Crown of Smoke

Chapter 15

        Gwen was still angry at Hayden. At dinner the following evening they had not spoken a word to one another, instead, engaging with Harry and Briar who acted as a cushion for all of their tension. The next morning when she awoke, he had written a note to say he had gone into the town in order to send some correspondence. Briar rolled her eyes and cussed him a little under her breath, said that her servants could have sorted all of that out, and decided that it was just Hayden going out and being dramatic. Gwen had laughed, although not for long. Briar declared that if she wasn’t going to learn her princess duties from Hayden then she would have to learn them from her, which actually sounded much more appealing.

            That was how Gwen ended up lying on the library floor with her feet on the armchair, Harry and Briar drilling her on every alliance that Colvine had over the last century. Briar stood up at a chalkboard (which she had bought in especially), making Harry cringe next to Gwen on the floor every time something was written.

            “Do you have to do that?” he winced as the chalk squeaked on the board, making even Briar turn from the sound.

            “I don’t know how else to do it,” Briar sighed. She put the chalk down and came to stand over Gwen. Gwen gasped she opened her eyes to see Briar from perhaps her least flattering angle, looming over her with her mouth in a tight line and her brows furrowed together.

            Gwen smiled a cheeky smile up at her, “It’s not like I’m really reading the board, so there’s not much point to writing up on it.”

            Briar nodded resolutely. She lifted Gwen’s feet from the sofa and sat down, letting Gwen’s feet rest on her lap. Briar had chosen to dress a little more seriously in a white blouse and navy skirt. Gwen liked that she had tried to look a little more like a tutor, but it was really offset by Harry’s canary yellow shirt with floating sleeves and black trousers that gave him an appearance not dissimilar to that of a bumblebee.

            Gwen pulled up her book on her lap, trying to give the forlorn Briar some hope that she had actually done quite a good job of teaching. Gwen had not been a great student even more so than usual, but she truly didn’t want to dishearten her friend. It wasn’t Briar’s fault that Gwen had slept so badly, thoughts of Hayden’s smug face standing in her bedroom making her toss and turn all night. Her fighting with him was not so bad now that she had people other than him to keep her company. If he had done this before, when it was just the two of them, then perhaps she would have given into him sooner purely out of loneliness but now she had the company of Briar and Harry to distract her from him and it was refreshing. Even when he tried to be nice to her at dinner she had turned her nose up at him and let herself be angry. She knew from the flash of his disgruntled expression that he was annoyed his own stubbornness had rubbed off on her.

            “Test me,” Gwen said, tossing the book from her lap onto Briar’s who gave her a skeptical look but opened up the book and scanned it.

            “Alright, tell me about Sturry.” Briar said.

            “Anything about it?” Gwen asked.

            “Can I join in?”

            “Harry, you already knew it! You’re supposed to be helping me teach not giving me another unruly student to deal with.” Briar scolded him, but the smile was clear in her voice. Gwen held out her hand to Harry who pulled her back up to a sitting position and Gwen began to recite all that she could remember.

            “Sturry is a small but wealthy island found to the south-east of Colvine. It is the birth place of the deceased King Emilian who married Queen Juliet in order to secure a financially prosperous alliance between the two kingdoms.” Gwen took a breath, the portrait of the pair on their wedding day suddenly flashing before her eyes. “Although it was open to trade since King Kaleb took the throne the island has closed itself off to Colvine because it suspected foul play in the death of their prince.” Gwen paused again. “Do you think that’s true?”

            “Of course it’s true, you’ve seen the maps and documents,” Harry said.

            “I mean the foul play part,” Gwen said. Briar and Harry looked at one another briefly, clearly unsure of what to say.

            “No one is totally sure what happened to your parents, Gwen,” Harry said gently. “The fire was the main cause of their demise, it’s believed, but of course Sturry was angry at the death of their prince.”

            Gwen nodded, but she couldn’t help but understand where Sturry’s concern came from. Maybe it was because she had her own personal reasons to believe them, but something in her gut was telling her that they could be onto something.

