Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 261

Chapter 261: DOWAGER QUEEN
“Sleep tight, princess.” Rowan leaned over and kissed her cheek before he left. He didn’t trust himself to stay any longer there. After all, he had been celibate for months now, the last time he touched a woman was before he left for Ogregon kingdom and this auburn woman was too tempting.

Zaya didn’t get to meet with Rowan last night, because apparently he returned very late, but when she woke up, a woman around the age of thirty was standing at the feet of her bed, waiting for her to wake up.

However, Zaya noticed how she tried to avoid her eyes. She looked… wary.

If she was not mistaken, her name was Mary, she would be her personal maid. There were two more young girls that would assist her, which meant Zaya had three maids on her own, who would attend to her every need.

“You are awake, princess,” Mary said, she then went outside and the other two girls entered the room, holding a basin and clean towel for Zaya to wipe her face and cleaned herself.

“Thank you,” Zaya said. She caught the look of surprised on their faces when she said that, but they didn’t utter a word, while helping Zaya.

They did their job in silent, they looked very solemn to her liking.

After she was done, they helped her to change her dress and then did her hair. They were rather confused about what to do with her hair, because they had never handled curls before and Zaya’s curly hair was pretty hard to be tamed, especially in the morning.

“I will do it,” Zaya said, as she made a bun with half of her hair and braided the rest. She looked fresh and beautiful in her white dress that emphasized the color of her hair. “Where is Rowan? I mean the king.”

“The king is in the morning meeting,” Mary replied.

“When he finished?” Zaya was slightly disappointed because she couldn’t see him again, but she could understand, after all Rowan had been away from his kingdom for long, there must be a lot of things that he needed to handle.

“I am not sure when it will finish.”

Zaya nodded. “Can you show me around?” Rowan said he would be the one, who would do it, but he seemed very busy, so Zaya took the initiative, since she didn’t know what she needed to do.

“Sure, princess.”

With that, Zaya followed Mary and the other two girls walked behind her. “Why there is no guard?” They had walked from a hallway to another and then crossed the garden, but she couldn’t see a guard at all.

Rowan told her that he didn’t like to have anyone around his palace, but it was too quiet.

“The guards are stationed outside of the palace. The king doesn’t like to have them around inside his palace.”

Zaya knew that, but still she found it weird. She walked a little bit more before she finally realized there was some part of the palace that Mary avoided.

“That’s the king’s study room, the king’s bedroom, the meeting room where the king used to hold the morning meeting and his training ground. You are not allowed to go there without the king’s permission.”

“Meeting room? It means Rowan is there right now?”

It didn’t go unnoticed by Zaya the way they grimaced when she called Rowan by his name.

“Yes, the king is there, but you are not allowed to get closer to the room.”

Zaya only nodded and continued to walk away, but when she wanted to go out of the king’s palace, Mary stopped her.

“You are not allowed to go out of the palace without the king’s permission.”

“Why not? I am not a prisoner here.” Zaya wanted to meet with the other magic users.

Mary shook her head. “You are the king’s woman. You should ask permission from the king if you wanted to walk out of the palace.”

Zaya’s brows furrowed, she didn’t like this rule at all. She would talk with Rowan later about this.

Thankfully, Rowan didn’t neglect her a whole day like yesterday because in the evening he came to have dinner together with her.

“I want to see the magic users from the Holy Kingdom.” Zaya knew about the agreement between Rowan and Zander. Her brother made sure that she had her own power here and those five hundred magic users were under her command.

“I want to talk about that too,” Rowan said. He put a big slice of meat on Zaya’s plate. “I have given them separate quarter from the knight’s and they have their own training ground as well. I will take you there.”

Zaya was surprised, but she was also pleased with his thoughtfulness. It would be hard for those magic users if they had to blend with the knights right away.

She didn’t know, who had come here, but she knew most of magic users in the Holy Kingdom.

“I gave myself a tour around the palace with Mary earlier, there are a few places that I am not allowed to enter and I need your permission to go out of the palace.” Zaya was not happy, especially with the later.

Rowan chuckled. “You can go wherever you want. That’s an old rule. I don’t have any intention to keep you inside the palace all the time.”

Zaya was happy to hear that and the next morning, she went with Rowan to the magic user’s quarter. It was a nice and big place with a huge land that stretched out at the back, the place where they could practice their magic safely.

“I will not stay. I need to be somewhere, but I will come three hours from now,” Rowan said, he leaned over and captured her lips. “Have fun.”

Zaya watched Rowan left with Addie and then entered the building, where all of the magic users there greeted her. Zaya recognized most of them.

They were confused what they needed to do there, but Zaya gave them what they needed to expect, which was to guard the kingdom’s territory. They only needed to cast a barrier to protect their territory.

However, the reality was not that simple, especially for Zaya, because when she was having a nice chat with her fellow magic users, a guard came to inform her there was someone, who wanted to talk with her.

“Who is that?” Zaya asked, she didn’t think aside from Rowan, there would be someone else, who would come to see her.

“Dowager queen,” the guard replied.

Zaya was surprised when she heard that. Dowager queen Katerina. Zaya didn’t know much about her and forgot completely that Rowan still had a living parent. He killed his father and brother, but he had never said anything about his mother.

It was the error on Zaya’s side for forgetting this important thing, but to her defense, she was only in this kingdom for less than three days.

“I will come and see her,” Zaya said, as she stood up and headed toward the front door, where she could see there were a big entourage that came with Dowager Queen Katerina.

Zaya thought this was too much, but then she didn’t know the tradition here, so she would assume this was normal for a visit.

“Greeting, queen Katerina,” Zaya greeted her politely, she bent her knees slightly to show her respect and when she lifted her head, she smiled at the queen before her. Now she knew where Rowan got those sharp eyes, but the rest he must have taken after his father.

“Let’s talk inside.”

Zaya thought when the queen said ‘inside’ they were going to go to inside the building, but instead, she went to her luxurious carriage.

Confused, Zaya followed her and then took a seat across from her. “My apologize for not greeting you first and you have to go all the way here.” Zaya started. “I should have come to you first.” She made a mental note to chided Rowan for this mishap. He should have told her.

The carriage was spacious, but the way the queen looked at Zaya, it made the air was sucked out of this place.

It was obvious that she scrutinized her, but Zaya met her eyes. She didn’t look at her defiantly, but obviously, she wouldn’t let this queen to think that she was less. She was also a princess from a great kingdom.

“I heard what happened to the three generals.” Katerina completely ignored Zaya’s statement earlier. “You caused so much trouble in the first day of your arrival here.”

Zaya’s small smile didn’t falter. “I will assume that you have not yet heard the whole story about what actually had happened.” Zaya was calm, but she could see how the queen was warry of her, just like Mary and the other two girls. They must be afraid of the power that she was holding, especially when there were five hundred magic users here.

“I have heard everything.”

“So, you agreed that they had slandered my name and insulted the king?”

“Ridiculous!” Katerina growled. She looked unhappy with Zaya’s attitude, though she didn’t even show any. “You shouldn’t have eavesdropped and interrupted their meeting in the first place.”

“I didn’t mean to, but I happened to be around when they talked about me. Do you even know that they called me a witch? Not in a nice way, but in degrading way. I will be the future queen of this kingdom, don’t you think what they said and done had crossed the line?”