Queen's Obsession

Chapter 20

*Suzanna's P.O.V*

Queen Seraphina ended up calling off court for the day during breakfast. She sent Captain Orion to deal with it when he was done eating. She insisted on sitting with me until I was done with my breakfast and then had me follow her to her study.

I set to work in a comfortable silence, alphabetizing her papers. It was more out of habit than anything else as it wasn't like she ordered me to do so. I could feel her eyes on me the entire time I did it. I glanced up to meet her gaze now that she wasn't wearing her veil.

"How come you always wear a veil?" I questioned before I had time to process my words. I closed my mouth abruptly and felt my face flush. "I'm sorry, that was rude to ask," I muttered as I ran my thumb over the edge of one of the parchments.

"You're fine darling, your question wasn't rude at all," Queen Seraphina assured me. "It was an agreement between my husband and I when we married. I wished to keep some privacy so that I could go out in public without guards and the veil guaranteed that my face was never seen by people outside of family. My son wore something similar until he decided that he no longer wished to," she stated.

"So sometimes you get to leave the castle with no guards?" I asked curiously as I looked up, my heart starting to calm down when I realized that she wasn't mad at my question.

"I haven't in a while but if I wanted to I could," Queen Seraphina answered.

"How come? You haven't left in a while?" I asked curiously as I set the parchments down, turning to face her fully. She tapped the end of her quill against her desk as she hummed thoughtfully.

"I suppose it's because I've seen everything that I wanted to see, I know most of the kingdom like the back of my hand," Queen Seraphina stated.

"Or it's because your kingdom is boring," I muttered before I could stop myself. Queen Seraphina had turned to look out the window at some point during her statement but my words made her turn to look at me.

"My kingdom is not boring," she said simply. The way her teeth clicked together when she spoke told me that perhaps my words had bothered her.

"It kind of is," I muttered as I looked away when I saw her jaw tick slightly. I was only telling her the truth, her kingdom was very boring. There was nothing to do or see that was really impressive.

"How can you speak on my kingdom when you haven't even ventured much farther than the marketplace?" Queen Seraphina spoke, my eyebrows furrowing at her words. How did she know where I had ventured to? It's not like she could watch me when I left the castle.

"Your kingdom is boring," I simply repeated as I turned my attention back to the parchments I was holding. "Maybe you like boring though," I muttered to myself.

"What was that?" Queen Seraphina asked. I simply shook my head as I finished sorting the parchments, putting them on her desk when I was done. I was not going to repeat myself because I didn't want to and not because she kind of scared me.

"I didn't say anything," I said simply as I tapped my nails on the edge of her desk, waiting for her to give me something to do. After a moment of her not responding, I decided to move around her desk where she usually had me stand.

"I don't appreciate being lied to," Queen Seraphina said as her hand rested on my arm. I shifted away subconsciously as my eyes searched for anything other than her face to focus on. "Have I done something to make you think that I would be angry with you for speaking your mind?" she questioned.

"No," I answered quickly as I tried to move my arm away. Her grip tightened for a second before she let go, a small frown on her lips.

"Then why not tell me what you said," she asked, one of her eyebrows arching. I hesitantly met her gaze, her dark green eyes seemingly staring into my soul.

"I just said that maybe you like boring," I answered after a moment. I didn't want to but I felt like it was the only way to get her to move on from the subject. Her lips twitched for a moment before she smiled softly, a sense of wistfulness in her smile.

"You are not the first person to tell me this," Queen Seraphina said as she leaned back in her chair. "My son used to say the same thing, he always said that I did so little getting out that of course I found boring things exciting," she mused with a small hum. "He liked to drag me out of the castle to explore the kingdom when he was little," she muttered wistfully.

"What was he like?" I asked after a moment as I sat down on the floor, my dress fanning out around me. It was clear that Queen Seraphina still missed her son very much and I felt like maybe it would help to be able to talk about him even to someone who never knew him. Sitting down was also a plus because the injury on my leg was starting to hurt.

"He was a wonderful boy, had his father's looks but with my spirit," Queen Seraphina said with a small grin. "I used to take him out with me when he was little, he enjoyed the butterfly gardens that I would take him to. He grew up but never grew out of liking butterflies. He wrote me a book of all the types of butterflies in the world and drew what they looked like as well," she stated as her hand went to a key around her neck.

She slipped the necklace off, standing up and moving to the rug that surrounded her desk. I stood up, watching as she moved the rug to reveal a little hole in the floor. She inserted the key and turned it three times which caused the floor to lift up to reveal a cubbyhole that was full of things.

"This is where I keep my most valuable items," she murmured as she removed a leatherbound book, shutting the cubbyhole as she stood up. She opened the book, leafing through it before she moved over to me. "This one was my husband's personal favorite, the papilio palinurus. He said it reminded him of my eyes," she said softly as she showed me the sketch of the butterfly. I was in awe of the drawing as it almost looked like it was about to fly off the page.

"My son's favorite was the silver-studded blue, probably because he begged me since he could talk to get silver studs in his ears," she said with a small smile as she flipped to the back of the book and showed me the drawing of the butterfly. Again I was in awe of the drawing, it almost looked like it was flapping its wings.

"Those drawings are beautiful," I finally managed to say as I cleared my throat. Queen Seraphina seemed quite pleased, pulling me over to a couch that was pushed against the wall. She made me sit down and sat right next to me, sitting the book on both of our laps as she continued to show me the book.

My head slowly ended up drifting until my head was resting on her shoulder, my attention still riveted on the pages of the book. When the door opened and the Queen abruptly shut the book, a small whine escaped my lips.

"Am I interrupting?" Pandora asked, ignoring the fact I was now glaring daggers at her.