I survived through the negotiations, and not only had I survived them, I escaped the meeting with a proposal for the congress to discuss. We ultimately missed the official dinner, although someone had remembered we existed and had trays brought in so we could work and eat. His Royal Majesty of Germany seemed content to work while eating, which earned my respect. Ultimately, Geoff wasn’t needed for his translation skills.
To my disappointment, I missed the private time with Jessica, although I did manage to share a bed with her. The instant I hit the mattress, I passed out. She was gone by the time I woke up, and it took an amused Geoff almost an hour to get me on the move.
“The congress voted on the proposal an hour ago,” Geoff announced after I’d gotten dressed and had a cup of coffee to help drive away the worst of my lethargy. It stung my pride I needed his help easing into a dress shirt, but I’d learned quickly I wanted nothing to do with moving my shoulder.
“Did they vote to have me executed?”
“No, sir. Your execution was not up for vote.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“They really voted on it already?” I checked the clock, which informed it was two in the afternoon. “Oh.”
“Dr. Durkes left instructions to let you sleep until one. He’s concerned the dosage of painkillers might be too high, so he’s going to try to see how you do on a half dose tonight.”
“I’ll take it. I feel like a truck ran over me.” I thought about that. “Huh. I guess I do know what that feels like, don’t I?”
“Approximately. The coffee will help some.”
“Hit me with it. If they didn’t vote to execute me, how did they vote?”
“There were, in Her Royal Highness’s words, a few whiners, but the measure passed with minimal adjustment.”
“What minimal adjustment?”
“They want to delay implementing the proposals until the Royal States is officially inducted into the United Nations.”
“That’s it?” I blurted.
“To the disgust of the politicians, who were itching for a debate, that’s it. His Royal Majesty declared the proposal to be ‘disgustingly practical.’ During his mild temper tantrum over your general success with the negotiations, he’s told the congress you have his approval. The RPS is of the opinion this was his actual goal. Some of us are even speculating he may have had prior discussions with His Royal Majesty of Germany to help ensure the proposals passed with minimal alterations.”
“We practically rewrote the entire damned thing from scratch yesterday, Geoff.”
“The important parts of the proposal remained intact, a great deal of excessive fat was trimmed away from the document, and it was as moderate as we could hope for. What I wasn’t expecting was a representative to propose we use the proposal with Germany as a foundation for proposals with other kingdoms. The minimum inspection requirements you suggested made everyone happy, a rare thing in our congress, as you’ll find out soon enough.”
“What happens next?”
“For you? Nothing. The monarchs will officiate the documentation tomorrow and His Royal Majesty of Germany’s official trip will be concluded.”
“And the matter of the German RPS agent?”
“He provided all the information you demanded along with verified statements from everyone in the delegation. Two other RPS agents from Germany were complicit in the attack, and they will face a trial in Germany. His Highness of Germany was found guilty of masterminding the scheme, and several Texans were accused of feeding him information for personal gain.”
“Potential suitors?”
“It’s a mixed hat, sir. Some were vying for position in Texas politics, one was seeking revenge for your discovery of the poisoned olive oil, although it wasn’t the individual we initially suspected. Her Royal Highness wanted Baby to deal with them, but His Royal Majesty is overseeing the issue personally, as it is a direct violation of his sovereignty.”
“What happens next?”
“First, we get your personal detail set up, evaluate your schedule, and find a compromise between your current responsibilities and the education you’ll need to reign alongside Her Royal Highness. You’ll be a very busy man for the next year.”
“Next year?”
Geoff pulled out a folded sheet of paper from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and handed it to me. “Her Royal Highness informed the congress they would appoint you as her joint co-ruler. In what I’ll only describe as a steamrolling, she got them to vote and pass her measure. Her threats were most entertaining. There’s a video of it if you wish to see it.”
“I do. Give me the important points.”
“She said she’d let Baby loose in the gallery and let him punish anyone who distressed his rider, and blocking her marriage to you would distress poor Baby and his owner, obviously. And then she repeated the same threat except with her horse.”
I laughed, which made my shoulder hurt. “Only in Texas would a member of royalty threaten politicians with horses.”
“You should’ve seen her when one of those politicians said you were a boot scraping.”
That poor, poor politician. “Is he even still alive?”
“His pride is in its death throes, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he spares himself from further shame through resignation. And if he does decide to come crawling back to the next congress session, she recommended he learn to grovel to her prized boot scraping because she will not have mercy on him otherwise.”
