The Red Throne | TUQ Book Two

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Gilbert shook his head. "I don't, but I will find out."

      In the coming few days, I spent my time strolling around Winterbourne Castle with Cecily and trying on the new dresses and hats that my father gifted. The warm sunny sky felt almost foreign to me after spending almost a year in the cold, dreary northwest.

          "No matter where you go, home is always where the heart is," I remarked as I sat down on a large, flat stone that overlooked the slim, lazy river behind the castle. Cecily sat next to me, her pale pink lips spread in a thin smile.

          "Indeed, Lady Anne," she said, her voice soft and low. Underneath the sunlight, Cecily's porcelain white skin had turned slightly red, and her long cascading hair shone, like a stream of starlight. Pale blue eyes glanced at me, and below it was a tiny button nose, and small but full lips. Compared to her sister, Margaret, she definitely did not lack much, if it were not for the birthmark under her right eye.

         "Tell me, Cecily, has my brother been treating you well?" I asked her.

She froze, not saying a single word as she stared at the vast grass field that surrounded us. Her small, thin fingers were wrapped around the fabric of her skirt tightly, and her thin smile faded.

        "He is very kind to me, Lady Anne, but I do not see him quite often. He goes to the barracks at the beginning of the month and comes home during the end of the month, spends three days here and off he goes again," Cecily said truthfully. "But he is happy, Lady Anne. He tells me that he is not as smart as the Earl, so he could not possibly become a minister at court. Instead, he dreams of becoming a great general, to serve my cousin Edmund."

I was reminded about the matter of the inheritance, and I recalled about what would have happened if Cecily retook her titles once more. 

       "Cecily, you could have become a princess again. Why did you not take the opportunity?" 

She shook her head, smiling sadly. "I am already doomed from the start. Me becoming a princess again will not grant me happiness, and I shall be depriving Gilbert of his dreams. I know that a Prince Consort cannot hold any position at court or enter the military, and my husband would suffer if he had to live that way. 

But Lady Anne, everyday I wonder, was my decision worth it? The Countess would not stop insulting me and my long dead mother, as if she had a personal vendetta against my her. She can taunt me and spit in my face as much as she likes, but bringing up my mother is too cruel, Lady Anne. Saying that she turned away from God by taking her own life is too much.."

There were tears falling down Cecily's cheeks, and she brought up her hand to her lips to stifle her sobs. She dabbed her tears dry with the sleeve of her gown and turned around to face me.

       "I never told this to anyone, but I say it to you, Lady Anne," Cecily whispered, her eyes flickering around wildly. "My Lady Mother never took her own life. She was murdered, Lady Anne. Murdered by her own husband, the King."

How can that be? The dead Queen Helene was completely destroyed by the death of Prince George, and everyone assumed that she killed herself out of grief. Why would the King murder her, after all these years of marriage?

       "But why, Cecily? For what reason ?" 

She looked down at her lap, frowning deeply. "I don't know, Lady Anne. But she failed to give him a son after eleven years of marriage, and George's birth was godsend. My mother went insane after he died, and I suppose that it became clear that she would not produce another heir."

I felt unease pooling inside my chest as I touched my stomach, unnerved by the thought of being killed off just because my inability to bear a son. But that was what the dead queen went through, all because of me.