Royal Airs (41 page)

Josetta could hardly believe it, but within a few minutes, Odelia stopped wailing, grew almost calm in Corene’s arms. She still wouldn’t speak. She still wouldn’t glance up at Corene, or even seem to acknowledge that the other girl was present. But she settled against her sister as if she had found a haven when it had seemed no such thing as a haven existed.

 • • • 

T
hey moved the conversation back to the lower level of the mansion, to one of those big cheerful rooms with soft furniture and plenty of light. Taro’s wife—an ample, smiling woman of great serenity—joined them only long enough to order refreshments and tell them she was having servants carry in their luggage.

Zoe exclaimed, “Oh—and Celia—I left her with the nursemaid in our elaymotive, but if she’s fussy—”

Taro’s wife patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and said, “I’m usually pretty handy with a baby.”

“We have some decisions to make,” Darien said again as soon as she was gone. “And we must make them quickly.”

Taro gave him an inquiring look. “I don’t understand the hurry. You did not expect Odelia to inherit the throne for almost twenty years. Surely we have time to consider our course.”

“The empress of Malinqua will be here within the quintile and she is a stickler for protocol. She has expressed an interest in meeting all the princesses—and she has already familiarized herself with their names and likenesses.”

“Mally may still stand in for Odelia until we come to a decision,” Taro said.

Romelle had joined them, her eyes red with weeping, and some of her defiance rekindled.
“Mally!”
she exclaimed with bitterness. “The only good that will come of this whole disaster is knowing that I will no longer have to pretend
she
is my daughter!”

Josetta and Corene exchanged looks. Corene had been right when she declared that Romelle loathed Mally, though the reasons were far more complicated than they’d imagined.

“I suppose she will have to,” Darien said, answering Taro. “Until we have decided what to do about Odelia.”

“What to
do
about her!” Romelle responded with great affront. “You don’t need to
do
anything about my daughter. She’s beautiful. She’s perfect. And I love her with all my heart, just as she is.” Zoe reached over to hug her, but Romelle shook her off, glowering at Darien. “You can’t come here and tell me that she doesn’t deserve the best possible life.”

“No,” Darien said. “I would want her to be happy and cared for as long as she lives. But she isn’t fit to be queen.”

Romelle still seemed to be feeling belligerent. “Well, who wants to be queen anyway? All those gossips, all those terrible people trying to catch you out in a lie—it’s a miserable existence.”

“I agree in some respects, but that’s not the point at issue here,” Darien said. “Odelia was named heir by virtue of being Vernon’s true daughter. If she cannot rule, we need to publicly say so. And then we need to determine who
will
be in line to take the throne.”

Taro glanced around the room. “The other three heirs are all on the property,” he said. “I suppose that’s not an accident. Shall I bring Natalie into the room as well?”

Which was when Josetta realized exactly why Darien had wanted her to accompany him on this trip.
We miss you,
he had said. What he had meant was,
It is your duty as an heir to the crown
. Trust Darien to only give you partial information no matter how much you wanted to know the whole truth. She would have glared at him across the room except she knew he wouldn’t care.

“We do not need Natalie’s presence in the room, but, yes, I thought there might be some value in having all the princesses in one place,” Darien answered. “When the primes certified Odelia as heir, they also determined the order of the succession. First Natalie, as Odelia’s half sister by blood—then Josetta, as the eldest of Vernon’s supposed daughters—then Corene. If that order still stands, do we need to begin more intensive preparation for Natalie? Do we need to find a decoy princess to occasionally substitute for her? Do we reconsider Josetta, who is so close to her majority? What is our course of action?”

Now Josetta looked straight at Rafe. He had been so silent since this whole strange interlude began, keeping himself so effortlessly out of the way, that even she had started to forget he was present. But she felt his sudden involuntary spasm when Darien put her forward as the likely queen. His face was flooded with dismay, and she could practically read the thought in his mind.
I might be a prince in hiding, but I’m not fit for a queen.
She gave him a small smile and nodded.
Oh yes, you are. Wouldn’t that be the biggest gamble of your life?