“She’s being dramatic again.”
“What can I say, sir? She’s a Texan. We’re dramatic.”
That we were.
Epilogue
A year to the day following my crash course into my first swimming lesson, I married a princess and became a king.
We’d been looking forward to our wedding. We hadn’t been expecting the coronation.
We’d found out following the exchanging of our vows, which took place astride our black horses with Morning Glory serving as the ring bearer. The future heir of Texas still had a little over eight months to go before making an appearance. Jessica blamed her birth control for that unexpected turn of events, as we’d both been under the impression it would actually take a full month following her last dose before she’d become fertile again.
I was happy about the change of plans, and I’d enjoyed watching her storm around her bedroom complaining about the situation.
Nobody would complain if the heir showed up a little earlier than expected. My former co-workers had started teasing us from the day Jessica had marched me to work pleading they help transition me from a janitor with a cooking habit to a king.
As expected, they’d gotten carried away with it, and every last one of them had managed to attend the wedding.
If Elana didn’t stop crying soon, someone would snap, and I suspected it would be Mr. Darmill the Tech Menace, who’d I’d learned was her partner-in-crime and husband.
I really should have known.
Beginnings had endings, but endings could become beginnings, and our wedding had become a lot of both.
The queen’s cancer had returned, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
His Royal Majesty had decided that his last act as king would be to hand over his crown to his daughter so he could spend his time with his wife without the burden of their crowns weighing them down. The congress knew the queen’s days were numbered and that her best chance for a few extra years was removing as much stress from her life as possible.
Everyone had been hoping to delay the transfer of power, but time wasn’t on the queen’s side. Time never sided with anyone. I’d accepted that sad truth three months ago.
My father had died in his sleep and my mother had followed in his wake. They’d been found together, and the doctor could only offer me one consolation: they had stuck together in life and in death, and their fate would one day be mine and Jessica’s as well.
And thus, in death
, they’d escaped from their caste, their rank elevated posthumously to the equivalent of royalty. It wouldn’t help them. It wouldn’t help me, either, but my children would be safeguarded from my rogue, hidden talent.
No child of mine would be forced to suffer like my parents had. The choice of partner would be theirs and theirs alone, just as Jessica had been gifted with the freedom to choose me.
I could only hope Jessica’s mother could hold on long enough to welcome her grandchild into the world. We both hoped for a daughter, and if we had our way, we’d borrow the queen’s middle name for her name. If Deidre turned out anything like her grandmother, there would be a lot of hope for Texas. And if Deidre turned out anything like her mother, I’d have my hands full raising her.
For the first time in its short history as a kingdom, Texas had a queen, something that went against the grain, but she came bundled with me as her king. In what I counted as evidence of mass insanity, the public welcomed me with open arms and minimal complaints despite being, as one politician had claimed a year ago, a worthless boot scraping.
I enjoyed nettling Representative Padrino as often as possible, and I looked forward to long years of continuing to sting the man’s pride.
The Texas crown weighed a ton, and it made my neck hurt, and I couldn’t stop shooting accusatory glares at my new father-in-law for foisting the damned thing onto my head on my wedding day. “You planned this from the start, didn’t you?”
“Texas needs a practical ruler, and it’s certainly not getting that from Jessica.”
I couldn’t argue with him, so I didn’t. “Did you hear she rode her horse into the gallery again because Representative Padrino made another boot scraping comment?”
“I got to see that one. She didn’t realize I’d be in the session; I’d shown up unexpectedly.” The former king snorted and shook his head. “I’m dumping a mess on your lap. They’re finalizing the Royal States votes next week.”
Shit. “You have got to be kidding me.”
He smiled. “It seemed like a good time to get rid of that crown with that truckload of horse shit about to really hit the fan. New York is going to give you trouble.”
“New York is going to give everyone trouble. Nobody expects anything else. It’s absorbing as much territory as Montana, and the other states still haven’t figured out how they’re going to split themselves sanely.”
“It won’t be that bad. Montana will handle most of it. You’ll only be tapped if Montana has trouble. Of course, everyone is expecting Montana to have trouble, but they were expecting to deal with me and not you until today.”
“That is the most absurd thing I’ve heard this week.” I glanced at my wife, who was talking to her mother. “How is she doing, really?”
“We’re looking at two years at most, and only if her pain can be managed. The cancer’s proving resistant to medication and magic.”
