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

on going on this honeymoon no matter what. She does not want to have Lucinda destroy her life. She has looked forward to this so long. If we stop her from going what is that going to mean to her married life? I know that this trip is the most important trip in her life for it is the first one of its kind. Shall we hide her in a gilded cage for eternity hoping that no one ever notices the rattling of the bars?”
“And risk her being attacked?”
“You want to hide her here during her honeymoon? You can’t protect her all her life. I refuse to let my sister ruin my family’s life for the third time around. I will not lock my daughter up due to my sister’s lousy tries to ruin my peace and that of my dear ones.”
“I understand that, dear,” Sieglinde responded, “But can’t we convince them to change the location so that they will be closer?”
”To us?”
”Yes. I’d feel safer.”
Alex shook his head and laughed. “Lucinda waited thirty years to do this. Do you think she will come back so soon? An attacker waits a while until he or she attacks again. We are on guard. She won’t attack now. I know her.”
“Then when will she attack? Name the place and the date.” the queen spat. “Honey, she is unpredictable. Don’t say you knew when she was coming. You set the date of Belinda’s wedding to the day the mansion burned down, so don’t tell me about your prophetic abilities.”
Alexander shrugged his shoulders.
Sieglinde threw down her brush on the table again and sighed. “I hope you are right. For all I know, she might want to get it over with.”
Alexander shook his head. “She plans well. She prepares and she wants to surprise.”
”Surprise?” Sieglinde whispered half in thought. “She already did that a few times.”
“I will not encage my daughter because my sister plays a prank on us.”
“A prank?” Sieglinde started shouting with laughter. Outside Rolf and Marie-Louise were listening and shaking their heads. “You call that whole hullabaloo a prank? What did she say? Three plagues shall curse the land? That is everything, Allie, but a prank. Excuse me.”
“Think about my feelings for once, will you, woman! I waited thirty damn years for what happened last week and I still have a hard time accepting it. Her curse set my feelings in uproar and it took all of my power to calm the court down.”
“Alexander. Take it easy.”
“No, you take it easy,” the king hollered. “I am a weakling and you have no understanding for the fact that I am terrified of not being able to help my own daughter. Can you understand that? I stood there listening to that bitch talk and I had no way of stopping her in fear of being killed myself. Do you understand what I am saying? My unfaithful behaviour thirty years ago was fear. Only fear.”
Sieglinde stepped back and sighed. “I don’t know you any more, you never talked to me like that ever. Not even during our hardest years.”
“I am frustrated.” He shook his head. “I can help the whole world, but not her...”
She looked worried and gazed back at the mirror and the brush.
“So what are you going to do?” Sieglinde screamed back. “Throw the past in my face?”
There was a long pause. “I don’t want to throw the past in your face. I am just afraid.”
“What is bothering you?” There was a long, poignant pause. “Talk to me, Alex. Tell me.”
Alexander made an agreeing-sound. “Everything and nothing.”
“No,” she said. “I know that face. What is it that I don’t know? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Nomed suddenly decided that he needed to leave the country.” Sieglinde turned to Alex with a surprised look.
“I know.” Alex looked at her. “Alexander, what are you saying?”
“Don’t you think that is suspicious? I mean, here he is, planning to stay forever and then suddenly one day before Lucinda comes back some messenger arrives we never see to tell him his king is sick.”
“What is the problem with that?” He shrugged. “Darling, are you saying you think he is involved in Lucinda’s arrival?” He shrugged again. She looked back into the mirror. “Good God, you can’t be serious.” She walked to the mirror and looked at herself in it. “Nomed is an artist. I mean, really.”
“That is precisely the point. Who would ever accuse an artist like him of something like that? Why not lure everyone by, I don’t know what I am saying, but you know my point. He might be involved. Look at the way he arrived and impressed us all. We got him to become my personal secretary, showed him secret papers. Hell, he might even be Lucinda.”
Sieglinde shook her head and laughed. She walked up to him and slapped him on the chest.
“You are a crazy man.” She kissed him. “Don’t start imagining things. His whereabouts is the least of our worries right now. You need to worry about our daughter.”
“We need to worry about our country.” Alex smiled, cynically. “Our daughter is tough as nails. Everything is possible, Sieglinde. Everything. Trust me. I know my sister very well.”
At that moment, Belinda walked in, trying a smile on for her parents. She was wearing a blue and white dress and tried to swing around and seem romantically frilly, but managed only a small limp. Through her tears she said:
“Are you fighting?”
Sieglinde shook her head. “No.” she said and kissed her husband’s hand. “Just discussing politics.” She grabbed her husband’s arm. “You know us. Always talking about important issues.”
“Darling, we love you” Alexander filled in.
Belinda nodded. “I love you too.” There was sadness in that adoration. “How do I look?”
The parents nodded, “Fine, dear!” and turned to face her.
“You know, father, I think I will wear this at the arrival in the resort.”
“Seems like a good idea,” Alex said.
Belinda lip was trembling, but she was hiding it well.
“You know how much I am looking forward to this.”
But she couldn’t make it any longer, she fell on her knees and started sobbing, tears running down her cheeks. The two parents ran up to her and tried to get her on her knees and she seemed so frail, they took her to the bed where she embraced her mother and held her father’s hand, Sieglinde on the one side and Alex on the other.
“Shush. Baby. Quiet.” Sieglinde looked at her husband. “Tough as nails, huh?”
“Stop it.”
“I thought the nightmares were over.”
“They are, baby.” Alex caressed his daughter on the cheek. “They are.”
”What does her appearance mean?”
”An empty threat.” Sieglinde shook her head. “She hates you because you are happy, successful and loved everything she is not.” She pointed to Alexander. “What your father said is true. She’s full of hot air. She wants to scare you. We must not let her scare you.”
There was a tear in Sieglinde’s voice that Alex hadn’t noticed before and somehow it moved him. Lucinda might even be angry with him for the love of Belinda. Yes, that was it. Alexander filled in quietly as Belinda listened, her eyes wide-open.
As Alex told the story, Steven came in, smiling at Belinda. She took his hand quietly and kissed it. “She is full of magic tricks and nonsense. She promised to kill Walter von Ochsenskiöld and never did. Lucinda even put a curse on Sieglinde once to prevent her from having children. And look what happened instead, six babies later?”
Belinda looked down and dried a tear. She leaned against her father.
Steven spoke. “Your father is right. She has the magic. She can use it to surprise us and nothing more. Only if we believe in it will it have the power.”
Belinda looked down, holding on to hope. Belinda smiled. Alex caressed his daughter’s cheek.
“Believe in the good light. Don’t let yourself be scared away by spooks!” She nodded.
“Promise?” She nodded again.
“Now, show us what you had in mind for the opening reception.”
She did and with that the tears were gone, all least for the day.

