the haunted kingdom by Charles E.J. Moulton (snow like ashes txt) 📕

not comprehended in my virginal way of love.”
“Well, for one, you are not angry, vicious, selfish, vulgar, self willed and stupid like your sister. And we all know how becoming those traits are.” Steven looked at her and tried to find some way to approach her. “I love you, Belinda. Not your sister. Don’t blame me for Morgy’s faults. Please." Steven chuckled. "When are you going to understand I love you?"
Belinda winced then gave Steve a murderous look.
“You know her.”
”Yes, I do know my sister. Why do you think I’m worried?” Belinda turned away again.
“Until you stop being so paranoid about owning me we will never solve this.” Steven said. “I will not betray you. I never have. I never will. But you insist on always suspecting me." He shook his head and grinned, trying to convince her.
She gave him a fast look. “Why do you do my sister a favour after she attacks you?”
“I am not your father, Belinda.” Steven spat. “I stop chasing after it gets dangerous.”
Belinda slapped Steven very hard on the cheek. Steven clutched it and turned away.
She looked out onto the porch and the patio beyond it. The birch trees in the garden were blowing in the wind.
He was referring to Alexander having been unfaithful to his wife for years to a woman of low aristocracy named Madeleine for years even when things were obviously turning really rotten.
”Steven,” Belinda whispered. “Don’t drag my father’s mistakes into this. Besides, I don't want Morgana to jeopardize us like Madeleine jeopardized my mother. It was my father’s mistresses fault not my father’s. Never forget that. I would’ve never been born." She tried a smile. “I don’t want it to run in the family.” Belinda turned away again. “My father has not been unfaithful for over 25 years, your mistake was just a little while ago. Remember that next time you blame my father for your faults.”
”As it was Morgana’s fault that we ended up on our bed, not mine, I do not ponder over problematic feuds.” He looked at her tenderly. “Hey, Reindeer Iris, your parents must be over that by now.” Steven caressed her and she pulled away her arm.
“I hope they are,” she cried. Belinda shook her head. “Whether you agree with me or not, my sister tries to steal you away like she steals everyone away that has any looks or power at all.”
“She won’t be able to steal me!” Steven said. “Listen to me!” Her eyes were wide open now.
“I would agree if I had jumped into that bed with her on my own accord. However, I did not do so, contrary to your assumptions, dear lady. You are the only one in Clurafar that doesn't know that every week have thrown her out of whatever room I happen to be. Even old Louis knows that.” He laughed. “Hell, even old fart Cretan knows that. And he never comes near the palace. He sends messages. Maybe you should move away and find out who I am!”
“I don’t doubt who you are, do I? And don’t get poor old grey, conservative Cretan into this.”
He chuckled. “I try to be nice, because I don’t want to have someone in the house who will sneer at me. I already have one person who does that."
”That was unnecessary,” she said, suspiciously.
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed his hands against his head and sighed. Then he looked over at Belinda. “But I cannot stand when you hate me.” He kissed her neck. He looked out the window with her, trying to find what she was seeking with her. “You are an intelligent lady. You should know me. She is no competition for you.”
“Flattery. You just insulted my father and now you come sliming and smarmy.”
“There is no competition for you even when you are insulting and annoying.” Steven laughed. “Morgana is funny. I have no time for that.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t she have a normal dress?”
She started giggling, slowly giving in to his love. “She makes them herself.”
Steven laughed. “Oh, dear. She must need it very badly to present herself that way.”
“I don’t know why, the amount of it that she seems to get.”
“Come on, Love” Steven said. “Don’t mistrust me.”
Belinda looked at him, smiling. Belinda sighed again and raised a hand, caressing his arms.
She smiled, faintly. Belinda laughed and dried away a tear. “Pushed you, did she?”
“I have never been and never will be unfaithful” Steven assured her. “Yes, she pushed me.”
Belinda sighed, her breath shaky. Her hands slowly approached his. “I know I will have to do the speech with her tomorrow. I dread having to stand next to her, when I know the games she plays.”
“Theo said your father is galloping up to get here to convince you to hold it.”
She turned around and smiled at him. She shook her head. “Father is going to be angry at me.”
Steven shook his head. “No, he loves you. He knows you.”
“I love him. But he can’t stand when I run from commitment. And I frequently do.”
He sighed. “Belinda,” he said and took her face in his hands. “I can understand your suspicion.”
”I was never ever suspicious of you.”
“You were.” he countered. “I would’ve been, too.”
She looked at him, smiling. "I was.” There was a long pause. “Sweetheart, I do these things to protect myself from losing you. Do you understand that?"
Steven shook his head. “Belinda. Darling. You will never lose me.”
She played with one of his locks that fell down across his forehead. “I am a jealous woman.” She made a catlike face and raised a claw. “Ready to scratch anyone who comes near you.”
