Daniel Farraque sat on his horse above me, windswept with bright cheeks, looking nicely like a hero from one of my novels. "I was in Rumsbrooke."
"On whose orders?"
"Your Highness, I apologize if I was absent when you needed me," Daniel murmured with a bow of his head before sliding out of his saddle.
I scoffed and shook my head. "I haven't needed you, and you can stop saying it like that," I said, stepping out of the way before Daniel got it in his head to lunge for me again. "Although if you're in the mood to be needed, my sister, Her Highness, has claimed three of the guards already. I'm not certain if she plans on keeping them, but I'm sure she'd be happy to add you to their number."
I watched with a wrathful kind of glee as Daniel's stare shifted nervously away from mine. It'd been a week since Grandmother and Camellia had stood on the palace steps and greeted me, and while I was growing comfortable with Grandmother's company—especially since she'd started to assist me and Wendell in our slough through the legislations we wanted to remedy—Camellia had made it her mission on the visit to be cumbersome.
When she wasn't seducing the single male staff, she was making erratic and elaborate requests of the kitchen. Two days ago she'd demanded a picnic which very quickly became an orgy, and she'd nearly dragged a married man into the mess of limbs by sheer demand of her magic.
I crossed my arms and stared at Daniel. "I knew it. You are hiding from her. I assume it's because she's not your assigned princess?"
"She nearly killed an old schoolmate of mine," Daniel said, eyes flashing.
We weren't alone in the stable. I'd come out so that Owen might get to enjoy a little time outdoors again, and he glanced up from where he was crouched by the door, visiting with a few foxes who'd shown up not long before Daniel.
"One of her first Chosen. He was a favorite of hers, so much so that she fucked him nearly to death. Wouldn't let him eat unless it was from her cunt," Daniel snapped, and then his eyes widened and his face paled, body bowing and staying bent. "Forgive me, Your Highness."
I looked to Owen, hands clenching in my skirt, a painful mix of remembering Camellia's hands on him, and my own accidental overuse of the Hunger until his back was red and sore from the sun.
"I see. Oh, just stand, Farraque," I huffed.
He swallowed hard and kept his eyes down as he stood. He was an imposing figure, but he was very careful with himself usually, often vanishing into the background when he wasn't trying to intentionally catch my attention.
"Where is he now?" I asked.
"At home near Highbury. When he grew too ill to perform, she dismissed him. He won't so much as look a woman in the eye now," Daniel added reluctantly.
I released a slow, silent breath while Daniel's eyes were down. "Remain near Cresswell, Thao, or Wendell, and either she'll leave you alone or they will intervene. We've had our own…conflicts with Camellia's appetites while you were away," I said. "But the council are coming today—"
"It's why I returned. And I apologize for neglecting my duties this week."
"Yes, all right, fine." I turned my back to him and moved to Owen, kneeling down and smiling as he nudged the foxes in my direction. They didn't clamor for my attention the way they did with him, but one let me scratch at its chin tolerantly for a few minutes.
"What is the council coming for?" Daniel was still hovering out of the corner of my eye.
"To discuss the allocation of the upcoming quarter's taxes," I said. "And to discuss the land management of potential orchards."
"Do they know about the orchards?"
"Not yet."
"Don't tell them. Their only jurisdiction lies in what the queen's line brings to them to manage."
I looked up just in time to see him turn on his heel and leave the stables in a rush. "I can never tell if he's being helpful or trying to curry favor," I said, landing heavily on the ground and scaring one of the foxes back into Owen's lap, where it stretched up, digging at Owen's pocket which was stuffed full of sugar cubes and grapes.
"Might be both," Owen said. "I believe the story about his friend though."
"So do I. Camellia did send a Chosen home who grew sick. I didn't realize why at the time," I said.
Owen pulled his treats from his pocket, handing them to me before rising and dusting himself off. "I'm going to go check his horse since he was in such a rush to leave. Oh don't beg," he said to one of the barking foxes. "She's sweeter than I am, and I know for a fact that she gives good scritches."
I grinned at Owen's wink in my direction as the foxes heaped back onto my lap, little paws begging at my cupped hands. He'd recovered quickly from the moment with Camellia, at least as far as he was willing to share with me. He and Cosmo had stayed close to me for the week until today when Cosmo had begged to take Cresswell and the others so he could go and continue his work on a sculpture I wasn't allowed to see yet.
"Are you nervous?" Owen called to me as I tried to dole treats out fairly and not too quickly, stealing pets when I could.
"Not nervous exactly, but curious. I think Grandmother is on my side, but she will be more diplomatic and willing to negotiate with them than I am."
"Will you follow her lead?"
"I…I think I must? She could still be queen if she hadn't been willing to step aside for my mother. She still rules in many ways. I will not be the highest authority in the room, even if she says she will let me direct the discussion."
"He takes good care of you, I can say that much for him," Owen said to Daniel's horse, and I smiled and leaned against the wall behind me, watching him tend the horse, who answered back in that way animals seemed to do around Owen. "Ah, if you say so. I still think he's a snake."
Owen laughed and jumped out of the way of the horse's stomping foot. "All right, all right. I'll trust your judgment then."
"Farraque has a fan in his horse?"
"Very loyal," Owen said, patting the beast's flank. "And not partial to snakes, I think."
"Speaking of, I should probably go get dressed for this meeting full of them," I said with a sigh, tossing the remaining sugar cubes in the air and watching the foxes scurry to catch them before dashing off into the nearby meadow.
"To be frank, princess, you seem to be misunderstanding the basics of covering the essential needs," Lord Roderick mused, running a finger down the line of our proposed tax allocation.
"I think we just have a different understanding of essential," I answered, staring down at their own offered list of demands. "Why should the people's money go to Sir Edge's estate upkeep?"
"Sir Edge employs over one-third of the farmers in the northern districts, Your Highness," Sir Speares said with a chuckling scoff shared with Lord Roderick.
"Then I assume his profits for the harvest will be rich and he'll be able to afford the repairs himself."
Jonathon Roderick cleared his throat, sitting up higher in his seat and smirking at me. "Princess, you're misinterpreting the…nature of the council's role and our position over the people."