Friday, October 16th, 1422 A.D.

“Are you sure you are all right now, dear?”
Belinda’s eyes fluttered and her face smiled at everyone that stood assembled, she felt like someone that was being sent upon a long journey somewhere unexpected for the first time in her life. Her five siblings were there and so were Geena and Rolf and Marie-Louise and Louis. The coachmen Philip and Marcus were trying not to notice how insecure she was but they all saw it. She loved going and yet she was scared that something, anything, might happen on the way there or while they spent time in the luscious mansion awaiting their arrival.
She dared not show it to anyone, although they knew that she felt it. She could not fool anyone. That is the kind of face she had, this Belinda.
“Yes, mother. I am fine.”
She turned to Steven.
“We are going to have a grand time, aren’t we?”
He nodded. “Yes.” he told his wife and then turned to the queen. “Don’t worry, mother. The honeymoon of our lives is awaiting us on the other side of that road.”
Sieglinde smiled. She caressed her daughter’s cheek. “You see, nothing to worry about.”
Belinda faked a casual conversation. “What is on the agenda for all of you now?”
Sieglinde began to speak. “Well, Maria and Martin are going back to their mansion to check up on their land and the people who run it. Patrick is going with Erica on a trip away from all this. Patricia and some girls from the senatorial families are travelling to the Wiltas to help fund the rebuilding of the second nun’s convent. Ellie and Marcus are going on a visit to Margetania to check up on my family.”
“Why don’t you do that, mother?”
“I have things to do here. I am tired.”
Ellie spoke. “Mother thought we should have some time with grandmother. She is old.”
Belinda nodded. She looked over at Morgana. “What about you?”
Morgana smiled, faintly. “Richard and I are taking a journey to Danehamn. Ulfaas has invited us there. We want to inspect the troops.”
Belinda smiled. “Good luck.” For good measure, she added: “Nice of you to do that for me.”
They kissed. This small peck ignited a blaze of kisses between all the assembled.
Whilst Steven kept them all busy, Alex took his girl aside and spoke to her in confidence. The gravel under their feet crunched as they walked.
“Are you all right?”
Belinda sighed. She looked over at Steven, who was caught up in a conversation with Patrick.
She looked at the coach that they were about to travel in. Then she looked at they second coach that Marcus was assigned to drive with its entire luggage. The four horses, two on each coach, seemed to be restless.
“What?” She looked at her father and there was a very serious look on her face. Her eyes were transparent now. “I feel myself constantly thinking of her.”
Alexander looked toward the exit gate of the mansion. It was the same gate now as then. He remembered that day of infamy so well.
“I keep thinking of those eyes and that day. Those words. That dog. I think of Nina Ray and that she knew of that girl way before that woman most probably had been trained to kill.”
“How do we know that? Nina Ray may have looked twenty, but we both know that these messengers have a way of lying about