Paper Rings Part IX

September 2995

The royal court was more terrifying to Marie than the King or Queen had ever been. They didn’t sit on thrones, but their titles gave them influence. Meeting them for the first time sounded like nothing short of a nightmare. 

The true nature of the event hid behind the mask of a simple social gathering, a lunch to celebrate the start of autumn, but she knew it was much more than that. Caleb had told her what to expect, and though he had never said it directly, she knew he had wanted her to understand that there would be critical eyes on her every move. 

Her heart was heavy with anticipation, her skin tingling and her hands shaking as she was tied into her dress. The first meeting was the most important of them all, her chance to make a good impression.

Although she had worn dresses before, it was only on rare occasions, and they were never this heavy. They were never loaded with beads or lace, and they never had skirts with multiple layers, long but still loose enough on her hips to make her feel exposed. The feeling was stark in contrast to the tightness of the dress’s corset, the fabric hugging her chest and making it difficult to get a full breath, which only exacerbated her mounting nerves.

It would have been bad enough, but she was well aware that the court’s reaction to her engagement to Caleb had not been good. After they had told their parents, the King and Queen had made a formal announcement, first to their court and then to the general public, and before long, the whisperings of the court elites had started to make their way into the village.

Caleb had learned of it before she did, and at first, she had been upset with him for not telling her, allowing her to find out from her older brothers instead. But a part of her understood. He had thought that, if he didn’t tell her, she wouldn’t find out. He had thought he could protect her. As the one with experience in the social realm that was Martinez Palace, he should have known she would find out eventually. But he was either foolish or blind with love, quite possibly both, unable to see that the rest of the world might not welcome Marie with open arms as he wanted them to. Not everyone would be capable of loving her as he did.

A woman whose name she didn’t know was fussing over her skirt, moving at the direction of the Queen, who stood a few paces away with her arms crossed over her chest and a stern, otherwise unreadable look on her angled face. 

The unoccupied bedroom they were using wasn’t large, clearly meant for guests of lower standing than both the royal family and the court, but it still had a full-length mirror for Marie to stare at herself in. Her eyes darted back and forth between herself, the woman, the Queen, and Caleb, sitting on the edge of the nearby bed, watching her and offering encouraging smiles when he caught her eye in the glass.

His mother hadn’t wanted him in the room, but he had been adamant about his efforts to gain entry. He had even proven that, at nearly nineteen years old, he wasn’t above whining to his mother. Bold and unashamed, he had complained that it wasn’t fair that Ariana got to be alone with his fiancée and he didn’t. He had promised not to look if she was changing her clothes, and when he had started to go on and on sarcastically about how he promised to wait for their sacred wedding night to even consider looking at her with anything that resembled desire, Ariana had finally given in on the condition that he remained at a distance and kept his mouth shut.

Her reluctance to let them spend time behind any closed door in the palace, even when she was there to monitor them, wasn’t entirely unwarranted. Marie knew what people said about her. They went beyond the expected territory of insults like common or poor, instead accusing her of every foul thing they could think of. She was a whore, a witch, a schemer; her parents were criminals; her body was a tool with which she held the young, impressionable prince hostage. 

Baseless as they were, the rumors still found ways to bruise deep beneath her skin. There were times when all she wanted was to curl in on herself, as if doing so would somehow erase the target on her back.

Caleb kept trying to remind her that they didn’t know her. Today, she would finally meet them, and they would love her. He had himself entirely convinced that they would instantly see they were wrong and apologize for their attempts to destroy her reputation. She let him think that hearing that made her feel better, but it didn’t. She knew he was only saying it because he loved her. He was far from an objective source.

The ring on her finger was a threat. There was no way around it. When the court saw the fat sapphire set in an intricately designed, diamond-adorned gold band, they would not see a beautiful piece of jewelry or an effort by a rich boy to show a girl how serious his love for her was. They would see what she had stolen from them, and they would resent her for it. If any commoner could marry the future king, then they weren’t really as special as they all wanted to think they were.

“Okay, step back,” Ariana said to the woman, who had just finished adjusting Marie’s hair. The Queen’s tone was blunt, and the woman didn’t hesitate to do as she asked, stepping back without making eye contact. Once she was out of her immediate line of sight, it was as if she were invisible to Ariana, her attention now on her future daughter-in-law.

