The Indentured Queen

by Carol Moncado

  Katrín swallowed as something unfamiliar fluttered deep inside. “What are you doing?” she managed to whisper.

  “Wondering what it would be like to kiss you.” His voice sounded husky to her ears.

  “Why would you wonder that?”

  In her peripheral vision, she saw his shoulders lift. “You’re my wife. Isn’t it natural to wonder what it would be like to kiss you again? To wonder what it might be like for more?”

  He knew far more about what “more” would be like than she did. He’d made it quite clear to her that he could have any woman he wanted, though he had promised he wouldn’t cheat on her for the duration of their short marriage. Thor had told her he wasn’t really like that, but she didn’t know what she believed.

  “Don’t try to tell me it hasn’t at least crossed your mind.”

  Katrín took a step back. She needed away from him, away from his magnetism. “Just because it’s crossed my mind doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. I wanted to try to fly off my roof as a child, but it wouldn’t have ended well if I did. No matter how much either of us might want to, neither would this.”

  She turned and fled back down the tunnel until she reached the door to the consort’s bedroom.

  With one hand on the post of the four-poster bed, she closed her eyes and tried to breathe.

  “Why would it be a bad idea? You are my wife. We are legally married.” His voice in her quarters didn’t startle her like it probably should have.

  “Temporarily,” she reminded him. “Both of us will likely have future spouses and do we really want to explain this to them? If we sleep together, it’s one more complication when I set up a new life.”

  The reality was she didn’t think she’d marry in her new life. More likely she would have a life as a spinster. Too complicated otherwise.

  “And you don’t think my next wife will expect that we would have slept together?”

  She spun to look at him. “I suppose that depends. Are you going to tell her the truth about your first wife? That it was all a revenge plot from your uncle to force you to marry the most unsuitable person in the palace?”

  “That hasn’t been proven.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You and I both know that’s what happened.”

  “Most likely.” He took another step toward her.

  Katrín tried to step back but found her spine against the post of the bed.

  “One kiss,” King Benjamin whispered. “Just one.”

  She found herself nodding even as her breath caught in her throat.

  His hands framed her face as he leaned down. Katrín’s eyes fluttered closed, and she waited.

  Benjamin wanted to sit in his desk chair, slouch down, and prop his feet up on something. Instead, he stood in front of one of the floor to ceiling windows, feet shoulder width apart, hands clasped behind his back. Really, he found himself wishing he was back in the consort’s bedroom, but not waking up alone.

  The massive door whispered open. It didn’t dare groan or squeak, not when Chamberlain was around.

  “Her Majesty, the Queen.” Chamberlain’s condescending tone was directed at Benjamin. He knew that.

  But Benjamin didn’t turn, even after the door closed. He waited for Katrín to say something, but she didn’t. Finally, he turned to see her standing in front of his desk.

  She glared at him as she curtsied. “You summoned, Your Majesty.”

  He’d never resented the title more than when she laced it with sarcasm.

  What was he supposed to say to her? Why had he summoned her in the first place? Wondering why I woke up alone didn’t seem quite right.

  He motioned to one of the chairs across from the desk and sat down in his chair. “You were up early.” That seemed safer.

  “I’m always up early. I have to be at work early.” She sat but the glare didn’t dissipate. “Besides, I didn’t sleep well. Unfamiliar bed and all.”

  “We slept in your room,” he pointed out.

  “No. You slept in the consort’s room. I stared at the wall of it. I’ve never slept in there before, and I didn’t actually sleep.”

  “Why on earth not? It’s your room.”

  “No. It’s the suite I’m borrowing temporarily. I stay in one of the other rooms because that one is too big, too ostentatious, for me. I’d planned to leave it as something your next wife could enjoy with the knowledge I rarely stepped foot in there.”

  Benjamin studied her and her dark brown eyes. Something more lurked behind her words. Pain? Resignation? He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he didn’t.

  Instead, he went to the next order of business. He could have let Chamberlain take care of it, but decided to do it himself. “You won’t have to be up so early anymore. You’re not going to be working in the kitchen.”

  She didn’t say anything, though the glare lessened. “I won’t be?” Did she sound almost hopeful?

  Benjamin shuffled the paperwork on his desk. “No. You’ll be working for my mother instead.”

  The silence lasted for several seconds. “I see.”

  “She’s in need of a temporary Social Media Manager.”

  “For Thor’s niece?”

  He nodded.

  “I see. When do I start?”

  “You’ll need to see the palace personnel office. They’ll make sure you know what you need to.”

  He looked up as she brushed her hair back and frowned. “Where’s your ring?”

  She looked down at her finger. “The engagement ring?”

  “My mother’s engagement ring. The one my father had made especially for her.” The one he hadn’t wanted to use for this marriage. He hadn’t wanted to use it at all. Benjamin didn’t believe he’d ever find someone who meant as much to him as his parents meant to each other.

  “It’s in my room.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t think you’d want me wearing it to wash dishes.”

  She had a point. “And you’ve taken it off every day since?”

