Uncrowned Queen

She stood at the altar and watched the duke she loved marry someone else.
She had arranged the flowers. Buttoned the dress. Smiled through all of it - because that is what a governess does. She makes herself useful, invisible, and does not want things she has no right to want.
Rose Lancaster has spent her entire life being the last to know. No name worth claiming. No family worth mentioning. No standing to dispute anything, or anyone.
Until the king dies. A will is read. And the woman who had nothing turns out to have everything - including enemies she didn't know existed and a court that has already decided what to do with her.
She is outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and completely alone.
Except for the general at her side. Composed. Unhurried. Watching the room in a way that suggests he already knows how this ends.
She doesn't know what he knows. But she is done being the last to find out.