“Look at me.” When Ariana spoke to Marie, her tone was slightly more gentle, but it was still somewhat aggressive, enough to put tension in Marie’s shoulders.

Being dressed like this was strange enough for Marie, awkward and unnatural, but being examined by the Queen was even stranger. She tried to keep her breathing steady as Ariana’s eyes trailed up and down her body, along her arms and up her neck, mentally taking account of every last strand of her hair. 

“Mom—” Caleb began, his voice critical, but all his mother had to do was shush him, the sound as sharp as her gaze, to get him to shut his mouth again.

All Marie could do was try to stand up straight, her chin up and her eyes forward, waiting for the verdict. Finally, Ariana gave a nod of approval, slight though it was, and waved the woman off. She seemed eager to leave them, the door slamming shut behind her before Marie could blink twice.

The moment she was gone, Ariana reached out, placing her hands on Marie’s shoulders and holding her at a distance. She couldn’t be sure, but Marie thought it might have been the first time she and Caleb’s mother had had any form of physical contact. It was like she was being jolted awake, forced violently out of a feverish dream.

“Listen to me,” Ariana said. Her gaze was intense, her eyes green like Caleb’s, but the shade was much lighter, almost like jade. It was a shock against the warm brown tone of her skin, their beauty severe as they bore through Marie. “When we go out there today, there is a very good chance that you will be overwhelmed. You’re new and your background is different from everyone else’s. That makes you interesting, but not the good kind of interesting. The kind of interesting that a slab of raw meat is to a pack of wolves.”

It was a crude analogy, but it painted the picture more than well enough. Marie could see herself in the center of a closed circle, cowering as vicious, snarling animals moved in circles around her, slowly closing in. She had to wonder if Ariana was really on her side or if she was trying to scare her away on purpose.

“You’re new blood, and they will use that as an excuse to be even more dramatic and weird than they always are,” Ariana continued, unwavering. “They will act like they are better than you, and they will ask you questions that are extremely personal under the guise of wanting to get to know you better. 

“But most of them don’t really care what you say. Sometimes, there are people whose goal is to see you fail. There is no right answer to any question they might ask you because they are determined to see you sink.”

“Mom!” Caleb looked horrified, his mouth open and his eyes wide. He had gotten to his feet, towering over both women, but somehow, his presence was still smaller than his mother’s. “Why would you talk to her like that? When they meet her, they’ll see that they’re wrong and—”

Ariana glared at him like Marie had seen her mother look at her brothers what felt like millions of times. The “don’t tell me I’ve raised another stupid man” look. “You were born into this,” she told him. “You don’t know what it’s like to have to enter the court from the outside because you’ve always been at the center of it. I’m not going to lie to her about what this is probably going to feel like.”

Caleb slunk back, keeping his mouth shut. In his silence, Marie could hear the faint shuffling of footsteps in the hall outside.

He had told her a few things about his mother’s family, the Beaumonts, but not much. He didn’t know them well because, while they had money and influence, their primary residence had never been in the capital. Most likely, Ariana hadn’t grown up with much experience at court, still more than Marie had but nothing compared to Caleb or members of other important families in Callix. 

For a split second, as she had scolded her son, a twinge of fear had laced the edge of her voice. It was a kind of fear Marie knew well—the kind of fear coursing through her veins right now. She wasn’t just giving Marie an empty lecture. She was drawing on the emotions intertwined with her own memories of moving into the royal court’s unfamiliar territory. She was remembering what it was like to be on a path to marry a man who would one day be a king and to face the judgment of everyone around him as a result.

It was the first time she had ever seen the Queen anything other than composed, and it was the first time she allowed herself to think that maybe she was really on the inside of the royal family’s life.

Ariana loosened her grip on Marie’s shoulders and reached down to take her hands. “No matter what, even if they’re getting to you, you can’t let them see it,” she said firmly. “If they’re going to let you be their queen one day, they need to believe that you are better than them, and right now, they don’t. They think that they are better than you. Changing their minds will take time, but it starts with your refusal to be less than them. It’s all in your attitude.”

Marie looked up when she felt Caleb wrap his arm around her. He had appeared at her side, his eyes set on Ariana. There was respect in them, not only for his mother but for her words. He said nothing to contradict her, despite having given Marie very different advice in recent weeks. Maybe he saw it now. Maybe he saw that respect would not come as easily to her as it did to him. It was his birthright, but she would have to work for it.

TO BE CONTINUED