3rd Person POV
Slowly, Irvette felt herself loosen and she could speak again. She told the boy thank you in acknowledgement of his greeting and said, “We have not been introduced.”
“Forgive my manners. Queen Irvette, meet Prince Reginald,” said Emily. She was watching Irvette's face closely. It was clear to her that Irvette was terrified. She looked as though she wanted to bolt that very minute. Emily was thoroughly enjoying herself, Irvette had gotten what she deserved. If it was up to her she would lock up the queen in this very instance but she had to exercise patience. She did not want to alert George that she knew of Irvette's involvement.
****
Irvette held her breath on the ride home waiting for George to appear beside her like he said he would. She was prepared to die today. She had left a will saying that Alison would become queen when she passed away and the throne should be passed to her son when he was of age.
She had made up her mind to die because she was going to tell George lies.
Just like she had expected, he appeared beside her.
“I believe I have no need for my gun today, huh?” he inquired with a smile. Irvette wished she could wipe off the smile on his face with a slap.
“Queen Emily does not have the twins,” said Irvette in a tight voice. Whatever was going to happen would happen. She could not continue living this way. She could no longer bear the guilt of murdering her mother. It did not help that she was nursing her son and could not succumb to the temporary relief of alcohol.
“I must find Nydia then; they must be in the underworld,” Irvette was slightly surprised to hear George say this. Usually when he asked questions like this it was because he knew half the answer but this time he really knew nothing.
“Of course,” returned Irvette.
“What is taking you so long to stop the demolition of the towns?” asked George.
“The Elders are in my way,” Irvette swallowed. He had not killed her; for some reason, she was still alive.
“The old bastards. I will deal with them myself,” and with that, he was gone.
Irvette sighed in relief. Her father had not killed her and Emily had not ended her life either.
****
“Irvette, you need to see this,” squealed Alison as Irvette stepped out of her carriage. She admires Alison's strength and enthusiasm but she was not in the mood to see anything. She just wanted to sleep and hoped that there would be no nightmares waiting for her when she did.
“Can it wait? I have had a long trip,” replied Irvette. It was true too; she had been on the road for two full days. Even with the finest horses, it took a while to make the journey from Emily’s clan to her pack.
“What if I told you George was not our father? Do you still want it to wait?” questioned Alison. Irvette was bone tired but the possibility that she might not be related to such a sick fellow filled her with strength.
“Why do you think so?” she asked her sister.
“We were so small and he drugged our minds. We did not realise that we were Reuben's children. Reuben was our father,” when Alison said that, a faint memory flashed before Irvette's eyes. It was of a handsome young man lifting her above her head; in the memory, she was laughing hard and beating the man's head while saying, “Daddy, daddy! Put me down.”
“Irvette, are you okay?” asked Alison.
“Yes, yes… I just… I've got a headache,” everything around Irvette turned blurry and suddenly she was having flashes of memories that she had never thought existed. In one of them, her mother was wearing a beautiful long dress and asking her, “Doesn't Mama look beautiful? huh?”
“Irvette?” it was Alison's voice that brought her back to the present but even then she was barely herself.
“I'm… I think I'm going to be sick,” Irvette said and in a second she was bent over throwing up everything she had eaten in the past two days.
Alison held her so she would not fall. They were soon surrounded by servants who helped her to her room and then a physician came to examine her and ruled that she needed to rest.
When it was only she and Alison left in the room, Irvette asked, “How did you find out? Do you have any evidence?”
There were tears when she asked this question because the last living memory of her father was playing before her eyes now. It was of Reuben and George. They were arguing in the library and had forgotten about her in the corner. She saw George pull out a knife from his pocket and slit Reuben's throat. In the memory, she watched as her father's bulky frame collapsed to the ground and the blood pooled around him. She saw that his eyes remained open even long after his death and when she looked up at her father's killer, she saw George smiling down at her. He had said, “Tomorrow, when you wake up I will be your new daddy. It would be like none of this ever happened but I promise you that one day, you'll kill someone close to you, I'll make sure of that.”
The memory cleared and Irvette stood up from her bed and reached for a bucket where she began to throw up all over again.
Alison pulled her hair back and when Irvette was done, she helped her sister wash her face and placed her back in bed.
“I will call a physician; I think you need more than rest,” said Alison. She was getting scared as her sister looked sicker.
“No, no, don't. I need to sleep,” replied Irvette.
“I will get something to help you sleep,” came Alison's response.
“Will it end my life too?”