A New Era: Kalparainia Chronicles Book One

Chapter Eleven

Was I happy to see my husband? Absolutely! Did he seem happy to see me? That I couldn't tell. He did decide to ride in the unused carriage with me, leaving Williem, my father and brother, Jillian and Sora all in the other carriage. It had been a few hours, he was very gentle with me, but he wasn't really talking to me. I searched my mind for something to say...anything.

I took a deep breath, "My birth mother was Princess Jaylen."

Xander's stunning blue eyes looked at me suddenly. He gave a very slow nod, "That I already figured out. Why are you having problems with Celeste?"

"She says that if I hadn't danced with Damien at her wedding, none of the wars would have started in the first place," I looked down. "She hasn't even mourned Markus yet, and she's blaming me for her losing her status as Queen."

"Maybe that's her way of mourning, my dear. Everyone mourns in their own way," Xander offered me a small smile. "I do have a favor to ask of you when we return home. Lord Maxym and Lord Jennings died in battle. They had no heirs to inherit their estates, so I would like for you to have Williem to write up new deeds and for you to sign them over to Riely Caynar and Byron Rysse. You may even choose who gets what."

"I'd be happy to, but...why don't you want to do that?" I asked.

Xander let out a little chuckle, "Williem's been taking his time explaining everything I see. Our duties are kind of split. While I have a great deal of power, I cannot give land away. Only you can as Queen of Kyrain. Same with making betrothals arranged by the Royal Family. I can give my opinion, but I cannot force you to do anything."

"Why would you give me that kind of power?" I asked him.

"Technically, my great grandfather gave you that power," Xander smiled at my confusion. "Besides what I've heard from your sister, I've heard you've been doing a wonderful job."

"Celeste has been writing you often?" I frowned.

"Nearly every day, she's been expressing fear that you'll kick her and Charlotte out when they need you most," Xander told me. "All I could say to that was that would be your choice. Our choices cannot contradict each other. If you tell them to leave, I cannot turn around and tell them to stay. That's one of the reasons you have your own Stewart and Royal Guard."

"To make one thing clear, I never said anything about having them leave," my frown grew.

Xander's face became thoughtful for a moment, like he was trying to figure something out. He rubbed the stubble that was growing on his face, "So you never threatened to throw them out?"

"No," I shook my head. "I only told Williem to keep Charlotte away from me."

Xander gave a thoughtful nod as he looked out the window. I couldn't help but imagine the kind of things Celeste had written to Xander if that was what he was thinking. Was she trying to make things difficult in my marriage before her husband had died?

"Markus must have loved the fact Celeste wrote him everyday," I mumbled.

"I guess that she didn't," Xander shrugged. "Markus actually threatened me. I had to tell her after a week that she needed to stop and respect your wishes."

So she wrote my husband to tell him lies? What's the point of that? Didn't she realize that I would find out? I cannot wait for her to move out with Byron if Xander will agree to it... I frowned as I looked out the window. I didn't understand why my sister was becoming this person I didn't know... or she'd been this way the entire time and I was just too blind to see it. What I truly didn't understand was why didn't she write her own husband and slander me that way?

"Was there anything good my sister had to say about me?" I frowned. Xander rubbed his neck as he looked at me. He was thinking of something to say, which spoke volumes. It was true then...everything my sister wrote to my husband was just to slander me. To what end? What was Celeste hoping to accomplish by doing such a thing? I couldn't look at him as I asked, "What else was said about me?"

"My dear, I don't think that you want to know," Xander cleared his throat.

"Actually, I do," I stated. "Anyone can tell you that I've all but bowed down to make Celeste happy the entire time that you've been gone. I want to know what else has been said about me."

"The last letter came little over a week ago," Xander opened the curtain to the carriage and looked at his Stewart, "The letters from Celeste." As soon as Xander got them into his hand, the curtain was closed again. He handed the stack over to me...there were more than a weeks worth of letters here. He cleared his throat, "The top one is the most recent, there are three newer ones in there."

"I thought you said she wrote for about a week," I frowned.

"That was a week. Every time she'd send one out, it was four or five of them," Xander looked down as he must have realized something. "I should have put a stop to it immediately."

