to roll my eyes. He was taking it all very seriously, though, which was certainly a first for him. Perhaps Isabel was a better influence on him than anyone had dared to hope.

  I nodded.

  “How are you?” he asked in a much less formal voice, and I accepted the invitation to step down from the throne. I did so without even at glance at the advisors around me, who would tell me not to.

  “Tired of standing there,” I said.

  He smiled.

  “I got the same way,” he said. “The trick is to not do it, of course. It’s not like anyone is going to tell you no. You’re the queen, after all.”

  I nodded. He jerked his head toward the refreshment ta
ble, and I didn’t even let my better judgement have a say before I followed him and accepted the drink he put in my hand. I’d never been drunk and didn’t plan on getting that way tonight, but a few sips of wine might calm me down, just a bit.

  “You look so good,” Isabel said. “I don’t really know how any of this is supposed to go, but you look great doing it.”

  I was grateful for her compliment, even if it was clumsy. My mother would get her hands on Isabel soon and run her through all sorts of etiquette training and God knew what else. I’d revel in her kind ignorance of royal social events for a little while longer, while she was still wholly herself. No matter what promises were made, being royalty would change her – or force her to change. That was something she was going to have to deal with.

  “I try,” I said, shrugging.

  “Most of it is looking good doing it,” Nik said. “Not that I would know too much, of course.”

  That’s when he turned red and looked a little sheepish. I didn’t blame him. In handing over the succession, he’d given me a real gift: the chance to use the tools I’d been trained to use my entire life. I was grateful that he had the courage to say he couldn’t do it, and had offered me a chance to show what I could do – and be the leader our people needed.

  But what I saw in his decision was not what the rest of the world saw. And try as I might, I could not change that for him, or shield him from it. The judgment of the public was something he was going to have to face on his own, and he seemed to understand that. And Isabel was there to keep him level. They were good together, or rather, she was good for him. I just hoped that in the long run, he was just as good for her.

  “I don’t want to leave you to the vultures,” he said, taking a sip of his wine. “But even from the corner of my eye I can see about five people waiting for the chance to spring in here and grovel at your feet.”

  “Just don’t go too far, in case I need a rescue,” I said.

  “You were always the one rescuing me,” he said winking.

  He didn’t go too far, and I could feel his and Isabel’s eyes on me as I handled a slew of well-wishers and people just wanting my attention.

  The entire night passed that way. Getting off the throne hadn’t done much except give people the chance follow me around until I paid attention to them. Nik and Isabel swooped in and out to offer me relief.

  Near sunrise, I was ushered out of the room by staff members who rattled off my schedule for the day. I had to be up in a few hours and ready for a press event; I was meeting with the ambassador from Greece about something or other; I had to choose the China to be used for the state dinner at the end of the week. The voices went on about plenty of other things that I ended up tuning out.

  When I got to my room I shut the door behind me and that was that. It was like suddenly being in a bubble where no one else could come. I’d make sure of it. Between now and whenever they came to wake me up, nothing was getting in my space or in my head. I had survived day one; now I just needed to survive day two. We could worry about day three when the time came. My father always said the job of a ruler was something that had to be taken one day at a time, and I always thought he was exaggerating. Now I understood completely.

  I got myself out of my gown, even though ladies-in-waiting were just outside the room to help me. I was a woman, however; I knew how to get in and out of a dress and heels. So I readied myself for bed without much fuss and washed my face carefully to get as much of the makeup off as I could.

  When I lowered myself into bed it was the greatest feeling in the world. Absolutely nothing could compare to laying your head down after a long day. And “long day” didn’t even begin to cover what today had been. But I felt the softness beneath my cheek and the way the pillow was cradling my head and I let my eyes close, hoping I would dream something good.

  Chapter 2

  No one declared war within my first week, and I took that as a personal achievement. The actual nuances of politics, I could handle. Those were the things I’d been trained to know how to tackle since I was a kid. It was objective, for the most part, though you had to use some ingenuity sometimes to get exactly the right response or the right answer to a question. I excelled in that, but I lacked the charisma of a leader.

  That had been, and still was, Nik’s forte. He was a natural born public speaker and thrived when all the attention was on him. His public speaking abilities and press conferences were good, while his poor choices happened behind closed doors. And though I was more reserved – maybe awkward – I knew that being able to carry a conversation and make jokes to get the whole room laughing was not actually required of me. I was endowed with divine right. Still, I liked to think that I had something to offer other than my ability to think strategically.

