I stared out the window of Jean-, my father’s study and into the castle’s quite beautiful gardens, letting the view relax me in the quiet moment I found myself in. An aspect of this new life I had grown to appreciate more and more compared to how fast paced modern life could be at times with its expectations of always doing something no longer being as great a worry in my time here.

It had been around a month and a half since I had mysteriously found myself waking up in the past and ending up becoming Yolanda. And apparently, despite how wildly different this new life of mine was from my own in the modern era, that was all it took for me to develop a new routine and grow comfortable. Well, comfortablish. Surprisingly, the thing keeping it from being comfortable wasn’t just how massive of a change becoming a young girl was, though I was unsure of my exact thoughts on that.

Instead, it was how formal everyone was with me just because I was a queen. I knew it was a big deal rationally, especially in this time period, but that didn’t change the fact that I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to it. There were precious few people I’d gotten to know here who were a little more free with me in a good way, though even they still kept to being somewhat formal.

The Castellan, the Head Chambermaid, and Eschiva were some of the only ones who I felt more normal around, though Eschiva was still kinda stretching it despite my efforts. She was still clearly doing her best to stay reserved with me to keep the propriety of our relationship intact, but I was making progress in tearing down her barrier so I could have some normal interactions with her, especially now that she was finally not having to perform her duties under the looming presence of her mother since she was apparently desperately needed to return to her normal duties. At least, I think I was.

It was still hard to tell with her at times and I occasionally wondered if it was ever going to be possible for me to have a normal relationship with her, much less anyone else. If this feeling of being alone here would ever truly go away.

The lingering feelings of loneliness from Isabella’s memories did not help with that in the slightest.

I stood there for a few minutes pondering that before I heard the door of the study begin to open. I swiftly spun around to face it and the newest addition to the list of people I felt more normal around. It was finally time to continue my literacy lessons paid for by the good Seneschal under the tutelage of Sir Frederick.

He was a somewhat older scholarly man holding a large book within his hands who I was certain had quite the experience in his youth if the scars on his face and how he was a Sir were anything to go by, even if I didn’t know exactly how he had got either the scars or the honorific. His blue eyes met mine as he dropped into a momentary half bow in the door being currently held open by Eschiva which I returned with my own curtsey to him and a small smile to the both of them.

“Queen Yolanda, I trust you are ready now to continue your lessons on Latin now that your break has concluded?” He spoke loudly in his usual relaxed and confident tone.

I gave him a nod of assent, a small part of me still a little confused by the fact that my literacy lessons weren’t ever going to even touch Old French like I thought they would be about since as I’d learned, they apparently would be near pointless to teach with the various dialects that existed for the language. No, instead it was straight into the Latin language since that’s apparently just what any educated person used to communicate with each other through writing.

What was left unsaid was that I’m pretty sure that it only applied towards any country in the world that had some sort of ties back to Europe or the Church, but still, it was going to be immensely useful to learn and a great help to ensuring my ability to escape Isabella’s future.

It helped even more so when I was learning the language at such a frightening speed that Sir Frederick had initially been suspicious I actually knew more than he had been told I did for a while due to just how swiftly I was learning it on that first day. Which while technically true since I did know a few random Latin words, was far more because of the Boon of Many Languages which was proving itself to be incredibly effective with how any words of a different language I heard or read were so much easier to read and assign meaning to.

I didn’t exactly have an accurate way to figure just how much of my swift learning was because of me and my own experience, and how much was the Boon, but I did expect it was quite a bit considering that I certainly didn’t have this type of luck in my high school spanish classes.

My learning was so swift that once Sir Frederick had realized I really hadn’t known much of anything before our first session together that he declared my a prodigy before deciding to go the extra mile and teach me to talk in Latin while he was at it to further reinforce my foundations and take advantage of my learning ability in languages.

