Katrín took a deep breath as the doors slid open in front of them. Whatever happened, this was sure to be a night to remember.
35
Had he ever been to an event so full of happy people? Benjamin knew he probably had, but he didn’t remember. About half of those who entered needed some sort of mobility aid - either forearm crutches or wheelchairs. The other half were parents or guests.
He and Katrín stood near the entrance to the ballroom where the event was being held, greeting each person as they walked in. Usually, he had an aide of some kind standing next to him feeding him names, but not this time. Everyone did wear name tags, which helped immensely.
Katrín didn’t know everyone who walked through the door, but she did know quite a few of them. Many of them greeted her with a big smile and hug, then saw him, remembered who she’d married, and things got awkward as they’d try to bow or curtsy. Maybe coming early wasn’t the best idea after all.
He greeted everyone who walked by, but his greetings were stiff and uncomfortable, nothing like he’d seen members of other royal families do, including his own family, especially Genevieve. Maybe it was something that came with practice.
Finally, it seemed that the last guest had arrived.
“If you’d come with me, sir.” One of the organizers, but not the main one, spoke quietly as someone else went to the front to start the event.
Benjamin found himself seated in the back, a most unusual circumstance he didn’t quite know what to make of.
“This isn’t about you,” Katrín reminded him quietly.
“I know.”
“I don’t think you do.”
They were the only ones seated at the table for eight, though he thought Katrín’s mother and brother were supposed to have joined them, but they were seated on the other side of the room with friends. “I completely understand this isn’t about me,” he reiterated. “I just don’t think I’ve ever sat in the back of a dinner and it’s a bit disconcerting, that’s all.”
“Suck it up and deal.”
A waiter set a plate in front of him then one in front of Katrín. Benjamin decided not to say anything else. She wouldn’t sympathize with him, so better to keep it to himself.
Dinner was fine, but nothing to brag about. He ate slowly, knowing that usually when he finished, everyone else had to be done as well.
“Don’t be pretentious.” Katrín’s quiet voice held hints of exasperation. “The food is fine, and no one cares when you finish tonight.”
Benjamin took another bite but didn’t say anything. He knew this event was important to Katrín, but at the moment everything just seemed... off, including his relationship with his wife. “What happens after dinner?” Seemed like a safe enough question.
“There will be some awards and a memorial for those who’ve passed in the last year. Then we’ll all head into the next room to mingle for a while.”
He nodded and took another bite then pushed his plate back a bit. Everyone else seemed to be having a great time talking with each other. Katrín seemed quiet, though he wasn’t sure why. Because it was only the two of them?
After a little while the awards started. They seemed to be mostly in fun - like most blinged out forearm crutches at a non-formal event. Pictures had apparently been submitted and votes taken online.
Benjamin found himself smiling and clapping along.
“See? You can enjoy yourself.” Katrín gave him a genuine smile.
He looped his arm around the back of her chair. “I know I can, and I am.”
“Next up,” the MC spoke into the microphone. “...most likely to run over a VIP’s foot.”
Everyone laughed.
“Given his new brother-in-law, there’s only one person this award could go to.”
Benjamin was a bit uncomfortable when everyone turned to look at him.
“Allen Jønsson!”
Cheers filled the room as Allen maneuvered his wheelchair onto the stage and took the statue from a red haired woman wearing a sequined dress. The announcer held the microphone for him.
“I always wanted to win one of these awards. I just thought it would be for the 50-meter wheel.”
Laughter filled the room as Benjamin smiled.
“In all seriousness, I suppose I can admit, just to this group of friends, that I told my sister I’d run her husband over if he didn’t treat her right. But in that house, you can’t turn around without rolling over the toes of someone important. Fortunately, I can blame faulty wiring in my chair.”
As everyone laughed some more, he waved and went back to his table.
The next fifteen minutes were filled with awards for graduates, musicians, and others who had achieved something special in the last year. As one of them played her flute, he found himself wishing he could play an instrument. Maybe Thor had been right about learning something from Allen.
As they were wrapping up, one of Benjamin’s bodyguards for the evening leaned in close. “I need you to come with me, sir.”
Benjamin moved back from the table and reached for Katrín.
“She can stay, sir.”
Benjamin nodded and followed the guard out of the building. Chamberlain waited for him, his face grim.
“What is it?”
“A story has been leaked to the press. You need to come with me.”
“Katrín doesn’t need to come, too?” Surely Chamberlain wouldn’t leave her behind to face whatever it was on her own.
Chamberlain hesitated in a way that concerned Benjamin but went on before the king could say anything. “She’ll be taken care of by another team.”
A sense of foreboding swept over Benjamin.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Where was he going? Katrín didn’t know, but knew when security said to go, he had no choice. It couldn’t be too serious, not if she was being left behind. Likely just something that needed his attention.
But it left her completely alone at the table in the back.
