The Princess's Dangerous Vampire Mate-Chapter 190: A play for the throne - II

~continued~

The only sleep I got after that was when it was the waiting time of everyone. It was probably for a few hours before Taria came and woke me up again.

My eyes hair from the lack of sleep and my joints ached with the tiredness I felt but I could not have the time to sit still and relax because I had lots to do and I had to do that on my own.

The first thing I did after waking up as Taria prepared my bath was to check amongst the letters that I had to cease to know whether or not the spy had received one from Genevieve. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

I opened each and every one of them but did not see any.

Genevieve had not replied which meant that there was a chance she might be dead. We did not know where she was and father did not tell us and the next thing I knew was her lady-in-waiting being hanged to death. They would call us for the funeral. . . But they had not so it would only have two conclusions where one; they had buried here and not called or two; she was alive.

I sighed and threw the letter in my hand on the table amongst the many now kept there in a mess.

If Genevieve was dead and the royal family of Astria had been overthrown and then everything that I had to do was now literally in my hands because I was not going to receive help from anyone.

That was not good.

Taria dressed and prepared me for the day. Today it was going to be an interesting turn of events.

After some time, I was sitting at the breakfast table as everyone sat in intense silence because my father was silent and from his face one could tell that he was stressed.

He was never stressed about the kingdoms if he was stressed and it was something greatly important.

I sat there silently. I was anxious. In reality I was not because I wanted to show him. I really am anxious because I was not sure this would all play out.

I felt his eyes on me and I raised my head before checking it slowly. Catherine had not come back.

He sighed loudly. He swore under his breath and I knew that was enough for him to rile up. Now the storm has started to brew.

He stood up and walked out of the room making us stand up. Once the doors closed behind him we all sat down.

Now I wondered where he had gone.

I had only finished my breakfast because I did not have much time last. The storm would start in due time and before that I had a few things to do.

"She is here." Taria whispered to me as we walked out of the dining hall. Good, that she was here.

I walked to the room and there she stood. The wife of a minister.

"Your Highness," she bent down. "Long live the Hearthornes."

I did not allow her to get up immediately. She should know who was in charge of this conversation. "Thank you for your kind words." A small smile played on my lips. "Please, get up."

She smiled gracefully at me before standing up. "I felt so shocked and blessed when you called me."

I smiled and patted her shoulder. I did not take off my hand and established contact. " I had since I came to know what the minister was doing to you. Such behaviour is unacceptable against women."

Her head turned the other way as she tried to control her tears. She nodded and sniffed loudly. "I can’t do anything."

"You can." I offered making her look at me with surprise in her eyes. I continued, "you can do that by swearing your loyalty to me."

" . . . How do I do that?" She asked hesitantly.

She asked me how and not why, which meant that she had already made up her mind to help me and get hurt by the situation herself.

I smiled as I began.

*******

Father called us and now all of us were waiting in his room. All of us were in front of him where he stood with a tree in front of him covered with a cloche.

I wondered what it was because it could be something else too.

"Catherine is missing." He revealed and I looked up in surprise.

Mira gasped. "What!"

Augustus did not care.

"Yes," the king nodded. "Any idea why my daughter must have done anything like this?"

Mira made a face as she looked here and there before muttering under her breath but loud enough for us to hear, "Well, she’s a young girl. Who knows who she went with."

I thank you it was very clear what she insulated on.

The king did not like that but he did not voice his thoughts, rather turned his eyes on Augustus. "Open it." He pointed to the cloche.

"Why?" Augustus asked, "what is in it?"

"Go ahead, I found this in your room." He pointed to the cloche.

Augustus looked at them before finally getting up and opening it only to frown at the content. "What is the meaning of this?"

My father scoffed. " Why don’t you tell me what is the meaning of this? Because this was found from your room and every maid has identified it to be something belonging to Catherine." The king glanced at the garment before beginning again, "Can you tell me why this was in your room?"

This was an interesting turn of events.

"I . . .," Augustus glanced at it. "I. . Don’t know." He looked confused and from my side, he looked genuinely confused to what her garment was doing in his room.

Poor him.

"Really?" The king tilted his head slightly as he looked at the man with furious eyes. My father was not going to buy the lies now or the truth in this case. "You don’t know?"

He walked closer to his son, "I think I’ll make you remember."

I hid my smile. At least one thing turned out to be just as planned.