Chapter 16: The chamberlains
A woman who was waiting in the antechamber of the royal office was discussing with one of the chamberlains in a whispering voice, so their masters in the next room wouldn't hear them.
"Excuse me. His Majesty, the King and Her Royal Highness are having an important discussion. You should refrain from interfering!"
After instructing the ladies to wait, one of the chamberlains stood in front of the door that leads to the Royal office, ready to enter.
It was very rude, since behind that door were the Queen and King talking in private.
Johanna was angry about that, even if they were discussing state's affairs without a bit of romance in the air, this chamberlain is ruining the moment.
Many new hired servants in the palace had the same misconceptions about their relationship.
Since the birth of the prince, the gossips about their relationship tended to cool down due to their attitude and the quarrels in the Palace between the factions, but there are many rumors still flying around.
After all, they had a short honeymoon but after it, the Second Queen gave birth to a prince, the first son of the King.
The Petranian maids were quiet about this, as if they didn't dare to tell the truth and destroy the dreams of their junior co-worker.
The honeymoon didn't even exist, it was only a formality to avoid problems with the Kasha family.
While Johanna, who married for love and loves her husband deeply, sees it as the reunion of a couple that can't spend much time together because the other people's interference.
"Her Royal Highness? It's true that Berta Kasha forced the Kingdom to change the law just to satisfy her desire of becoming queen, but does she dare to proudly call herself that?! We, Prospero's devotes, do not approve of such barbaric traditions like the polygamy! It doesn't matter how much vanity Kasha has, it's meaningless before God."
Johanna was going to argue for a while to stop 'Mr. chamberlain only-good-for-barking' of interrupting the married couple private meeting, but before she could interfere, another chamberlain beside her spoke up.
"Well, well, calm down. In theory, the King Harold already converted and in the new doctrine God does not prohibit a man to have more than one wife. Besides, Harold himself, is a son out of wedlock. Henri, are you denying Harold's legitimacy too?"
"But--"
The two chamberlains began to argue between them.
The bloodthirsty Henri, who would hurt you with his cruel words, and Joel, who would humor you with his friendly smile.
They are troublesome because their principles and temperaments are almost opposite to their identical appearance.
"Even you are going to side with that poisonous woman?!"
"It's not a friend or foe thing. I'm just saying that your rudeness is too much for Harold to handle."
Incidentally, Berta, didn't realize they were twins for a reasonably long time.
"They are twins"
When Johanna told her that Henri was the rude and Joel was the quiet one, Berta replied.
"Oh, now I understand, they're twins. That is why I saw the same face but with different attitude every time I meet one of them. I thought it was some kind of emotionally unstable chamberlain with two different personalities. Ohhhh, they're different persons, of course..."
"Henri, why are you incapable of thinking clearly when Lady Margarita is involved? Even if you think you're good enough to be chosen to be in Harold's entourage with me, think about using your brilliant mind for once a week at least!"
"I don't need to think about it. That woman didn't even thank Lady Margarita for letting her enter this palace before she came here this morning! Isn't it obvious which one doesn't understand her position as a vassal?"
Johanna interrupted the twins' exchange with another whisper when she noticed that the Petranian maidservants had turned their eyes full of killing intent to look at Henri after his comment about Berta being a subject.
Those whispers, however, were so loud that even the thick wood door of the office wasn't enough to stop the sound.
"Shut up and stay out of it, Macefield!"
Johanna couldn't hold back, when Henry was about to open the door, she pushed the wood door with a heavy hit, and without even looking at his face, after being hearing her maiden name, she raised her voice to nearly a scream, ruining the effort she herself made moments ago.
"Call me Viscountess Schulde!!!"
The twin chamberlains come from a fallen aristocratic family, after working very hard, the King hired them thanks to their own efforts.
In other words, they were on the same boat as Johanna, what is more, they knew each other in the past and come to be something that can be nearly called childhood friends.
That is why when they started fighting forgotten about noble etiquette and called her by that name, but that isn't the only reason.
"I won't tolerate any disrespect against my family! I'm no longer the second daughter of the poor Macefield family. I'm the wife of the Schulde family's head, and the nanny of His Majesty's eldest son!"
For the nanny Johanna, her maiden name is a sore spot since many mistake her for a single young girl, yet that isn't the complete reason either.
"I'm ... sorry. My bad, Mrs. Schulde."
Henri, hates the Second Queen, but he is loyal to the King, thus to the Prince.
He recognized his mistake and corrected it, but Joel, on the contrary, for a personal reason that has nothing to do with politics, gave her condescending smile and said.
"Forgive my brother's error, Viscountess Schulde. Even so, we worked for a long time until we were promoted to this position. But what trick did you use, how did you manage to crawl to the position of royal nanny? ... Well, I guess, we can't underestimate the ambition of a woman that even married a viscount old enough to be her own father."
(Johanna, you already knew it, both twins are snakes! But Joel is clever and uses a mask.)
"I married my husband because I love him, not for ambition, and I didn't use any tricks, that's rude!"
"Sure, sure. I still don't understand how you can bear being married to that bearded old man, and it isn't for his money, then why? Were you too drunk to notice?"
"What's wrong with his beard?!! And how could you say that, in first place my husband is bad at business, even up to this day we have no money to brag! In this world there is no opportunist stupid enough, to marry a man as poor as him!!"
....
....
....
....
The exchange of silly personal content continued until Berta came out of the office.
The two chamberlains stopped the exchange and bowed to Berta, pretending to see her off as she walked out of her office.
Henri too, because His Majesty's figure was inside the office but with the open door, he can see what is happening in the antechamber.
Even so, when Berta was nearly leaving, Johanna noticed that Henri directed a gaze full of malice and hate toward Berta.
In truth, as he said many times during their previous exchange, he can't help but want to curse Berta's when he thinks on the rightful queen.
As usual, he was quick to stock up on stories that make Berta look like the villain before talking.
What was different today was that Berta turned around and looked at Henri, this time, with a gaze full of disgust and hate.
Normally, Henri would look at her like that and it would be Joel who, using his elbow will hit his brother's arm to make him understand the place where he's.
While Berta will not even look at them and leave, but Berta didn't do that this time, which left both brother perplexed as she left the room in silence.
"What happened with that chamberlain?"
After returning to the back palace, one of the Petranian maids asks Berta, who had a thoughtful look on her face.
Although the meeting for the visit itself seemed to have gone generally well, Berta doesn't relax.
"Why can't we leave the rude one here?"
"That will be difficult. I'm afraid, His Majesty is not surrounded by people of talent."
"As a bodyguard, he'll probably abandon you in the middle of the road."
She sighed exaggeratedly, as if saying that she knows that well enough.
"Well, it's really annoying, having to walk around with someone that you know will definitely cause problems."
While her handmaids nodded their heads in agreement with their master's words, Johanna and the other new servants didn't understand at first what they were talking about.
But they would soon come to see it for themselves.
As expected by Berta, the first person to cause problems on the southern area inspection tour was the chamberlain, Henri.
Petra is not the Royal Palace, and they don't realize what means in the south being disrespectful to the legitimate daughter of the great lord of Kasha.
Sponsored Content
