It was not often that Katherine was called into Louise’s private quarters, let alone to have breakfast with her and Theo. The breakfast hall was almost entirely at the top of a tower, and clad in fashionably brocaded wallpaper, white furniture and scented with sumptuous white bread and pastries. Katherine was awkwardly seated directly opposite the large window through which the sun shone.

Katherine felt as if her stomach was being squeezed from the inside — the last thing on her mind was the food on the table.

Louise, as always, wore a placid lopsided grin. She was buttering a brioche bun when she finally began to speak, sitting on the other side of the particularly small table, a show of the intimacy of the setting.

‘Katherine, would you be able to hand me the raspberry compote?’ she asked, darting her eyes from the bun up to Katherine.

‘Sure,’ she said, and sought the correct porcelain dish. ‘Here you go.’

Louise smiled as she sampled the jelly. ‘You know, you can be very helpful sometimes, Katherine.’

‘Only sometimes?’

The older queen took a moment. She bit down into her bun and chewed, her eyes smirking all the while. ‘I suppose you could be useful all the time, should you choose to.’

‘Useful to you?’

Louise giggled. ‘Don’t be silly, my dear. Useful to the world, of course. However… I suppose with us both being queen of such high standing, world-movers, as it were, it’s only natural that we collaborate in this regard.’

Katherine made a face as she sipped her wine. ‘I thought we had been.’

‘I thought so too. But lately, it seems to me like you’ve grown cold. Distant.’

‘I don’t see how you could say that with all my visits.’

‘Hmm, your visits…’ Louise chewed and let out a small giggle. ‘But your visits are done to see Henri, not to see yours truly. Therefore, should we truly count them?’

‘I cannot imagine the queen mother would not appreciate me taking care to see her son. Especially during such times.’

‘If you see him too much, my dear, we may not be able to separate him from you any longer.’

Katherine raised an eyebrow. ‘And that would be a problem?’

Louise put aside her food, drumming her fingers along the table. ‘Why, not at all. What greater pleasure could there be for me than the two of you coming together? I just wouldn’t want Henri to hurt you. He can be so insensitive. I’m sure you understand my concerns.’

Katherine, for only a moment, swore she could see through Louise’s face all the way to the mass of dark brown curls bundled up into braids. She reached for a bun as well and poked it with her fork to sever its top and bottom.

‘You have been nothing but good to me,’ she said. ‘You, Henri, court proper. The camarilla.’

Louise clicked her tongue. ‘For you’ve changed for them,’ she said, her tone turned from calculating to frustrated. ‘I am your aunt, Katherine, I’ve known you since you were a little girl. You aren’t the sort of young lady to enter a castle on a horse, or shoot a hole into Henri’s hat, or God forbid, enjoy these sordid affairs Henri enjoys. They love you, for they have turned you to a second Diane Neville, and once you show your own face again, it will be trampled.’

‘Do you worry for me?’ asked Katherine.

‘I believed you would be the reasonable prospect,’ she clarified. ‘A wife that my son would love, who is respectable and dignified, and a just ruler for Massouron. Are you aware of the reason why you were sent away, Katherine? Has Henri ever shared that with you?’

Katherine shook her head bashfully.

‘Hm.’ Louise lifted a goblet of ale to her lips and shrugged. ‘You gave us all an unstable impression. Hell, you’d just tried to shuffle yourself off of this mortal coil and immediately thereafter murdered your adviser. You should be pleased that Henri still wishes to see you — certainly had one of my suitors made such a mess of himself, he would be my suitor no more. We were all mortified.’

‘I, too, was mortified,’ Katherine responded, ‘A man tried to shoot me! I was betrayed!’

‘Katherine, please,’ said Louise. ‘You may stop trying to appease Henri with your theatrics. Leave winning his favour to his favourites and mistresses, please. I’ll try to be as clear with you as I can now, for fear of overestimating your perception of subtlety. You are Ilworthian, after all. There is a reason why his most beloved mistresses will never be his wife — it is because they bark up the wrong tree. I am giving you the opportunity to bark up the right one to come out of this as victor. I am the tree. You come to me, not to him, if you wish to live here for a long time, or at least a time that does not end in your untimely death.’

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Katherine scoffed lightly and let her eyes wander around the room at the indignity of it all. ‘You think I am yours to command?’

‘Command? Where do you get that idea? Katherine, we may be ladies of power, but we are ladies nonetheless. And I am older than you are. More experienced in these matters.’

‘Truly? You’ve been in my situation?’ she snapped.

Louise breathed in sharply and clicked her tongue. ‘Not precisely the same, no. But it would be foolish to think I’m not looking for a solution that works best for everyone.’

‘What I think is that you’re forgetting yourself.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I am Queen of Ilworth. My word is law—and much of that is due to the fact that I have no king. You, on the other hand, are the mother of the king. You may call yourself as you like, but we both know it is Henri who rules, not you.’

‘Why the need for this aggressive tone, Katherine?’ she said, clearly annoyed. ‘Do you truly wish to see who rules Massouron?’

‘You overstep yourself!’

‘And you will not disrespect a queen in her own home!’ Louise shouted, rising to further impress the point with her magnificent height. ‘I have not been your enemy. But I can be.’

