To say something so bluntly and in front of everyone in the room was definitely not Ace’s brightest moment. Gwen knew that everyone was thinking it. The way they looked at her and the Queen during the entire meeting said it all. But she was sure that it would not have been something anyone would say out loud so that the current awkward situation would be avoided.
Her fingers drummed against her side and she sent a harsh glare in Ace’s direction. Just because he was mad at her for whatever reason he was, did not mean that he could just drag her down like that. It was plain foul.
“I- I do?” she feigned shock. “I guess you could say that since we’re both blond.”
The General grumbles at her words. “The resemblance is a bit striking.”
One of the higher-up soldiers who were next to the General stepped up. “Are you sure you have no relation to the Queen
“You really should go around saying that I look like Queen Meredith. That won’t be good for any of us. I have no relation to her but people can talk and having the Queen suspect something is the last thing we all need.” Gwen said to him.“Are you sure you’re not her secret child or something? Born from a love affair.” Ace said.Gwen froze for a moment and then turned to him. “What the hell?” her tone was icy. She looked around to make sure that no one was around to hear what he had just said. Gwen grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side. Pulling him down to her level she was so tempted to hit him but she didn’t.“Watch what you say. People from Paria-Drae are really suspicious people and they are serious gossips. You can start something and then bring trouble for me and my family. Do you not have any sense in the head that tells you talking like that is not a g
Dick Holden. He was the man her mother loved and was betrayed by. Gwen obviously knew that he was just using her for some sort of personal gain and that in the end he just tossed her aside when he saw that he could get something better. He was a governor in Paria-Drae and a highly regarded one at that. Gwen had read countless newspaper articles about him and there was never anything truly outstanding about what he had done. He oversaw a couple of laws here and made sure certain things were implemented. Although he was highly regarded, there was nothing he did for him to be treated so well. So it was obvious how he got in that position. Gwen guessed he knew what would come out of him using his mother.It was perfectly normal for a noble and royal to have relations with each other and no one would have frowned upon the news of their marriage. He could have simply manipulated her feelings and then ended up becoming the King of the country. Although he would n
“I am almost a spitting image of my mother but unfortunately I didn’t get the full package and had to be ruined by genes by my biological father. He was probably hideous to be quite honest. The way my mother talked about him really told me that she didn’t have standards when she was younger.” Gwen nodded as if she was in thought.The governor coughed and looked around his desk, he ruffled between a few pages before he brought his hand up through his hair and tugged it, downing the rest of his wine. Gwen had to bite her lip to hide her smile and walked up to the desk.“Is everything alright?” she asked him.Dick leaned away from her as if she had a contagious disease, his face full of shock and disbelief. “No, no, I’m fine.” his words were barely heard.“Well alright then, just let me know if you see anything suspicious.” Gwen nodded to him a
Gwen sat on her bed for a while looking at the book, she wanted to read it but she was so scared to see the thoughts of the governor. After all this time his feelings towards her mother could not have changed? Or was he just casually mentioning her as if he didn’t have anything to do with her disappearance. Could he regret what he did and wish he could change it? Maybe after he killed her was his awakening about his feelings towards her but it was too late to go back and do anything.If he had regretted doing what he did there was still nothing that he could do about it. It was not like he could rebel against the Queen and try to expose him. He would just be labeled as crazy and be put to death.Pushing the book aside, Gwen went over to the edge of her bed where she kept her bag of clothes and little things she took from Paria-Drae. One of the things was the letter her parents had sent to her when she was in the army. She had not rea
There was not even time to panic when he said her mother’s name. She felt so lost and hurt that there was not even a moment of panic. All she could do was plead with him that he did not read it. “Ace, please don’t read that. Please.” He paused, looking up from the book. They made eye contact and she gave him a pleading look, hoping to awaken whatever sympathy or humanity he had in him. He did fidget a bit under her gaze and his eyes shifted between her and the book. But ultimately he turned away from her and read the contents of the pages. There was a small part of Gwen that hoped that he would read another entry from Dick but she guessed that if it were true then it would not be any better than what she had read. If someone else knew that this was his opinion on her mother. If someone knew how her mother was taken advantage of like this, it would be like tainting her memory. She could not let the public know about this
