Chapter 15

The Third Day of the month of Palefrost

The Royal Palace

Queen Trilanea stood at the window of her rich room, eyes trained on the horizon, her thoughts warring in her mind.

She had been incredibly miserable for a week now, the shock of dealing with each blow to the peace of her family.

It was unbelievable how quickly things had unraveled, but now she wondered if things had been firm in place before.

Cecil had invoked too many rumours in the Palace but the queen had turned a deaf ear to almost all of them.

She wondered now if she was to blame for the situation spiraling so quickly out of hand regarding the youngest prince.

The Royal bloodline had always boasted many scandals

The queen's husband and present king was the first to decide to stop it.

He had entrusted her with his hope that they would, unlike the generations before, be free of affairs and such other things that tarnished their name.

He wanted a reign of pure integrity; a reign where the Royal Palace was looked on as a Palace of extreme justice and fairness and the nobility and families were depended on by the people for good favors and not unnecessary gossip.

She had agreed whole-heartedly and fallen more in love with him.

The nobles could not be changed from their mindsets where affairs and such other things did not cross their mind as anything more than guilty pleasures but the king and queen had raised their sons with extreme strictness.

They were expected to excel at all of their studies and not spare glances to the fairer sex unless they were determined to marry the girl.

Raising Augustus and Elliot, Queen Trilanea had been stern in how they carried themselves and how they appeared. The people's opinion of the royal palace had changed rather quickly to her surprise and now, the palace was looked on as a place of extreme discipline devoid of scandalous affairs.

She sighed, letting a hand rest on the window sill.

Loosening her grip on Cecil was not the problem.

Her mistake had been ignoring the many times she'd heard of his activities.

By the time Cecil had grown, showing very little interest in Royal Activities, the king had decided to free the youngest of the responsibilities, promising instead to give him a large sum of money when his brothers took the throne.

He would be given lands and factories and a large mansion in the middle of the Capital.

The queen had been delighted as it had weighed on her mind to see her youngest suffer through classes he did not enjoy.

A month or so after, she received reports of his relationship with a beautiful girl in the country.

She had dismissed them as harmless and her son finally seeking a romantic relationship.

A few months after, Cecil did not make any more trips to the town and instead, began to frequent a nearby bar.

The queen was informed of an attractive waitress who had caught the young prince's attention but she paid no heed to it.

The girl in the country had not suited him and Cecil had moved on, she had told herself.

A few months passed and the frequency of Cecil's interest and then leaving of females increased.

The Queen realized she had no heart to inquire about it to her youngest.

When a maid had complained to her about the prince's misbehavior, the queen had tried to quiet the rumour but did nothing to free the lady causing the disgruntled maid to leave.

Sighing, she wondered if she was to blame some for the way the family had split so suddenly.

Cecil trying for the throne would have normally invoked the family's surprise and joy. The way he had gone about it had angered everyone instead.

First announcing that he and Aldith, Elliot's fiancée were in love; he had gone on to announce that he would be marrying her on the day she was to marry Elliot so that the people who had been invited to the wedding need not be sent away. He had gone on to claim that he would no longer be speaking to anyone in the family, stating that it was due to their scheme to keep him away from the throne.

He had accused Elliot of physically abusing Aldith and claimed Elliot had cheated on his fiancée with his childhood friend.

The youngest had gone on to insult Elliot's friend further in her father's workplace, overall, destroying any chance he had left of reconciling with the family.

The queen sighed, the pain in her chest growing.

Where had she gone wrong? She had only just begun to recover from Waldorf's death. How had everything begun to spiral downward so quickly?

Large hands encircled her waist, pulling her into a firm chest, "Are you alright, dearest?"

The queen sighed softly before leaning into her husband's voice.

She let her hand softly trace over his arm, the warmth of his hug soothing her.

"I am very upset. I wonder if I have done something wrong."

"It's not easy raising children," the king laid a gentle kiss to the side of her head, "Harder still to do it as you take care of an entire Palace."

The queen smiled slowly as she let her head lean into his neck, "Thank you, my love."

Years ago, when she had been told the crown-prince fancied her, she had been terrified.

She had only heard tales of scandalous affairs and immoral romantic endeavors from the Royal family and was scared of a life of only drama.

Her fears had faded when she'd met him and disappeared when she'd married.

His focus on doing what was right and changing the way things had been carried on was the strongest trait she had seen in a man and she had fallen head over heels in love.

There was a reason Elliot was her favourite son: he did not seek after the approval of the ones around him. He only did what he knew was right.