We ate in silence for a while. I did not have much to eat after spilling more than half of my bowl, so I was done within seconds. Meanwhile, the Queen ate her food with the daintiest of bites, chewing slowly and deliberately, savoring the taste to the fullest. I wondered if this was why she was picky with her food—every bite was thoroughly experienced and thus had to be exquisite.

After setting my bowl down on the table, I kept my head lowered. My eyes wandered around the room before gravitating towards the calligraphy set up on the other table. I had taken a peek at it earlier, but staring at the words now, I was enchanted. 

Every stroke curved and turned beautifully, tailoring off with an elegant tail. Together, they formed three characters of varying complexities and configurations. A small ink droplet smudged the side of the first character, a perfect imperfection to a masterpiece.

“Can you read?” the Queen asked, snapping me back to reality. 

I shook my head. “No, Your Majesty. May- May I ask what it says?”

“Bae Joo-Hyun,” she answers, dropping her voice to a mere whisper as if saying the words any louder would cause them to disappear from the paper. “It’s my name.”

Bae Joo-Hyun. Her name echoed in my head as I continued to stare at the calligraphy. “It’s beautiful, Your Majesty.”

The Queen forced out a wistful smile. “I realized I never asked for yours. What’s your name?”

“S… Seul-Ki, Your Majesty.”

She waited for a moment before asking, “You don’t have a family name?”

“No, not really, Your Majesty. I was supposed to take the name of my previous masters, but I no longer work for them.” I remembered how upset the Queen had been with the mention of the Kang family and cursed at myself for bringing them up again. “I’m- I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Please forgive me. I- I hold no loyalty towards the Kang family at all and do not wish for their name. I am happy as a maiden without a family name.”

The Queen furrowed her brows. She seemed more confused than angry. “But do you not have a family? Parents whose name you can take?”

“I do, Your Majesty, but my parents do not have their own family names either. We were all born as servants for the Kang family, and we have been for generations, as far as I know.”

“I see.” Casting her gaze downwards, the Queen pursed her lips. Her bowl of food sat half-eaten in front of her. “Are they here in the palace with you?”

“My sister is. She’s working with the Bin Concubine. My parents passed a long time ago when I was a child, Your Majesty.”

A flicker of curiosity flashed across the Queen’s eyes when I mentioned the Bin Concubine, but she blinked them away before turning to me. Her dark, sincere irises locked with mine. “It sounds like you have had a rough life, Seul-Ki.”

Hearing my name on her lips sent a tingle down my spine. An odd, ticklish fire burned in my gut. “N- No, Your Majesty, it was just a simple life. Simple and… boring. I had accepted that I would die right where I was born, if not for… well…” I trailed off, squirming on my knees.

The Queen dipped her head. “Thank you for entertaining my questions. They have been so personal, and yet, you revealed.” She smiled—a small but genuine smile. “It’s your turn now, Seul-Ki. Ask me anything.”

She said my name again. Before I could combust alive, I gulped and tore my eyes away from hers. I stared down at my clenched fists that were trembling against my thighs. There were so many things I wanted to know about the Queen, but I did not know what to ask. Where to start. How to phrase my thoughts.

My mind drifted to what Seul-Na had said back in the courtyard. “The King hates her.” Anger rose in me once again. I took a deep breath and soothed my raging heart.

“I- I do have a question, Your Majesty, if- if I may.”

“Go ahead.”

“Why… Why doesn’t the King visit you?”

The Queen raised her eyebrows. “What do you think?” 

“Um… well, my si… someone told me that it was because the… His- His Majesty…” —I hesitated, still in disbelief over the words I was about to say— “doesn’t… like you. Is that true?”

She tilted her head, amusement filling her eyes. “‘Doesn’t like’ is an understatement.”

I frowned. Seul-Na’s words echoed in my ears. Hate. The King hated the Queen. But how was that possible? 

“Do you want to know why?” the Queen asked, the smile on her face growing wider.

Slowly, I nodded.

“It’s because I’m bad in bed.”

I blinked. “What does that mean? Are you not sleeping well, Your Majesty?”

My puzzlement turned to consternation when she burst into laughter. I sat, frozen to the floor, as the Queen leaned on the table and laughed. This was the second time she had laughed today, and this time, it was a lot louder and a lot less controlled. Pure joy radiated from her voice, and I swelled with the same amount of elation. 

Tears formed at the end of her crescent eyes. She wiped them away as she calmed. “I like you a lot, Seul-Ki. Eat with me every day, won’t you?”

I did not see how anybody could have a different response other than a vigorous nod.

***

By the time I reached the servants’ quarters, word had spread about my arrangement with the Queen. I was swamped with questions from the other maids, and the entire building was brimming over with excited chatter and gossip for the rest of the night.

“What did you do to get her to like you so much?”

“I pity you! Her Majesty can get very demanding.”

“You’re really the only one here who can handle her!”

“Maybe she just likes you because you’re new. Just you wait, she might get tired of you.”

“Geez, don’t say that, Bong-Ri! Let’s pray Seul-Ki here can get her tantrums in control from now on.”

I was still reeling from the Queen’s request that I could not respond to everyone. All I knew was that I would be eating with the Queen during her meals. I would be serving her exclusively together with the head palace lady. I would be seeing the Queen every single day.

How lucky could I be?

The Sanggung looked as happy as I was about this news. “Very good job, new girl.” She was speaking to me, but her mind was on her future tasks. “This is wonderful news, wonderful indeed. Her Majesty still eats very little but at least she is eating now. We can start getting her weight back up again. Soon, I can report this to the Queen Dowager. Oh, she would be thrilled when the Queen is finally healthy and fit to have a baby.”

“Baby?” I blurted, unable to contain my shock.

The head palace lady waved her hand at me dismissively. “Starving yourself is bad for fertility.”

My mouth dropped as I watched she scurry away for other responsibilities.

There was a chuckle to my side. I turned around to find Mi-Nyu, who was smiling amicably at me. 

“Is this what it was all for?” I asked her incredulously. “A baby?”

Mi-Nyu chuckled again. “Of course. Getting the Queen to have a baby boy is the top priority for the Royal Court. Sanggung has been stressed about that for weeks now.”

“But… what’s the point? I’ve heard the King doesn’t even visit.”

“The Queen Dowager can pressure the King to visit. She cannot do that too often; the King will be upset. But she definitely will pressure him when the Queen is healthy again.”

Mi-Nyu’s tone was serene and matter-of-fact, but I was feeling the exact opposite. My hands clenched together as the world spun around me.

I did not care that this was the Queen’s duty. I hated the idea of her having a baby. The King’s baby. He did not deserve a baby with her. He did not deserve to visit her after abandoning her for so long. 

He did not deserve her at all.