Chess Series: Book Five
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Chapter 1
“Alright, who’s next?” I was sitting on the edge of my desk in the Strategy Room, swinging my legs.
Anders, who was sitting in my desk chair, his feet up on the desk, snorted and shook his head at me. “Jacob Hotham, Minister of the Interior.”
I thought for a moment. “So what he currently does is coordinate official state visits —”
“When you don’t just up and decide to head to the mountains on your own.” He grinned at me.
I narrowed my eyes. “You and Dart made that decision, and told me I didn’t have a say. Although, I would have gone anyway.”
“True. However, official state visits have almost never included with foreign nations — just to various provinces.”
I nodded. “Well, that’s going to change, although when is still to be decided. What else does this man do normally?”
“Keep track of nobles and their houses, as well as local city governments. I believe there’s a cut off of ten thousand people, under which no one really keeps track of towns and villages except the duke of the province who is supposed to for tax purposes. Interior is also responsible for keeping maps updated.”
“This doesn’t sound like a particularly busy job.”
He shook his head. “I don’t believe so, no. He was a good friend of Lucian’s.”
“Ah, I see. Well, we’ll see if he’ll be a friend of mine once I ask him The Question and tell him what his job is going to become.” I smiled. “And if he doesn’t like it, he can read the plaque on the wall and deal.” I pointed to the wooden sign hung over my desk — a birthday gift from Anders the month before. It was carved Queen Henrietta Lynn in fancy, swirly letters.
He dropped his feet from the desk, so he could stand up and move in front of me. I spread my legs so he could get as close as possible and put my arms around his neck. He leaned down and kissed me, then pulled back and rested his forehead against mine. He said quietly, “Remember, if he doesn’t answer The Question right, you can fire him. You don’t even have to tell him what his new responsibilities will be.”
I nodded. The Question being “What’s your position on striking the provision that marriage is one man and one woman from the law?” Anything other than support for doing so was a deal breaker.
In order to change the law, technically all I needed was the yes votes of half the Council of Ministers and my vote could break a tie if needed. However, this issue was a contentious one and as much as I personally wanted to wave my royal hand and have it happen, I knew that wasn’t the way to endear me to the people. So, my first step was to get the council on my side. Which meant everyone had to agree with me.
And I wouldn’t accept any variation of “I’ll do it because you’re the queen and you say so.” This cause was important to me, yes, but so was working with a group of people — on any subject — who accepted that anyone who met the age and residency requirements could get married, regardless of their gender. Men like Tyler Steffon, the Minister of Justice, who didn’t care who got married, but who did hope that anyone who chose to considered carefully what they were doing.
Over the past few weeks, I’d met with those ministers I knew were on my side to discuss my larger agenda going forward. The marriage law was top of my list, but I had a lot of other things I wanted to accomplish as well.
I’d already arranged for the ministers of the Army and Navy — Sebastian Thomson and Sedric Grant, respectively, to work together on veterans’ affairs. I didn’t want anyone who fought in the war with the Elves to go hungry or homeless. If they were able to work, I wanted them to have a job, even if it wasn’t related to fighting. And if not, then they received a small pension.
I was in regular contact with Simon Wolfe, the Minister of Finance, for the tax audit service — which crazy enough we still didn’t have an official name for. It would probably end up being Tax Audit Service, as boring as that sounded. That was a big enough undertaking that I wasn’t going to burden him with additional duties. He, of course, answered The Question the right way.
The day before, I’d had a meeting with Ralph Estney, Minister of Transportation. We laid out a detailed plan of what I thought needed to be done. Some of it he explained would be under other ministers, but most of it was him. It was ambitious, but he was more than willing to move forward. It had been difficult to ask him The Question, though, because I really didn’t want him to answer it the wrong way, but he’d answered it correctly.
Now I had two major tasks to assign to the Minister of the Interior, so I hoped he and I would get along.
He arrived a few minutes later and we took a seat at the small meeting table in the Strategy Room. I’d met Mr. Hotham before, but I didn’t recall ever having a conversation with the man. No, wait — there were the few brief sentences we’d exchanged after I’d gotten engaged to Anders, when Mr. Hotham had asked if I had an idea of when the date would be.
