The King's Unbreakable Wife-Chapter 92: Try harder (3)

Hazel looked straight ahead so she could avoid the gazes of everyone around her. She wore a smile like her mother instructed her to do right before they returned to the ballroom.

The room felt different now that they had exited and returned.

The sweet reunion of families seeing their daughters and anticipating the names of those to stay in the palace was no longer here.

Hazel felt hot for some reason and though she wasn’t looking at the faces of the people she walked by, she knew that they had to be inspecting her as the queen said. Nitpicking at her appearance now even though they had already seen her dress before.

There was a bit of chatter, but Hazel couldn’t make out what was being said.

She had always been able to stomach anything said about her and the attention because of her family, but it was a little different to deal with when it was a crowd of people.

Still, Hazel continued to smile as today was a good day. No matter what, she would enjoy her engagement with Tobias today because she wanted to look back at this day and be happy.

Hazel joined the queen in walking up to where the thrones were. Her mother and sister were not moving from the first step since the queen said they could not walk with them beyond that point.

Hazel turned with the queen to face the crowd. She could avoid their faces when walking, but now she was forced to look at them. She had never thought of the view the royals had. How they had to speak with so many eyes on them.

She had to applaud all of them for addressing this room and larger crowds many times without messing up their words. Was it a skill they were all born with?

Tabitha waited for Jeffrey to return to her side before she addressed the crowd. "I thank you all for being patient with us as I prepared a tiara so you would all know now that Hazel Wallace will start her journey as becoming part of the Castro family and your future queen."

"It was sudden that the selection came to an end today. We thank you all for helping us find the prince’s wife. We’ve prepared a few treats for everyone to enjoy and music for the young ladies to dance with their fathers. I hope to see many of you inside the palace again. Please enjoy yourselves before you go," said Tabitha.

Now that Tobias had sped up the process, Tabitha didn’t have any need to entertain the people before her for long. They should enjoy what was prepared, danced around to the music, and then be on their way.

"Where is that son of mine?" Jeffrey asked as he had unfinished business with Tobias.

"He should have returned before us, but Nathan Wallace is nowhere in sight so they must be together. We don’t need the doctor anymore,’ Tabitha informed Jeffrey. "The children said they did nothing so we decided to trust their word."

Hazel turned to the queen, surprised by how many details were left out. Like how the queen herself wasn’t listening at first to Tobias saying he didn’t touch her. It was her mother and father who said they were going to trust their word.

Hazel knew it wasn’t best to speak up now and should let the matter go because it would just bring conflict between herself and the queen. There were many people present in the room so one day the king was going to know exactly how the conversation went.

"Good. No need to ruin a good day with something so horrible," Jeffrey replied.

Unlike others, if Tobias and Hazel had found some time to do something, he wouldn’t stay long at the two if it were to be announced that Hazel was pregnant. He was impatient for the next heir to be announced. Only then could he properly rest as he wouldn’t need to worry about the kingdom not having a prince ready to take Tobias’s place.

Still, he liked that it wasn’t the case and the two seemed to just be in love with each other. The town would love the story and the first thing he would do after this gathering was over was call upon someone from the papers to write a better story of what occurred here.

The town didn’t need to know exactly how surprised the king and queen were by Tobias’s proposal.

"Hazel, I look forward to you joining our family," Jeffrey said, going around Tabitha to stand beside Hazel to talk with her. "Why aren’t your mother and sister up here? They are family," he said, looking at the two women standing alone. "I can’t have Nathan already angry with me that I didn’t protect his wife and child."

Hazel watched as the king so thoughtfully walked down the steps to speak with her mother and sister to bring them up to where she was standing with the queen. She greatly appreciated that her mother and Helena weren’t left to stand there without her father around. For anyone to so casually approach them.

Hazel couldn’t help but look the queen’s way to see if this upset her since it was her call that her family did not join her. She couldn’t read what the queen was feeling as she watched the king bring her family up to join them.

Hazel looked forward to learning more about the queen. The queen spoke about the court often so maybe everyone wasn’t paying much attention to the problems the queen was facing with the court.

’I won’t judge her,’ Hazel decided.

Regardless of how weird she felt around the queen in the past, Hazel would not think ill of her. She was soon to be walking in the queen’s shoes so then she would properly understand her. Perhaps more than Tobias or the king.

"Thank you," Renee said, laughing at the king’s joke. She declined the offer to join them standing side by side, but the king was adamant that she join them so she could no longer refuse.

Renee was glad to be standing where no others could go without invitation because she wasn’t ready to answer any questions from anyone about how she felt about Hazel marrying the prince or if she was aware of anything.

"Would you look at that? The moment I bring you up here, Nathan returns with my son," Jeffrey said, watching the two walk side by side toward them. They looked as if they had just committed murder somewhere in the palace.