The Spare and the Heir

by Carol Moncado

  A half-smile found its way to her face. “Thank you.”

  “Your assistant was horrified when she realized she let it slip. I do hope she’s not in any trouble. It was an honest mistake, in the company of two people she rarely has to keep anything from, and during a difficult time.”

  “I spoke with her about being more careful in the future, but she didn’t get any kind of reprimand or anything.”

  “Good.”

  Esme motioned to Jared. “Let him in.”

  A moment later the soon-to-be chairman entered. “Good morning, Esme.”

  Chairman Franklin cleared his throat.

  Emmett Wray shifted on his feet then bowed. “Apologies, Your Majesty.”

  She sat up as straight as she could without pain while in a recliner, even if it wasn’t fully reclined. “There is only one person given leave not to greet me with the respect due my office, and you are not him.”

  He tried to look chastised but failed miserably. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I would remind you to also remember the respect my husband is due.”

  That really got under his skin, just as she’d known it would. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chairman Franklin stood nearly at attention. “Your Majesty, in accordance with Section B, Subsection 124 of the Continuance of Power Proclamation of 1853, it is my duty to inform you that my service will come to an end January 1, 2019 at 11:59:59 a.m.. On January 1, 2019, at twelve noon the chairmanship will be taken over by Emmett Wray.”

  “Emmett Wray is acceptable to the crown.”

  “I better be,” Mr. Wray muttered.

  Chairman Franklin glared at Mr. Wray. “That is quite enough. The queen can have you replaced. Insufficient respect for the crown is one such offense.”

  “My apologies.” There was no apology in his tone.

  Esme wished her next chairman was anyone else. Of the dozen members on the council, approximately half the slots were hereditary, and half were elected. Emmett inherited his seat from his father earlier in the year. The chairmanship alternated between hereditary seats and elected ones for terms of three years. Unless there was sufficient cause to dismiss him, she’d be working closely with Emmett for that whole time.

  If only someone else had been her first real chairman.

  Someone she hadn’t once been in love with.

  24

  Who was in their sitting room? Gabe recognized Chairman Franklin, but who was with him?

  “Gabriel, darling, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Esme’s singsong voice sounded odd to Gabe’s ears.

  And he knew the words weren’t entirely truthful. When he reached her side, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Good morning, darling. You look much more rested than you did when I left.”

  “You haven’t seen her yet today?” The new guy raised his eyebrow at Gabe. “Is that how you greet your queen?”

  Esme gripped his hand more tightly. “It is when his queen has given him permission to.”

  “It’s how I greet my wife,” Gabe added. “Now, who are you?”

  “Darling, this is our next Chairman of the Council. He will be taking over from Chairman Franklin at the beginning of the New Year. Legally, Chairman Franklin was required to officially inform me of the impending change no later than today. He was supposed to before I went to the hospital, but I had to postpone.”

  Gabe gave the man a polite nod. He didn’t like this guy, but he’d be working closely with Esme for the next few years. They needed to get along at a minimum.

  Chairman Franklin nodded at Mr. Wray. “If you’ll excuse us, I do have business to discuss with the queen that you’re not cleared for yet.”

  Mr. Wray turned to Esme and bowed deeply. “Good day, Your Majesty.”

  What was that about? He’d ask her later.

  A few minutes later, the three of them were seated and Chairman Franklin pulled a manila folder out of his briefcase. “This is your first official update into investigations being done, specifically into Isaiah Quatremaine and any tentacles he may still have floating out there.”

  “It didn’t end with his death?” Esme took the folder from the chairman.

  “We’re still not absolutely certain he’s deceased. An eyewitness henchman said he was seen falling overboard and there were sharks in the area, ones known to eat humans or anything else they can find, but no remains were ever found.”

  “But probably?” Gabe asked. “Is there an active search for him?”

  Chairman Franklin shook his head. “There was, but when no evidence was found of any other boats in the area and no remains found, Queen Carlotta called it off.”

  “He has minions here?” Esme handed Gabe the folder.

  He opened it, skimming the first page.

  “We believe he did. That’s part of how he was able to get onto the island last summer. Yes, he was working with King Benjamin’s head of security, but it was more than that. He had information on where the WLRS teams would be, and they weren’t supposed to be nearby, but plans changed.”

  “Who has that information?” Gabe flipped to the next page.

  “A few members of the military, the queen, and some of the council members.”

  “What is the most likely source of the leak?”

  “A council member. The military officials are high-ranking, well-regarded, and well aware of the consequences of treason. Anything is possible, but it would shock me if it was one of them.”

  “Who does that leave?”

  “Half a dozen members of the council, including me.”

  Gabe looked at the next page, which listed the council members in question. “Emmett Wray?”

  Chairman Franklin nodded. “There’s nothing that implicates him, not at the moment. There’s nothing that implicates anyone, but there has to be something we’re missing.”

  “Who else is involved in the investigation?”

  The chairman listed several names Gabe didn’t recognize, except for the head of security, but Esme appeared to.