Gwen of course hesitated, she did not want to have to do that. Especially over someone she was not sure is a light sleeper or not. Gwen would have wanted to assume that since Ace was a boy, he would be a heavy sleeper, but she did not want to for the purpose of playing it safe. He was someone who lived in the military all of his life so he could have been trained to be a light sleeper in case of emergency.Sighing at her reality, she gently placed her right knee on the edge of the bed and pushed herself up, leaning her body over Ace and going towards the book. Thankfully the bed was narrow and so that helped her get close to the book. She was able to reach it, but unfortunately, the book was under his arm.Ace let out a soft huff under her and Gwen’s heart stopped. But after a couple of seconds of being still, she let out a breath and went back to analyzing her situation. Now was as good of a time as any to try and take him out. He w
It was a tempting offer, but Ace did not take it. She made sure to show how upset she was by trying to punch him but he stopped her fist. Gwen was pissed off and beyond frustrated, she wasn't getting anywhere and it was really starting to get to her. She was desperate. Ace was kneeling in front of her, blocking any way she could to get out. Her back was against the wall and the book was mostly in his clutched with Gwen’s hand pathetically on it, attempting to pull it back. Ace just looked at her amused. “I think you should just give up. If you don’t tell me what’s going on then I won’t give you the book. So either tell me or go back to not having it. But there is no chance that you are going to get this. And as I said earlier, I was in the army for all my life, you already knew that, so you should know that I am far stronger than you.” If Gwen was not so cramped in then she would have kicked Ace where the sun didn’t shine. He could have
The next morning was a little hard for Gwen to understand. She was the one who put herself in that position, but she was too tired to think it through. And now, she was in the same bed with Ace, both of them practically wrapped around the other completely covered by the blanket and somehow sharing the same pillow. It was a mystery how they ended up like that. She had fallen asleep next to him and now her legs were tangled with his and her head was resting in the crook of his neck. It was comfortable. It was warm. When Gwen woke up, she was shocked at first, but because she was still tired and because she was in such a nice position, she found that she was not in a rush to get out. Ace was sound asleep beside her and Gwen was sure that he would fling her off the bed when he woke up to them being like that. The sun was now coming up and as Gwen lifted her head to look outside the window a gush of cold wind blew in the room and she automati
Time passes and she has not seen many of her friends in a while. She had not even seen Ace and realized how much she missed him. And so, Gwen works overtime and takes a day off so that she can go to Estril. She goes in secret and goes to Fort Brimburg. Because Para-Drae was not a threat anymore, many of the soldiers came back and many joined the army. She was sure that they got an earful from the General for that. Gwen still had her training clothes and so she integrates herself into the base as if she were always there but of course she is a Queen and is made out pretty quickly.She is called out from the morning line up and the General questions why she is there. He also seemed to not care that she was a Queen and treated her the same. Since Ace was usually at the front of the group she could see that he was happy to see her.Gwen tells him that she is there to train and she and the General go back and forth but eventually he lets her stay. Everyone does not really know how to treat
At one point, Ace visits her and Gwen had not forgotten about their last encounter but she tries to ignore it and move on but Ace does not feel that way. She can tell that he acting differently around her and Gwen is not sure how to act. She gives him a tour of the castle but they get lost because Gwen is still not completely familiar with it. Ace takes the chance and tells her how he feels again. This time, he kisses her and she lets him. Gwen knows she feels something too but does not say anything back to him. He says that he is more than happy to wait for her response.The day of the coronation comes and Gwen is definitely not ready for it. This is the biggest thing that is going to happen in her life and she is not sure if she is ready. Her parents are there for her the entire time and help until the ceremony. Gwen invited the leaders of Estril, Naudis, Martaes, and Schneir. She invited all of the people she knew from Naudis, Estril, and Paria-Drae. Gwen had to say that it was the
It had been a couple of months since everything unfolded. Meredith had been in prison ever since and had no chance of getting out in her lifetime. Her mother had made a public appearance a while ago and gave a heartfelt speech about the past twenty years and how it was so drastic from everything she knew but grew to appreciate simpler things because of it. And because of that, Gwen realized that it was her mother's way of telling the people that she was not going to be the Queen. And if that was the case, then it all fell on Gwen.Even though she threatened the Queen and told her that she would take the throne and because people want her to, did not mean that Gwen actually wanted it. She expected her mother to be the Queen the people all loved and wanted. But her mother was getting older and just wanted to live a simple life with the man she loved. She did not want to suddenly be thrust into a life she gave up on for so many years and it would also be unfair to her stepfather.And so,
