[... Stupid chicken. She'd assumed he'd done something dumb and angered her. Children. This is why she doesn't like them a court.]

You shouldn't be doing this at all.

[It's hard to not roll her eyes at that. It seems almost too naive from someone she knows is so much more accomplished then that. But she forgets sometimes, he's just a boy, the same age as her brother when he died, and her brother was just as easily led despite being King. He might be a soldier as brave as any, but he saw the world with a boys eyes.]

Not wanting to control it is just as bad. It's a like a child playing near a fire unsupervised. You either act wisely or not at all. [She shakes her head.] You make me feel old.

[she softens a little.] I understand that fear. I hope to be remembered as a Queen who served her people well. But as for being talked to? I'd want to be left in peace from prying eyes for surely enough prying has happened in my life. I'd want to sleep alone, to finally know that rest. My life is that of subjection to the will of the people. I just want to be left well enough alone. Which if this were my home, I could not even admit that much.

[It's only here that she could look at her life in reflection.]