“Don’t scratch too hard. Besides, it is a compliment to have someone jealous over you.”
Belinda shrugged. “It is difficult because you are just as much part of my public life.”
She was still, shaking her head in question. There was a pause.
“Was Alex here all the time when Madeleine and he had their romance?”
She looked down. “I think not …”
She stroked his cheek, held him in an embrace. “I hit you. I’m sorry.”
Steven shrugged. “Heart of mine, I would hit myself for saying what I said there.”
“I need to hear it.” There was a long silence. “I need to hear that you won’t jeopardize us.”
“Belinda. My queen. I am so happy we are soon married.” He looked at her, looking down. “I promise that I will never jeopardize us.”
She smiled and looked up quickly. “Thank you.” Then she looked down again.
“I am afraid. That is all.” She turned to the window again and he embraced her soft shoulders from behind. “Afraid all the time. The fear haunts me like some ghost that won’t let go.”
“Of what?” Steven whispered. He gazed at her, surprised. “Us?” She smiled and looked out onto the garden. She shook her head. “Then what?” he whispered even softer.
She smiled, looking back at him. “You know!” She seemed almost embarrassed to say it.
“Her? It? Your aunt?” he laughed. “She has not been seen in years.”
She looked out at the trees swaying in the breeze. “It is just as back when I was a child. This time the nightmares are worse.” She looked at him. She was serious. “Much worse. I am back in Rigor Mortis in my dreams and I am thinking ‘when is my father going to find me’ knowing that he probably never will, because the place has disappeared off the map. Then it reappears somehow and nobody knows why. What scares me is that it all seems to me that it was on purpose just to give me an incurable spiritual scar. It is an omen, Steven. You can’t tell me that it is not an omen.”
“Belinda” Steven inquired seriously. “You believe in omens?”
“Thirty years a magic spell,” she whispered. She put her cheek against his chest, looking at the mahogany staircase and its antique figurines. She felt like a little girl, impossible to escape something very bad, something no one ever would want to go through. She felt as if she was screaming and no one was hearing her. She felt like fleeing from the feeling one minute, then meeting the problem face to face the next. “You can’t blame me. Not after what I’ve seen.”
“Dreams are like the river. The water flows by our vision and disappears into the ocean.”
“This is not a dream” she screamed. “I was there … in the dungeon … wound on my wrist …” She fell down to her knees. Steven came to her, calmed her down, and helped her up. He held her tight.
“That was the past. It happened.” Steven caressed her cheek. “It is gone now.” He stroked her hair and whispered. “Besides, if she comes back, Sweetie, I will be there to protect you. I know what you have been through” he said tenderly. “It will not happen again.”
“She is still alive,” she said in his arms, tears falling from her cheeks upon his shirt.
“Completely harmless at that.” She looked at him smiling, like a small child with a new gift in her hand. Steven nodded. They met in a long kiss and then looked each other deeply in the eyes.
“I love you, you know that?”
Behind her closed eyes there was a dream of heaven above rosy cheeks that rubbed against his face. “I love you too.”
With her eyes still closed, Belinda whispered: “Do you want to light a candle for us in the chapel? I think that would calm me down.”
“Yes, why not?” Steven nodded. ”But no more fights and not another word about Lucinda.”
”Those are promises you know we both can’t keep.” Belinda said, closing her eyes.
Steven said calmly, stroking her hair, “The angels just don’t like it when you worry. You get this wrinkle between your eyes. Lucinda is harmless.”
“Oh, Steven” she cried. “You are so innocent. You really think she is innocent?”
“The angels just rather have you with a smooth forehead.”
“The angels know that Lucinda is dangerous” the princess sighed.
Steven had no ready response to this statement.
Hand-in-hand they started for the door beyond the hallway that lead into the large spiritual oasis. Belinda walked up to the door of the chapel. She opened the door and walked in, morosely. Steven followed her. As the door was closing, Belinda’s voice echoed out into the hallway outside.
“Father is coming home. Let’s light a candle for him, as well.”
As the chapel door closed behind them, Morgana rushed down the mahogany staircase they had just left, sprung on her horse and headed for town.

Mid Saturday afternoon, April 11th, 1422 A.D.,
2nd floor of Iuventus Sacrum

Just as Princess Morgana rushed out and jumped upon her steed and galloped away to town, her brother Patrick was sitting in his bathrobe in his bedroom playing Chess with a man named Zedrick. He was the General of the Prosperanian army and Alexander’s closest advisor next to Belinda. Zedrick, whom everyone affectionately called Zeddy, was also somewhat of an errand boy for social matters. So even on this day. The only Winsletenna boy of Alexander’s children was a drunk and a womanizer and Zeddy had been sent to Patrick in order to check up on his drinking. The two men were playing chess.
Beside Patrick a half emptied mug of full-bodied port wine rested comfortably next to his elbow. Patrick smiled, displaying decaying ivories against an unshaved canvas of a lecherous grin and shrugged his shoulders.
Zeddy made a victorious gesture and pushed aside Patrick's queen.