The King's Lover Chapter 551: Gravely Miscalculated

Queen Rose stood in front of the mirror, inspecting her midsection. She had gravely miscalculated. Over the past three weeks, she’d had more than a few clothes altered.

She couldn’t hide her stomach; she was visibly pregnant. She wasn’t quite sure how many months exactly, but she was well past the first trimester.

"Is it too tight?" Chelsy asked, noticing the slight frown on her face.

Rose shook her head and glanced back. "No, I am just amazed at how quickly the baby is growing."

"Your stomach is only going to get bigger," Isla proudly announced.

She smiled and stepped away from the mirror. She didn’t really feel any different except for the added weight. Well, she did notice she was getting a little more irritable with the staff, but only if they didn’t do their jobs right.

It had been a month since she took over the old Queen’s duties, and she liked it very much. Violeta, on the other hand, looked like she might burst every time they crossed paths, and Rose reveled in her misery.

Her impatience was starting to show. She had been smiling the first two weeks, expecting Rose to fail any time soon, but the more time dragged on, the more efficient she got.

She walked towards the door, and Isla rushed ahead to hold it open. "Thank you, Isla," she said with a smile, and the young lady blushed.

She stepped out, planning to go to Caius. He was late; usually he would be in her room already. He didn’t oversleep—after all, he was in her bed before her maids arrived.

"Your Majesty," Delan said with a bow as soon as she stepped out.

"Good morning, Delan. Anything new?" she asked as she walked towards Caius’s room.

Somehow, in the past few weeks, Delan had turned into both her assistant and her advisor.

"Ah yes," he replied and brought out a paper from his inner pocket. "The new curtains arrived in the early hours of this morning. Queen Violeta changed her maids for the fourteenth time this month."

"That old witch is always up to something," she mumbled under her breath. "Go on."

"The discrepancies you found—Edith has found the culprits."

"Oh," she paused and turned around to look at Delan. "And she kept insisting nothing was wrong."

The records were too disproportionate. One week things would be fairly normal, then the next week the money spent would increase by about a quarter more, which was a large margin, as a lot of guards lived on the castle grounds.

Edith had explained that this was normal, but Rose was having none of it. If she was to approve anything, she had to know exactly what was going on and what these irregular expenses were.

"Turns out some of the maids were stealing foodstuffs, especially cattle meat, and giving it to the guards they had crushes on. Her exact words."

"Silly. She pretends to have an iron grip on the kitchen affairs but lets too many wrong things happen under her nose. I will deal with them later. Tell Edith to have them ready for me—and herself too. If this has been going on for over a month, I wonder how long it has really been going on. To steal from the crown. Have they lost their minds?!"

"Will do. Also, about the meeting His Majesty would have today, Edith will discuss that with you after breakfast."

Rose nodded. Caius had been a little anxious about it in the past few days. He wasn’t the kind to show his anxiety, which meant this was a serious issue.

She didn’t press. At least not yet. She figured it was best to wait until after the meeting, then she would be able to get all the details.

"Is that all?" she asked as she stopped in front of his bedroom door.

"Just one more thing. The furniture has also arrived, a little after noon. Do you still want to inspect them, Your Majesty?" Delan’s tone indicated that she shouldn’t be doing such a task.

"Absolutely." No one at the castle knew wood better than she did.

She turned the handle of his bedroom and walked in. Caius was alone, fully dressed, seated at his desk. He lifted his head, and his frown eased as he saw her.

"I lost track of time," he said and stood to his feet, walking towards her.

"I figured." She didn’t move from the door, waiting for him to come to her.

"You should have sent for me. You didn’t have to make the journey here."

"Journey?" she asked in horror as he pulled her into his arms. "You are only two rooms away."

"Still," he said and kissed her forehead.

"Are you ready?" she asked, glancing at the desk.

"Yeah," he said absentmindedly. "After breakfast, I will likely be unavailable until dinner."

"I understand. I already made provisions for that. Is there anything in particular you would like for lunch?"

"You know, you work a little too hard, Rose. You are pregnant."

She chuckled. "This is hardly working, Your Majesty. All I do is order a bunch of people around. It is quite fun if you ask me."

He shook his head. "Only you would say that." He placed his hand on her stomach. "If you feel even the slightest bit different, stop. I can hire a bunch of people to do that."

"Thank you very much, but I quite like my job. Do you hear me telling you to quit despite your sleepless nights?"

"Fair point."

"And I am fine, I promise. The physician was just here yesterday."

After her stomach started showing, he had insisted there was no point hiding it and had sent for both the royal physician and the royal midwife. They checked on her at least once a week.

"Shall we?" he asked, planting a palm on her waist.

"Yes, please."

They walked out hand in hand, and Rose couldn’t help but glance at Caira’s bedroom. She hadn’t spoken about her in a while, and from the looks of things, Rylen seemed to have given up.

"You don’t have to worry, you know that right?" he said, noticing her stare.

She shook her head. "It is hard not to worry."

"I know."

It was only after his reply that she realized she had said those words out loud.

"There is still more than enough time before the baby arrives," Caius added. "I will take care of it before then."

Rose didn’t doubt his word, and she knew he meant it, but things were not as easy as she would like. She didn’t want to imagine what it would cost him to fix it.

So for now, all she could do was concentrate on her tasks and pray that Rylen grew some balls.