The Usurper's Queen | COMPLETED

07 | his story

Father was rather pleased by the news of Edmund asking for my hand in marriage. Pleased, but not surprised.

      The Duke of Cindertrappe visited our home in Rhyland increasingly often and brought valuable gifts along with him on each visit. Lisbeth's face had coincidentally become increasingly sour too, and she tried to coax Father into switching me with herself, on the basis that I was too young to be married off.
Father however, assured me that he would never allow me to wed so early.

       "There is more to life than what you know of, Anne. This marriage between you and the Duke will hinder you from pursuing your dreams, your deepest desires.
      So, I shall ask him to delay the wedding, until you are old enough. Marriage is difficult and tricky as it is, but marrying into the royal family is hellish. Just look at the dead queen, Anne.
She might've looked beautiful and pampered, but the loss of her son made her lose her mind. The tears she shed were not of a mother grieving for her son, but of someone who had just lost her greatest asset. Her collateral in exchange for the throne.

      But that shall not happen to you, Anne. As your father, I shall ensure that no harm shall befall you," Father had said caringly to me one evening after dinner.

         "Anne, I am certain that you know close to nothing about the Duke's background, and how he has a claim on the throne, do you?" he suddenly asked.

      I nodded and answered, "No, I do not, Father."

Father put his goblet of elderflower wine on the table and threw several logs into the fireplace before settling into his arm chair.

        "The King is far from the victorious, virtuous saint that we think he is, Anne," Father sighed. "The late King Charles wife, Queen Lucianna Van Den Berg, was my aunt, Anne. Cousin to your grandmother, Genoveva Van Den Berg.
     They were both princesses from the kingdom of Amaris, and they knew how to carry themselves with great pride and dignity.

       The Queen had two sons, Edgar and Edward. Prince Edgar was the eldest, and Edward the second. Queen Lucianna had passed on first, and soon after, Prince Edgar.
    Therefore, the late king had named Edmund as his heir, but Edward was greedy. Days after his father was buried, he accused his dead mother of infidelity, effectively labelling dead Prince Edgar as illegitimate.

     Both Edmund and his sister, Anna-Claudia, were removed from the line of succession, and Anna-Claudia was forced to marry into the foreign Beauchamp family, while Edmund was given a faraway dukedom and sent away.

      And their mother, oh that poor woman! The Dowager Princess Consort Anna-Sophia is still in exile, and it has been almost fifteen years!" Father exclaimed angrily, and I could see the hatred he had towards the King.

       "Prince Edgar... Was he a good person?" I asked.

Father smiled, and his eyes grew moist.     "Prince Edgar was my dearest friend. We were cousins, yes, but I only wanted to be friends with him. Even when we were little, I never felt the need to befriend his younger brother, Edward.
      Oh Anne, if only you could've met him! He was the most kindhearted man I knew, so mild-mannered and polite! Yet, he died such a pitiful death, Anne," my father cried, and at that moment, it felt as if he were a completely different person.

      At that moment, he was not the Earl of Rhyland, Cassian Winterbourne, the King's most trusted advisor and head of household for the wealthiest family in all of Phoenicia, but simply a boy who misses his best friend.

       "It was a horrific freak accident, Anne. That night, a memorial feast was held to commemorate the two years since late Queen Lucianna had passed away, and as Prince Edgar offered his greetings to his father, the chandelier on top of him crashed down, killing him in an instant."