The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

In her bid to be alone so as not to be disturbed by her brother or Damon, the queen hid in the royal library.

Her brother's wife had brought the so-called calming tea to her earlier, as he had said she would, and she didn't need anyone to tell her what it was. She would be foolish to drink a calming tea that would knock her out when so many things were going around the palace that needed her attention. She couldn't trust Damon or any of them to handle it, so she needed to be alert.

She had received the tea and asked her brother's wife to leave, but she remained there, wanting to watch her drink it.

"I need to take the cup when you are done, my queen," her brother's wife had said.

"I will send one of the maids to bring it to you. You can leave." The queen spoke, but when her brother's wife kept standing there, she lost her patience.

"Did you poison my tea?" Why are you bent on staying here until I drink it?" The queen snapped at her, startling her.

"No, my queen. My lord husband said I should ensure you drink the tea before coming back," she explained calmly.

"Did he put something in it? Maybe you should drink it. I'm sure you are as tensed as I am since your children are in the village with Harold and the witch," the queen said, and she shook her head.

"I'm fine, my queen. I've had some calming tea myself," she said politely.

"If you are not going to drink the tea, then leave," the queen ordered, and with a sigh of resignation, her brother's wife left.

Once she left, the queen asked her maid to pour the tea away into her chamber pot and sent her to ask the royal physician to meet her in the library. She made sure to ask her not to let anyone else know where she was before heading for the royal library.

Knowing her brother, he would want to see her and ensure she drank the tea, and she wasn't in the mood to deal with him right now.

Alone in the library now, she sighed as she thought of her dear husband, who was lying pale in his bed while she waited for the royal physician to confirm their speculation concerning the king's health.

She knew a lot of people assumed she had a hand in his ill health, but that wasn't true. There were over a hundred reasons why she wanted the king to be healthy, especially now.

He was the only one who could put an end to the craziness in the palace. Aside from that, Ivan's position wasn't secured yet, and he hadn't given his blessing for the royal weddings, which were supposed to take place to strengthen her allies. So why would she want to get rid of him? Even though he hadn't been the best husband to her, he was dear to her, and she loved him.

But seeing as how things were now, she was just going to handle everything herself, whether or not the nobles agreed. She almost cursed herself for being useless all these years. She would have spent the whole time building an army instead of just being inactive.

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply. She was exhausted yet couldn't even dare close her eyes to sleep.

She had so many thoughts running through her head at the same time, and what she wanted most at the moment was for Damian to return with Harold's witch so she could be killed.

She knew it was going to be very hard for Damian and his men to seize Harold's wife unless Harold let them.

She was counting on the fact that Harold had no idea who his wife truly was and would let them take her. Also, Tyra's life was at stake, and he was a good brother to her.

Either that or there was going to be a bloodbath, and she hoped the witch would be killed one way or another. It would be better for her if Harold also died in the process.

She sighed when her thoughts went to Ivan, who had left the palace against her will. Ivan had become too attached to Luciana, and she found it very irritating and annoying that he had chosen to go against her just to get his disobedient wife. She was going to teach Luciana a lesson for thwarting her orders and leaving the palace when she was supposed to be repenting for her sins. She was going to teach Ivan a lesson by teaching Luciana a lesson.

She turned to the door when it opened, and she waited in her corner until the royal physician came into view.

"My queen," the chief physician called as he bowed to her.

He was exhausted from all the running around the whole day. He had to check on Princess Tyra to make sure she was fine after Sir Damon took her out of the dungeon, and then he had to check on Benedicta and the aristocrat whom Ivan had hurt.

If they were not important people in the kingdom, his assistants would have attended to him, but because of their positions, he had to be in charge of everything himself, and now he had just returned from checking on the king once again since the guards Harold had stationed at the king's chamber wouldn't let the queen or anyone else go near him.

He was still scared that Prince Harold might have his head when he returns and finds out that he had gone against his order and treated the aristocrat and Benedicta when they had been instructed not to attend to anyone else but the King and Tyra.

He had no choice but to treat them since Damon and some other aristocrats had threatened to kill him before Prince Harold's return if he didn't treat the aristocrat and Benedicta.