When the New Favorite Came, I Chose Silence

Lady Winona Adler, the new consort, bears an uncanny resemblance to me when I first entered the palace. King Edward Wright showers her with fine silk, rare pearls, and all kinds of expensive gifts. She sets her sights on the white agate rabbit Edward has carved for me with his own hands. "His Majesty says that if I fancy something, I may have whatever I wish. You're old now, Lady Rosalyn. You don't deserve something this lovely and delicate." During the argument, the maid accompanying Lady Winona deliberately drops the rabbit and shatters it. Edward rushes over upon hearing the news, his tone edged with reproach. "If Winona wants it, just give it to her. It's just a worthless piece of stone. Why are you making such a fuss over it?" I stare at the shattered pieces scattered across the floor and suddenly remember how his hands were covered in small cuts and trembling when he gave it to me. It has only been nine years, and everything has changed. I've had enough. "Inform the Royal Household that I will be departing for Holy Brook Abbey to spend three years in prayer tomorrow." Chapter 1 Before dawn, my maid, Lily Cameron, began packing our trunks. She grumbled, "That rabbit was carved from one of the finest stones brought as tribute for His Majesty's 20th birthday. It was a rare treasure, yet he called it a worthless stone because of Lady Winona. Your Grace, you have every right to be angry." I told her to leave behind only two sets of plain clothes, a pair of shoes, and half a box of cough medicine. There was no need for silks and satins at the abbey, and bringing too much would only invite gossip. Lily crouched on the floor, her eyes red from crying. "Your Grace, are we really going there?" "I never go back on my word," I replied flatly. By midmorning, a page arrived with a message from King Edward Wright. "Your Grace, His Majesty says life in the abbey is tough. If you can't get used to it, you're welcome to return whenever you please." Lily bit her lip and looked at me. I closed the hand mirror and set it back on the dressing table. "Let's go." The walk from Rosewood Court to the palace gates meant crossing nearly half the inner court. It was a path I had walked for nine years, and this was the first time it felt so long. Halfway along the path, we encountered Paula Gilman, Queen Charlotte Dicken's senior maid. She walked up to us with a beaming smile, holding a red velvet box. "Greetings, Your Grace. Her Majesty had these prayer beads prepared especially for you. They've been blessed to keep you safe and give you peace of mind at the abbey." I took the box and lifted the lid. It was an exquisite set of prayer beads. "Her Majesty is very kind." Paula leaned in, her voice softening. "Do set your mind at ease at the abbey, Your Grace. Her Majesty will take care of everything here in the palace. You need not worry at all." I wrapped the prayer beads around my fingers and said, "Please give Her Majesty my thanks." After Paula left, Lily walked to my side and whispered, "The queen is practically showing us the door. You haven't even left the palace yet, and she's already making her move." I kept walking without responding. When we passed through the royal gardens, I stopped when I saw that not a single rosemary remained. The soil where they'd stood was freshly turned and still damp. Several gardeners were crouched on the ground, digging holes. Beside them stood a row of jasmine seedlings waiting to be planted. "How dare you pull up the rosemary!" Lily blurted out. "His Majesty planted it himself!" The head gardener saw me and stood up quickly. "Your Grace, Her Majesty said rosemary is way too common, while jasmine would make the garden more elegant." I caught Lily's wrist to stop her. "Let them be. I won't be here anyway. There's no point in keeping the rosemary." As we passed through the eastern wing, a line of palace maids was carrying dressing cases, silks, and coral ornaments to Lady Winona Adler's quarters. Then I heard Edward's laughter drifting over from the eastern garden wall. It was faint but unmistakably carefree. He hadn't laughed like that around me in a long time. My steps faltered slightly. Lily tightened her grip on my hand to steady me. I glanced through the garden gate. Edward was sitting beside a stone table with a small carving tool in hand, intently working on something. Lady Winona sat across from him, resting her chin in her hand as she watched him with a smile. Several pieces of freshly cut stone lay scattered across the table. He was teaching her to carve gemstones. Lily's voice trembled. "His Majesty said he would teach that skill only to you." I gently patted her hand. "There are so many things he said he did only for me. He planted the rosemary only for me and carved the white agate rabbit only for me. He said each of them was only for me, yet how many of those promises did he ever truly keep?" I turned away and climbed into the carriage. The curtain fell, and the wheels rattled over the stone pavement. I leaned against the side of the carriage and closed my eyes, my fingers unconsciously tightening around the prayer beads. The carriage rolled through