Page 22 of Crown of Hearts
I huffed out a laugh. “How on earth can I, a thief, be a better queen than a princess?”
“Eloisa is . . . special.”
“That’s a nice way of saying someone is troubled.” Whether or not I was ready to hear more of the truth, it needed to come out.
“Eloisa is many things, but a ruler isn’t one of them.”
“Where is she?” I didn’t expect him to know. No one knew. It was like she’d disappeared off the face of the earth. But I asked him anyway.
“I don’t know.” His slightly worried expression made me believe him. The subject clearly bothered him, but he didn’t look eager to share more on it.
“Well, are you going to send someone to find her?” He was the one responsible for her when she’d gone missing. He knew the best place to start.
“I have. More than once. No one has returned with any news of her.” I considered for a moment that somewhere along the road something could have gone terribly wrong and Eloisa might no longer be alive.
“I’ll see what I can do about it.” I attempted to regain focus on the important matter at hand. “A lot of loyalists won’t be happy if I marry a Norrandish king.”
“You can’t make everyone happy, Elara.”
I suppressed my discontent at his use of my real name. “Still. If the people are happy, they’re not trying to assassinate me.”
He put his cup down and leaned forwards, his elbows resting on his thighs.
“Well, if you cannot be loved, then you must become feared.”
“Wise words from a former king,” I muttered.
“Norrandale has had a long line of prestigious queens, and it would not be easy to measure up. If you want to be accepted, then you must be respected. By our people as well as theirs.” It felt like asking an awful lot of someone with no experience.
“As well as Cai,” I added.
“You don’t think Cai respects you?”
“I have no idea what Cai thinks,” I replied in earnest. “I was so angry when I found out he knew the truth about me that I told him to leave and I haven’t heard anything since.”
“Cai might have been a bit hurt.” Lance stood up, pulling his tunic straight. “But I do doubt he hates you.”
“You seem very confident in my ability to pull this off.” I cast a side-eye in his direction.
“I’ve always been confident in your abilities. Even if I didn’t show it.”
“You know most older brothers would just settle for giving me lessons in sword fighting or something.” I scrambled for the right words.
The corner of his mouth twitched as he attempted to hide a grin. “But I’m not most brothers, am I?”
I didn’t reply.
“You don’t have to do this. But it could be your best chance at a successful reign. And you can do a lot worse than Cai.”
I certainly could. But Cai could also probably do a lot better than me.
“I thought you two didn’t like each other? Why would you want me to marry someone you were willing to torture?”
“He is a little... princely for my taste,” he admitted. “But what happened at Woodsbrook had nothing to do with Cai and everything to do with the necklace.”
I caught him looking at my neck, which was free of jewellery. “Princely?”
Lance rolled his eyes. “All heroic and dashing, always saving everyone and following the rules. I don’t know how he doesn’t bore himself to death.”
