The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 27: Sisterly (3)

Helena looked down at her cup. She could not tell what was inside and felt the queen would be offended if she were to sniff the cup before bringing it to her lips. She didn’t think the queen was crazy to try poisoning her, so before Tabitha could become upset by how long she was taking, Helena picked up the cup and brought it to her lips to drink.

Her eyes widened as she realised what the queen had given her to drink.

"It is only water dear. You should see your face before you took the sip. What did you think was in the cup? Fear that I would harm you, child?" Asked Tabitha.

Why would she harm Helena when she just made it known that she liked the young woman? It was extreme but she wanted to see how much Helena trusted her.

"There was a need for me to be concerned when my cup is black and your cup is white. Anyone would worry," Helena said, putting the cup down as she still did not trust the water.

"But you still drank in the end. Tonight we will all gather before dinner for my son to pick one special young woman to be alone with to eat without anyone bothering them. I will urge him to pick you. It was meant to be you picked along with Linda this morning. Everything will fall back into place," Tabitha said, certain of it.

Someone like Helena would make a good queen. They would both get along well in the future and Helena would listen to her guidance. Helena only needed a helping hand that Tabitha was willing to offer.

"Thank you for having so much faith in me, Your Majesty. I will not let you down," Helena promised. She could not wait to share what the queen said to Hazel and Linda.

Faster than she expected, her time had come for all the attention to be back on her. She could see it now how Jasmine would get upset that she was picked for something again.

"I hope that you will keep this between us. It wouldn’t be a good look for me to make it known that I have a favourite and I am helping you. If I hear one word about me helping you, you understand that you won’t make it far in this selection and you will find it hard getting close to the next queen, don’t you?" Tabitha asked, staring at Helena to spot any lie in her response.

Helena disliked that she couldn’t share the fact that the queen considered her perfect to be the next queen, but she knew she would be foolish to get on the queen’s bad side. Once she was picked as queen, she could share this in the future and let everyone know they had no chance from the very beginning.

"As you said, it wasn’t very sisterly for Hazel to not tell me about her time with the prince. It is only fair that I keep my mouth shut about this. It is what she told me to do," Helena answered, smiling as she too could be secretive.

With the queen on her side, she could go so far in the selection and play as she wanted. The prince was practically in the palm of her hands since he would listen to his mother. Who would dare disobey the queen’s orders?

Tabitha smiled, liking Helena even more. Helena just might survive the crazy palace if she kept this up. The only thing that worried Tabitha was Helena’s jealousy.

Helena needed to control her jealousy as women trying to get Tobias would increase long after the selection. There would always be women looking to seduce the king to raise their status and possibly birth a son who could keep them fed for many years.

"I advise you to not fall so deeply in love with my son. You will get hurt if you do," Tabitha said, speaking from experience.

"I do not understand. Why shouldn’t I fall in love with him? Is it because he won’t love me back?" Helena asked, needing answers as it didn’t make sense. They were here to get to know the prince and fall for each other. Helena didn’t see why she shouldn’t follow her heart and love him with all of it.

"The king’s first priority is his kingdom. He will spend many days away from you to lead this kingdom and as his mother, I expect that you will not get in his way with your drama or whatever is bothering to take him away from his duty. You are to deal with your problems and not let the king have to step in to aid you. I consider the king married to the kingdom, not to me," said Tabitha.

Tabitha knew that she could not get much of her husband’s attention when she wanted it so she learned never to go to him. She was sharing her husband with the kingdom and most of the time, the kingdom would get his attention.

Tabtitha still loved her husband in the end despite not having a normal marriage like other wives. She wouldn’t change anything because they had gotten this far knowing what role they had to play. Now with Tobias soon becoming king, she could settle down somewhere with her husband and finally be the only person he paid attention to.

Tabitha found it best that Helena didn’t get so in love with her son yet as it would be hard to handle not seeing Tobias when she liked. It seemed hard now, but in the future, Helena would understand.

"The king’s second priority is his heirs. It is your first priority as you need to birth a healthy heir who will live to see many winters. Sometimes there is failure to get the child to reach a few months but we have the best doctors around to aid you. Focus less on falling for my son and prove that you are worthy of becoming queen. It is not only me you need to convince that you will make a good queen," said Tabitha. The court liked to intervene more than she wanted them to.

"I understand," Helena replied, but she was going to do as she wanted when it came to her feelings for the prince. It was inevitable that she was going to fall for the prince. She already loved everything she saw and knew about him.

"You can leave now to prepare for dinner. I am looking forward to what will come from my son picking you again. Now that you know you have my attention, do not disappoint me, Helena. If you lose my interest, it will be hard for you to get it again," Tabitha said, hoping it would not come to that. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ

"You will not be disappointed," Helena said, determined to make Tabitha proud. Knowing the queen was on her side was the extra motivation she needed to win the selection. She was going to show the queen and everyone else just how much she wanted to be queen and was not going to have this moment stolen from her.

She was not foolish like some might think.