  It was lonely, and it would be nice to be liked, just a bit.

  Once a week I met with the prime minister and the cabinet to discuss pertinent issues of the week. If there was an emergency, we would meet more frequently. But, like I said, no one had declared war or launched nukes at anyone yet.

  “On the table today, Your Majesty,” said the prime minister, “we’ve got a petition for the request that unionization be officially adopted into the constitution as an amendment – clearly they’re taking a leaf from the Americans’ books,” he said, pausing to clear his throat and drink some water. “The Supreme Council still requires a replacement for Justice Santorino, after his passing several months ago. The Council has not had any court cases brought to it since then, but we can’t afford to put that off on that for long. I’ve got a list of possible candidates I think would suit.

  “The minister for defense has a bill on military funding that passed through Parliament but still requires your approval before he implements it. We need to finalize the plans for the Independence Day celebrations in a few months, and then all that remains is scheduling a meeting with the ambassador from Vatican City, who wishes to speak with you.”

  When he finished I felt like my head was spinning. I’d been feverishly taking notes while he spoke and they’d turned into long, scribbled lines that I would not be able to decipher later. I felt my hand cramp up, and I worked on quietly stretching it out while the minister of defense spoke about his military funding bill.

  I wasn’t passionate about many things, but I was adamant about not overfunding the military, no matter what they said they needed the money for. And the minister did constantly ask for money, from my father, from my brother, and now from me. We weren’t a superpower – we barely had a standing army. If we were attacked directly we could not properly defend ourselves, but we were too small and too well-liked for that to be probable. We didn’t need much of a military, no matter how much Minister Stanislav wanted to be the commander of a great military force.

  “I will consider it,” I said lightly, taking his stack of papers and placing it on my pile, where it would certainly be forgotten.

  We moved down the line of business to the petition for a constitutional amendment. I also put that on my pile. Isabel would get a kick out that. We had no precedents for amendments to the constitution. Though that could change, the petition in my hands was lightly worded – as though it were commonplace and expected that we make additions and changes to the document. I wasn’t about to allow something so radical for the sake of worker politics.

  We brushed through the scheduling of the Vatican ambassador, putting it at sometime next week. I was hoping Isabel’s father would pay us a visit soon. I could use a friendly face in the political arena.

  I was handed a list of names and credentials for people who could fill the empty judge’s spot on the Council. I’d have to give that one some thought. They served for life, if they accepted their appointment. I didn’t want to make a huge mistake and pick someone who would abuse their power, or serve their own political agenda.

  That was the problem with all of this. The monarch is never truly free, and never has been. Once it was the church controlling everything
the monarch did; now it was the world of western politics. I wondered what it would be in a couple hundred years, several monarchs down the line. Hopefully they’d be better equipped to handle it than me.

  When we finally closed for the day I practically ran to my room and dropped onto my bed. I’d been sitting all day, but listening to the politicians and advisers and thinking had taken a lot out of me. Boredom drained my energy, and I wanted to get out. I thought about taking a walk in the gardens or sitting outside for a while. I considered walking laps through the hallways. But all those options meant someone was going to be there to bow their head or look at me. I wanted to be anonymous for a while, and without constantly being noticed.

  I didn’t have the nerve to do it, however, for the first few weeks. Nik would have been out the door and down into town in a heartbeat, but it took me quite a while and a great deal of personal convincing to get me out of my bedroom one night. I put on some of my most casual clothes and walked down into town, without an escort and without security. It was something I had always imagined myself doing, like some sort of Disney princess out of a movie. Now I had been a queen for about a month or so, and I needed some relief.

  I walked into town. It was a Tuesday night, so the streets weren’t lined with stumbling college students or people out for a weekend party or a good time. It made it all the easier not to be spotted or recognized – that would cause quite the media frenzy. I thought about Nik’s days at clubs and parties in France after what happened to our father. I refused to be thought of like that at all. I wasn’t ashamed of my brother, but I also was not him, and people already wanted to compare us as it was. I had heard a prediction that this period would be known as the dark times of the monarchy by historians decades from now. A king dead, another king abdicated, and a teenage queen on the throne, all in less than two years.