Page 37 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

The queen was a handsome woman in a forest green dress. Her hair was pulled back from her face with pearl-studded combs, revealing tasteful chandelier earrings. She remained seated, expression dispassionate.

Lexi tightened her fist into Magnus’s sleeve as he performed the introduction.

Lexi curtsied, murmuring, “It’s an honor to meet you, Your Majesty.”

“Sorr requires you,” Queen Katla said to Magnus. “He’s in his study.”

“I’ll stop in when we get back to that end of the palace.”

“It’s important.”

“I doubt it.”

A silent battle of wills waged between their locked stare.

“You forced my hand when you came off the plane,” the queen said with muted fury. “You know you did.Go.”

Magnus looked to Lexi. His cheek ticked.

Her heart began battering inside her rib cage. She had thought Magnus was defyingUlmerwhen they’d waved from the plane, but he’d been playing power games with his sister.

“I would never leave you anywhere that you would be unsafe,” he said, making her heart swerve. “I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”

As she was left alone with the queen, Lexi drew a subtle, shaken breath, hoping she could believe him, but she couldn’t help wondering if there really was a dungeon here, and whether his sister had the desire to consign her to it.

“Sit,” Katla ordered with a nod at a nearby chair. It didn’t look nearly as comfortable or ornate as her own. “Has Magnus explained that I’ve endured enough scandal and heartache for a dozen lifetimes, Alexandra?”

“Please call me Lexi. If you want to,” she added weakly, swallowing under Katla’s glare at being interrupted.

“My mother died from an undiagnosed heart defect when I was ten. My brother died by suicide a few years later. It’s too easy to say that losing our mother made him give up hope. Our father was the more likely reason. He was not an easy man even when she was alive. He grew more demanding and intractable as time went on. I kept as many of his scandals behind palace walls as I could, but there was enough in the public record for six hours of a salacious, unauthorized documentary. His assassination was not unexpected, considering how many people he had crossed in his lifetime. I’ve since dedicated my life to righting his wrongs.”

Lexi didn’t move, didn’t say anything. She barely dared breathe.

“Every decision, every sacrifice I have made, has been justified by my love for Isleif. I married a man I barely knew because he had the intelligence to create opportunity and prosperity for our people. Sorr has the heart of a good father, too. I saw my marriage as a means to build a better country and thus a better world to leave to my children. I very arrogantly believed I would produce a better ruler, too.”

Ah. Here was the point she was making.

“I’ve never been able to conceive.”

“Magnus said. I’m very sorry.” Lexi self-consciously slid her hands off her bump and into what should have been her lap.

“It’s not your fault, but I’ll admit to being sick with envy. One and done? It’s so unfair it’s beyond cruel. I’ve learned to ignore such things because I still have the power to leave a better ruler, Alexandra.”

Magnus. Everything within Lexi stilled.

“I know I’m not an ideal partner for him,” Lexi said haltingly, seeing her chance. “That’s why I’ve asked him to wait on marriage.”

Katla snorted. “But you can see how he boxed us in by waving from the plane. He drives me mad at times, finding ways to get around me, but I can’t complain about how shrewd and combative he is about getting his way. He needs qualities like that to rule well.”

“What he doesn’t need is a woman who drags him into the trash with her,” Lexi acknowledged.

“Exactly.”

Ouch.Lexi couldn’t go back and change all the decisions in her life, though. Far too many had been made for her, leading up to this checkered history that followed her. She couldn’t look at the queen. Her eyes were too hot, her humility too bone-deep. She willed the door to open and for Magnus to come in and save her, even though she doubted she would ever escape this sense of being judged unworthy.

“Magnus has made it clear that you are the wife he wants,” Katla said quietly. “Ihaveto believe he knows what he is doing. That somehow, this union will benefit not just him, but Isleif.”

And the world? Lexi strangled a hysterical laugh.No pressure.

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