I couldn’t offer Jessica’s father much, but I hoped the news would help Jessica’s mother hold on for a little while longer. “Someone needs to add a line to the birth control warning label that it is up to one month, not one actual month before it reverses. For liability reasons, of course.”
My father-in-law arched a brow. “And how long have you been sitting on that, Pat?”
“Being my practical self, when Jessica started turning green last week, I skipped down to the clinic and stole a couple of pregnancy tests. It turns out when you’re going to be the king, they will let you have a look around when curious and bored.”
“That, plus you’ve convinced everyone you are incapable of going a week without poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“Basically.”
“How far along?”
“I’m guessing three weeks, but that’s an uneducated guess based on the earliest some women start getting ill in the morning. She’s not really getting sick, but things are, and I quote, ‘smelling fucking weird.’ Some basic research indicates that can start at two to three weeks. She stopped taking her birth control a month ago.”
“Nobody’ll notice or care,” he replied.
“That was my thinking.”
“Been thinking about names?”
“We’re hoping for a girl, and we’ll name her Deidre. If a boy, we’ve no idea yet.” I shot him another glare. “We are hoping for a girl, sir. A girl.”
“Jessica put you up to that, didn’t she?”
“Why fix what isn’t broken? To me, the best thing to happen to Texas was you having a daughter instead of a son. And I will seriously think about fetching a crop and smacking you with it if you even suggest Jessica isn’t the best thing to happen to Texas.”
“She is. I’m sorry your parents couldn’t be around to see this, Pat. They would’ve been happy. They were good people. And don’t you tell me you aren’t also the best thing to happen to Texas for this generation. I’ve got my fair share of riding crops, and I ain’t too damned old to put you in your place with it yet. You good?”
I’d never get used to Jessica’s father adopting slang at his whim, although I admired how he managed to ask so many questions using two little words. I doubted I’d get used to the weight of a crown anytime soon, I doubted I’d be half as good a parent as mine, and I had more doubts than I knew what to do with, but one truth rose above it all.
I was ready to do my best, and I’d make that be good enough no matter what.
“I’m good.”
About the Author
Susan Copperfield is the royal romance, urban fantasy loving alter ego of award-winning novelist RJ Blain.
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Under the super not-so-secret identity of Susan, the Royal States of America is explored, where the work of sixteen founding royal families preserved the United States from destruction and civil war when magic swept over the world.
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In the Royal States, life, love, and magic always finds a way.
RJ Blain suffers from a Moleskine journal obsession, a pen fixation, and a terrible tendency to pun without warning.
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When she isn't playing pretend, she likes to think she's a cartographer and a sumi-e painter.
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In her spare time, she daydreams about being a spy. Should that fail, her contingency plan involves tying her best of enemies to spinning wheels and quoting James Bond villains until she is satisfied.
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RJ also writes as Susan Copperfield, Bernadette Franklin, and Trillian Anderson.
If you enjoy using bookbub, you can follow RJ and her alter ego Susan there.
https://thesneakykittycritic.com
Also by Susan Copperfield
Null and Void
The Captive King
A Guiding Light
Huntress
Storm Called
By RJ Blain: Magical Romantic Comedies (with a body count)
Playing with Fire
Hoofin’ It
Hearth, Home, and Havoc (Novella)
Whatever for Hire
Serial Killer Princess
Last but not Leashed (Novella)
Fowl Play (Novella)
No Kitten Around
Blending In
Cheetahs Never Win
Burn, Baby, Burn
Saddle Up
Grave Humor
Dragon Her Heels
From Witch & Wolf World
Series: Witch & Wolf
Inquisitor
Winter Wolf
Blood Diamond
Silver Bullet
* * *
Series: Wolf Hunt
Wolf Hunt
Wild Wolf (TBD)
The Edge of Midnight (TBD)
* * *
Series: Nature of the Beast
Pack Justice
Dual Nature (TBD)
* * *
Series: Balancing the Scales
Karma
License to Kill (TBD)
* * *
Standalones
; Beneath a Blood Moon
Shadowed Flame
* * *
Tales of the Winter Wolf
(Short Story/Novella Collections)
Omnibus - Volumes One-Five
Volume Six (Aftermath to Winter Wolf.)
Other Stories by RJ Blain
Jesse Alexander Novels
Water Viper
Steel Heart (TBD)
* * *
Requiem for the Rift King (Epic Fantasy)
Storm Without End
Storm Surge
The Tides of War (TBD)
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Storm Called Page 29