“Darien,” Zoe said, and there was a note of urgency in her voice that made everyone in the room sit up straighter. “Yes—that was the original plan—but not everybody was satisfied by it.”

Taro nodded. “I remember. The thinking was that if we had gone to so much trouble to make sure the heir was definitely Vernon’s daughter—flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone—that Odelia’s heir should also be from Vernon’s line.”

For a moment, Darien lost his usual look of calm certainty. “That’s inconvenient,” he snapped. “Whose idea was
this
?”

Taro and Zoe frowned at each other, as if trying to remember. “Nelson’s, I think,” Taro said. “It’s a sweela sort of argument.”

Darien put his hand to his temple as if his head hurt. “Then Nelson must have thought there was some advantage to his own family to promote such a plan,” he said, sounding weary. “For instance, was Vernon in some way related to the Ardelays? That would explain Nelson’s eagerness.”

“Of course Vernon was related to the Ardelays—
all
the Five Families have intermarried over the generations,” Zoe said. “I can tell you that the Lalindars and the Frothens and the Serlasts also carry some blood from that line, but it’s very diluted. That can’t be why Nelson would push for Vernon’s heir.”

Taro glanced at Josetta. “In fact, I would have expected Nelson to have favored Josetta’s claim, since she is his brother’s daughter.”

“If it matters,” Josetta said, “I don’t want the throne.”

“It doesn’t,” Darien told her. “Well, who
would
be Vernon’s closest kin? He didn’t have siblings or even first cousins—it was one of the reasons his advisors were so concerned when he failed to produce children of his own. But he must have relatives
somewhere
. This must all have been researched before Josetta was even born.”

“It was,” Zoe said faintly. She had a hand across her mouth and looked as if she had seen smiling death dancing around her wedding dress. “Oh no. Oh no no no no
no
.”

“That could hardly be more ominous,” Darien said. “Tell us.”

“I touched his arm. At some function back in Quinnelay. And I noticed it then, but it was faint—Vernon’s ancestry, yes, and a healthy percentage of Ardelay blood. I can’t believe that Nelson—but the Ardelays were out of favor for so long that maybe he thought this was a way to right the balance—”

“Zoe,” Darien said sharply.

Her expression was wretched as she glanced at him, at Corene, and back to Darien. “Dominic Wollimer. Alys’s husband. He’s Vernon’s closest living relative—that I know about, anyway.”

“I won’t have that imbecile taking the throne of Welce no matter how many primes certify him!” Darien exploded.

Zoe shook her head. “Not him. His child. Alys’s baby.”

 • • • 

D
arien stared at Zoe a moment. Josetta could almost see him putting the puzzle together, piece by piece. “She knew,” he said flatly, and Zoe just nodded.

“She knew what? What are you talking about?” Taro demanded.

Darien was having a hard time controlling his anger as he returned his attention to the torz prime. “You told me that only a handful of people were aware of the situation with Odelia, but you lied,” he said. “Obviously, Alys knew as well.”

Taro clearly resented the tone. His voice was cool when he answered, “As far as I know, she didn’t.”

“Then why would she marry a man with nothing to recommend him but his distant connection to the late king? And why would she choose to have his child?”

“Alys is pregnant?” Romelle exclaimed. “She didn’t tell me that!”

Darien swung his attention her way. “You and Alys are in the habit of confiding in each other, are you? I thought you disliked her.”

Romelle looked a little guilty. “I used to. When we lived at the palace. She could be so
cruel
. But we’ve become much closer since Vernon died and we don’t have to play all those political games.”

“
You
might not be playing them, but
she
is,” Darien replied. “Alys never stops intriguing.”

Taro put a hand on Romelle’s shoulder. “She knew about Odelia?” he asked, his voice gentler than Darien’s.

Romelle nodded. “I didn’t tell her—she found out. It was almost two years ago, and everything with Odelia was so new and raw. She stopped by one day—just like you, Darien!—on her way somewhere else. And she found us in the playroom, and she saw Odelia and she—she—I was so afraid! I begged her not to tell anyone, I said I was sure Odelia would get better, and she was so
kind
to me! She said only a mother could ever understand how terrifying it was to watch a child grow up and worry about all the dreadful things that could happen. She said she would never tell a soul. And she hasn’t. Every time she sees me, though, she asks after Odelia, and it’s such a relief to have
one
person I can confide in,
one
person I can be honest with.”