Her mother and Allen had planned to join them, but when Allen’s childhood best friend had unexpectedly shown up with too many people in tow to fit at the table, she’d urged them to sit elsewhere. Both of them would appreciate catching up with the other family.
A few minutes after Benjamin left, Katrín slipped out of the ballroom and into the reception room. She wanted to greet everyone again as they came in. Maybe without Benjamin at her side, everyone wouldn’t be so awkward. Many of them she’d known since they started coming when Allen was little.
Her suspicion was right. Without Benjamin, everyone was a little more relaxed. The hugs lasted a little longer, the talk was a little more animated. Maybe if they came again every year, and got involved on a more regular basis, some of the celebrity shock would wear off. Maybe he’d continue even after she left. The community would welcome him with open arms as a grieving widower.
This group knew all too much about loss.
She should tell him it was one condition of upholding her end of the bargain.
Except he wanted to adjust that bargain.
He wanted her to stay.
Did he really mean it?
She didn’t delve too far into the alternatives.
After everyone entered, Katrín circulated through the group, just as she normally would have, though with far more sneaky and not-so-sneaky phone pictures taken of her, along with selfies galore.
Nearly an hour after the mingling started, her bodyguard, a man she’d never met before leaving the palace, stood at her side. “It’s time to leave, Your Majesty.”
Katrín nodded. “Let me say goodbye to my family.”
“I’m afraid not. My orders are for you to leave quickly and quietly.”
She nodded and walked with him to the door. In fifteen minutes, the car glided to a stop underneath the functional, but not rebuilt, portico.
Inside, the few people she passed averted their eyes and hurried away from her. What was going on?
When she reached the family’s private portion of the palace, the guard standing there was the same one who had been there the day she’d been detained.
“You’re to go straight to the king’s office, ma’am.”
Katrín started past him. “I’ll go down in a minute. I’d like to change first.”
He blocked her path. “My apologies, ma’am, but my instructions are for you to go straight to the king’s office.”
She crossed her arms and narrowed her gaze. “Why didn’t they tell me before I got out of the car? I would have been there by now.”
“I have no idea, ma’am, but I am not to let you pass until I have word that you’ve talked to the king.” Though his expression remained impassive, she knew he meant what he said.
“Very well.”
Spinning on her heel, she made her way to Benjamin’s office. Thor waited in front of the door, looking very security guard-ish. He didn’t smile, but just nodded politely as he opened the door, taking a spot on the inside as the door closed.
Odd.
Katrín walked into the office to find Benjamin with both arms braced on the conference table as he read something on the tablet that lay there.
“Have a seat.”
His tone took her aback. It sounded grim and authoritative, asserting his authority as the king in a way she’d never quite heard from him.
Arguing was out of the question.
She perched on the edge of one of the wingback chairs across from his desk and watched as he and Chamberlain discussed whatever it was. They were intense, but quiet, and only the occasional sentence carried.
“And there’s nothing we can do to stop them from running with it, even if we categorically deny the allegations?” Benjamin asked Chamberlain.
“We don’t even know if we can deny them, but no,” Chamberlain told him.
Benjamin’s sigh carried as he turned. His face had basically the same expression as the first guard’s and Thor’s. He sat in his desk chair, with Chamberlain standing behind him.
Katrín felt like she’d been called into the headmaster’s office.
He leaned back in his chair and stared at her, but didn’t say anything.
“What?” she finally asked. “What’s going on? What news story are you worried about, and what does it have to do with me?”
Benjamin stared for another minute before speaking. If he wanted to make her uncomfortable, to make her squirm, it was working. Finally, he said, “Your indenture.”
The one that still hadn’t actually been paid off. “What about it?”
“You took over paying your mother’s fine, correct?”
He already knew that. “Yes.”
“She was accused of attempting to steal...” He looked at a paper on his desk. “...a priceless hand mirror. She mounted no defense whatsoever. Based on my aunt’s recommendation, I approved a ten percent wage garnishment and perpetual service until the fine was paid. A few years later, I approved you taking over the payments, though I don’t recall actually doing it.”
Katrín’s fingers twisted together. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you take over the payments for your mother?”
Was he going to make her explain everything? “You know this. My brother was having more severe medical issues than normal, and my mother needed more flexibility in her job.”
He shook his head. “That’s the reason you both gave everyone, but I want the truth. I need to know.”
Katrín’s gaze shifted to Chamberlain. “Does he?”
“Yes.” The steely glint in Benjamin’s eyes told her he wouldn’t brook no arguments.
“Fine.” She looked down, staring at her hands until Benjamin cleared his throat in warning. “The reason my mother didn’t defend herself is the same reason why I took over the indenture as soon as I could and used my brother’s health as my excuse.”
Going on took too much courage, something she found herself lacking at the moment.
“Katrín.” The sharply spoken rebuke did its job.
