Chapter 92: Your Heart Is Mine
SOPHIA
Lady’s maids fluttering around me like pink butterflies as I got dressed in my marriage outfit. The red and gold robe and the veil would be the finishing touches once everything else was done.
Celeste sat in a chair next to the makeup dresser where I sat as still as possible while the maids worked on my hair and makeup. She sipped tea and ate flower cakes while watching the activity around me.
The maids belonged to Celeste and I noticed that they were not typical of other maids I had seen in the Capital. Neither was Celeste. The maid’s pink dresses were simpler, more comfortable versions of the purple dress Nathan had procured for me in the Western Realm. The maids also wore braids with gold embellishments. In the center of their foreheads were tiny purple flowers.
"You’re not from the Northern Realm, are you?" I asked Celeste.
She shook her head. "A couple of decades ago I was a tribute bride from the Western Realm. My father’s not in power anymore. He was ousted by my eldest brother, who banished the practice of sending tribute women to other countries. I was the last. And I think I was the reason he decided to banish the tradition."
"You married the Emperor twenty years ago?"
"Twenty-five to be precise. I was eighteen when Father sent me to the new Emperor of the Northern Realm. He was happily married to his first wife. They already had two sons together. He wouldn’t even look at the other women in the harem. But people kept sending him females. So he would take them in, send them to the inner palace and let them live pampered lives."
"He never saw them?"
"No. As far as I know, he’s never stepped foot in the Phoenix Palace. There are many palaces throughout this royal city. The emperor’s is the largest, and the second largest is the Phoenix Palace."
"Are there really three-thousand-beauties?"
Celeste laughed. "No. A couple hundred maybe. Every year, the Emperor sends Ye in to connect with those women who want to leave. He arranges for them to wed rich husbands in other regions. The only caveat is that If they marry out, they can never return to the Eighth Region."
"What about spies?" I asked. I turned my hand, and one of the maids gently turned it back so that I was looking at the mirror again.
"Of course, there are spies. Spies. Peace beauties. Tribute women. The daughters and sisters of Court officials and generals vying for power." Celeste sighed. "It’s a headache for the Emperor."
"What about the other two wives?"
"Ah. Yes. One he married as hostage so that the Governor from Region Six would behave. The other got the title of wife because she was the daughter of a military general who pledged his army to the emperor. I don’t think he’s seen either one of them since the weddings."
"What about you? How did you get noticed?"
Celeste smiled. "When I arrived at the palace, I was terrified. I was barely eighteen, a spoiled daughter and sister, and suddenly, I was in a place with people who wore strange clothes and ate strange food. The customs were different, the way people interacted was different. I cried every night. I wanted to go home."
I heard the clink of ceramic as she set down her tea cup. "The Empress found me at the edge of Golden Lake. I’d filled my dress with rocks. My bare feet were already sinking into the mud as I gathered my courage to take the first step."
"The Golden Lake?"
"Yes. The same one you saw when we ate dinner. The emperor’s palace is on one side, and the Phoenix Palace is on the other. I was so miserable. I knew I would never see home again, never see my family again, and I wanted to end it all. It was better than living a lonely life in a palace where the other females spent all day scheming against each other."
"It sounds exhausting."
"Enough to make a young girl want to die," she said softly. "But then Empress Leona found me and took me under her wing. I helped raise the crown prince and his younger brother. They were three and five at the time. And I was great friends with your mother, Bellifer."
I glanced at Celeste, whose soft gaze was on me. "You look like her, you know."
"I wish I’d known her."
"She was a couple years younger than I was. The Emperor adored her to bits and spoiled her like crazy. Even so, she was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known. Big-hearted, but also with a big temper. She wasn’t afraid to fight for what she wanted. And she was always a champion for the underdog."
She said nothing for a moment, no doubt because she was getting lost in past memories. Finally, she said, "I felt like part of the family. I was included in every event, whether it was in inner chambers or the outer world. It seemed like an entire decade just flew by. The princes became teenagers. Bellifer married. And ... well, Leona got sick. I tended to her right through her last days. I adored her so much."
"I’m sorry," I said. "She sounds like a wonderful person."
"She was. The last week she was alive, she asked Benton to make me a Noble Consort. He had refused to give titles to the other women in the harem, even the two wives he’d been forced to take. But she knew he would need a companion, someone he could trust, even if it his heart would always belong to Leona. Some love is like that, you know." She laughed. "You do know. The love Benton had for Leona, the love Bellifer had for Theodore ... I see that strength, that connection in your love with Duke Stonehart. How lucky you all are."
"I think so, too. Forgive my bold question ... but are you just my uncle’s companion? Or are you two... um, you know."