While I definitely was biased by how easy it was turning out to learn Latin, I did find myself immensely enjoying the lessons. They had become one of the big things I’d begun to look forward to every single day with the exception of Sunday since he had essentially moved into one of the castle's guest rooms for the duration of my tutelage to be available every day of the week.

“Indeed Sir Frederick, I am ready to continue…” I spoke with my eternally soft voice before trailing off momentarily as the one person I probably disliked the most here strode through after Sir Frederick much to my surprise. What in the world was he doing here?

I did my best to hide my confusion as I gave another separate curtsey to the Bishop. “Er, greetings Lord Bishop. I had not realized you would be present here today too.”

The Bishop fixed me with his brown eyes as he spoke to me, a worrying glint in his eyes and the tone of his voice just as grating as it was in each ‘lesson’ I had with him each week where he ‘taught’ me. “Young Yolanda, do not hesitate when you speak. It is unbecoming for a queen to do so. It is good I am here to catch such err’s before they can become a habit since it seems your etiquette lessons have missed that.”

I bit my tongue to prevent myself from saying anything untowards at his admonishment because of course he had caught and commented on that. I glanced towards Sir Frederick, doing my best to ask for an explanation with my eyes alone.

He just grinned genially as he gestured towards the Bishop. “Ah, I ended up encountering the good Lord Bishop Érrard during your break and upon him hearing that I was your new literacy tutor, he ended up offering his own expertise on the matter and I, of course, agreed. After all, what better way to help mold your prodigious talent than by having the aid of not only a holy man, but someone who’s far more familiar with teaching you then I am, don’t you agree Queen Yolanda? Doubly so when he can catch things like the err in your speaking that I hadn’t even given a second thought towards.”

He what?!

For a second, my eyes flitted from my tutor towards the bishop, then towards Eschiva where my gaze lingered and met with her own. I saw the tiniest hint of concern within them before she gently shut the door to the study, leaving me alone with the two men. I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow I wasn’t looking forward to the second half of my literacy lesson today anymore.

I really hoped that whatever reason that the bishop was here right now would end up becoming a one time occurance. It was bad enough I had to pretend to enjoy the weekly lessons with the bishop since I really would rather not test how my word against a bishop would turn out right now if things ended up becoming less friendly in those lessons. The last thing I wanted was to have to do so for my literacy lessons too whenever he was here.

Doing my best to hide my displeasure in the moment, I looked back towards Sir Frederick before putting on a smile, a skill honed by my time behind a cash register dealing with troublesome people for a job that didn’t exist anymore as well as my etiquette lessons, and being grateful once more for my soft voice which did a great job at naturally concealing any of my current animosity. “Of course Sir Frederick. And thank you for your generosity, Lord Bishop.”

The bishop’s mouth twisted into a self satisfying smile. “It is no trouble. After all, queens as young as yourself must be properly educated if we do not wish for the world as we know it to begin to collapse.”

“I do quite agree, Lord Bishop!” Happily exclaimed my tutor. “Especially with all the potential that she has shown throughout my lessons. Queen Yolanda has taken to each and every one of my lessons on both the verbal and written forms of Latin so swiftly that I was initially convinced she did have some sort of foundation in the topics despite that ostensibly not being the case.”

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“Oh, is that so, Sir Frederick? And how long ago did you begin tutoring her?” Asked the bishop as he took a seat in the Study’s sole chair and my usual seat during my literacy lessons.

His response to him was near instant as his cheer only increased, seeming completely unperturbed by how the bishop had just casually taken the one chair in the room he had insisted I sit in for his lessons. “Ah, it was a little more than a month ago when I first arrived here after heeding a call from a previous student of mine, he’s the Castle Steward here, and-”

I couldn’t help but continue to stare between them as they continued to talk while I held a polite look on my face. What… What was happening? I had never seen Sir Frederick act anywhere near like this in my previous sessions with him. He was normally so much more composed, not anything like this. And more so, whenever it was time for a lesson, he never delayed in starting it whether it was the beginning or after the break he liked to implement halfway through the lesson. But now, it was like he had just forgotten that I was still here and waiting.