I felt a lump form in my throat as I opened Celeste's most recent letter to Xander. As I read, my heart began to break:

Xander,

As you know from my past letters, Alyse is becoming crueler by the day towards Mother and me. I do not understand it. She's gone as far as alienating me and humiliating me in front of everyone in the castle. I have nothing left. If she was to throw me out of the castle, I would have nowhere to go. I thought of a way to fix both of our problems. By now you're regretting ever listening to me about marrying Alyse, and as you know, I am now a widow. Divorce Alyse and marry me instead.

Anger filled me, my vision began to blur with tears of betrayal, and I could hear my heart pounding in my skull.

I'm not sure how divorce works in Kyrain, but we both know that I would make a way better wife to you than my bothersome younger sister. You deserve someone who won't embarrass you as Alyse has been doing. She acts like she's better than everyone else. I will await your reply. You're a good man, and I know you'll make the right choice.

Forever yours, Celeste Thane

"Alyse?" Xander frowned at me.

"You...you're going to divorce me for my sister? What proof has she given you that I have behaved as she said I was?" I choked out.

"I am doing no such thing," Xander placed a hand on my knee. "For two reasons, the reports I was getting from Kyrain from the same messenger who brought me those letters was a contradiction to what I was being told in the letters, and divorce is only a Heartstone thing. No where else in Kalparainia has divorce."

"But you must have believed her at some point to mention that she said I was going to throw them out of the castle," I looked away from him.

"I will admit, for a moment, I did believe that, until I got the other reports," Xander told me. "Markus had told me how Celeste was when no one was around. How she was with his little sister, how she would try to get him to go against Veronica..." He believed that I would be so cold towards my sister? Is that the kind of person she's gotten others to see me as? "I am sincerely sorry for thinking that about you."

I couldn't look into his eyes. Knowing that he had actually believed the worst about me, when he didn't even know me. Neither of us truly knew Celeste's true nature. I didn't like feeling as though he was judging me based on what my sister had told him. I had been looking forward to getting time with my husband, but now... I felt sick to my stomach. Within the last couple of days, I'd been stabbed in the stomach and now I was learning that my sister was trying to destroy my marriage to Xander.

"Alyse, please talk to me," Xander frowned after I had remained quiet. I held out the letters to him and shook my head. I didn't want to read another one. Not if the one I read was the any inclination of what the others had inside them. "Alyse, you have every right to be angry with me. If you were hearing awful things about me and believing them... I would be upset as well."

I shook my head and refused to look at him still, but I did speak in a cold voice, "Knowing that Celeste had asked you to leave me and marry her..." I ripped off the locket that she had given to me and looked down at it with distain. "Knowing that she's been feeding you lies about me, and that you have countless letters of her accusing me of whatever popped into her mind..." I closed my eyes and hissed out, "She's clearly over her husband's death."

"Why would you say that?" Xander placed his hand on my leg.

"Because all she wants it to be Queen. She's willing to destroy my marriage and marry you so shortly after Markus has died," I stated logically. "She wants a marriage so bad, I would like to use the season at Court to find her a husband."

"Perhaps it was her way of mourning," Xander offered.

I moved my legs away from Xander and couldn't stop myself from glaring at him, "So that makes it okay for her to slander me at every turn? It makes it okay for her to commit a form of treason by trying to turn you against me?"

Xander took a deep breath, "She probably had no idea what she was doing."

"I want to ride in the other carriage," I stated through clenched teeth.

"What?" Xander frowned.

"You have a stack of letters in your hand that is nothing but Celeste trying to turn you against me. You're defending her, but do you honestly believe she was oblivious to what she was doing? Do you think that she was actually telling you the truth? You said yourself that Markus told you how she was. The people in the castle have seen how she is. Many have heard her state that the war was my fault," I seethed out. "If my own husband is allowing someone slander his own wife... what's going to stop everyone else from doing the same thing? I'm not going to ride in the same carriage as you to have our conversation go in circles. You're contradicting yourself, Xander."

"Allow her time to grieve," Xander sighed. "I will drop the subject. You've been through a lot, we've barely had any time together, and I would like for us to actually get some time in."

