599 Did You Not Hear Me?
Marie cleared her throat as she replied, “Umm, we go to bed, Your Majesty…”
“So you sleep?” Seren concluded. It did somehow make sense in her mind; after all, after working everyday, being back home would be Marie’s only chance to relax.
Marie nodded quietly, not willing to expose her privacy once again to her queen. But Eva didn’t give up as she tried to hide her giggling.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty,” she said with a naughty smile, “do you really think they just sleep when Marie meets her husband? After a separation of almost an entire month? Will you also only eat and sleep when you meet His Majesty after a month-long wait?”
Seren stopped eating once more, blinking innocently after hearing those words. As she looked at Marie throwing dagger-like glares at Eva, she thought to herself. ‘If Dray were to stay away from me for that long…I don’t think I’ll be satisfied. I would want to spend the limited time I have with him doing other things. Those two days he was away, I already missed him so much, what more a month.”
“Eva, you sure are getting so bold, don’t you?” Marie forced smiled at her fellow servant, her narrowed eyes showing irritation at Eva’s mischief.
“Me? Bold?” The younger servant pretended not to understand. “I was just trying to get more information for Her Majesty on how a wife pleases her husband.”
“You…”
“Eva is right,” Seren interrupted her. “Then what do you do in bed—”
Cough!
“Your Majesty, we do what you are thinking about,” Marie answered with a burning face.
“Oh…” Seren said with understanding. “I cannot cook or I will burn this entire ship. So I need to know what more I can do to please Dray.”
Now they understood why their queen asked this seemingly out of the blue. She wanted to please her husband.
Marie sighed inwardly at her helpless situation and decided to help out the younger woman. “Your Majesty, if I may be honest, what pleases your husband is a matter of preference. You need to observe his likes and dislikes, and only time can help you with that. If I may be blunt, well, you can try to take initiative of things when you and His Majesty are in bed. It might please him, and even if not, at least you will know.”
Seren thought about it and then asked, “Will it really work please him? Don’t men like to be in charge…?”
“It always works on my husband,” Marie answered promptly, causing the other women inside the cabin to chuckle at her expense.
“Fine, I will try,” Seren said as she thought with determination, ‘I need to get the answers to what he did about me and my clothes back then in Abetha.’
The three women looked at their queen who was lost in her world. They could not come up to imagine this young queen of theirs would try to dominate their domineering king.
All three of them shook their heads and tried to get rid of the embarrassing thoughts.
—
For the next few hours, Seren and her servants remained inside the Queen’s cabin, and though it was the most stable area within the ship, those inside could still feel the swaying of the wooden floorboards underneath them. The young queen couldn’t even enjoy tea as the drink would spill as soon as it entered the cup, and the ladies serving her had to keep the fragile items like glass and porcelain off the table and into the cupboards for safekeeping.
These women could only imagine how worse the situation was aboveboard.
p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om Drayce didn’t show up in front of Seren even when noontime came, and she started to feel worried.
She stood up from bed, holding onto the footboard in order to keep herself steady, “I am going to the deck.”
“You must not, Your Majesty!” Lady Xena called out. “It’s not safe to go out. The sailors said that the wind is too strong even for them. We can’t even stand properly here…”
“Indeed. Please, Your Majesty, let’s just stay put,” Marie agreed. “The King and the sailors must be busy taking care of things, and our appearance will not only endanger our lives, it will also add to their burdens.”
Despite her reluctance, Seren understood their worries and stayed back in her cabin. Outside, they could hear the noise of the strong wind hitting the windows as well as the rough waves striking the side of the ship. The women had no choice but to stay seated while holding onto something to keep themselves stable. Even amidst the roars of the sea, they could hear the loud voices of the sailors giving instructions to each other.
The entire day passed by chaotically, and while everyone was busy with their tasks, Seren had no choice but to stay inside her cabin with only her thoughts as company. She had dismissed her servants to rest in their own quarters, and they only came back when it was time for her evening meal.
However, the roughness of the sea got even worse when night came, and rain started pouring down as if to say a storm had come. Seren could see the situation outside from the small glass window inside her cabin.
As she had not seen Drayce the entire day, her mind was filled with worry about his safety. She didn’t expect that she would get to personally experience such a dangerous journey, thinking storms like this would only happen to the unlucky characters she read in books. Worse, in those books she read, a ship experiencing a storm would always be followed by a shipwreck.
‘No, I should not have negative thoughts.’
Though she was aware of Drayce’s abilities, as a wife, she could not stop feeling worried for her husband.
A flash of light suddenly erased the pitch black darkness outside the window, followed by the roaring sounds of thunder. Seren felt as if her heart was in her throat.
Without saying a word, Seren stood up, causing her servants who were cleaning the almost untouched evening meal to look up at her with puzzled gazes.
“Your Majesty, do you need something?” Lady Xena asked.
“Nothing. You all stay here and do not follow me,” Seren ordered in an authoritative tone.
The three women could not obey this order of the Queen. It would be against their duty and loyalty to let her go alone. “But, Your Majesty…”
Seren glared at the three. “Did you not hear me?”
The group of women froze in their places, unable to react after seeing her like this for the first time. Seren had never acted so strictly with them. They could only watch her open the door and leave the cabin on her own.
“But it will be dangerous for Her Majesty…”
“Let’s follow Her Majesty even if she doesn’t want us to.”
“Yes, we can later accept the punishment for not listening to her. Her safety is of utmost importance.”
The three women hurried after the queen, despite themselves trying their best to keep their balance.
Seren climbed the set of circular stairs while holding onto the railing, and soon, she reached the door leading to the deck. From the other side of the door, she could hear the threatening noises of nature mixed along with the shouts of the sailors giving instructions to others.
When Seren opened the door, she was welcomed by the strong gust of wind which made her take a step back. Her entire body was almost pushed with the force and she would have fallen down the stairs had she not grabbed onto the doorway.