Not to mention he was just casually going into detail on how my previous lessons with him had gone this week to the man who I distinctly remembered to have made a threat to ‘punish me in my father’s stead’ for asking to study the Bible in my first attempt to kickstart my literacy education.

What fun the potential ramifications of that were going to be on Sunday when I had what was supposed to be my only lesson with the bishop in a week.

And now that I was thinking about it, why had the bishop even decided to offer his expertise towards Sir Frederick in the first place for this? He certainly didn’t put much effort in his own lessons so it certainly wasn’t actually because he cared. It just didn’t add up. Was he trying to distract my tutor with his presence or something like that or something else?

I glanced between the bishop and Sir Frederick for a moment who were still talking to each other before deciding I could figure out the bishop’s motives later. Right now, it was time for me to try and salvage what I could from this lesson and at least attempt to have it continue on without giving the bishop a reason to admonish me.

I raised up one of my hands before making myself cough into it, something that immediately caught the attention of both the bishop and my tutor. “My apologies, pardon me.”

The bishop gazed at me for a moment, but before he could say anything, Sir Frederick was already talking, his attention back on me. “Ah, you are very much pardoned Queen Yolanda. And oh, before we delay a little too long, let us actually begin the lesson. You have my apologies for getting a little caught up in talking with the Lord Bishop.”

I smiled before moving to grab ahold of the slim sheath of papers alongside the ink pot and quill that was always provided to me before each of my lessons with him. It was time to get started again, just with the addition of the bishop during my lessons. Maybe I was being a little too pessimistic just because the bishop was joining in during this half of the lesson this time. Surely it wouldn’t be that bad even if he was here.

“Sir Frederick, how far along in the lesson are you with young Yolanda? I do just want to make sure it isn’t going too fast for her.” The bishop’s voice echoed out not a second after I had that thought. And unfortunately, Sir Frederick’s attention was immediately no longer on the lesson, but on the bishop.

I inwardly groaned. Why did I have to tempt fate like that in my head?

Eschiva quietly stood beside the door to a study that the very queen of her country was currently learning within and somehow, of all things, she was slowly finding herself to be growing bored.

She had been serving Yolanda, the Queen of Jerusalem, for more than a month now as her personal attendant after, for some reason she couldn’t fathom, the girl had decided to request that she be put into that role and she still was unsure on whether or not she enjoyed the role compared to her previous duties.

Oh sure, this was far more of an honor then she could’ve ever hoped to achieve in her lifetime, something her mother had done her best to brand into her head after they had found out about it, but as she was learning, that certainly didn’t stop her from not enjoying it at times.

Eschiva was more than used to her duties being long even with her young age, but they generally involved her doing something more than just standing around in case the queen called upon her before her lessons were finished. Nor did they come with the sheer amount of responsibilities that her new position did.

She might’ve been close to the age of becoming a proper woman from what her mother had said, but having to keep track of so many things now, even for tasks that might’ve been particularly simple before her new position, left her absolutely exhausted at the end of each day. She couldn’t even look forward to resting with her mother and the other chambermaids in the great hall since she had to rest outside the queen’s chambers instead on the off chance she was needed during the night.

From having to constantly be ready to respond to any of the queen’s requests at a moment's notice and even to any request she might have before she said it, to ensuring that she was always within shouting distance of a guard or someone else similarly recognized as capable of protecting her. And that was just the start of them. There was no more relaxing or room to be unfocused even in situations like the one she was in now, much less whenever the queen was being far too active.

The only saving grace was that usually in this particular daily situation where the queen was being taught in the study she wasn’t allowed inside of, she was able to listen to her tutor teach her about Latin through the doors and glean something from the lessons herself. Or on Sundays, glean what she could from the Lord Bishop’s lesson’s. That, and how her tutor was apparently someone who she could consider as a guard due to his apparent experience and devoutness so there was no having to constantly keep in mind whether or not any guards were nearby.