            “What else do you know?” Briar asked, bringing Gwen back into the room and focussing again on what she had been taught.

            “There’s still a lot we don’t know about Sturry, we know they have a surprisingly powerful navy but there’s also rumors of magic being able to take place on the island- that can’t be true.”

            “Oh no, of course not.” Briar smiled at Gwen, “It’s an old wive's tale because Sturry has always been so private so people started concocting tales as to why. Magic was apparently the one that stuck.”

            Harry rolled his eyes. “People are stupid.”

            “Agreed.” Briar shut the book. “That’s not bad, Gwen, for the first day. I think Sturry is a good one to know more about though so please go through the book a little more. Especially considering that you are half from there.”

            Gwen nodded, knowing she would look at the book but doubting she would form the connection with its history that Briar was hoping she would. Briar handed Gwen the book and Gwen pulled it in, hugging it to her chest.

            “Could we please have a lunch tray bought up, Mary?” Briar addressed one of the maids standing to the side who nodded eagerly and rushed through the stacks of books to fetch the trio some food.

            Gwen closed her eyes, tiredness washing over her like a wave on the sand.

            “Where did Hayden say he was going this morning again?” Harry muttered to Briar.

            “To send a letter. I told him it was a silly idea but he’s determined apparently.” Briar tutted to herself, making the corners of Gwen’s mouth twitch.

            “Did he take a horse, by any chance?”

            “Yes, why?” Briar asked.

            There was silence for a minute or two. Gwen could sense a tension in the air, their silence giving it away, but she kept quiet and to herself. It took a while, but she gave into her curiosity and slowly opened one of her eyes to see Briar and Harry energetically arguing with one another through a mixture of over-pronounced lip-syncing and exaggerated hand gestures.

            “Guys?” Gwen tried to stop her laughter as the pair stopped short- Briar’s hands pulling her hair and Harry clearly trying to calm her down- and looked at her. “What’s going on?”

            Briar bit her lip and Harry seemed to have decided that the carpet was incredibly fascinating all of a sudden.

            “Princess Guinevere.” Hayden was standing in between two shelves, his arms crossed over his chest and his cheeks flushed. He moved aside and revealed a man just an inch or so short of Hayden. He had olive-colored skin and closely cropped hair. He smiled at Gwen nervously, but she only spared him a glance for a moment before her attention rested on Hayden. “This is Anthony Spire.”

            “Spire…” Gwen muttered to herself, “the general’s son?” She swore she saw a flicker of something like pride cross Hayden’s face.

            “I’m afraid so.” The boy replied. His voice was deep and had a sort of boom to it despite the fact he was clearly quite timid.

            Gwen looked between the two of them. Hayden with his pleased face and coy look in his eyes and poor Anthony, standing there like he didn’t know what he was doing. She couldn’t quite fathom out why it was that he had bought him here, or why Briar and Harry were sitting on the edge of their seat in anticipation of her reaction. She met Hayden’s eyes, narrowing her own in question. He moved his hand subtly, his ring finger wriggling back and forth.

And suddenly Gwen was seeing red and Briar had her head in her hands and Harry was jumping in between them as Gwen’s fists pummelled pathetically against Hayden’s chest as he laughed.

            “You ARSE!” she screeched, tears welling up in her eyes. She was so tired of crying.

            “I haven’t even said anything!” Hayden played innocent, only making Gwen angrier.

            “You’re a moron, Hayden.” Briar sighed. “Hi Ant.”

            “Hi Briar,” Anthony returned her smile briefly, but his eyes soon flitted back Gwen, “it’s been a while.”

            “Hey! Ow, that’s starting to hurt now.” Hayden could no longer ignore Gwen, his hands taking a few tries before they caught her wrists just as her fists were about to thump him ribcage again. She tried to pull away from him but failed miserably, giving up and resting her head on his chest in defeat. She could feel him take a deep breath, his hands still around her wrists but they were at her side now. He turned to Harry, talking over the top of Gwen’s head. “I thought you were going to warn them about this?”