“And one person scheming to take away the throne,” Darien shot at her.

Romelle lifted her chin. “You said it yourself, Darien. Odelia will never be queen. So why do I care who inherits the crown?”

“She must have gone straight from this house to Chialto and started romancing Dominic Wollimer,” Zoe said. “She probably didn’t even stop to wash the travel grime off her face.”

“But I don’t understand,” Darien said, frowning again. “How did Alys realize that the primes were considering supplanting Vernon’s other daughters as heirs? It can’t have been widely known.”

Not known at all,
Josetta thought,
if
I
didn’t even realize it.

Now Zoe looked a little angry. “My cousin Rhan would be my guess,” she said. “He and Alys have always gotten along famously. So Nelson told his sons, Rhan told Alys—” She shrugged.

Taro still looked disbelieving. “So Alys figures all this out—more than two years ago!—and proceeds to marry Dominic Wollimer just in case the other princesses are put aside? That takes some cold-blooded calculation and long-range thinking.”

“She is capable of both on a grand scale,” Darien said grimly.

“If she wanted the prestige of being mother to the next queen, why didn’t she put her effort into convincing us that Corene was the right one?” Taro asked.

“Because Corene is mine,” Darien said, “and she knew she couldn’t control me.”

“No,” Zoe said, sounding weary. “Because she doesn’t care if it’s one of her daughters on the throne. All she cares about is being in the middle of the excitement of court. Corene is old enough to make her own decisions—she doesn’t need Alys at her side. But a baby? Everyone will have to come to
Alys
to beg for favors and sue for attention. She regains all the power. Which is all she has ever wanted.”

“Well, she’s regained nothing, because that child will never take the throne,” Darien declared. “I won’t allow it.”

Taro fixed him with a sober stare. “Pardon my bluntness, Darien, but you don’t have anything to say about it. The primes make that decision.”

For a moment Darien looked so hostile that Josetta thought he might throw something at Taro. “Fine,” he bit out. “But if you choose Alys’s unborn child,
you
can see it through the next twenty-four years of its life. I will not be regent, I will not be advisor—I will not even be living in Chialto. I’ll repair to Zoe’s estate in the mountains, and I won’t leave again.”

“Who needs you, anyway?” Romelle burst out. “All you do is cause trouble and make everyone else unhappy.”

The look he turned on her should have scorched her flesh, but all he said was, “Indeed. Those are my highest aspirations.”

“I think we’ve allowed our emotions to run a little high,” Taro interposed, raising his hands in a gesture of peace. “Maybe it is time for you to withdraw to your rooms to recover and prepare for dinner. It has been a difficult day for all of us.”

“All this drama could have been avoided if you had been truthful with us,” Darien said.

“Maybe so,” Taro said. “Discretion seemed like the best course at the time.”

“I suppose it was never true?” Zoe said suddenly. “That story you told about the woman sneaking into Odelia’s room and cutting off a lock of her hair?”

Romelle looked self-conscious, but Taro merely nodded. “A fiction to explain our choices.”

“Nelson thought you were lying,” Zoe said. “But I couldn’t believe it.”

He gave her a tired smile. Josetta thought that, despite all the anger in the room, the two primes still remained allies. Somehow that made her feel hopeful. “It was more difficult than I thought it would be,” he said. “The words were ashes in my mouth.”

Romelle started edging toward the door. “Do you need me?” she asked pointedly. “Or can I go?”

Darien looked like he wanted to protest, but Taro nodded, and she slipped away. “There is still so much to decide,” Darien began, but Taro shook his head.

“Not now. Not tonight. In the morning. And perhaps over the following nineday, and the nineday after that. But for now, we are all tired, and sad, and ready to spend some time apart. I will have my wife take you to your rooms.”

In fact, his wife must have been loitering in the hallway, waiting for some signal, for at that precise moment she stepped in. “I have put you all in rooms in the east wing,” she said. “I think you’ll find them very comfortable.”