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THE day after Sara and Richard settled on the rule for her future visits, Sara received a letter from the queen mother inviting her to the main castle.
“I wonder what the queen mother’s like…,” Sara murmured as Claire helped her get ready. Claire smiled brightly, combing through Sara’s hair.
“The queen mother Angelique is an icon for every woman in Ferrier, and that’s no exaggeration! She is a very modest and exceptionally loving woman. We all grew up with our mothers telling us, ‘Become a lady like Angelique!’”
That sounds like it would put quite some pressure on young ladies, much less the queen mother herself…, Sara thought, tilting her head slightly. But from what she could gather from Claire’s expression, the current queen mother seemed to have been the very model of a refined lady—the person all the ladies in those days were meant to strive to emulate.
“I don’t know much about the queen mother… Could you tell me about her?”
“Of course! Well, first…I presume you know that His Highness Richard had an older half brother, right?”
Sara nodded, plucking from her brain every piece of knowledge she had learned from her tutor back in Saleilles.
“Yes. I’ve heard that two years after the previous king married, his wife gave birth to a son, the first prince. If I’m remembering correctly, the first prince passed away when he was still young, nearly twenty-five years ago.”
Claire helped fill in the gaps of Sara’s knowledge.
Many had hoped that the first prince would succeed the throne, but ever since he had been born, he’d been a feeble and sickly child. To make matters worse, his mother had been so weakened from his delivery, the doctors said she did not have much of a chance at having another child.
The king loved the queen, but even if the first prince did make it to adulthood, if his health was still poor, he might not have been able to fulfill his duties and responsibilities as king. And with the chance of the queen producing another heir being so slim, the king had no choice but to take a concubine who could give birth to a healthy son.
“…His Highness’s mother, Diane, became the king’s concubine. This was twenty-five years ago. The first prince passed away less than a year later—and about one year after that, Prince Richard was born.”
“That’s…”
Sara swallowed the rest of the words that had almost escaped.
I can’t imagine how the queen mother must have felt…
Her own child had died, and then the royal concubine had given birth to a healthy son. It didn’t seem likely at the time that the queen mother would have any more children, and if she didn’t, Richard, the concubine’s son, would become king.
“Um…,” Sara said, broaching the topic delicately. “Diane passed away as well, didn’t she? Fifteen years ago?”
“Yes, unfortunately. We didn’t know what happened at the time, but… Prince Richard was only nine years old at the time. King Edouard was just one. Diane died at the royal villa where His Highness was staying. They say…she was probably killed by a burglar.”
“A burglar…”
So she didn’t die from an illness, like the first prince—it was murder.
Sara didn’t feel that she could ask too many direct questions, so she fell silent. Claire let out a quiet sigh as she applied perfumed oil to Sara’s hair.
“They were never able to find the culprit, so the case remains unsolved… The prince lost his mother, but the queen took him in almost immediately, and he became her adoptive son. At the end of the day, things were better for Richard this way.”
“Even though his real mother died?”
Claire paused before answering.
“Diane was the daughter of a marquis, but she didn’t have a very strong mind. Around the time His Highness Richard turned two, she shut them both away in a villa… Apparently, she was quite restrictive with His Highness as well.”
“Restrictive…,” Sara muttered.
Claire nodded and glanced at the closed white door.
“I heard that Diane became increasingly more unstable after His Majesty Edouard was born… There are many reasons why His Highness shuts himself away in this villa, but it all started with Diane. Everyone working at the castle knows about this, but of course, we are strictly prohibited from bringing up the subject in front of His Highness or the queen mother.”
“I can understand that… I’ll be careful not to, either.”
“I really appreciate it, ma’am.”
Claire didn’t say any more on the topic and went on fixing Sara’s hair and applying her makeup like any other day. As Sara meekly accepted Claire’s ministrations, her thoughts drifted to Richard as a child.
I knew that Richard’s birth mother died, but I didn’t know the full story… But why did Diane keep His Highness so confined?
Sara could somewhat understand if Diane was simply being overly cautious—because she was a concubine, if the queen had another son, the right of succession would transfer to the newborn. There were even cases in Saleilles’s history of a concubine killing the queen’s child because she realized her own was unable to become king.
But Claire had said the consort only started to act strangely when Richard was two years old. That was before Edouard was born and a time when it was doubtful if the queen could ever have children again. Was it premature, then, for Diane to have misgivings that her son might not become king?
I shouldn’t bring it up, though… I’m sure His Highness and the queen mother have also thought of that.
Knowledge could be a weapon, but it wasn’t something you should carelessly fling around or use to show off.
The insights Claire had shared with her were helpful, as Sara was going to meet the queen mother in just a few days’ time. But Sara had to remember that if she disclosed information in the wrong way, or to the wrong person, she might very well be tying her own noose.
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THREE days later, the queen mother sent a knight to the villa.
“Thank you for escorting me today,” Sara told him.
“It’s my pleasure,” the knight replied, turning back with a smile. “Well, shall we go…?”
The knight stopped in his tracks.
Claire followed his gaze to the door. “Oops,” she muttered to herself.
Sara craned her neck around them, wondering what was going on, when she spotted a black shadow standing in the hallway outside her chambers.
“…Your Highness?”
“Prince Richard, out in the hallway? That’s unusual, isn’t it?” the knight asked Claire.
“Maybe he was worried about Her Highness?” Claire teased with a smirk.
“You two be quiet for a minute,” Richard barked, looking put-out by their ribbing. He scowled at them from under his mask and then turned to Sara.
All the walls and floor of the hallway were bright off-white colors, so Richard, in his black pants and navy-blue coat, looked slightly out of place. Sara met his eyes with an unusual feeling in her chest, but just as she did so, Richard turned his face away, breaking their connection.
“I…heard you were going to see Her Highness the Queen Mother.”
“I am. She invited me to tea, so that’s where I’m going.”
“I see…”
“Is there a message you’d like me to pass on to the queen mother?”
“No… I just came to see what was going on. Travel safely.”
And with that, Richard turned on his heel and stalked back into his room. After his door had closed, Sara could hear Daniel and Richard arguing for some reason, but she had no idea what to make of it.
Sara tilted her head, staring down the now-silent hallway.
Um… So that was him seeing me off before I head out to the main castle, right?
It was a bit different from the typical send-off, but Richard, a reclusive homebody, had made the effort to come out and see her… She wondered if this meant he, in his own way, was concerned about her.
I don’t want to be conceited, but His Highness has opened up to me more than I ever expected he would. At least, I think so…
And if what Sara suspected was true, she was overjoyed.
She couldn’t help but smile. The knight saw this and grinned gently at her.
“His Highness seems to have lowered his guard for you.”
“Well… I don’t know if I’d go that far.”
“There’s no need to be modest, ma’am! The queen mother has also been worried about you two, but if things are like this, it looks like I can give her a good report.”
“I… I see,” Sara returned with a slightly embarrassed smile.