Telari
"Telari," Penelope growled.
The girl at least had the sense to look up and look almost sheepish, but she didn't extract herself from the drunken man's lap, who had his hands all over her, roaming over her hips and thighs like she was a prostitute rather than the princess the world knew her to be.
Penelope marched over and snatched her from the man's lap.
Penelope turned and glared at her, eyes narrowed and drifting over the love bite she could not quite hide beneath her tunic. There were probably more in so many places, knowing the sort of men who had accompanied the lords, princes, and kings that had come to her palace. Telari was a beautiful young girl. Naïve, headstrong, and young. She was barely seventeen, and while it was legal on the mainland to take a wife so young, no woman married on Caelthos before she was twenty.
"I was just… I mean—"
"I will deal with you later," she said. "Return to your room."
"But—"
"Now."
She pouted and ripped away from Penelope’s hold. "Stop treating me like a child! I'm of age and just because you—"
Penelope gestured to a guard. "Take her to her room, see that she is kept there until I have a moment to speak with her."
"Of course, Your Majesty."
Telari tried to fight the guard, but the woman simply dragged her towards the far corridor and out of the hall. Penelope turned to the man. He looked up at her with dull eyes and grinned, grabbing his crotch with a low groan.
"You want to take a seat?"
Penelope slammed his face into the bowl of soup in front of him and held him there. He sputtered, coughed, and flailed. The hall went quiet around the sound of his struggle as the men all turned to stare.
"I have been a patient host," she said calmly, keeping his head submerged effortlessly as she glared across the room. "I have been gracious and forgiving of your constant trespasses for the sake of diplomacy, but do not take that for a sign of complicity or condonation."
She released the man, and he flung himself back off the bench, gasping and sputtering.
"The next man to touch any woman of Caelthos will be unmanned, drowned in his own blood, and unburied. Am I understood?" Most of them gulped. Some even looked sheepish as Penelope turned to look down at the man. "Come near my sister again, breathe in her direction, utter her name— think it with anything less than due respect, and I will return you to your maker in pieces."
Penelope walked to the end of the main pathway leading from the welcoming door into the hall, gesturing to the nearest guard and servant.
"Have it brought. It's time."
The two nodded, bowing their heads as the heralding trumpet filled the air, and the doors opened. The thunder rumbled and shook the hall. The procession filtered in, heralding Naos and his son, but she walked out of the hall. She had seen enough of their displays for a lifetime. She walked down the exit corridor and through the gate there, willing it to take her directly into Telari's room.
“Let me out!” Telari screamed, banging on the door.
"Have you lost your mind?" Penelope asked.
Telari whirled around, face flushed and teeth bared. She looked more like a wild animal than her ward.
"You can't treat me like this! Just because you want to die alone doesn’t mean I want to. He's a lord of—"
"You are a royal ward of Caelthos!" Penelope said. "What—"
"What good is that when we're poor?" Telari crossed her arms. "He has land and food enough, and it would be better than being here with your high and mighty attitude!”
Penelope narrowed her eyes. Had her face gotten rounder? Goddess, no.
"I will ask you once…” Telari stiffened. “Are you with child, Telari?"
Telari turned bright red, and Penelope closed her eyes, offering a prayer for patience and serenity. When? How long?
She needed air, and she turned.
"You have no idea what it's like to—"
"Don't tell me what I don't know," Penelope hissed, glaring at her. "Do not begin to justify your actions as anything more than your poor decisions. You resent me so much that you let a man impregnate you just to spite me, Telari. If—"
"He wants me to be his Lady!"
Penelope sighed. "He wants the throne of Caelthos."
"That's not—"
"And when he finds out that you are my ward, he will abandon you."
"He asked me to marry him."
“No ring?” Telari flinched. “No public pursuit?” Penelope shook her head. “You are of age on the mainland to marry. If you were a daughter of the throne, marriage to you would make you eligible to put him on it in the eyes of the mainland." Penelope reached out to her, and Telari flinched back. "I am not telling you this to be cruel."
Telari's lips curled. "You're just jealous because you'll never have a child."
Penelope sighed. "There is nothing to envy in a young, unmarried, pregnant woman with no standing."
Telari’s eyes widened, and Penelope’s gaze drifted toward a familiar tunic lying on the back of a chair. It was much too big to be Telari’s. She crossed the room and picked it up before crushing it in her hands.
"Of all the pigs who haunt our halls, Viridian?" She threw it down. "A lord? Is that what he told you?"
"The Hausser lands—"
"Do not exist. He is an imperial noble by title alone.” She shook her head. “He is here because of a deal the late steward struck to keep him and his family from homelessness.”
Telari’s eyes watered. “You’re lying.”
"Goddess, help me. Did you pay attention to anything—" Penelope groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Does he know?"
She crossed her arms and said nothing.
"Does he know, Telari?"
"He had mages confirm it."
She hissed. No wonder the bastard had been strutting around for days. Penelope needed to move quickly, for both their sakes. Penelope walked back to the hidden doorway.
"Do not leave this room, Telari. I mean it."
"And if I do?"
Penelope turned back to her. "I will let your brother deal with you, as you clearly do not care for my opinions."
She flushed. "He's not coming back… and he's not my brother."
Penelope's lips twitched into a smile.
"You're wrong, and I hope you live to regret those words."
She walked through the archway into the gardens behind the main receiving hall. She sank down on the edge of a statue's pedestal, bowing her head. Eyes stinging in frustration. How had it gotten—
The hair on the back of her neck lifted as footsteps drew closer. The statue shifted into a kneeling position, hiding Penelope with its broad shield.
“And you’re sure?”
I frowned, recognizing that voice.
“Of course, Your Majesty,” Viridian answered, his voice excited. “The mages have confirmed it. I just hope the baby has Arina's eyes.” Viridian let out a dreamy sigh. “At least the Hausser line won’t be tainted with heathen blood.”
What?