Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
“Taxes having been raised steadily every year over the last five years, though income has not seen the same increases,” Luther added. “This addition to royal levies that had already increased this year, I’m not surprised there’s grumbling.”
“For the first time in your life, you have an image problem,” Wallace said to True. “And the first time in Carrington’s career, he’s made a subtle strategic move that will have long-lasting ramifications that will strengthen his hold on your father and his control of the throne, all this accomplished by weakening you.”
“And we know he’s raising an army,” True stated.
“Quietly, but yes,” Bram replied. “He’s dispatched recruiters across the realm, and they are at work. And it’s my understanding through missives from the queen that the king knows this and sanctions it.”
Bloody hell.
He had definitely been cast out.
As had, it would seem, his mother.
“You need to be regent,” Alfie stated quietly.
“I need to form a parliament,” True replied.
He felt Farah stiffen beside him.
“That would be impossible, unless you’re regent,” Alfie returned.
Alfie was correct, as his friend had been correct in the many times they’d discussed this, even before Cassius became regent.
“You wish to give up your rule?” Farah asked softly.
He looked to his intended. “I wish to give my people a say in how their land and their lives are governed. I would be the final voice. If I felt what was decided was not for the good of the realm, I would have last right of refusal. And my name would need to be signed to any law, tax, treaty, proclamation for it to be valid and put into effect. But that would not happen unless my people have spoken through their representatives about how it should be done.”
“That would mean it could take ages for decisions to be made, and it might even be mayhem, no?” she replied.
“It is better than an entire country at the whims of whatever personality the gods bestow on their monarch and whatever choices he makes for his advisors,” he said.
She held his gaze for a long moment before she whispered, “You are a marvel, Prince True of Wodell.”
He felt relief she was not against this idea.
In fact, it appeared she championed it.
“He is a man of his people,” Alfie declared.
“Not in the now,” Bram noted. “He’s a man who’s besotted with his Firenz bride and wishes to give her a lavish wedding to be paid for by every thatcher, blacksmith, wealthy orchard owner and shepherd. This is a blow, True. And you need a swift recovery. Your mother expects a good deal from you, but I agree with her in this stead. Carrington has taken advantage of your absence. You need to go home.”
“Do you have coin?” Farah asked abruptly.
True turned to her. “Pardon?”
“Of your own. Do you have currency of your own?”
His men grew alert at this question but True simply answered, “My maternal grandmother left me an inheritance. I’ve not needed to touch it. So yes, I have coin.”
“Is it substantial?” she inquired.
“Why do you ask, milady?” Alfie demanded in a low tone, using the words “milady” to express he didn’t like her line of questioning, for she’d long since insisted they all call her Farah, and they’d long since acquiesced to this demand.
She looked to Alfie. “Because regardless what that proclamation said, it is signed by the king. It might infer that it is True demanding this new levy at his fancy and the whim of a betrothed who desires an extravagant wedding, but it was signed by the king.”
She turned again to True and spoke on.
“You are known, and you are loved. This proclamation has to come as a surprise not to some, but to many. If you do something that is very much you, such as give a substantial donation to an orphanage, or a hospital, or a school, and declare it a gift in celebration of your wedding, this will not be a surprise. It will be very in character of Prince True of Wodell. King Wilmer taxes his people. Prince True gives from the heart to his land.”
“Bloody hell, that’s genius,” Wallace muttered.
And bloody hell.
It was.
Farah glanced about all of them. “Further, I am naught but a citizen of my realm, but I would expect my monarch has the intelligence to acquire staff to manage his resources so that a wedding ceremony, no matter how lavish, would not require an extra duty.” Her attention returned to True. “I would ask, in the case of an additional tax, where the rest of my taxes went. Especially if where they went is not readily apparent. That would not be attributed to you. That would be an assessment of the decisions and supervision of the king and his advisors.”
True grinned at her.
She was not quite finished.
“Furthermore,” Farah continued, “of note is the fact that you’re wedding a woman from a realm with whom this one does not get along. This could have been an issue, more so after this tax was proclaimed. But I can request Mars makes his own substantial donation, perhaps to someplace in the Arbor, a library or museum that is oft-visited or otherwise cherished by Silence. Mars making this donation in his new queen’s name, an alliance through marriage with Firenze would not seem such a bad thing. The king of Wodell will be seen as taxing, the prince and his beloved cousin with their Firenz spouses have the best of the realm deep in their hearts and are willing to act on that.”