Cheating Royalty (Chasing Royalty #2)

15

Cassandra disappears down the hall.

I ask, "What do we do?"

Grace shrugs, "There's nothing we can do, except wait. What is Florentine going to say?"

"What I don't understand is why it's so secretive that you can't even talk about it. It's not like we are giving away the midwives' secrets. It's hard to, when we don't know anything about them."

"I think there's more to this than we know. There must be something more that Augustine didn't tell you."

We wait in tense silence for what's going to come. Not ten minutes after Cassandra disappeared, a servant knocks on our door.

She enters and curtsies, "Florentine requests that you meet her in her office."

Grace nods, "Yes, however could we have a few minutes to prepare? I'm afraid we are still in yesterday's clothes."

The servant nods, "I'll wait outside the door to guide you to her study."

Grace and I hurriedly dress and comb our fingers through our tangled hair. I've gotten barely any sleep since the last night and my eyelids droop lower with every passing second.

Once we are mildly presentable, we follow the servant down the hall to Florentine's study. I carefully memorize the turns though the hall just in case we need to break into her study. I'd rather not, after what happened with Augustine's study, but I won't completely dismiss the idea.

Florentine's study seems to be on the other side of the house. We travel through many halls I've never been through before, past several new rooms. Perhaps that's why the guards keep coming back, and search for so long. There are so many places for us to hide, I can see why they would be suspicious. I can only imagine what else Florentine is hiding within this house.

The servant knocks lightly on a dark wooden door. Florentine's voice rings out, welcoming us inside.

The servant opens the door for us and ushers us inside. She curtsies and quickly leaves.

Florentine's study is even more grand than Augustine's. Dark wooden bookshelves line the far wall. Wide glass windows sit behind her grand desk. Unlike Augustine's study, each object inside seems to have a place. There is not a single book, paper, or inked pen out of place.

Florentine smiles, sitting behind her large desk, "Please, have a seat. I'm afraid that this may take a while."

My knees shake as I take a seat on one of two plush chairs across the desk. Grace does the same. I pretend to be calm, as if I've done nothing wrong. I wasn't aware that speaking of the midwives was so wrong, but it appears that I've made a horrible mistake.

Florentine says, "Cassandra just came by my office to tell me of something that she overheard you talking about. Do you have any idea of what she could possibly have said?"

Is this a trick to get us to reveal something that she doesn't know? What if Cassandra told her something else about us, not that we were speaking of the midwives? Surely I can't admit to it, if there is a chance that she doesn't already know.

Florentine says, "I'm assuming that you know that being honest will certainly affect you greatly. There are few things I hate more than liars."

My hands tremble in my lap, "We were speaking of many things when Cassandra overheard us. I cannot be sure of which thing she reported us."

"You aren't a dim girl, Admira. I'm sure that you know which topic you were talking about that you shouldn't have been discussing."

"As far as I knew, we weren't talking about anything that we shouldn't have been. I wouldn't purposefully talk about anything that you wouldn't want me to."

"It's not so much me, as the rest of the kingdom. Even in my home, you aren't completely safe."

"Safe from what?"

Florentine smiles, "I suppose I can't tell you what you are in danger from, if you can't tell me what you were talking about."

"Midwives," I say. "We were talking about the midwives. I didn't realize that they were such a horrible thing to talk about."

"That's funny, because Augustine told me that he told you that they were dangerous to speak of."

"He said that they were in danger and he couldn't tell me any information about them. I didn't know that simply speaking of them would cause trouble."

"Oh, it would certainly cause trouble. Look at the situation you are in now."

"Am I in trouble?" I ask carefully.

"With me? No. I am not mad at you. I am simply warning you. If any other person were to have heard you speaking of the midwives besides Cassandra, there would certainly hundreds of problems. You incredibly lucky that Cassandra is loyal to our cause."

But Cassandra isn't loyal to our cause. She made that quite clear to Grace and me the other day. She said that she didn't believe in us, and that she usually fought for what she believed in. Should I warn Florentine of her daughter's disloyalty or will it only create more problems?

Florentine says, "It is understandable that you would have so many questions. As you grew up, you were shielded from the whispers that most children heard from their parents. I'm continuously forgetting about your childhood in respect these kinds of things."

"What were the whispers? Why are the midwives' identities such a secret?"

Florentine takes a deep breath, "You realize that if I tell you this, you must keep it a secret. You mustn't talk about it, unless you are sure you are alone. Even then, it is a risk."

I nod, "Of course, we will keep it a secret. It's not as though we meet many people within these walls to share it with."

"The guards and leaders of the castle never meant for you to know. They wanted your past to be scar free, of course. When you become queen, you must not show that you know."

Once again, I nod.

Florentine takes a deep breath and looks Grace and I in the eye, "There were seven midwives. To become the midwife of Queen Cassandra was an incredible honor. The women chosen were close to royals, similar to the position that you, Grace, have. You are famous through your position. Most of the public would recognize Grace, though they may not necessarily know her name."

Grace frowns, "Most people recognize me?"

"Of course, you followed Admira nearly everywhere she went when she was a princess. They would have to be stupid to notice you. Anyway as Cassandra grew closer to her time to give birth, the midwives began accompanying her wherever she went. They didn't know when it would happen, but they wanted to be prepared. That is one of the reasons that there were seven, rather than two or three. The midwives took shifts so that they would always be alert and ready to help your mother. Also..."

Florentine presses her lips together, as though in pain, "Also Queen Cassandra and most of the kingdom considered your birth very important. At this time, the king had already passed away. If this birth didn't go well, there would be no pure blood heir to the kingdom. Also, before you were born, they weren't aware that you were quadruplets. They figured, by the size of her stomach, that it was twins, or perhaps even triplets. Delivering twins and triplets causes many more complications in the birth and many people feared that...well...neither you nor your mother would make it. The effects of your father's death certainly showed on your mother, despite her attempts at hiding her grief."

When Florentine pauses, I say, "I don't understand why this would cause so much secrecy around them."

Florentine smiles impatiently, "I'm getting to that. Your mother went into labor, and all her midwives were there to support her. It is good that she had hired so many midwives. There were enough nurses to care for each of you and your dying mother. If she had hired the normal amount of midwives of three or four, your mother might have not been the only one who didn't survive."

I shake my head, "I still don't understand. They did their job, why do they need to be so secretive?"

"People like drama. The midwives were the only people with Queen Cassandra when she died. It was inevitable that people would accuse them of murdering her. However, the midwives went through serious and difficult tests to become the Queen's midwives and Cassandra trusted each one of them deeply. I don't believe that they were the cause of her death. Yet another aspect is that they know the true birth order of you and your sisters. They know who the true heir to the throne is."

Grace says, "But it wouldn't matter anyway, right? The King and Queen wanted the new Queen to be chosen by traits, not by birth order."

"Yes, but people don't like change. Birth order is tradition, the contest is not. Why do you think that the contest was not a greatly publicized thing? The guards were afraid of what the public might do, knowing that the new queen wasn't being chosen the traditional way. I suppose it must have been a relief for the leaders of the kingdom that they didn't have to announce the contest in the end, a relief that Alexanne took care of it for them."

My mind immediately flies to Victor and William. I say, "Do you think that perhaps it wasn't a relief, but part of a plan. Maybe some people know of what Alexanne was doing, and might have even helped her?"

Florentine smiles, "I won't say for certain that someone helped her. However, I find it very hard to believe that Alexanne would have been able to have that much success without the help of someone else."