Gwen is going to make it look like she was the person who kidnapped the Queen and that no one else was involved. If there are other people involved then she would not confess. So she is taken to a run-down building in the middle of nowhere and officers and soldiers are hiding all over the place. Once she wakes up, she and her mother confront the Queen, Gwen acts like she is going to kill her just to make it believable. She gives her mother some time to talk to her and the Queen acts hateful and tells her that she should be dead and that even if they kill her, no one is going to believe them and that the people will not accept her.Elizabeth asks Meredith if she also killed her parents so that she could get the Queen. They should have lived another ten years before the throne could go to her. The Queen does not say anything about that but says that they died because it was their time and it helped her out. Gwen intervenes and says that she had enough time to talk and that she should tr
When it came to important matters that had anything to do with the royal family or money, the royal family would address it themselves. If it was anything else they would have people do it for them. And seeing as it is as big as getting arrested, she would definitely make a public appearance. And Gwen would use that.With Mr. Rickeys in Naudis, it was just her and Ace. They were their own support and even had weapons from the base as extra protection.“What exactly are you planning to do? Storm the castle and catch the Queen by surprise and blow off her head? Ace asked her one day when they were just waiting around for something. Anything to happen. “The number of times I have imagined doing that would surprise you. But no, I don’t think that would work. To be honest, I’m not sure what will, but I’m using this time to think up a plan.”“You should not have gone to the Queen in the first place.”Gwen gave him a pointed look. “You think I don’t know that. It was dumb and deep down I kn
There was nothing more nerve-wracking than standing at the side of the road, waiting to see any sigs of her parents. They could have walked past them, or they could have gotten caught. But the General took them to the closest place that he expected Ace to exit from. But once she saw them coming out of the forest a little way down the road from them, her heart finally started to beat again. And without a moment’s delay, they were taken to the military base. “Since we know that the Queen is a potential threat to the lives of your parents. I will have half of the men from the castle come here to protect them. Fort Brimberg does not have as many people as it used to and so we’ll need to stretch our resources thin for now.” the General told her. “Thank you,” Gwen looked back at her parents who were talking with the Captain. Ace was s
Once Gwen was in Estril, she went straight to the castle. She was sure that since she was gone for so long, it was definitely making people worry. And since the Captain knew that it was only Gwen that was going, he would wonder if Ace went with her. Since it was a huge possibility that he was with her, she hoped that they knew that he was fine.Quickly, she greeted the guards at the front of the castle and when they let her through, she basically flew towards the castle. She received a lot of weird looks but that was the least of her concerns. She needed to find the Captain, the General, anyone.Almost crashing into some soldiers as she raced around a corner she held one of them demanding to know where the Captain was.“The last I saw he was by the throne r
If the Queen found out information about Gwen then they would think that she lived in Naudis, which meant that Mr. Rickeys’ children were in danger, so she would have to go warn him first to get to them.After she ran off, Puckett followed her without asking any questions or making any comments. In a serious situation, Puckett was not useless and could be helpful when it counted so she didn’t disagree with him following her. This was bigger than both of their problems so Gwen pushed any anger for him out of the way, focusing on what was really important.They got to Paria-Drae in record time and even faster than how they were the day before. Gwen was not sure how fast the Queen could move but she definitely did not escape the castle to walk on foot anywhere. Which meant that she had a headstart.Once they were back in Paria-Drae, Gwen sent Ace to go check on her parents while she went to find Mr. Ric
Gwen was then forced to explain everything that happened in detail to her parents. She'd never felt so small in her life. The look the both of them were giving her while she told the story made her regret telling them. She should have just told Mr. Rickeys, made him keep an eye on them, and then ran back to Estril where she would have been safe.And what made the experience even worse was that Ace was right behind her. He was just standing in the corner looking out of place as he watched Gwen get scolded by her parents. He had even tried to speak up for her but she shut that down quickly."I told you not to speak. Shut it or go back outside." she turned swiftly, snapping at him.Puckett closed his mouth and looked away."Wait, what exactly is your relationship with this young man?" her father asked."He's a parasite," Gwen said dismissively. "Now, if we're