Although I’m sure he asked because he thought he might have to coordinate something official, I hadn’t talked to him since. Almost eight months before — and I doubted he’d worked with the Royal Event Planner, although he may have and I just didn’t know.
“Mr. Hotham, I’ve asked you here for a couple of reasons. The first is that I’m meeting with all the ministers, trying to get to know everyone. It appears — at the moment — no one wants to kidnap me, my husband, or my son. And no one wishes any of us harm. Given that, I’ve luckily found an opportunity to view my duties with an eye to the long term instead of dealing with immediate crises.”
He smiled. “Thank you for meeting with me, Your Majesty. I agree that it’s fortunate the matter of the kidnappings are behind us.”
And, Goddess willing, would stay there. I nodded and took a deep breath. “One of the topics that is of great importance to me is the current law governing marriage in Jador restricting marriage to a man and a woman. How do you feel about striking this language from the law?”
Jacob Hotham appeared to not play poker very often, if at all, because the expression on his face was clear. He didn’t agree. However, there was always the chance I was misinterpreting his expression, so I waited for his answer.
“Ah…no offense, Your Majesty, but we are doing fine with the law the way it is. And as the saying goes, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
I, on the other hand, played poker almost every night. And, I’d had years of training in royal neutrality. Therefore, when I answered, I kept my expression pleasant and my voice calm. “But see, here’s the problem — there are people who believe it is broken. So please be honest with me — would you support their efforts to remove that wording from the law?”
He shifted in his seat and avoided meeting my eyes. I started wondering how difficult it would be to find a new Minister of the Interior. I will give the man credit, though. He did honestly answer the question when he said, “I don’t believe the law should be changed. I believe it’s fine the way it is.”
Damn. I nodded slightly. “So if this issue was to come before the council I would need to vote against you?”
He blinked. “Ah, yes, I — I suppose so, Your Majesty.”
I nodded again. Double damn. He was the first minister I was going to have to fire and part of me wanted to just kick him out, but I could rise above it. “Mr. Hotham, I hope you understand why I’m dismissing you from the council. I’ll speak with Minister Wolfe about a severance agreement, but for now I’ll give you a few hours to gather your personal items and vacate your office.”
He sat there for a long moment, his expression stunned. Then, he nodded, stood, and bowed. “I understand, Your Majesty. It was a pleasure working with you and if you have need of my service in the future I hope you won’t hesitate to contact me.”
I smiled. “Thank you for the offer.” I sincerely doubted I would be accepting it, but I was glad we could part on amicable terms.
I waited until Mr. Hotham left the room and then I sighed. “I knew it was too much to hope for that I wouldn’t have to fire anyone.”
Anders walked over, then stepped behind me to massage my shoulders. “I know, my queen. But you were kind. I only hope you can be as amiable with the others.”
I nodded. “But if not I can be a fucking badass, right?”
He laughed quietly. “Yes. But you know what the best thing about it?”
I looked up at him and shook my head. He leaned down, kissed me, and said, “You’re my fucking badass.”
“One hundred percent. And I’d like another kiss please.”
He laughed, louder this time, then leaned over and gave me a lingering kiss.
∼∗∼∗∼∗∼
By the end of the week I’d also fired Julian Wentworth, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Kobus Jansen, Minister of Commerce, although their dismissals weren’t nearly as courteous. Wentworth had called me names, and Jansen had literally spit on me when I explained he was being let go. Fortunately, he’d managed to only hit my shoe, but it was still completely inappropriate.
Wentworth was escorted roughly out of the palace. Jansen was escorted roughly out of the palace — and to a jail cell overnight on charges of assault.
After being called names — including heretic and Elb-lover — I consulted with Cleric Savill, the resident cleric. I was trying to better understand that view because I’d never gotten the impression that Filarune was opposed to two men, or two women, together. He confirmed that.
We sat in the chapel and he explained, “There are some that believe it’s a moral imperative that only men and women be allowed to marry each other. However, this isn’t an official view of the worship of Filarune.”
I nodded. “She seems very liberal in her views and accepts everyone.”