the main gates and rumbled across the stone bridge over the moat. Lily lifted the corner of the curtain and looked back. "Your Grace, don't you want to take one last look?" I shook my head without opening my eyes. Edward knew better than anyone what that piece of agate meant to me. Yet after nine years, he had even forgotten who he had carved it for. Chapter 2 Holy Brook Abbey stood on a mountain 40 miles northwest of Norwick, over four hours away by carriage. I was given an old room at the back of the abbey. The curtains had yellowed with age, and the bed was hard and uncomfortable. Lily wiped away her tears while making the bed. I sat by the window, turning the pages of a prayer book and listening to the wind sweep through the pine trees. Somehow, I found a peace there that the palace could never offer. On the third day, someone from the palace came. It was a young page sent by Queen Charlotte. He arrived with a cartload of supplies. There was flour, grain, oil, salt, and everything else we needed. Lily accepted the supplies and came back looking grim. "The queen's message is clear. His Majesty couldn't care less about us. From now on, everything we eat and use here is entirely at her mercy." I nudged the lamp wick with a pin. "Just take it. At least we have something to eat." On the seventh day, we heard more news from the palace, passed along by a young maid Lily knew. Lady Winona was still enjoying the king's favor and had been promoted to a countess. Lily was indignant. "Your Grace, it took you three full years to rise from a minor lady to a countess. She did it in less than a month!" I turned another page of the prayer book. The coarse paper scraped against my fingertips, stinging slightly. "There's one more thing." Lily bit her lip, looking hesitant. "The Rosewood Court plaque… has been taken down." My hand froze on the book. Lily added, "The Royal Household says it was done on His Majesty's orders. Rosewood Court has been renamed Wisteria Court and granted to Lady Winona. "They haven't changed any of the furnishings. Even the mahogany desk in your study is still there, and the curtains too. When Lady Winona moved in, she said the court was beautifully appointed and suited her perfectly." Rosewood Court was named after me. When Edward had the residence built for me, he told me it was the only residence in the palace named after a consort. He said it was proof of his favor, and he wanted everyone to know how much he cherished me. Now the plaque was gone, and so was his favor. He certainly hadn't hesitated when he made that decision. Lily dropped to her knees when I remained silent. "Your Grace, please say something. That's your residence. It bears your name." I closed the prayer book. "I'm gone now. It no longer belongs to me. He was the one who named it and gave it to me. If he takes it back for someone else, so be it." Tears streamed down Lily's face. "But that's so unfair to you." The mountain air turned cold at night. I lay beneath a thin blanket on the hard bed, listening to the steady evening chimes in the distance. I stared up at the ceiling beam. A long, narrow crack ran across the wood, as if some insect had bored into it. The year Rosewood Court was completed, Edward had my nickname carved into the back door of the main hall. He chose a discreet spot high above eye level, one only the two of us knew about. He said I'd see it whenever I came and went and know the place was mine. I wonder if those letters had been scraped away too. Chapter 3 There was a narrow path behind Holy Brook Abbey that led to an abandoned building. The path was overgrown and rarely used. Every morning, I walked that path to stretch my legs. After more than two weeks, I became acquainted with an elderly woman who lived in the abandoned building. Her name was Beatrice Holm. She had lived at the abbey for 26 years. Lily asked around and discovered that Beatrice had once been a consort of the late king. Before his death, she had asked to leave the palace and live the rest of her life in seclusion. The Royal Council revoked her title and struck her name from the royal household rolls. I sat on the stone steps, sorting greens for Beatrice while she chopped firewood nearby. The calluses on her hands were much thicker than mine. She split the log in two and asked, "How long did you stay in the palace?" "Nine years," I replied. "That's not so long." She stacked the firewood and brushed the splinters from her hands. "I spent 12 years there." I said nothing, placing the vegetable into a basket. She glanced at me, her tone as casual as if she were commenting on the weather. "Spending three years up here would be torture for you. "But to the king, it would simply mean waiting for you to come to your senses and return to your cage. If you truly want out, don't wait three years. Cut all ties now, while he still doesn't care to stop you." My fingers tightened around the vegetable. Beatrice brought the axe down again, splitting another log. "The late king was a kind man. Before he died, he permitted me to leave the palace, and the Royal Council later removed my name from the royal household rolls," she said. "Go to your family and have them submit a