Chapter 30: The Queen of Briaran [2]
The air inside Aldan’s modest dwelling felt thick with quite tension. What had once been a simple village home—with its rough-hewn wooden beams, stone hearth blackened by countless fires, and floors worn smooth by years of humble living—now hosted the most powerful woman in the kingdom. Queen Emma of Briaran sat with an elegance that seemed to transform the very space around her, her presence lending an unexpected grandeur to the humble surroundings.
Beside her, Princess Judith appeared smaller somehow, though no less regal in her own right.
For a village that had never seen nobility beyond the occasional traveling merchant’s tale, this was beyond comprehension. Even Aldan, despite his former status as a Baron, seemed momentarily overwhelmed by the magnitude of royalty gracing his threshold. The wooden chair—his best, though hardly fit for a queen—creaked softly as Queen Emma shifted, yet she bore herself with such dignity that it might as well have been a throne.
"You stand in the presence of Her Majesty, Queen Emma of Briaran," announced Olivia, the Queen’s personal guard.
Anyone with proper education—anyone who had grown up in noble circles or even among the merchant class—would have heard about the Queen of Briaran from the nearby Kingdom. But I was not anyone with proper education.
I had heard whispers of Queen Emma in marketplace gossip. Beautiful, they said. Intelligent. Ruthless when necessary. But these were distant concepts, tales of someone who existed in a world far removed from my own reality.
Now, studying her face, I could see why men spoke of her beauty even in hushed political discussions. Her features were refined without being delicate, her chestnut hair swept back to reveal intelligent green eyes that seemed to miss nothing. There was something in her bearing—a natural authority that had nothing to do with crown or ceremony—that made it impossible to imagine her as anything other than a queen.
Besides once again she was totally my type of woman.
"It is an honor, Your Majesty," Aldan said, his voice taking on a formal cadence I had never heard from him before. He dropped to one knee with fluid grace, placing his right hand over his heart in the traditional gesture of fealty.
A long silence stretched through the room like a held breath. I became aware of eyes upon me—not just curious glances, but expectant stares. When I finally looked up, I realized the entire room was waiting for something.
I blinked, genuinely confused. "I already told my name," I said, the words coming out more defensive than I intended.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees. Olivia and Oliver, the royal siblings who served as guards, fixed me with identical glares that could have frozen water. Their expressions were mirrors of indignation, as if I had committed some unforgivable breach of etiquette.