  “I’ve washed dishes every day, haven’t I? Except when we went out of town.”

  Benjamin realized he had no idea. “It wasn’t on the list of things removed from your apartment,” he pointed out.

  “Because I put it back on as soon as I get back to my quarters, wherever they are. That was a half day off. I worked, went back and took a shower, put it on, then went to mail a letter at the post office on the floor above mine. By the time I got back, half my things were gone. I went to find you, and got arrested.”

  “You weren’t arrested,” he reminded her.

  “Whatever. Just be sure to let the personnel office of my change in employment status, would you? I’d hate to get reprimanded for not being somewhere I’m not supposed to be.”

  Something about that didn’t sit well. “Has that happened before?”

  “I have four reprimands in my file for missing work.”

  “When?”

  “Once when I was sick. I got one a couple years ago when some flowers were delivered to me by mistake. It took all of an hour to convince the florist I wasn’t the intended recipient. His delivery guy sorted it out, but it didn’t matter.”

  “And the other two?”

  She stared straight into his eyes. It disconcerted him. “The day of the wedding and the morning after when I overslept because the ball ran so late. I almost got written up again because of the trip out of town, but Chamberlain managed to get that off my record.”

  “You were reprimanded for missing work on the day we got married?” He still found that hard to believe, but hadn’t she mentioned that once before? “They didn’t know where you were?”

  “I told my boss I was at the wedding. He didn’t believe me without an invitation. Wrote me up anyway.”

  “You didn’t tell him you were the bride? That’s why you didn’t have an invitation,” he pointed out.

  She snorted. “Why? So they could give me a hard time about being the new queen while still working as a sligh
tly modernized scullery maid? Please. They can’t fire me. It was better to just take the reprimand.” Katrín stood and started for the door. “At least your mother might understand if I need to miss work occasionally for some fancy shindig where you need to pretend this is a real marriage.”

  Her cavalier attitude toward him and his authority irritated Benjamin. He stood, his hands on the desk with his weight resting on them. “I haven’t dismissed you yet.”

  “You didn’t dismiss me this morning either,” she called over her shoulder.

  “You haven’t been given permission to leave.”

  With a mighty tug, she pulled the door open, and walked through, leaving Benjamin to stare after her as she called back.

  “Then exile me.”

  19

  Katrín went to her fake room and started to press the stones to open the corridor back to the consort’s suite, but she stopped before completing the sequence. Instead, she went to stare out the window.

  The city spread below her with the Festival lights still visible off in the distance. The evening before had been everything she’d hoped for when she finally finished her indenture and found a guy. He’d even won her the giant panda she’d wanted for so long.

  What had happened to it? And all of the other prizes Benjamin had won for her?

  She needed to accept that they were likely long gone. Maybe she’d ask Thor if someone had grabbed them.

  It had been at least ten minutes of staring and trying to quiet her tumultuous thoughts, and avoiding going back to her suite where she’d spent the night with her husband, when an unfamiliar buzz sounded in her pocket.

  The caller ID said it was the security offices. “Hello?”

  “Your Majesty?” the voice asked.

  Yeah. That was her. “Yes?”

  “There’s someone at the gate claiming to know you, ma’am. She has a giant panda she says belongs to you.”

  Hope began to blossom. “Who is it?”

  “Elise.”

  “Yes, I know her.”

  “Would you like to meet her in the conference room in the security offices? She hasn’t been cleared for the rest of the palace.”

  “Of course.” Katrín hung up and left the room, walking up the narrow staircase to the security offices.

  Thor met her at the door and handed her a long coat. “You might want to put this on.”

  Katrín glanced down. She still wore her uniform. With the coat buckled around her, she went into the conference room where Elise waited.

  “Good afternoon.”

  Elise bobbed into a curtsy, something Katrín doubted she’d ever get used to. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty. I brought something for you, but they confiscated it to check it out, I guess.”

  “Probably.” She motioned to one of the chairs. “Please, have a seat.”

  They both sat down. Katrín stared at her hands. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”

  “What about it?” Elise looked concerned. “None of us are upset about being detained at the palace.”

  Katrín shook her head. “Not that. I know you understand why we did it, but we really skated the line on lying to all of you and that bothers me, even though there were excellent reasons to do so.”

  “Hey.”

  The compassion in Elise’s voice made Katrín look up to see concern on her new friend’s face.

  “You guys didn’t date very long before announcing the wedding, did you?”

  Katrín managed not to snort. “No.”

  “You didn’t have time to figure out what it’s like to be in the public eye before the wedding, so you’re going to have to figure it out afterward. I don’t blame you for not wanting to go to the Festival publicly. It wouldn’t be near as much fun that way. And, if I had to guess, you and King Benjamin are still getting to know each other. For whatever reason, you knew there was something between you. You knew you wanted to spend your lives together, but you didn’t have the benefit of time.”

  “No, we didn’t. There were reasons, a lot of them.” She realized how that might have sounded. “It’s not like I’m pregnant, and we had to or anything, but there were reasons for the abbreviated courtship.”