            “You knew?” Gwen’s eyes were shining with tears now as she looked at Harry. Harrison cringed in on himself, feeling the guilt take over and his eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed but no words came out. Gwen felt a little sorry for him then. Harry never meant any harm in anything and had probably been made into an unwitting accomplice in Hayden’s schemes. Gwen tried to soften her look at him, but Hayden sensed the softness and let go of her, only for her to take his cue and stride right out of the library with Briar running in tow behind her, only pausing to take a dirty look at the three boys.

            Gwen had her hand on the doorknob before stopping short, hearting the swell of Hayden’s voice come up behind her. Briar caught up to her, a heap of skirts flurrying around her and her face covered with a thin layer of sweat due to a mixture of the stuffy atmosphere in the library and the fact that she avoided running at all costs. She gave Gwen a questioning look and Gwen replied simply by placing her finger over her lips. Briar’s brows raised as she too began to hear the voices rise near to them. She crouched down next to a stack of books, pulling Gwen down with her. Gwen struggled to hold the laughter bubbling inside her. It made her feel childish, hiding like this even when Briar’s face was serious as she had ever seen it.

            “That certainly could have gone better.” Hayden sighed. Gwen could picture him with his frustrated expression, his hands running through his hair as they sometimes did when he was thinking.

            “You could have given her some warning that you were bringing Ant over,” Harrison replied, his voice so quiet it was barely audible to Gwen and Briar so far away. Gwen felt a twinge of sympathy for him, and felt Briar shift next to her, looking at her with a matching feeling of guilt for putting Harry in the middle. He clearly had never argued much with Hayden before, not about anything serious anyways, and despite the guilt, Gwen felt quite proud of him for sticking up for her.

            “The princess didn’t know I was coming? I thought that was just because I wasn’t watching her as expected, or that she didn’t like the fact I’m fairly obviously military.” Anthony’s deep voice carried his disbelief. Although she didn’t want to, Gwen found herself warming up to him simply because, he too, was willing to take Hayden down a peg.

            “She is on a need-to-know basis,” Hayden replied.

            “I feel like this is something she needed to know, Hayden,” Anthony replied. “Actually, she’s supposed to be the one who’s going to be the leader, or do you keep forgetting that?”

            Hayden was silent.

            “We are keeping her a little too in the dark.” Harry joined in. “I think she needs to know it all.”

            Hayden remained quiet.

            “I think so too!” Briar shouted down the corridor of books. Gwen let her laugh out then, grinning as Harry’s head popped around the shelf and saw them crouching down in a mess of loose hair and long skirts and smiles.

            “I think that settles it.” Harry grinned at the girls, walking away from Hayden and towards the pair, offering each one a hand to help them up which they took gladly.

            The rest of the day, Gwen decided to spend in solitude, tired from learning and tired from being annoyed at everything people said and wondering exactly how much it was they were really revealing to her, particularly after the morning’s events. It gave her time to cool off. She didn’t need any extra ammunition from Briar or Harry and she really didn’t want to have to explain herself to poor Anthony. Her own thoughts were already too much for her to handle and the input of other people was not what she needed.

            She was glad of the size of Briar’s house and despite quite often moving from room to room with a novel she had taken from the library; she never ran into anyone other than an occasional stray maid or butler who regarded her in peculiarity as she lay on the chaises or sat on the floor with a series of pillows to make herself comfy. One or two asked her if she wanted anything, but she always refused, making her way to the upstairs kitchen if she did feel thirsty or hungry.

            Briar found her in the corner of the ballroom, sitting on four pillows with her legs crossed and book in her lap underneath a window, and asked Gwen if she wanted to dine with them that evening. She felt a little guilty refusing her, especially when Briar’s face fell, but she knew what she needed and so remained in the ballroom, smiling to herself as the woman who she recognized as Briar’s lady’s maid bought her a warm plate of chicken flavored with mango and coconut with wild rice.

