Turned On Its Head

Franz was crowned king three days later right after his son's official naming ceremony. Roland Augustine McLeod became the crown prince of Annalaias as his father held him up in front of all of the nobility.

Sigmund was so furious that he didn't even bother showing up to the ceremony, which was a source of great gossip right up until the nobility trickled back to their country estates. They wouldn't return until the fall but I had a feeling they would still be talking about it then too.

Aside from that brief, necessary appearance in public, Mariela stayed in her quarters with her child, not even entrusting him to a wet nurse. She liked the ideas about parenting that Katie had mentioned during her pregnancy and wanted to spend as much time raising her son as she could.

They were different than the ones she and Franz stayed in before. Now that he was king, he had taken over the most exquisite suite in the palace and the queen had been delegated elsewhere.