  “As long as you’ve got each other, you’ll figure it out.”

  “I hope so.” She sighed. “He has asked me to do something I’m completely unfamiliar with.”

  “What’s that? Is it something one of us can help with?”

  Katrín wasn’t sure what had possessed her to mention it at all, but it was the truth. “His mother’s Social Media Manager has to take a leave of absence, and he’s asked me to help her with it. But the truth is, I’ve never been on social media. I didn’t even have a smart phone until after the wedding.” She hated skirting the truth again, but the rest came too close to her reality.

  “Then it might be good for you to learn.” Katrín saw her new friend wince. “I hate to say it, but your husband needs to learn how to use social media to his advantage. He’s no good at it or doesn’t have anyone working for him who is, anyway.”

  “I don’t think he has a social media person on staff,” Katrín admitted.

  “And you need to learn, too.” Elise leaned forward. “You both need someone who can help you learn. We talked about the royal family yesterday. Princess Genevieve is helping the family’s image with her public face, but this is the 21st century. I don’t think the whole family needs to be public, especially not the younger children, but you, the king, the older ones, all need a public relations expert to help you.”

  “You’re probably right.” She gave Elise a half-smile. “I don’t suppose you know anyone?”

  Elise wrinkled her nose. “I promise this isn’t why I said that, but I do a lot of freelance social media networking and public relations type stuff for several businessmen and women, and I’ve even worked with a couple of local politicians. I don’t know that I could do everything you need, even if you wanted me to, but I can probably help you get started and steer you in the right direction until you can hire someone to handle it properly.”

  A weight lifted from Katrín’s shoulders. At least Elise could help her figure it out and get Benjamin set up so that when she disappeared, he’d already be poised to handle it. “That would be wonderful. A huge blessing really. I have no idea what my authority is, if anything, to actually hire you, but I’ll find out. Until then, would you help me get started?”

  Elise smiled. “I would be honored. Do you have your phone, or better yet, a laptop or other computer, handy?”

  She had her phone, but it was in the pocket of her uniform. “Tell you what? Why don’t we start tomorrow? I didn’t sleep well after all of the excitement last night.” And what transpired later. “And I’m not in a position to absorb it all right now. I’ll talk to Thor and Benjamin and see what we need to do. For all I know, they may have already created the accounts but not activated them. I remember hearing they do that sometimes. Then tomorrow, walk me through getting started?”

  The door opened and Thor entered carrying several bags. Katrín gasped as she recognized them. “Are those from last night?”

  Elise smiled. “I knew you’d want them. I called a friend who was working nearby. He’d seen them picked up and taken to lost and found.”

  Katrín stood and hugged her new friend. “Thank you.”

  Elise picked up her purse. “If we’re going to get started tomorrow, I have some things I need to do tonight.”

  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Katrín watched her leave then turned to Thor. “I need to talk to you.”

  “She did what?” Benjamin wasn’t sure he’d heard Chamberlain right.

  “She hired Elise to assist her with social media.” The man’s face was impossible to read.

  “Why?”

  “When did she get her first smart phone?”

  “Last week? The week before?” Wasn’t that right?

  “Did she have a computer?”

  “No.”
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br />   Chamberlain just stared at him until the implications sunk into Benjamin’s brain. “Katrín doesn’t know anything about social media, does she?”

  “No, sir.”

  Something he should have considered before volunteering her to work in that capacity for his mother. “What do we need to do get Elise hired at least temporarily until we can get someone permanent? I presume Elise knows what she’s doing.”

  “According to Thor’s preliminary background checks last night, yes. She does freelance social media management for a number of people. I do not know if she would be willing to work exclusively for the palace, even temporarily.”

  Benjamin managed to stifle his sigh. “Find out?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And ask Katrín to come here, please.”

  Chamberlain hesitated then nodded with a slight smirk. “Yes, sir.”

  What could the smirk be about? He’d made similar requests many times a day, almost every day. What could be different about this time?

  With an internal shrug, Benjamin went back to the paperwork on his desk. It all needed attention, and now.

  His intercom buzzed, and he pressed the button, his attention still on the papers. “Yes?”

  “Her Majesty, Queen Katrín to see you, sir.”

  That was fast. “Send her in.” Benjamin pushed back from his desk and stood. Katrín entered and curtsied, much as she had earlier, but her face held less antagonism. He motioned to a sitting area near the window. “Have a seat?”

  She hesitated then sat down, perched on the edge of the wingback chair. Benjamin sat in the chair next to hers.

  “I owe you an apology,” he started.

  Her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t respond.

  “I should have asked you if you knew how to use social media effectively before volunteering you to help my mother. It didn’t occur to me that you might not be familiar with it, though it makes sense, given that you didn’t have a phone or computer. I’m sorry I didn’t ask, and that I put you in a position that could have been quite awkward when you went to work for my mother.”

  She shifted backward slightly. “Apology accepted. I take it you heard about Elise?”