But today was apparently an exception towards being able to occupy her mind with the tutors' lessons. From what she could hear through the door, it was just mainly him and the Lord Bishop ,who was here despite it being a Friday, talking about the queen’s previous lessons with little being said by the queen herself.

Not to mention the Lord Bishop’s presence here at all had come at quite the surprise to her, as well as a slight worry. After all, while the queen had never said anything in particular, she was sure she disliked the pious man and his lessons for some reason she didn’t understand since she always tended to talk with her soon after she did something she enjoyed. And never once had she talked with her about his lessons.

She had come to learn far more about the queen’s preferences as a result, and about anything that the queen might’ve disliked indirectly too from that alone. After all, in comparison to her silence about the bishop’s lessons, everytime she went out to the training grounds she always had something to say to her about it after the fact.

Eschiva still didn’t get why or how the queen enjoyed anything at all about what she did out on the training grounds, but that didn’t blind her to the fact she did enjoy it. And with how things seemed to be going in what she could hear of the ‘lesson’ in the study, that she could reasonably predict and prepare for what the queens request would shortly be after the ‘lesson’ was finished.

So at the sight of the first guard she saw patrolling through the corridors, she immediately waved towards them to get their attention. Something she couldn’t have imagined doing so casually before she had ended up in the training grounds so often that she had learned the faces and names of a good deal of them while asking them to help prepare anything she thought that the queen might inevitably need she couldn’t fetch herself. This particular guard that had sped up to get over to her faster upon noticing her was even more recognizable to her since it was hard to forget the young man who had injured the queen accidentally, Gervase.

He gave her a nod while he came to a stop besides her, a question clear in his eyes. “Eschiva. What is it you need for the queen this time?”

She dropped into a slight curtsey as was proper for a servant talking to a guard like this before she began to talk. “Gervase, I need you to get the message out that the queen will be likely to head out into the training grounds soon so that things can be prepared for her arrival there.”

The young man looked a little confused but nodded. “Alright, I’ll pass the message onwards so the Castellan can be prepared for that. I thought the queen only tended towards unscheduled visits to the training grounds on Sundays though.”

Eschiva shook her head with a polite smile. “Not this time with how her lesson is going at the moment.”

Gervase stared at her for a moment before nodding once more. “I’ll take your word for it then. You’ve been right before and are quite close with the queen alongside being her attendant. Farewell until then.”

The young man was soon gone as he left to continue his patrol and Eschiva couldn’t help but sigh once he was gone at the reminder about what was most assuredly the most difficult part of being the queen’s attendant she’d found. Trying to keep the distance that was proper between her and the queen despite how brazenly the girl seemed to try and disregard the unspoken etiquette.

From attempting nearly every day to get her to refer to her by Yolanda in private, to how many conversations she’d tried to get her to join in on more casually once her mother was no longer with her in attending to the queen, it was a miracle she’d managed to keep any sort of distance at all. Though from Gervase’s comment, people might’ve been beginning to see otherwise in spite of her efforts.

Truly, that was the part that really kept her from saying she enjoyed her new duties to the queen and exhausted her the most. Because it was a battle everyday to not give into the sin of temptation that was taking up the queen on her constant attempts to get closer to her and maintain the distance their roles needed them to keep.

Especially since the queen was both quite charming and far more cunning and intelligent than she first thought as she’d realized very swiftly during her first month as her attendant. Even if she seemed to have her moments where she seemingly didn’t understand something that should’ve been very simple, those just ended up being strangely endearing instead. It didn’t help that everyday she felt less and less nervous about being the one attending to the queen after spending so much of her time around her.

Eschiva glanced back towards the door where she heard the queen's soft voice seemingly trying to get the ‘lesson’ back on track for the fourth time if she was counting right and shook her head. She really hoped that the queen lost interest in trying to close the distance between them, because she really didn’t know how much longer she could manage before giving into the temptation to let her do so.