            It wasn’t until the early hours of the morning that Gwen remembered to go to bed. It was funny, she thought as she finally peeled herself out of position and dragged herself down the stairs to her room, how time escapes a person more when they are alone than when they are working around the schedule of someone else… not that she’d ever been alone for long enough before today for it to happen. She was just about to shut the door to her room when she heard some rustling in the kitchen. Her door creaked against her hand as she moved it open again and she cursed under her breath.

            “I do hope you’re pleased with yourself.” Hayden had a sing-song voice as he came and stood at the entrance to the kitchen, leaning heavily against the door frame. Even from a few feet away, Gwen could tell he was drunk. His eyes were lazy where they were usually keen, he let his hair flop into his face when usually he kept back, and the most obvious giveaway, the half-empty glass of whiskey in his hand.

            “I don’t know what you mean.” Gwen stood taller.

            “No one spoke to me at dinner.” Hayden huffed. Gwen sighed and shut her door, following him as he made his way into the kitchen and slumped his body into a chair, and fell forward against the table, laying his head on his arms.

            “Have you considered the fact that might be your own fault?” Gwen asked him.

            “Why would I do that?”

            Gwen laughed.

            “Is it my fault?” He asked her, his head looking up at her. There was a longing in his eyes and Gwen’s heart melted at how sad he looked. His arrogance was all a façade, she realized this now. She’d seen it fail a little now and again, at the ball when Dorothy had decided not to support her his face had cracked, even if it was brief and he had been distracted by Harrison’s drunken antics. “You hate me.”

            “I don’t hate you. I don’t particularly like you when you’re manipulating me to get your own way, but I don’t hate you.” She replied, surprised at her own calm. “And the others don’t hate you either.”

            “Briar does.”

            “Briar is just showing me some solidarity.” Gwen chuckled. “She admires you actually, I think.” Hayden’s face lit up at that. “Don’t tell her I told you that.”

            “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He smirked, leaning back in his chair. Gwen rolled her eyes, getting up to leave again. “You’re not going are you?”

            “It’s 2 AM, Hayden.”

            “So?”

            “I’m going to bed.”

            “You’re not going to talk to me anymore?”

            “No.”

            “Why?” He pouted, getting up to meet her. She could smell the whiskey on him, oozing out of his pores. He got closer to her then, far closer than he ever had before. She could see small brown flecks in his eyes that she hadn’t before, even in this low light they weren’t the emerald color she had always assumed. “I miss your company, Guinevere.”

            “No you don’t, you’ve just had too much to drink.” Gwen tried to keep her voice as level as before, but she felt it hitch as Hayden’s head lolled to the side with a playful smile. “If you were really sorry you would have actually apologized.”

            “Have I not?” He asked, the smile fading.

            “You know you haven’t.” She turned away from him again, tired. Tired of the lying and tired of the way he thought he could use her for his own gain.

            She thought back to what Briar had told her, the way people saw Hayden as a natural leader. Was that why she had followed him? She wasn’t sure if she had followed him for the good of people and to be a queen, or just for some way to escape the life she had been taught to live for something new and more exciting. Either way, Hayden hadn’t treated her like a princess, if that’s who he was molding her into. She couldn’t just forgive him to make him feel better.

            His hand reached for her, taking hers before she was out of his reach. It was warm against hers and she felt her heartbeat quicken, hoping he hadn’t noticed despite the fact his thumb rested on her wrist, right where he pulse was banging against her skin. She held her breath, looking at him. Despite his state, he was still stupidly beautiful and she wanted to kick herself for thinking so. He looked down at their hands, now interlocked, in bewilderment, like he didn’t fully understand why he had done it in the first place. And then he kneeled down on one knee, his head bent for a second before looking back up at her, his eyes shining.

            “I am sorry, Gwen.” He whispered. “Truly, I am.”

            Gwen couldn’t find her voice in time to reply. Hayden dropped her hand and stood back up, took one last look at her, and swept out of the room leaving no evidence behind apart his empty whiskey glass and Gwen’s heat beat still pounding in her ears.