"What in the blazes are you talking about!!" Roland exclaimed, he tugged on Sigrid’s arm and turned her around. "Have you lost your marbles? Why would we adopt a grown woman?"
Sigrid shrugged, "Because she clearly wants to move in with us." she answered. "We cannot have a young unmarried woman moving in with us, what if something unspeakable happens and people point their fingers at you?"
Roland tugged on Sigrid’s hand to get her to stop talking, the things she was saying could easily ruin a woman’s reputation.
"Sigrid, don’t be excessive." Princess Thalassa stomped her foot, pointed at Sigrid and yelled. "It was me that suggested Emmah move to the The Vale, do not accuse her wrongly and ruin her reputation."
Sigrid scoffed in Thalassa’s direction, the young woman who was only twenty one was very gullible and foolish, traits that Emmah was taking advantage of.
Thalassa had little sense because she had been spoiled rotten since childhood, in addition to that, Rina had taught her how to seduce and scheme in order to land herself a prosperous marriage, convincing her that it was the only thing that mattered more than all the knowledge her governess had tried to impart into her.
"Aah, so one engaged but unmarried woman has misled our crown princess." Sigrid said lightly and then her voice became more serious, "Princess, you are young and unmarried, if people hear that you sent a woman to your brother, they will assume things about you.
Your reputation will be damaged, I am afraid that this will impact you negatively. A princess in Medoris was caught in a scandal similar to this and she is now married to a butcher."
A small crowd had gathered closer to the table where the king, queen and consort Rina were sitting. Sigrid’s words worked best as always, more of them frowned at Emmah and showed their disapproval for the princess.
Rina jumped back, "Sigrid, how can you...."
Sigrid raised her hand in a fashion similar to that of the king. "Consort, I am the crown princess, you should not embarrass the king by referring to me by my name. If people learn from you and start to address me by my name today, tomorrow they will do the same to the king. You have a governess, didn’t she teach you these rules?"
King Raff shot Rina and Thalassa equal looks of disapproval, forgetting that he was the one that opened the topic up for discussion in public. He was also partially drunk and hearing that people would disrespect him made him angry.
Consort Rina did not see the king’s furious gaze, she was filled with anger especially at the mention of the governess. In her books, Sigrid had killed her governess, not her or the king.
She screeched and picked up a bone of venison that was devoid of meat and hurled it at Sigrid. The action aroused a communal gap from the women and some men.
Sigrid did not move, she wanted the bone to hit her, in fact her lips moved up slowly in a smile. The more Rina showed an unflattering side of hers to the king, the faster she would be abandoned.
So, she welcomed the bone with open arms like a dweller of a desert welcoming rain, but unfortunately for her, the rain did not fall. Roland reacted quickly, placing himself between Sigrid and the bone.
It landed on Roland’s back, arousing another gasp from the people. This time round, it was from everyone, even the musicians stopped playing their instruments. The entertainers stopped moving, two fire dancers were almost burned as the torches in their hands fell down.
Whispers traveled like wind across the blades of grass in the meadow, disbelief coated the air, spreading widely. While most could not believe what Rina had done, Sigrid could not believe that Roland had protected her.
The white knights drew the swords as did most guards, but they did not move for they were lost on how to respond. An attack on the crown prince was supposed to be handled by immediate execution or capture of the attacker but the attacker in this case was the king’s favorite woman.
"Arrest her, what are you waiting for?" Sigrid questioned them.
They looked from Sigrid to Rina, then to the king and crown prince. Never before had they been more torn on what to do?
"I..I...My king." Rina cried out and grabbed onto the king’s arm.
Out of the blue, the queen stood up, walked to Rina and slapped her, an act that had people’s jaws falling.
King Raff slammed his hand on the table, and everyone readied themselves to watch the queen being dragged away. She had just slapped the king’s favorite woman, she would be lucky to have a head on her shoulders.
Rina looked at the queen and Sigrid with a proud smirk on her face, she was sure they would pay for what they had done to her.
"Remove the consort and send her to her chambers, for the next one month she is to be grounded to her quarters, studying the rules on etiquette of noble women." The king ordered.
It was if a gun had been fired and everyone was too stunned to move, except for the fire dancers whose torches dropped again and they jumped up and down before running off to find the nearest source of water.
"Wait, what?" Rina screamed."My king, why am I being punished, it was Maurelia that slapped me and that bitch Sigrid that killed my governess, why..."
"Remove her." The king barked.
Three knights and Rina’s maids grabbed her hands and feet, carrying her away as she screeched. Obviously, she had angered the king even more by directly calling the queen her name and Sigrid a bitch.
More importantly, she had touched on the subject of the death of governess, a thing he did not want people discussing.
As the sounds of Rina’s screaming faded away and people started to disperse in order to avoid meeting the king’s gloomy eyes, their was one question on their minds, what the hell had just happened?
"Your highness, I apologize for what has just happened, I did not intend to anger the consort." Sigrid stepped out from behind the crown prince and she made a very fake apology.
"It is no secret that she dislikes me, she has already tried to harm me once and I forgave her but to call me a bitch in front of all these people, it’s an insult to the crown prince.
I request that you punish her even more seriously and the crown princess be punished as well, she needs a reminder on the rules governing noble women lest she will make a big blunder in future. I am afraid that someone will take advantage of her simplicity and use her to harm our royal family."
In the back of her mind, she counted, 3,2,1 and right on cue, princess Thalassa reacted like her mother.
"Sigrid, how dare you, you bitch..."
She was being called a bitch, but Sigrid was dancing on the inside, nothing was easy to manipulate like someone controlled by their emotions.