Kathy remained seated and shrugged innocently. ‘I want no enemies. But you are not my queen; nor are you my mother. My business with the king is mine alone.’

‘You are nothing but a nun with an impressive lineage,’ said Louise. ‘Do not forget you are a spare, Katherine.’

‘You are nothing but a false power broker who cannot deliver her promises,’ Katherine replied.

‘I will cast you away again if that proves my capacities to you,’ Louise answered sharply.

‘It’d simply prove your fickleness,’ she replied with a smile. ‘What will the people think?’

Louise huffed indignantly. ‘That the Queen of Ilworth rode into Souchon Palace on a fucking horse, threatened to shoot the king with a crossbow, and is sleeping with most of his friends? Surely, the people will be upset with me when they find all of that out… God forbid that day ever comes, huh?’

‘It will look better than how you disposed of the last royal redhead that came to claim Henri’s side,’ Katherine continued. ‘Or is that how you plan to do away with me as well?’

‘You believe that?’ Louise almost whispered. ‘You’re more foolish than I thought.’

For the first time since Katherine handed Louise the compote, she looked up to Theo, who had been looking at Katherine for a while, though he had not openly reacted. ‘I do still remember the day I found out you were poisoning me,’ said Katherine wistfully. ‘It was the first doubt that was sown in my mind.’

‘So what?’ Louise asked. ‘If you cannot handle the strong stuff, are you truly right for Henri? I’ll be the first to admit it — Isabella was poisoned. Is that what you were fishing for, Katherine? But you’re not a fifteen-year-old saintlike virgin who’s never had a drink but small ale and whose place of origin was sacked about ten times since her birth. What you are, Katherine, I’d rather not say in polite company.’

Katherine snickered. ‘Oh, no, do say,’ she said, crossing her arms. ‘You’re my aunt — you’re soon to be my mother-in-law, considering it is still Henri’s call. I should know what you think of me.’

Louise inhaled deeply and took a few steps towards her, keeping her eyes locked on Katherine’s. ‘I can break your mind if I want to,’ she stated sharply.

Katherine, unwilling to let the pressure get the better of her, simply flashed her teeth in a smile. ‘I break your son’s mind every other night, and for the most part, he seems to still be alright.’

‘You’re a whore, your mother was a whore, certainly any daughter you’ll have will be one too,’ Louise continued. ‘Be glad about this fact. It is likely among your better traits, and certainly your most persuasive one in negotiations of all sorts. You think yourself untouchable. I give it a month or two until everyone finds out your tricks and tires of them.’

Katherine cocked her head. ‘I will certainly let you know,’ she said. ‘In fact, I should be doing. I’ve had great fun at breakfast with the both of you this morning, but I fear that my time has come to a close.’

‘Oddly prophetic,’ said Louise. ‘I’m sure you’ll find it quite fruitful to spend some time reflecting on my words. Once more, I needn’t find you my enemy. Whatever circumstance throws our way, however, I will have to react to accordingly. I stand for my people and my class, not for the whims of my son.’

She stood up and smiled placidly, curtsying as she walked back a few steps away from Louise. ‘Quite right,’ she said. ‘If you require my presence again, I will gladly lend you a morning.’

Louise grinned and crossed her arms. ‘Alright,’ she said. ‘Tell your spymaster I said hello. I imagine he knows a thing or two about the conversation that we just had.’

Katherine’s mouth twitched. ‘I wish for your nose to permanently take itself out of my business, Louise.’

Without more words, Louise watched Katherine leave, undoubtedly into the arms of her court who would hear what had happened that morning. Louise did not worry for the fallout. If anything, she had been looking for the right moment to mediate Katherine’s thoughts and ideas into a shape that suited her more. Gifts and kindness rarely had the right effect. Louise knew only an iron fist would tame a girl as spirited and stubborn as Katherine was.

There was more that she had to accomplish that morning, another brewing plot that could serve as another option for the predicament that she was in. Louise may have appeared calm, but below the surface, something brewed that was much less contained.

Theo looked up at her quietly when the sound of Katherine’s shoes muffled.

‘Well?’ asked Louise.

Theo ironed his lips into a wide, flat line. ‘As long as Henri rules, we will have to put up with the type of women that Henri wishes to marry,’ he said. ‘Which, I wouldn’t say is what we were looking for when you abdicated.’

Louise pursed her lips. ‘Well, the alternative, which is picking a young woman that we’d like dealings with, has obviously also fallen through. Let’s just hope she does not relent when under a bit of pressure such as today. I like her more than the others.’

‘As do I,’ said Theo.

Louise giggled. ‘You’d take a bullet for her, wouldn’t you?’ she asked sardonically.

Theo rolled his eyes. ‘Come now. You may ridicule me all you like, but if it weren’t for me, we’d have to negotiate with far more barbaric women than her, and I don’t know how you’d fare.’

She sat back down and took another brioche bun from the basket. As she tore it with her hands, savouring each crackle and snap of the hard crust and the soft tearing of the stretchy insides, she mused, ‘Not well. It’s just a damned shame what it did to your shoulder, Theo, that’s all. I’d use you as a human shield as well if I could.’