  She nodded. “All good people. Craig is the only one I know personally, but I know my mother spoke highly of all of them.”

  Gabe was inclined to believe Mr. Wray might be part of the circle, but only because the man had gone out of his way to annoy Gabe and practically insult Esme.

  After a few more minutes of conversation, Chairman Franklin left.

  “Who’s Emmett Wray, and what’s his deal?” Gabe thanked Russell for the bottle of water then they found themselves alone.

  Esme didn’t look at him.

  “Esme,” he prodded, trying to be gentle. “Who is he? Why does he get away with talking to you like that?”

  “He’s a hereditary council member, though he hasn’t been one for long.”

  “Refresh my memory?”

  “There are thirteen members of the council. Five are hereditary seats. Six are elected officials. The chairman position lasts three years and rotates between one of the hereditary seats and an elected official, chosen by all of the elected officials. Which hereditary seat holds the chairmanship rotates. It’s about thirty years between the time a hereditary seat has the chance to be chairman again. This time, it’s Emmett’s turn. The chairman only votes in case of a tie.”

  “That’s only eleven.”

  “You and I are the other two. I’m automatically a member of the council, because I’m the queen. You have to be approved by the council, but that’s generally a rubber stamp. That said, my father’s seat has been empty for many years. After he refused to be involved, eventually they revoked his status. I would have taken his place if my mother had survived much longer.”

  “When will this approval take place?”

  “Probably after the first of the year. I believe it’s the first item on the agenda of the next session.”

  “How many does it take to vote me in?”

  “Simple majority, though I don’t get a vote.”

  “And the chairman doesn’t either unless it’s a tie
?”

  “Right.”

  Gabe did the math. Thirteen seats, twelve filled with two abstentions. That left ten to vote.

  “I can’t imagine it won’t be unanimous. It always is.”

  “Unless they decide your father set a dangerous precedent and want me to prove I’ll stick around before giving me a seat.”

  “Chairman Franklin won’t let that happen.”

  He hoped she was right, but... “He won’t be chairman anymore, and Mr. Wray doesn’t seem to like me much.”

  Esme didn’t respond immediately. “That’s because he wanted to be you.”

  Gabe blinked as he tried to figure out what she meant. “Huh?” Eloquent.

  “We were an item about eight or nine years ago. He wanted to marry me. He wanted to be you.”

  A knot formed in the pit of Gabe’s stomach. One he couldn’t explain and wasn’t quite sure what to make of.

  * * *

  This was the conversation Esme had wanted to avoid, but there was no chance now.

  “What exactly does that mean? He wanted to marry you?”

  Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. “I was young and stupid. It’s not an excuse, but it’s all I have. I knew there was no chance I’d ever marry anyone but you.”

  “But I was off dating a different woman every week.” Gabe’s voice sounded weary and resigned.

  “Exactly. I knew you knew we were going to get married someday. If you could date around, why couldn’t I?” Tears began to streak down her cheeks. “But I hadn’t planned on my heart getting involved. I just wanted to have some fun, go on real dates, have someone with me at the official formal functions. He was already a future council member, so the press didn’t make too much of it when we told them we were just friends.”

  She waited for him to question her about it, but he didn’t. “We spent a lot of time together, a lot more than most people realized. One day he mentioned marriage.” She swiped at her cheeks. “It hit me that I wanted to marry him, but I knew I couldn’t. I told him I wanted to, but that I’d been engaged since I was little. That nothing we did or said would matter. He pushed and pushed for me to confront my mother to force her to change it and, if she refused, elope.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  Esme shook her head. “I knew there was no point. She knew we’d been spending time together and reminded me regularly that nothing could come of it. When I wouldn’t talk to her, Emmett made some really hurtful comments, and I never heard from him again on a personal level. This is the first time I’ve talked to him in about seven years.”

  “I don’t like him.”

  “Shocking.” The word popped out before Esme could stop it - something she’d been trained her whole life to do. Was this what it was like to be truly comfortable around someone?

  “Even before I knew who he was. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way. It’s partially how he treated you, his comments when I got here, but more than that, too. Nothing I can put my finger on.”

  “That doesn’t mean he was the one helping Isaiah. It could just mean he’s jealous.”

  “True,” Gabe said slowly. “But it could also mean he thought you’d be an easy one to control or influence because he’d control two seats on the council eventually.”

  Esme thought that over. “I don’t know what the protocol is if the prince consort is also a hereditary council member. It might be worth looking into. My first guess is that he either wouldn’t be approved for the consort’s seat if he was already on the council, or he’d be required to resign the consort’s seat to take his hereditary one.”

  “What happens to a hereditary seat if there is no heir or if the heir isn’t of age or isn’t otherwise eligible? Like if the heir is no longer a resident or citizen.”

  She knew this, but she had to dredge it from the depths of her memory. “It depends. If the heir isn’t of age, it can either remain vacant or a temporary replacement may be appointed. Otherwise, if there’s a second heir, it just moves down the line.”

  “To the spare.” Traces of bitterness colored Gabe’s voice.

