**3rd Person POV**
“The best thing for the kingdom is that we appoint a new King; an interim leader. King Napoleon's recovery is not…”
“There will be no such thing; not today and not ever. You do not crown kings when a king is alive,” Lady Tristan's voice was clear and firm for all to hear. She walked through the ministers with her usual air of dignity and aristocracy. When she was standing in front of them; she surveyed their faces and dared anyone to bring up her insanity. Of course, there were always morons in the field because someone said, “We cannot take orders from you, Lady Marilyn… you… you cannot play…”
“Behead him,” Lady Tristan's voice was sharp and the order was direct. In no time guards were taking the body out of the throne room. There was now a hushed silence throughout the hall.
“I am Lady Tristan. Marilyn is my birth name but you will address me as Tristan or you may not even do that because I am your Queen Dowager and the rightful way to address me will be Her Imperial Highness,” returned Lady Tristan with a booming voice. Harriet smiled from where she watched her grandmother from a distance. Grandmother had so much energy within her that she was certain it had sucked to be locked up for such a long time under the guise of false insanity.
“Your Imperial Highness, if I may?” someone mustered up the courage to say.
“You may, Lord Gordon,” replied Lady Tristan with a smile. It had been a long time indeed since she had attended court sessions but she could still recognise a handful of persons.
“You remember… I mean… King Napoleon, he made some very wild… wild…” the old man seemed frightened of Lady Tristan.
“Lord Gordon, you may speak. I don't bite,” said Lady Tristan with a smile. Lord Gordon looked with horror at the empty spot that once stood Lord Timothy and found that very hard to believe. Actually, she was right; she did not bite but she could behead people.
“Yes, your, your… Imperial Highness… I will keep my peace,” the poor man was trembling all over.
“Lord Gordon, if you do not say what is on your mind this instant then I will ask the guards to behead you,” Lady Tristan's eyes were very red and looked very serious. Lord Gordon did not doubt even for one moment what she had said.
“Your… King Napoleon, Please don't kill me, Your Imperial Highness, Please spare my life,” the man was already on his knees. Lady Tristan shook her head at his weak state. How had Gordon survived all these years in court without toughening up? Perhaps, that was why Napoleon had kept him alive. He needed puppets as ministers who would not question any decision he took. Lady Tristan felt sorry for them all; they were all a bunch of idiots.
“The matter is very simple, noble ministers. Until my granddaughter is here, Princess Emily, I will be taking over my son's role as ruler of this court, any objections?”
Even if anyone had an objection they kept it to themselves.
“In the absence of… Emily! What a pleasant surprise!” In all sincerity, all the ministers gathered thought that Lady Tristan was having one of her mad spells so they remained rigid and pretended not to notice that her sanity was eluding her.
They were not prepared however to hear the voice of their Princess who replied her grandmother with, “Grandmother! I am pleased to see you look well.”
They all turned with one motion as though some greater force were controlling back and their face instantly collapsed in relief when they saw her standing among them.
For them, the cold princess was better than the mad queen.
They watched as Emily made it to the front to give her grandmother a warm hug.
“I missed you so much, grandmother,” returned Emily as she kissed Lady Tristan's cheeks.
“I missed you too, sweetheart,” returned Lady Tristan in tears. She knew Emily was always travelling and visiting challenging places but she had been particularly worried about her this time. It felt so good to embrace her granddaughter after all this time and with so much that had changed.
“It feels like I am an outsider,” Harriet's voice broke the hug.
Emily detached herself from her grandmother to look at her younger sister. It was true that they were always at each other’s throats but Emily had missed her sister so much.
“Oh! Harriet! Harriet! I've missed you greatly,” said Emily as she gathered her sister into her arms.
“I missed you too… you were home for such a long time and…” Harriet began to sniffle which annoyed Lady Tristan a lot.
“You're not a baby Princess Harriet. Get it together,” chastised Lady Tristan.
“But grandmother, you have tears in your…” Emily said and her grandmother eyed her.
“Not tears… something got in my eye,” Lady Tristan blinked back whatever tears had clouded her vision.
“Princess Emily! You are back,” everybody turned to see King Napoleon walking towards the throne. The man was a shadow of himself; he looked deathly pale and had lost a lot of blood.
If the throne room had been quiet before; it was now dead quiet. Everybody watched as King Napoleon struggled to get himself close to the throne. He was out of breath and very weak but still he trudged on desperate to sit on the throne before his death.
When he got within breathing distance of Emily, he looked at her with a creeping smile and asked, “You know now why you do not deserve that?”
A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the star-shaped birthmark she had seen on Sandra. She blinked back tears and looked at her father with a straight face. Nobody was going to define her; she was not going to allow that to happen.
Everybody watched as Napoleon tried but failed.