Page 32 of A Ring to Claim Her Crown
‘You were...not resting.’
‘No, Mother.’ She waited for the inevitable ranting to begin about her deception and her lack of care about her duty. She deserved it; she knew that her behaviour had been inappropriate and reckless... But still, she waited and nothing came. In fact, when she looked up into her mother’s face, the other woman was smiling.
‘I think your amusement is possibly more disturbing than the scolding that I expected.’
‘Darling, you are a thirty-three-year-old woman who is readying to take over an entire kingdom. I am not about to scold you.’
‘You’re not?’ Minerva frowned. ‘I thought for sure that you would be furious. You invited him here believing him to be a shipping magnate, a catch...and it has led to scandal because of my inability to face the truth.’
Her mother shook her head, her eyes drifting away towards her secretary for a split second. A look passed between the women, a widening of the eyes that drew Minerva’s attention instantly. ‘Neither of you are surprised...and you both admitted to putting extensive research into your matchmaking solutions.’
Her mother grimaced.
‘Please tell me that you did not know who he was... That you didn’t seek him out on purpose?’
‘That depends, Minnie, my love...did it work?’
‘You lied to me. You had me sneaking around, trying to stop you from finding out, and the whole time you knew what were you doing? Placing bets on how big of a scandal this would bring down upon us all?’ Minerva choked out the words.
‘I chose your happiness over the threat of scandal, my love. You told me to choose you a selection of the best possible partners. I could not do that in good faith without inviting back the man that I knew you had loved, the young man that I wrongly banished through my own anger at his father.’
‘What happened before was not your fault. I told you that.’
‘It was not within my power to stop you from having your heart broken before, but I would not be able to allow you to enter into a loveless marriage of my own doing...if I hadn’t at least tried to give you back the one that you deserved.’
Minerva felt hot emotion threaten to choke her as she processed what her mother had done. Of course her mother had known... Maybe she simply hadn’t wanted to see that herself.
The love that she deserved... She thought of Liro’s offer of marriage and felt her jaw tighten painfully. ‘I’m pretty sure that all of your meddling has been for nothing. We are right back where we were fourteen years ago—staring down the barrel of a forced royal marriage of convenience.’
‘I don’t see how. It’s as clear as day to everyone that man is head over heels in love with you.’
‘Any love he may have would be stifled by having to remain here. He hated royal life in Cisneros. He would rather have disappeared than remain here and clear his name.’
‘This isn’t Cisneros. And you are not nineteen any more. He knows what he wants.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘Don’t I?’ Her mother stood up, ‘I have it on good authority that half of parliament met with the heads of Magnabest today. There was only one item on the agenda.’
Minerva stared down at the royal memo her mother placed before her, sent over from their prime minister to inform Her Majesty that their investor had placed a freeze on its plans until the Crown Princess signed off on it...as Queen.
‘He can’t do that, can he?’ Her fingers trembled as she read the short memo again, hardly believing the ramifications of one simple act. In the time since she’d left him, it appeared that Liro had been in a plethora of meetings with her mother’s parliament. He’d purchased the land and he owned it outright now. Freezing his plans would lose him valuable time in developing it—there was no logical reason for him to wait. Emotion tightened her throat painfully so that, when she finally spoke, it was with a hoarse croak.
‘He’s holding our government to ransom to ensure my succession.’
Her mother nodded. ‘Tell me that is not the action of a fool in love.’
Minerva swallowed the pain of that statement, realising that there was a very real possibility that her mother was right. Liro had told her he’d been in love with her before everything had torn them apart. But the fact remained that she would become queen. She would remain here in this palace for much of the year, serving her people and carrying out the plans she’d spent years forming to make their lives better. This was her life’s work, her vocation. There would be little time for spontaneous trips or adventures; everything would be planned and ordered. That was everything that Liro had told her he despised.
‘I thought this would make you happy.’ Her mother frowned.
‘It does make me happy.Hemakes me happy, even when he’s not terrorising the entire Arqaletan parliament in my honour.’ Minerva felt bittersweet tears threaten, wiping them away quickly with the pads of her fingers. ‘But the fact remains, I can’t expect him to walk away from the life he chose to come and stand by my side. I can’t force him back into the royal world that he despises, all in the name of love. Eventually, he will resent me. And we both know where that leads.’
Her mother’s eyes widened with understanding and Minerva felt ashamed. She knew it was irrational still to be so affected by her father’s abandonment, but there it was. When she thought of marriage, she thought of her parents and the circus that had been their very public divorce. Going through that with a man she barely knew had been a risk she’d been willing to take, but not with a man she adored.
‘Minnie...your father never resented royal life, he left because he fell in love. Yes, it was selfish, and I wish he had taken more care with you. But our marriage was arranged and we were so different. The only thing we ever agreed upon was how wonderful you are. It was a relief when he asked for a divorce, even despite the scandal.’
‘I just don’t know if I can bear it.’