  “Except that person would no longer be the spare.”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Do you really think Emmett would get close to me just to control the council? He was in his mid-20s at the time. A little young for that kind of narcissism, isn’t it?”

  “I’m not sure narcissism is the right word...”

  Esme wasn’t either.

  “...but I don’t think there’s an age limit on being power hungry.”

  “Probably not. That’s thinking awfully far ahead. If he was the consort, there’s no guarantee when he’d get the seat, and he’d never be chairman. He wouldn’t be for another thirty or more years if his father hadn’t died suddenly last spring.” As she said it, the thought began to bother her.

  “Maybe he thought as the future prince consort, he’d be able to take the consort’s seat early, since your father wasn’t on it?”

  “He would have been privy to information that I, as the Crown Princess, wouldn’t have been? That doesn’t seem likely.”

  “No, but there’s no reason to believe someone who thinks like that is quite logical or sane.”

  He had a point. “Jared,” she called. Both of her assistants were nearby while she worked from home, as it were.

  A moment later, he walked through the door. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “Do you remember how Emmett Wray’s father died?”

  “A sudden, massive heart attack, I believe.”

  “Did he have a history of heart problems?”

  “I don’t believe he did.”

  “Would you look into it for me?”

  He bowed his head slightly before turning to leave. “Of course.”

  When they were alone again, Gabe turned to her. “Do you think Wray had something to do with it?”

  Esme shrugged. “I have no idea but looking into it doesn’t mean anything except making sure a man who served his country and his crown honorably for his entire adult life didn’t die unnecessarily.”

  “There are drugs that can be injected to look like a heart attack.” Gabe leaned back in his chair, his long legs stretching out in front of him. “Potassium Chloride does. The by-products are found in your system anyway. The increases aren’t always enough to trigger the medical examiner, if they’re even looking in the first place. Succinylcholine can as well. It basically paralyzes all of your muscles, and your heart stops and lungs don’t work.”

  She gaped at him. “How do you know these things?”

  He winked at her. “Too many True Crime and investigation shows on TV a few years ago. Was he a diabetic by chance?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Both of those have to be injected into a vein. The needle mark would be noticeable unless hidden by other needle marks or a wound of some kind where it might be overlooked.”

  “I don’t even know if he’d have an autopsy.”

  “You would think a councilman who had no preexisting conditions might have one, especially one who’s not very old.”

  The more she thought about it, the more Esme’s gut churned. She had no reason to suspect Emmett of anything so nefarious, and yet...

  She did.

  25

  All of this didn’t sit well with Gabe. The man was a romantic rival, of sorts, but that wasn’t enough reason to suspect him of murdering his father or colluding with Isaiah to hold most of two royal families and representatives of two other families hostage then kidnap two or three little girls, depending on who he could get his hands on.

  Even more, it bothered him that Esme’s heartbreak had been an indirect result of his own actions. Such a thing had never occurred to him during that phase of his life. He assumed she was off doing her own thing, without regard for him or their future life together.

  He had never been emotionally involved with a woman, except the one recovering from both surgery and the loss of a child, though he suspect
ed she was coping with the latter by simply ignoring it in favor of dealing with other things. That would have to change eventually.

  “I’m over him.”

  Esme’s voice brought him out of his introspection.

  “I have been for years, but it did hurt for a long time. There was a time I thought I could never have any feelings for you but contempt.”

  The jab hurt. It should. But with it came hope. “I can’t tell you how much I wish things were different, Esme. That I hadn’t behaved the way I did. I know you don’t have just contempt for me anymore, but I hope - I pray - someday it’ll be much more than just ‘not contempt.’”

  “Me, too.” She hesitated longer than he would have liked before she added, “And I don’t hold you in contempt anymore. I haven’t for a while. I don’t know what it is I feel for you, but that’s not it.”

  He’d known that since the night she kissed him on their honeymoon, the night they’d truly become husband and wife, a night forever seared in his memory.

  Gabe wanted affection, even love, not just lack of contempt, but for now, he’d take what he could get.

  His phone buzzed, interrupting whatever else might be said. “I need to take this,” he told her glancing down. “It’s about the Games.”

  She nodded and went back to her laptop, while he went into the dining room-turned-temporary-office for a long discussion about the renovations on the gymnastics venue. They were scheduled to be done two months before the Games kicked off.

  When he returned to the sitting room, Esme was nowhere to be seen.

  The nurse came out of the bedroom. “She’s resting for now. She needs her rest.” It sounded like a reprimand.

  Gabe held up his hands in surrender. “She was asleep when I left this morning. When I came back, she was already meeting with Chairman Franklin and Emmett Wray.”

  “When I’m not around, it’s your job to make sure she isn’t stressed out about things. I know you can’t stop all of it, because there are things she needs to handle, but if I may be so bold, sir, I would see about the council holding a special meeting to award your seat as soon as possible. I know that, as consort, you’re already privy to many of the things you will be as a council member, but you can’t attend the meetings or do anything else on the queen’s behalf. With your seat secured, you could do more for her.”