Sneak Peak at the First Chapter of 'Happily Ever After?'

‘Stop trying to undermine me.  In case you have forgotten I am the Crown Princess, you are simply my husband.’

‘I wasn’t trying to undermine you and I resent be labelled as the husband of the future queen.  Remember you could have had any husband but you chose me.’

‘And I am reminded of that every day.  How could I forget?’

The King and Queen of Fersere sat in one of their many lavish rooms in their palace, the King sitting at a desk looking at state papers, the Queen reading, both trying very hard to ignore the fight that was going on in the bedroom above them.  The Queen in particular was feeling very uncomfortable.  She was not the Crown Princess’s birth mother, although she did feel a great deal of love for her stepdaughter, so she didn’t feel it was her place to encourage her husband to take action to solve the arguments that were becoming increasingly more common,

‘Why don’t you just leave then if you feel so out of place here?  No one is keeping you here.’

‘You know what Ena, I might just do that.’

‘That’s right, go back to your thieves, that’s where you really belong.’

‘That’s a low blow Ena.  At least with Bledri and Eric and Ani I feel like I’m appreciated instead of being made to feel like I’m useless here.’

‘Then go back to Madrimar, we’ll carry on fine without you.’

‘Then I will.’

‘Good riddance!’

There was the sound of a door slamming and the King and Queen knew the fight was over.  For now.  Rowena and Artem would have made up again before the end of the day and the peace would last for a day or two before there was another fight and the cycle would begin again.

‘Peace at last,’ the King murmured as silence encompassed the palace once more.

‘Is that all you can say?’  The Queen said, disgusted with her husband’s attitude towards his daughter’s tempestuous marriage.  ‘How long are you going to let these fights go on before you decide to take some action and sort it out?’

‘I can’t fix it for them,’ he responded, not even looking up from the document in front of him.  ‘They’ll have to sort it out themselves.’

‘And what about the rest of us?’  The Queen retorted.  ‘What are we supposed to do?  Tiptoe around the issue like frightened children, scared if we say anything we’ll get a beating?  This cannot go on.  They were happily married for over a year before the arguments started, there has got to be some way to find out what went wrong three months ago.’

‘Rowena doesn’t talk about it,’ the King said, still more interested in matters of state than what his wife was saying.

‘Have you asked her to talk to you about what’s happened?’

‘I’m not going to go prying into her private matters without her permission.’

‘So you haven’t asked her.’  The Queen was losing her patience now, getting increasingly frustrated with her husband’s inability to sort anything out independently.

‘She’ll tell me when she’s ready.’

‘You cannot just let these things lie, you have to be proactive, keep asking her what is wrong until she gives in and talks to you.’

The Queen wanted to say more but was stopped by the door opening and a calm Crown Princess Rowena walking into the room and taking a seat opposite her step-mother, her diary in her hand.  The Queen smiled pleasantly at Rowena, doing what everyone always did after one of Rowena and Artem’s fights; pretend it never happened.

But the Queen wasn’t going to stand for it this time.  She was going to make someone take the first step, no matter what happened.

She stood up serenely from her seat, not wanting Rowena to think anything was out of the ordinary, and advanced on her husband’s desk, which was behind Rowena so out of her line of sight.  She leant over her husband’s shoulder so her mouth was right next to his ear.

‘Say something to her,’ she breathed.

‘No,’ the King hissed back.  ‘If you want it sorted out then you talk to her about it.’

‘I’m not her family, she needs to know that it’s affecting you.’

‘Rowena,’ the King said loudly, breaking the tense silence in the room as he turned to address his daughter.  ‘
Jechia would like to go for a walk around the gardens; you know how lovely they are in early summer.  Would you go with her?  I’m sure she’d love the company.’

‘What are you doing?’  The Queen hissed to her husband.

‘Taking action,’ was the reply.

‘I’m not sure I’m in the mood for looking at the gardens,’ Rowena replied half-heartedly.

‘Don’t be silly,’ the King insisted, ‘I know how much you love the gardens here.  It will do you good to go for a walk.’  He nudged his wife in the back, indicating she needed to participate in order for his plan to work.

‘Please come with me Rowena,’ Jechia said, thinking of the ways she could ignore her husband for this later.  ‘It’s lovely and sunny today and I feel like I haven’t seen you in days.’

‘I suppose it might do me some good.’

‘Then it’s settled,’ Jechia said, deciding that If she was going to have to do this, she might as well give it all she had.  ‘Come with me to get my parasol.’  Jechia took hold of her stepdaughter’s hand, pulling her up off the chair she was sitting on and leading her towards the door.