Page 1 of Wicked Queen

Chapter 1

Clara

The creak of the door alerted the nurse to Alexander’s presence, but I’d felt him coming long before that. I’d known he would come. An hour ago, I’d felt a prickle along my skin. Moments ago, goosebumps had broken out on my arms. Before the door opened, a shiver ran up my neck. My body responded to him like air surging before an approaching storm.

But today Alexander wasn’t the reckoning.

I was.

I didn’t turn. It wasn’t that I couldn’t face him, but rather that I refused to look at him. Instead, my eyes stayed on hers, briefly closing when I heard him speak.

“I don’t have any secrets from my wife.”

I would have laughed if I’d had it in me. Another lie. It was getting harder to decide which I hated more, the lies or the secrets, although it didn’t seem like there was much difference between the two.

She glanced up, drinking in Alexander’s words before her eyes darted back to me. Now she was piecing it together. I hadn’t explained who I was. It felt wrong, somehow, to be the one to tell her. She had missed so much of Alexander’s life. How was I supposed to tell her that I was his wife? That we had a child together? That I was expecting another? There were years of information to relay, and I had started my relationship with her by keeping secrets.

Maybe my husband and I weren’t so different after all.

There hadn’t been much time to tell her anything before Alexander arrived, anyway. First, the nurse panicked and checked all her vitals. I remained off to the side, largely unnoticed. Then the doctor had arrived. I was only alone with her for a few minutes. She had only asked one question.

“Where is my family?”

I’d told her he was on his way. I had known he would find me. It was one way he never let me down. After that, the uncomfortable silence set in. I’d offered her my name and told her I was a friend.

When Alexander clarified who I really was, she continued to stare at me.

“Wife?” Her voice was still weak, feeble from years of silence, but the tremble of pain in that one word had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t bring myself to meet her eyes and look into their shadowed, blank depths.

I only nodded. I couldn’t do this. He had kept this from me for a reason. Later, I would make him explain why. Now? I didn’t want to be here. I had no place in this family reunion. She was as much a stranger to me as I was to her. Alexander had seen to that.

Rising to my feet, I forced a small smile. “Excuse me.”

I moved quickly, refusing to allow myself time to reconsider. I needed to get away from her. I needed to be away from him. I needed to be able to think.

Alexander reached for me as I passed, but I skirted away, shaking my head. Even now, my body fought against me, tempting me toward him like a bee to honey. He’d thrown on jeans and a t-shirt that hugged his powerful body, stubble peppered his jawline, and his black hair was a chaotic mess. Apart from the clothing, this was the man I would have woken up to if I had stayed in bed. We would have made love. I could almost feel the scratch of his stubble on my thighs. I’d come here instead, lured into the darkness of his past and the mistakes we couldn’t seem to escape. It’s what kept me from going to him now—even a bee could drown in honey.

“Clara,” he said in a hollow voice, his blue eyes flashing with regret. He didn’t speak again as I reached the door. He didn’t try to stop me.

We both knew it wouldn’t matter. There was nothing he could say. I thought he’d given me all of him — body, heart, soul. I was wrong.

Chapter 2

Alexander

“This can’t go on," Norris said firmly. My trusted advisor and friend had become my personal alarm clock of late. He scanned me, his eyes skimming over my rolled up sleeves and wrinkled shirt. My tie was abandoned on the ground. Yesterday’s suit jacket slung over the back of my chair.

I hadn't slept alone in years and since Clara had refused to come to our bed, I had taken to falling asleep in my office. It was Norris’s unofficial duty to wake me before morning meetings.

I glanced at my watch, surprised to see he was a bit late today. He made clear his disapproval of how I was handling the situation with my wife. "Can the lecture wait? I need to grab a shower before I have to meet with some important person about some important thing."

Norris raised an eyebrow at my glib attitude. There was no use in pretending that most of the meetings I took weren’t largely ceremonial. I was expected to approve or disapprove as needed. I was to have an opinion and support charitable causes. I was to play the role of the benevolent king. Anything more than that would be overstepping my bounds, or so Parliament had made clear over the last few weeks. This attitude was due, no doubt, to arrangements my father and his father before him had made. The monarchy had been gradually modernizing, or, as I saw it, pawning its responsibilities off on someone else. I’d been testing those previously sanctioned limitations. Now, it was becoming clear things would have to change. But I wasn't going to be the one to give in. Not while my family's safety was at stake. It was why I woke up and sat through the sodding meetings. I needed to play the part—for now.

“Today’s meetings are the least of your worries. The staff is beginning to talk." He adjusted the knot of his tie, looking slightly uncomfortable about bringing up the topic.

“The staff is always talking." I ran a hand through my hair. I had learned from a young age to accept that the walls had eyes. Very little of what I said and did behind palace walls was private. Sometimes, I wondered if even my own bedroom was safe.

"Yes, but someone is bound to leak to the press that there are problems in your marriage."