Page 35 of The Heart of the King

As long as there wasn’t a vote on anything, he didn’t think so, but at some point he’d have to put his foot down.

For ninety minutes, he sat and listened as they discussed business. No votes were taken.

And no questions were asked of him.

So he said nothing.

Until the Chairman made the motion to adjourn.

At which point David stood up and leaned forward with both hands on the table. “All right, gentlemen. I gave you the opportunity to do the right thing, but you’ve chosen not to. I can disband the Council and give each of you the chance to earn your way back on by getting into my good graces or I can give your seats to your sons early - or not at all - but that seems to be a bit nuclear. I’d rather not go that route. So we can start this meeting over with the legally mandated items on the agenda, or we can see what happens when the Council is disbanded and the notes from this meeting go public.” He stared down the chairman. “Which will it be?”

The chairman glared back but David refused to be intimidated.

Finally, the other man pounded the gavel again. “As chairman, I redact the last meeting and start the first meeting of 2022 again. The first order of business is to recognize Steven Charles David Chauncey as King David the First of Auverignon. All in support say aye.”

The ayes around the table were grudging at best, but no one objected when the time came.

David sat back down in his chair.

The chairman continued to glare. “Are there any objections to stipulating the recognition took place at the beginning of the earlier meeting and the rest of the earlier meeting would happen as it did if held again?”

A fancy way of saying they would copy and paste the meeting notes from earlier as though they happened after his recognition. He didn’t object. It wouldn’t have changed anything, though he might have said something a couple of times. There were no other objections.

“Is there anything else to add to the agenda?” The chairman glanced at the empty King’s Seat, as though he expected David to appoint someone to fill it immediately. David didn’t know who the chairman expected him to appoint - his grandfather maybe? In many ways, he was the most logical choice, but David wasn’t convinced.

“What about the approval for the king’s marriage?” One of the older members brought the topic up. “To my knowledge, it was not approved by Parliament, and I know it wasn’t approved by this council.”

The chairmanshouldhave put the member in his place, but instead he simply looked at David with a raised brow.

David rested his arms on the table and clasped his hands together. “My marriage to Jasmine, Queen Consort of Auverignon, took place prior to my ascension to the position I now hold. Therefore, it did not, and does not, need the approval of either Parliament or this council.”

“But you knew you would ascend to the throne in a few days,” the older member argued back. “You knew if you waited you would have to have our approval or the approval of a super majority in Parliament. You also knew obtaining the necessary approval for an American, or any non-Auverignonian, would be an uphill battle. You went around us.”

David shook his head. “There is no legal issue here. The lawonlyspecifies approval is necessary after ascension, not before. It says nothing about whether or not the first in line knows when he or she will ascend. My marriage to Jasmine is legal. End of discussion.”

The glances exchanged around the table told him they knew that as well but had been hoping to intimidate him into giving up… something. Maybe just acquiesce to their imagined authority - authority they’d had to some degree while his father was under indictment.

“We’ll table the issue while we verify there was no impropriety or attempt to undermine the authority of the Council or Parliament.” The chairman looked at the member who’d raised the objection. “You and two others will comprise a committee to investigate.”

The member nodded.

The chairman looked around the table. “Any other new business?”

David opened the folder in front of him and handed the stack of papers to the man on his left. “Please pass those around.”

“What is this?” the chairman asked when it got to him.

“A proposal I’m taking to Parliament, with or without the support of this council. It is a move to absolute primogeniture both with regard to the line of succession and hereditary titles.” He didn’t mention that with those titles came seats on the Council.

The men on both sides of the table looked like they wanted to protest, but he held up a hand. “This is the informed notification and not a time for discussion or debate.” That would come later. “If the chairman would be so kind as to close the meeting, I do have other matters to attend to this afternoon.”

“If there are no objections, this meeting will be adjourned.”

There were none. The chairman pounded the gavel, and that was that.

David stood and left the room without talking to any of them. He did have other meetings to attend that afternoon, but mostly he needed space to breathe.

He’d made it through that gauntlet.

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