"That isn't shortening the process" Badaxe scowled. "It's prolonging it."
"Sorry, General" I laughed, heading out the back door. "The only other suggestion I'd have is to convince her to elope. I'll hold the ladder for you."
Chapter Nineteen:
"There must be fifty ways to leave your lover!"
P. SIMON
MY MIND FINALLY made up at last, I set out to give the news to Queen Hemlock. I mean, since she was waiting for a decision from me, it wouldn't be right to delay sharing it once it had been made. Right? The fact that if I waited too long, I might chicken out entirely had nothing to do with it. Right?
Suddenly, I was very aware of the absence of my bodyguards. When I had given them their assignment to distribute my unwanted cash, it had been under the assumption that I was in no particular danger while here at the palace.
Now, I wasn't so sure.
I had noticed back when we first met, when I was masquerading as King Rodrick, that Queen Hemlock had a nasty, perhaps even a murderous streak in her. There had been no evidence of it lately, but then again, I wasn't aware of her having received any bad news of a degree such as I was bringing her, either.
I shook my head and told myself I was being silly. At her worst, the Queen was not taken to open, unpremeditated violence. If it looked like she was taking the news badly, I could simply gather the crew and skip off to another dimension before she could get around to formulating a plan for revenge. There was absolutely no reason for me to need bodyguards to protect me from her. Right?
I was still trying to convince myself of this when I reached the Queen's chambers. The honor guard standing outside her door snapped to attention, and it was too late for a graceful retreat.
Moving with a casualness I didn't feel, I knocked on her door.
"Who is it?"
"It's Skeeve, Your Majesty. I was wondering if I might speak to you if it's not inconvenient?"
There was a pause, long enough for me to get my hope up, and then the door opened.
"Lord Skeeve. This is a pleasant surprise. Please, come right in."
Queen Hemlock was dressed in a simple orange gown, which was a pleasant surprise. That she was dressed, that is, not the color of it. The first time she had entertained me in her quarters, she had been naked when she opened the door, and it had put me at an uncomfortable disadvantage for that conversation. This time around, I figured I was going to need all the advantages I could muster.
"Your Majesty," I said, entering the room. I looked about quickly as she was shutting the door, and, when she turned, gestured toward a chair. "Please, if you could take a seat?"
She raised a questioning eyebrow at me, but took the indicated seat without argument.
"What's this all about, Skeeve?" she said. "You look so solemn."
There was no way of stalling further, so I plunged in.
"I wanted to let you know that I've made my decision regarding marrying you," I said.
"And that is?"
"I ... Your Majesty, I'm both honored and flattered that you would consider me worthy of being your consort. I had never dreamed that such a possibility existed, and, when it was suggested, had to take time to examine the concept."
"And ..." she urged.
I realized that no amount of sugar coating would change the basic content of my decision, so I simply went for it.
"My final conclusion," I said, "is that I'm not ready for marriage at this time ... to you or anyone else. To try to pretend otherwise would be a vast disservice to that person ... and to myself. Between my work and studies as a magician, and my desire to travel and visit other dimensions, I simply have no time or interest in settling down right now. If I did, I would doubtless end up resenting whoever or whatever had forced me to do so. As such, I fear I must decline your kind offer."
Having said it, I braced myself for her reaction.
"Okay," she said.
I waited for a moment for her to continue, but when she didn't, I felt compelled to.
"As to your abdicating the throne to me ... Your Majesty, I beg you to reconsider. I have no qualifications or desire to be the ruler of a kingdom. At best, I'm a good advisor ... and even that's only with the considerable help of my colleagues and friends. I fear that if I were to attempt to undertake such a responsibility, the kingdom would suffer badly ... I know I would ... and ... and ..."
My oration ground to a halt as I saw that she was laughing.
"Your Majesty? Excuse me. Did I say something funny?"
"Oh Skeeve," she gasped, coming up for air. "Did you really think ... Of course I'm not going to give up the throne. Are you kidding? I love being Queen."
"You do? But you said ..."
"Oh, I say lots of things," she said, waving a negligent hand. "One of the nice things about being royalty is that you get to decide for yourself which of the things you say are for real and which should be ignored."
To say the least, I was confused.
"Then why did you say that if you didn't intend to follow through?" I said. "And how about your marriage proposal? Didn't you mean that, either?"
"Oh, I meant it all right," she smiled. "But I didn't really expect you to want to marry me. I mean, why should you? You've already got wealth and power without being tied down to a throne or a wife. Why should you want to stay here and play second banana to me when you could be off hopping around the world or wherever it is that you go as the one and only Great Skeeve? It would have been fabulous lor me and the kingdom to have you tied into us permanently, but there weren't any real benefits for you. That's why I came up with that abdication thing."
"Abdication thing?" I echoed weakly.
"Sure. I knew you didn't want to be a king. If you had, you would have kept the throne back when Roddie had you pose as him. Anyway, I figured that if you didn't want it bad enough, it just might make a big enough threat to lure you into playing consort for me instead."
She made a little face.
"I know it was weak, but it was the only card I had to play. What else could I do? Threaten you? With what? Even it I managed to come up with something that would present a threat to you and that menagerie of yours, all you'd have to do is wave your hands and blink off to somewhere else. It simply wouldn't be worth the effort and expense to keep tracking you down ... no offense. Going with the abdication thing, I at least had a chance of getting you to consider marrying me ... and if nothing came of it, no harm done."
I thought of the days and nights I had been spending agonizing over my decision. Then I thought about throttling the Queen.
"No harm done," I agreed.
"So," she said, settling back in her chair, "that's that. No marriage, no abdication. At least we can still be friends, can't we?"
"Friends? "I blinked.
Even though I had met her some time back, I had never really thought of Queen Hemlock as a friend.
"Why not?" she shrugged. "If I can't have you as a consort, I'm willing to give it a try as a friend. From what I've seen, you're pretty loyal to your friends, and I'd like to have some tie to you."
"But why should that be important to you? You're a Queen, and the ruler of a fairly vast kingdom to boot."
Hemlock cocked her head at me curiously.
"You really don't know, do you Skeeve? You're quite a powerful man yourself, Skeeve. I'd much rather have you as an ally, to the kingdom and for myself, than as an enemy. If you check around, I think you'll find a lot of people who would."
That sounded remarkably like what Badaxe had pointed out to me earlier.
"Besides," the Queen added, "you're a nice guy, and I don't really have many friends. You know, people I can talk to as equals who aren't afraid of me? I think in the long run, we have more problems in common than you realize."