3rd Person POV
What he really wanted to ask was if Lady Lowell was now a single woman again. If she was then he was still very interested. He had not forgotten about her all this time.
“She is too old for you, set your sights elsewhere,” scoffed Alison.
“I only asked about Lowell,” replied Reginald. They all laughed and continued their meal.
****
Lord Lowell Senior was still fighting to have his son released. He had been petitioning the other ministers and the crown to help him but Alison had refused to budge.
“Lord Lowell, you ought to be in jail, you know that right?” quipped Alison. She was tired of attending to the same case over and over again.
“Your Majesty, I assure you I had nothing to do with my son's shenanigans but you must treat us with pity; he's my only heir, if you have him executed what will become of me?” asked Lord Lowell. Since the return of his son as a criminal, he had become humble which was not a trait the Lowell's possessed.
More so, everyone present knew that his son had done everything he did on his father's orders. However, there was no way to trace it to the older Lowell.
“He should have thought about that before selling us out to Ashton's minion,” came Alison's angry response.
“Your Majesty…”
“I've heard enough from you this morning,” said Alison dismissively.
“What next?”
“I would like to submit a petition for the execution of Lord Lowell,” it was Lord Augustine who spoke. He was Lady Lowell's father and he wanted more than anything for the bastard who had soiled his name to get executed so that his daughter would be free from him. He did not think that divorcing the bastard was going to be enough.
“That's too harsh, Lord Augustine, we are family,” protested Lord Lowell.
“Family? Family will never do this to me,” spat Lord Augustine.
“Families should stand by one another in difficult times,” said Lord Lowell.
“You fool, do you remember when I asked you to lend me some money? You refused me. We are not family. Allowing my daughter to marry your son is the worst decision I have made in my life,” spat Lord Augustine.
Alison had a headache. Since Lowell had been brought here to serve his punishment this was how court proceedings had been. She was sick of it and she wanted more than anything to put a stop to it but unfortunately, she could not give the final judgement on Lord Lowell. She had to wait for the Council of Elders to pass the final judgment on Lowell because he had not committed a crime to the pack alone but the entirety of werewolves.
“I hereby dismiss Lord Lowell from court until such a time he can be disposed to being objective in his disposition,” said Alison. The sight of the man alone was too much to bear for her. She had learnt much later that Irene's illness had started because she had consumed one of the poisoned things Lord Lowell had brought into the land through his black market sales.
“That is simply unfair, Your Majesty! If you do that then you must…”
Alison did not wait for him to finish his sentence before replying with, “Are you commanding the crown? Is that what you are trying to do?”
“Your Majesty…”
“Take him out of my court,” Alison bellowed to her guards and despite Lord Lowell's protest, he was dragged out of the hall. The other lords became quiet, they dared not say anything after that. Even Lord Augustine was not sure if it was alright to continue with his petition.
“What is next on our agenda?” demanded Alison.
“The installation of the Alpha. We hear that Prince Harlin has returned home in good health, we should proceed with his installation to the throne,” one of the ministers said. It had been pushed back for several months because Harlin had not been at home.
“The Prince will join us in the next meeting and we shall decide then when his coronation shall be,” said Alison.
“There are zombie sightings in the pack. The people are becoming restless,” said one of the ministers.
The zombies were another thing that gave her a headache. Although most of them had been killed, some had survived. The ones that were not with the ultimate zombie were causing a nuisance to the rest of the world. It was getting increasingly hard to keep the epidemic from spreading.
“To that effect, I hereby declare a lockdown during which time soldiers will comb the streets killing whatever zombies might have entered our pack,” it was the only thing Alison could think of.
“If there is nothing else, let's call it a day,” said Alison. She was already tired and the day was not even halfway over.
****
“The plan is very simple, we will leave before dawn and be back before dinner,” said Reginald in a conspiratory tone.
“Aunt Ali will be worried and I'm supposed to be present at court tomorrow,” replied Harlin. To him, the plan was not foolproof.
“We'll tell her we're having a picnic on the Mounts. It's been a while since we've done that, I think she'll believe us,” said Charlotte who was always quick to find a solution.
“You think so?” quipped Harlin. He wasn't quite sure Aunt Alison would buy that.
“We won't know unless we ask,” said Reginald.
“How about weapons? That Zombie broke Charlie's sword. How do we defeat it?” asked Harlin.
“I purchased a knife from the underworld; it can cut through anything. Once, we can cut off the head of the ultimate zombie, the rest would be easy,” replied Charlotte.
“Then I'm in,” said Harlin since there seemed to be no problems.
“Charlie! We can't do this yet!” cried out Reginald.
“Why?” both Charlotte and Harlin asked at the same time.
“Harlin is still in recovery. He's not fit to fight just yet.”