He nodded back. “This is true. She takes a hands-off view towards her people and lets us sort things out for ourselves. Unfortunately, some use that approach to justify how they feel. They believe that since they worship her, and they’ve sorted out their views the way they have, then those views must be condoned by her.”
I sighed. “That’s what I’m coming up against. Thank you for speaking with me.”
He smiled. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
∼∗∼∗∼∗∼
The next day, after the spitting encounter, I took a walk in the gardens, alone. I knew that Anders completely understood how I felt and would have come with me, but I needed to clear my head. I’d gone into these meetings knowing this fight wasn’t going to be easy, and knowing I’d have to face a lot of ugly people and ugly actions. That didn’t mean it didn’t affect me, though. I was furious, but also sickened.
Whenever I walked in the gardens, I made a point of stopping by the bench under a large tree where the Duke of Petidar had…died. I forced myself to go there because it was just a bench, and just a tree. But that day I could almost see him lying there on the ground and I felt nauseous. I practically ran to another part of the garden and leaned against a statue, trying to calm my racing heart and churning stomach.
I heard boots crunching on the gravel pathway, approaching slowly. I was pretty sure that whomever it was knew I was there — it’s very difficult to be the one everyone is supposed to watch over and stay out of sight. And I hadn’t really been trying to do so. I lifted my head from my arm when the footsteps stopped a few feet from me. I looked over and saw Alecks standing there.
I’d decided I wasn’t going to tell Alecks or Sedric what happened in these meetings if they went poorly. They would know the reason. So I was a bit surprised to find Alecks. He leaned his shoulder against the statue and was quiet for a moment, then he said, “That bad, huh?”
I nodded. “Fucking vile man actually spit on me.”
He nodded. “I heard. But is that why you look like you’re about to get sick?”
I leaned my head back on my arm. “Not completely. I should just stop going to the stupid bench under that stupid tree. It’s not the garden’s fault. I feel like I should just get over it. Maybe it was the stress of the meeting, but today it felt like I was going right back there to that day.”
He asked, “I wonder how he would have answered The Question?”
I snorted. “He probably would have decided it was a religion he needed to convert to if it had gotten him closer to the throne.”
“Now there’s an interesting idea. Let’s make it a religion and try to get converts. If we get enough, then we can pass a law based on religious freedom.”
I lifted my head again and looked over at him. He had a wry smile on his face. I said, “At least one of us is able to see the humor.”
“Well…I wasn’t there in the room. I doubt I’d be quite so flippant if I had been. On the other hand, if I had been there, he might have thrown more than just spit.”
“You mean like a fist?”
He nodded. “Or a kick. Any way he could decide to get his message across that I’m worth less than the dirt on his shoe.” He sighed. “Me and my people.”
“Your people?” I stood up and leaned my shoulder on the statue facing him. “Wait — did you actually form this religion without telling me?”
He laughed. “You have called me great and wise Alecks. That’s not too far from being a cleric, is it?”
I smiled gently and said quietly, “I’m glad you can laugh about this. Even if only a little.”
“I have to try. I knew when I told you I wanted to change the law that it wouldn’t be an easy thing. It’s taken me a bit of time to really wrap my head around just how difficult it will be, but lamenting the effort doesn’t help.”
“I guess I should look at the positive side — I’ve cleaned out bigots from my council and get to start fresh with decent people. Maybe I’ll appoint a woman to one of those posts.”
He looked down his nose at me. “Let’s not get too crazy now. Probably better to stick to one major social change at a time.”
I stood straight and started to walk back toward the palace. He fell into step next to me. I asked, “I wonder which one would actually be harder to enact?”
“You really have to ask that question?”
I sighed. “No. I know I picked the more difficult of the two.” He looked like he wanted to say something, but I cut him off. “And don’t even say it. I’m not doing this as a favor. I’m doing it because I believe in it. It also happens to affect a couple of my closest friends, but that’s only extra motivation, not the sole reason.”
He put his arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek. “And you’re wonderful for it.”
"Pawn Excerpt," Copyright © September 7, 2022 by Cathy Draig.