petition to the Royal Council. You may be able to do it without going through the king." The mountain wind swept through the pine trees, stirring a few loose leaves in the basket. I sat there until the sun had passed its highest point. That evening, I sat down to write a letter. Lily prepared the ink beside me, her hands trembling. "Your Grace, are you writing to your father?" "Yes." My hand was surprisingly steady as I began to write. "I need his help with something." The letter was short, barely a hundred words. I sealed it with wax and handed it to Lily. "Deliver it yourself tomorrow. Don't let anyone else touch it." The next day, the palace sent the month's provisions as usual. A gift box came with them. Inside were a length of fine white silk and two jars of truffle paste, no different from the gifts sent to the family of some insignificant court official. I put the silk away in the cabinet and had Lily take the truffle paste to the kitchen. Beneath the box lay a slip of paper, tucked in by the young maid Lily knew. "His Majesty said he was worried Lady Rosalyn might be lonely at the abbey, so he asked Lady Winona to come visit in a few days." Lily's face turned red in anger as she finished reading it. I took the note from her, folded it twice, and tucked it beneath the candleholder. "Go on. Deliver the letter to my father." Lily clutched the letter tightly and hurried down the mountain. I sat by the window, watching the shadow of the old pine tree inch across the courtyard from the east wall to the west. By the time it reached the foot of the western wall, dusk was falling. Chapter 4 Lily came back to the abbey on the fourth evening after she'd left. Her shoes were caked with mud, and a letter was pressed to her chest. I recognized my father's handwriting at once. It was always neat and precise, never the slightest bit hurried. He wrote that he had looked into the precedents from the late king's reign. There were three instances of royal consorts requesting permission to leave the palace. The Royal Council had complete records of all three cases, including the necessary paperwork. All I had to do was write a formal petition explaining my decision. My family could submit it to the Royal Council on my behalf, citing those precedents and requesting that my name be removed from the royal household rolls. At the end of the letter, my father had added, "If this is truly what you have decided, I won't stop you." I sat by the lamp with the letter in my hands. The wick crackled, and the flame flickered. That night, I spread out a sheet of paper and wrote my petition. Beatrice helped me refine the wording. I cited the precedents from the late king's reign and kept the tone respectful, with reasons that would stand up to scrutiny. I wrote that I had come to the abbey for prayer and to recover my health. During my time here, I had found peace in a quiet life of devotion. I now wished to make the abbey my permanent home. When I finished, I read the petition. Every word was measured and proper. There was nothing anyone could fault. I folded the petition, placed it in an envelope, and handed it to Lily. "Take it down the mountain first thing tomorrow. Give it directly to my father and have him submit it as an official petition to the Royal Council." Lily took the petition but did not move. She knelt beside me and wrapped her arms around my knees. "Your Grace, once this petition is submitted, you can never return to the palace." I looked down at her and gently brushed the loose strands of hair from her forehead. "Who said I wanted to go back?" Lily cried so hard she could barely catch her breath. I didn't try to comfort her. Instead, I got up, went to the dressing table, and removed the ruby hairpin from my hair. It was a gift from Edward on the day of his coronation. He had said it was one of a kind, and no other like it could be found anywhere in the realm. I set it on the dressing table, replaced it with a plain wooden pin, and smoothed my hair while looking into the mirror. My reflection looked calm. My face hadn't changed much. It looked the same as it had in Rosewood Court. Lily told me that the palace was busy preparing a banquet for Lady Winona. Edward had personally reviewed the menu and even ordered the glass in every wall sconce in the main hall to change to Lady Winona's favorite shade of pale yellow. Her father and brother had also received invitations and would arrive at the palace the following day. It was just as grand as the banquet held for me when I became a royal consort. Lily kept sneaking glances at me as she spoke, watching for my reaction. I said nothing. After Lily left, I sat alone in my room, copying sacred text. Outside the window, the moonlight was cold and clear, and the wind through the pines sounded like the rolling sea. Edward was far away in the palace, unaware that I had just removed the hairpin he had given me. While he was arranging a banquet for Lady Winona, my petition was already on its way to the Royal Council. After the Royal Council reviewed it, it would be sent to the Royal Secretariat. By the time it went through all the formalities and reached Edward, the decision would already be final.