Sacrificial Bride to the Feared Lord Hastings-Chapter 237: Clash (1)

A day later in the palace, Sebastian smiled as he awaited good news from his father’s court. Today would be the day that he would take the throne and start a new reign as king. All he needed was for his father to pass away quietly.

"Your Highness," Lilith greeted Sebastian with a curtsy. "You look dashing. It is a good look for what is about to come. I must warn you that the queen has been behaving strangely. I think she intends to put up a fight."

"Let her and her bastards fight. As soon as my father takes his last dying breath, I will kill her and her bastards. Keep an eye on her family. Her father is the true threat. That fool thinks he could be king," said Sebastian.

"If you had allowed it, I could have gotten rid of the queen long ago. I am tired of Althea trying to tell me what my place is in the palace. I have also heard that she is going around to your father’s peers gathering support for the third prince," Lilith shared.

Lilith wished that Sebastian would stop being so patient and just kill everyone to get his plans over with. She wanted to be queen now and not have to listen to ladies past their prime.

"Patience, Lilith. Shouldn’t you be with Freya now to turn her into a better woman? You pleaded with me to do it, and promised you would succeed."

"And I intend to succeed. Freya is in the middle of a lesson, and I was present until she started crying for the father who abandoned her. I fear she will be of no use to you for the next few days as she mourns," said Lilith.

Lilith also wanted Sebastian to discard Freya, but she knew he wouldn’t because of his ties to Nigel.

"Freya will learn her place eventually."

"Or, you can send her out of the palace. If she doesn’t carry a child for you, she will be of no use to you. Placing her out of the palace would please her brother. Everyone would be happy then," Althea suggested.

Sebastian stopped walking to look at Lilith. "Don’t you mean you will be happy? I quite enjoy my days with Freya, so I urge you not to meddle. Don’t become like my father’s whore. It is easy to find a new queen."

Lilith smiled despite seething inside. "I am insulted that you would think of me as Althea. I am trying to do what is best for you. There will be celebrations when you take the throne. The mood would be spoiled if Freya wept then. I will try harder with her."

Lilith held Sebastian’s hand and said, "I suggest you take another woman to your side. A little competition to show Freya that there can be other mistresses. She seems to think she is quite special because she is the only mistress. Shatter that thought for me."

"You are the only queen who would ask her husband to take a mistress," Sebastian said, amused by Lilith. "You have found a good tactic to stay in my good graces."

"It is not a tactic. I am not foolish like the other ladies. Your attention cannot be kept by one woman, no matter how wonderful I am. That is their mistake. There is a man from the court coming to you. I shall leave you," Lilith said, letting go of Sebastian’s arm.

Sebastian’s eyes filled with glee as he walked to the man who should bring good news. "George," he greeted the man. "Do you have it?"

"Greetings, Your Highness. This lowly servant-"

"Be out with it. What was it my father hid from me? I must see it," Sebastian said, snatching a scroll from George’s hands.

"Well, you see. The king was in good health to make a new order. It is not a plot someone placed in his head for him to carry out. He came up with it on his own accord and surprised us. We all thought he was too weak to move and was about to die-"

George was silenced by Sebastian grabbing him by the neck.

"He has made an order for my brother to be king? For the crown prince to be changed. He wants to bypass me to make my brother the crown prince, yet none of you thought to alert me of this sooner. I should kill you right now," Sebastian said, squeezing George’s neck.

"No one knows of it. Only a small council was in the king’s chamber. We haven’t spoken of it to anyone, and preparations are being made to hide what the king did. You hold the original scroll in your hands. You can burn it," George suggested.

George coughed after speaking too much, while Sebastian held his neck, but his life depended on it.

"The others thought you wouldn’t care because it is the brother who shared your mother’s womb with you, not the son from Queen Althea. Your brother doesn’t want to be king," George reminded Sebastian.

"I am well aware," Sebastian replied.

Still, Sebastian didn’t like that his brother was being considered to become the crown prince. It would put ideas in others’ heads.

"My father can’t go about changing the laws for a second prince to become the crown prince. He is out of his mind, as I have told you. I must visit my father while you gather the men. A celebration will soon start," said Sebastian.

Sebastian crumpled up the order his father wrote. "Send word to Nigel Valthorn urgently that I request a visit to the palace. He mustn’t take too long."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"And George, gather the queen and her little bastards. I want to have a word with them," Sebastian said.

"Yes, Your Highness," George said, his head bowed to avoid meeting Sebastian’s eyes.

There was about to be a shift in the palace which would bring on a deadly fight.

Althea wasn’t going to go down without a fight, but George and everyone else knew Sebastian would be the victor.

Still, if there was a chance Althea could injure Sebastian and spoil his plans, it wouldn’t hurt to lean on the side of the second prince, who now had the king’s favour, though he did not know it. The second prince was never going to know his father now wanted him to become king.

"A letter to Lord Valthorn," George whispered as he hurried off.

George knew what Sebastian’s visit to King Edward entailed, so he wanted to be as far away as possible when it happened.