Burning for Love by Evangeline Anderson
61
The Grand Ballroom in the Royal Palace had been completely redecorated for the big day. In the center of the huge room, a large stage had been erected. It included both a golden throne…and a hangman’s gibbet. To one side of the gibbet stood the hapless Lady Mildew. She was dressed in black with her hands tied behind her back.
On the other side of the stage was the Steward, who was at last ready to hand over the crown, now that a worthy successor to the old King had finally been found. He was sitting not on the throne, but on the small silver chair which was usually reserved for the Steward during such ceremonies.
Before the stage were numerous communications specialists with their cameras and equipment. All of Regalia Five would be glued to their viewscreens on this very special day, both to witness the coronation of a new King and the hanging of the villainess who had killed the lovely young Princess before she could ever become their Queen.
Duke Grabbington surveyed all of this with delight from the double doors leading into the ballroom. His wig, with the projection bead firmly in place, was on his head, showing the youthful appearance of the late Lord Shammington to all who looked at him. And soon it would be King Shammington the Just, he told himself. Or maybe King Shammington the Wise. Or possibly King Shammington the Handsome. He hadn’t decided what he would call himself yet—what title would be entered into the history books. He only knew that all his dreams of absolute power and untold wealth were about to be realized at last.
Of course, there was the little mystery of what had actually happened to Princess Ka’rissa. But the Duke didn’t concern himself with that overly much. One of the guards had seen her running out into the gardens. Probably she had combusted out there, somewhere on the vast grounds of the palace, and was now nothing but a pile of ashes and some melted slag from her Chastity Device under some distant tree or bush.
Where, exactly, she had died didn’t matter to the Duke. And since it had been several days since she had disappeared on their “wedding night,” he was quite sure she was dead. There was no way she could have survived her Heat Cycle rising without being able to slake her Heat. And no one could slake it for her, since the Chastity Device had been completely unbreakable and the only key to it had been destroyed.
The Duke considered himself especially clever for his construction of the lie about Lady Mildew’s involvement in the incident.
“She has always been jealous of my darling Ka’rissa’s youth and beauty—the Princess told me so!” he had cried dramatically, pointing at the confused old woman, whom he had told the guards to drag out of bed in the middle of the night. “She threw the only key to the Princess’s Chastity Device into the fire and declared that she should burn! And so she did—before I could save her!”
He had pointed with a shaking finger to the pile of ashes he had swept up from the fireplace and heaped carefully onto the golden rug in the middle of the honeymoon bed chamber floor. He had sobbed noisily—a new husband overcome with grief at the loss of his lovely young wife.
The guards had marched the bewildered Lady Mildew away to the dungeons to await her fate and the Duke had immediately set his plans in motion for a swift coronation. Today, with the planet still stunned and grieving for the lost Princess, he would take the crown and claim the throne as his own.
“And then all will be right with the world,” Duke Grabbington muttered, smiling smugly.
“Your Highness, the ceremony is about to begin,” murmured his personal Valet. “Are you quite ready?”
“I am.” Duke Grabbington rubbed his hands together, eyeing the golden throne with avarice in his eyes. “Ready to claim what is mine. By all means, let us begin.”
