The Broken Crown

Chapter 6

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Adrianne

Adrianne sat by the table in her chambers, letting the simple pearl necklace run through her fingers like she had done only a little over a week ago, at home in her own chambers. She tried to imagine what her life would have been like, had the King never died. Would she be sitting in the Stone Garden, where the only trees that grew were planted in pots, looking across the ocean and guessing what lay beyond the seemingly endless desert of waves?

That had always been her favourite thing to do, especially in the evening when the setting sun coloured the black and blue water in shades of fire. When she was younger, she would sit there with her parents and her brother but as she grew older, she went there alone as well. She would sit on the bench beneath the peach tree which was planted in a particularly large and beautiful pot and dream of her future. Sometimes, Alex would join her and they would laugh about the creatures they imagined to live in countries far away, across the water.

“Your bath is ready,” Miriam’s voice sounded from behind her, drawing her back to reality. She let the necklace slip down onto the mahogany with a slithering sound of the silver chain curling around itself.

Adrianne lifted herself from the chair and smiled to Miriam. “Thank you.”

By the bathtub, Miriam helped her out of her clothes and let her hair fall free from the braid. So much had happened since she had arrived, yet this engagement seemed to have arrived so quickly. In just a few hours, she would be standing in the Great Hall with all the most important people in the kingdom watching her every move. Judging her every move.

The water was hot, so hot that she took some time getting used to it before slipping into it fully. While Miriam washed her hair in various soaps and added oils to the bath that would clean her skin, Adrianne’s thoughts wandered to that day when Thomas and the Servant had approached her in one of the gardens.

It was Thomas who puzzled her the most; she still did not know what to think of him or his advice. He was only half a man, after all. Never had she seen a man as comical as him, she thought and smiled to herself. He walked in a funny way. But when you were only half the size of a man, were you also only half as honourable? Half as clever? She shook her head mentally; he did have a large head, so maybe he was as clever as anyone. And his advice was so close to her suspicions about the Queen...

“Leave me,” Adrianne said once Miriam was finished. “I would like to be alone for a little while.” Miriam nodded and left her without a word. She would not be much alone for the rest of the day. Soon enough, she would be sleeping in the King’s bed. He was not king yet, of course, but he would be by the time they had married.

The wedding night was just another reason to worry. Frowning slightly, one of Adrianne’s hands went to cover her breast. She knew that men found women’s breasts... fascinating. She wondered if Raphael would like hers. What would she do if he didn’t?

She relaxed her arm once more and it slid down her stomach to rest on her thigh. The feeling of the water around her was a feeling that she had missed. Bathing in the sea was another thing that she had done often and another thing that she missed from home. She closed her eyes and imagined that it were the waves of the Warm Sea that covered her naked body. It brought some sort of comfort.

She had spoken to Miriam about the acts of the wedding night, briefly and awkwardly, but often. Apparently, it would hurt the first time. And the act seemed so strange – she could not think of it as anything but appalling to have that part of a man inside of her. But Miriam had told her with an assurance that made Adrianne’s view of her change slightly that it was not always a bad act. That sometimes it could even be pleasurable.