"If she makes one more slanderous remark towards me, I will start looking for a husband for her. I will not speak to her, I will not dine with her, and I do not want to even look at her. You may be blinded as I was by her charm, but that wore off with me," I looked back out the window and went quiet.

"I will have my Stewart tell her that," Xander's blue eyes never left me. "I want us to be on a united front as husband and wife. If you feel that you need to wed your sister off, I will support your choice. Let's just give her the proper time to grieve is what I was saying."

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Things only grew more awkward between Xander and me as we stopped for the night and a camp was set up. Williem was going to make a separate tent for me, but Xander had insisted that we share a tent as a husband and wife should. I'd been feeling sicker the more I thought about how much Celeste's opinion seemed to matter to Xander. The words from her letter to him just kept repeating in my mind. Divorce Alyse and marry me instead. Not once did Xander say that he wanted to stay married to me, only that divorce wasn't a thing in Kyrain...

"I apologize about arguing with you earlier," Xander said as he entered our tent. He looked absolutely exhausted as he sat down on the makeshift bedding beside me. "I didn't understand everything that was going on."

"And you do now?" I frowned at him, feeling as though I was going to be sick to my stomach.

"Williem and Jamison filled me in on everything that's happened," Xander took my hand in his. "Instead of actually listening to you, I went off of what I knew about Celeste personally. I didn't realize that she had tried to humiliate you in front of several people in your home. I didn't realize that the only thing she's been upset about was losing her crown." He placed a gentle kiss on my hand, "Jamison is...well he's brutally honest. He told me about how you've been trying your hardest to remain close with Celeste, and how you've been pushed away at every turn. How you finally made a friend, and Celeste was visibly manipulating you into giving up that friendship. I didn't want to hear it, so I shut you down. That was wrong of me to do, and I apologize." He took a deep breath, "And I agree, that if Celeste isn't mourning the loss of her husband, then we should find her another husband, so that she's no longer trying to come between our marriage."

I tried focusing on the things that he was saying. My stomach turned in a way that made me gag. Xander jumped to his feet and placed his hand on my face. I shook him off, "I'm fine. I just have an upset stomach."

"You're burning up," Xander frowned. "I'll grab the army's healer rather than waiting on getting home."

As Xander left the tent, my stomach turned again. I barely made it outside of the tent when the bile made it's way to my throat. I held onto my stomach as I vomited onto the ground, the world started to spin around me, so I leaned against the pole holding the tent up to hold myself up. What's wrong with me? Sora healed me... Williem was beside me, patting my back as I threw up again, making me lean on him rather than the tent pole. I was shaking so badly that it took everything in me to remain on my feet.

"My Queen, we need to get you back into the tent," Williem told me gently.

"I-" I gagged. "I'm going to be sick again."

"Get the Queen onto the bed now!" a man rushing behind Xander shouted. "Grab something that she can throw up in."

Before I could argue again, Xander was beside me, swooping me up into his arms and rushing me into the tent. Faster than I could think, I was placed onto the bed, and the healer was pushing my Royal Guard and Williem out of the tent. He allowed Xander to stay beside me, possibly because he was the King.

"How long have you been feeling like this?" the healer asked as he placed his hand on my forehead.

"A couple of days," I answered truthfully.

The healer nodded and looked back and forth between me and Xander before he spoke, "When was your last blood?"

I hadn't had time to even think about that since I'd gotten to Kyrain, but now that I thought about it...even in my hazy state, I couldn't really recall having my blood the entire time I'd been in Kyrain. I frowned at the healer, "About three weeks before I married Xander."

"And you haven't bled at all since your innocence was taken?" the healer pressed.

I shook my head, wondering where he was going with this, "No."

The healer gave Xander a look and shook his head, "The Queen isn't sick, my King. She's with child. Congratulations."

"With child?" both Xander and I frowned at the same time.

"Yes," the healer nodded. "I'm assuming it happened on your wedding night. Now... if you'll excuse me, I have other people who need me as well."

With a swift bow, the healer was gone, leaving me in an absolute stupor. I was with child? I was with child and I risked my child's life to save my brother? Tears entered my eyes as I looked over at Xander. He didn't say anything, just crawled into bed beside me and held me close while kissing me. His large hand went over my stomach as he smiled at me. All I could wonder was how I could have been pregnant without even realizing it?