Tears swam in her eyes. “My mother wasn’t trying to steal the mirror. She was bringing it back.” Her heart broke as she spoke. “I stole it.”
36
Benjamin didn’t let his surprise show on his face. Instead, he sat and waited for her to go on.
He could see the tears streaking down her cheeks, but she made no move to wipe them away.
“Allen needed surgery and a new bed, a specific kind of hospital type bed that would enable my mother and Nína to help him in and out of it much easier. Me too when I was a little bigger. It wasn’t cheap. It’s the same one as the one my mother sent information about to Chamberlain last week.”
Torn between anger and feeling sorry for the girl she’d been, Benjamin decided to keep waiting for the rest of the story.
“I was here with my class for a tour, and my mother took the day off to go with us. When everyone else left, I stayed with her, and she took me to the kitchen and a couple other places that weren’t on the official tour. Someone gave her permission to take me though.”
He watched as she finally swiped at her cheeks, but still said nothing.
“When she wasn’t looking, I took the mirror and put it in my backpack. I thought I could sell it and get the money we needed. When we got home, she found it. I never heard her yell like that before or after. She was furious. The next day, she planned to tell her boss what happened, but she was caught with it before she could.”
Katrín finally looked up at him, anguish in her eyes and written all over her face. “She didn’t say anything because she refused to lie to you, but she also refused to throw me under the bus. I knew her job changed after that, but I didn’t understand about paying off the fine until I was sixteen. I used Allen’s medical situation to convince her to let me take her spot. My terms were much more stringent than hers, but I don’t know why. I don’t get time off. My hours are more intense. I have a minimum of twenty-five percent withheld from my earnings. It does mean it would get paid off that much sooner than my mother would have.”
Benjamin wasn’t quite sure what he should say to her or what he was expected to do. Finally, he nodded. “Very well. Thor will see you are allowed into your quarters.”
“Will you tell me what’s going on?”
He shook his head. “If I need anything further from you, I’ll let you know.”
Thor held the door for her as she left, then sent a text. He turned to look at Benjamin, his face as unreadable as Benjamin hoped his had been.
“Permission to speak freely, sir?”
Quite a question given the moment Benjamin had seen between Thor and the former queen. He gave a single nod.
“You, sir, are a moron.”
That made Benjamin blink. He glanced up at Chamberlain who seemed to purposely be looking elsewhere, and trying to contain a smirk.
Benjamin waved a hand toward Thor. “Please, elaborate.”
“I know you and your wife didn’t start a relationship under the best circumstances, but I believed you had begun to genuinely care for her.”
Benjamin gave another single nod.
“You knew, or at least suspected, from the beginning there was a deeper reason behind taking over the payments from her mother. So when she sat here and bared her soul to you, you might have considered a different response than sending her to her room.”
“I didn’t send her to her room.”
Thor simply raised a single eyebrow at him.
Benjamin sighed. “I suppose the implication was there.”
“What exactly is the news story and when is it expected to break?”
He leaned forward and picked up a pen, more as something to fiddle with than use. “The essentials are correct. The item taken is not. The dates are not. The other reason for taking over when she did hasn’t been mentioned to my knowledge. But the gist appears to be accurate.”
“Then how do you protect your
wife?”
“Can I? Without lying to my people? They are my first responsibility,” he pointed out.
“Are they?” Thor bowed and turned to leave.
“Stop.” Benjamin waited for him to turn around. “What’s that mean?”
“Just that. In certain circumstances, your people must come before your family, even your wife. In others, you are, sir, first and foremost a husband and, someday, a father. You will have to find a way to reconcile those two things when they conflict. Remember the night this all started?”
When did all of this start? It seemed an eternity. “The Mevendian Independence celebration?”
“You confronted your uncle, rightfully so, but what else happened that night?”
Benjamin searched his memory. “Princess Margaret collapsed. I carried her to their room and called my physician.”
“Why did she collapse? It was all over the news until your wedding announcement pushed it off the front page.”
He shook his head. “I don’t remember.” A half-truth at best.
Thor crossed his arms over his chest, looking as intimidating as the actor who played the character did in the movies. “She pushed herself to the point of utter exhaustion and collapsed. I think it might have happened a bit sooner because she was pregnant, but I believe it would have happened eventually anyway. Where are they now?”
He knew this. “The family home in the States.” Near Darius and Esther, though Benjamin didn’t think his brother knew that.
“Why?”
That he knew. Even without having discussed it. “Because William decided protecting his family, specifically his wife, meant more than continuing to work here on Mevendia’s behalf.”
“Good guess. I did talk with him before they left. He practically flogged himself for not realizing what a toll their lifestyle was taking on his wife. They’re going to have to put together a plan that will allow her the rest she needs, even once he eventually becomes king. You, sir, need to find a way to take care of and protect your wife, while meeting the needs of your people. I don’t know what that looks like at the moment, but you need to figure it out.”
The Indentured Queen Page 28