A Queen Redestined

Chapter 14

Letter from Lady Marie Vifort, to her parents, Lord and Lady Vifort

Year 518 Gadilida 

My dear lord father and lady mother,

I hope that my letter finds my family well, and kept in the embrace of the Harmony. 

It has been a week since I have come to Marimiers. I have been received warmly by Their Majesties and have met my husband to be. 

I will not lie, since we are all familiar with my temperament. Marimiers is a vast change from the informality of Vifort, and it is certainly work to learn the ways of the Vermillion Court. However I think that even Madam Belrac would approve of my efforts in learning all that I will need to know to become a princess consort worthy of Gadilida, so I hope that you are comforted by that at least.

The preparations for the wedding are well underway. The queen has been very kind in leading me through some of the preparations, and has even gone as far as to personally pick out fabrics and accesories for my wedding dress, for which I am shocked but extremely honoured by. 

As for my betrothed, Prince Alfons, he is a kind person and we have had a few chances to get to know one another. 

Elizaveta, the girl who accompanied Madam Belrac, has now been officially transferred to become my own lady-in-waiting, as have several young Vemaen ladies. Every day, they show me something new about the palace, and teach me more about their ways. I am very happy in their company, and I am glad to have made such good friends here already.

I hope that you will be happy to know that I have been able to resume my daily training. Even though it is slightly scandalous for a princess consort to practice at fighting, I trust I am not wrong when I think that to be a Vifort is to know a blade as intimately as one knows the back of their hand. While my own weapons are not yet finished by the blacksmith, the head of the palace guards, Sir Dufour, has kindly loaned me some to practice with. 

There is nothing else to report, I think, and so I will end my letter here. I have been told there is a courier that travels between the Southlands and Vemae regularly twice a week, so I will endeavour to write more as I settle down and have more time. 

Your daughter ever, lovingly,

Marie Ekaterina.

P.S.: I have also met with my uncle Piers. The welcome was not the warmest. I ask of you to write back, if possible, of our family history, so I may understand my situation at court a little better. He is after all, a Vifort. Despite any misunderstandings or arguments that may have happened in the past, I wonder if we should not amend things so we may present a more united front at court? 

The Anguzons have been glaring at me every time I pass them by. Not that it doesn’t bring some small measure of petty, joyful vengeance when they do.

—

Letter from Lady Marie Vifort to her sister Sofia Vifort, written in code

Year 518 Gadilida

Dear Sofia,

GOOD GODS AND HARMONIES. 

Well, I suppose papa and mama will read the proper version of events to you, so I won’t bore you with the details there. And it is needless to say that this letter shall remain our sisterly secret- if I discover you’ve told anyone else about the awful things I’m about to write to you in this letter, I shall skin you alive. (But of course, I trust you deeply, as always.)

When we invented this script to get away from prying parents and tutors, I never imagined it would come in actual use! But the children we were and the grown women we are, live in very different worlds, I suppose.

The king and queen are indeed utterly gracious and warm and welcoming, as much as I could hope for, as their future daughter-in-law, but I could not say the same about almost anyone or anything else in this place. 

Marimiers truly is the viper’s nest we all thought it would be. I’ve never bitten my tongue quite so much, whenever someone asks me some utterly inane thing- hoping to catch me out so they can mock me I think. Just my very first day, I was hauled in front of three of the scariest dames in the palace and made to have tea with them while they laughed at courtiers and tried to see if I was foolish enough to join them in it. 

Whyever these stupid tests? By the Harmonies, I swear!!

Thank the Harmony I have Elizaveta though. She did not say or do anything much while at Vifort with Belrac, but without her constant advice and tutelage, I daresay I would have fallen flat on my face in this viper nest, even with all the strict hoops Belrac makes me jump through. Of course, she is no pure angel- no one who rises so highly in Marimiers is, but I think she is as good a person as can exist between these walls. I believe she sees me as a potentially powerful person in court, and so she helps me. I will arrange for us to have a meal together when you are permitted to visit after the wedding, and you shall see what I mean.

Oh, and I must tell you about Prince Alfons, since he’s the reason I’m in this whole mess to begin with, and a very unsatisfying reason at that! 

For one, he has no wish to marry. None. Zero. Absolutely cold to the idea. What a fun thing it will be, to try and make even a friendship out of this!

Oh I know, a political marriage holds no love to begin with, but I had rather hoped we could be amicable at least, and spend some time to get to know each other and perhaps be friends, of a sort. But no. He seems to find it a chore to even be in my presence, and I barely see him outside of meals. As soon as the food is done on his plate, he whisks off with his two companions and no one else so much as sees a hair on their head for the rest of the day.

But I suppose this is what is meant to sacrifice for your family pride. 

I’m sorry if I sound bitter, Sofia- I know many would kill to be in my position. Certainly, many of the girls who were eligible to marry the prince constantly shoot me death glares as I walk past them, and mutter furiously behind their fans when I stand near them. And I am also sure our own mama and papa are happy to have secured this once-in-a-lifetime alliance with the crown. (Don’t tell them about my troubles with the prince, please.)

Yet... 

I don’t think my wishes are that unreasonable, are they? I simply wish to be of service to our family, to have a husband I can get along with, and for my body to produce heirs to the throne well enough. And of course, I wish for wisdom well enough to rule fairly, to rule decently, when the time must come. 

All the same it is hard-going here. There is no one I can complain to, no one I can seek comfort with. And so I write to you.

Well, I guess I should tell you some of the lighter things that go on here too, so you don’t worry unduly. 

Where do I begin?

Perhaps, with the place itself. Oh Sofia, but the palace is huge. Did you know seven thousand people live here? Why, it is quite enough to house Vifort several times over! And that’s only the people who live here, there are others who come in daily to Marimiers with their goods and services- merchants, farmers, soldiers. It is quite the bustling place, and I don’t think any of us could properly imagine it until we’ve seen it with our own eyes.

They’ve taken me out to a different area of the palace grounds almost every morning this week, and I think we’ve just about barely covered the entire place. Maybe. I’m not quite sure. It’s a veritable city unto itself, I swear.

And remember the rituals we read about in the books Belrac sent me? They’re utterly ridiculous. I wake up every day to the Ritual of the Morning, and even though it is just the young ladies-in-waiting for now, I still feel entirely bemused that putting on my slippers or shift is considered an honour! Old Milla must laugh to know she had this coveted job way before any of these young noble ladies.

Oh I must tell you more about the young noblelings here, but Giselle, the maid assigned to my rooms, tells me that the carriage off to Vifort is going soon, so I must end my letter here. But I will catch the next carriage which is leaving in a few days, so I shall tell you more then.

Give my kisses to Hugo and Isabel, and tell them I miss them. If Fabian and Victoria ask, tell them I was too late to write them this time, and my letters to them will come with the next carriage. 

Your dear sister, ever,

Marie.