“Will you tell me anything?” she asked.
“Do not bother me, or I will leave you down here with the horse.”
“Well…”
She was clearly weighing her options. Testing him or complying. He didn’t want to leave her down here, but he would. If she pushed.
He had no patience for hysterics.
He hadn’t really gotten a good look at her yet. But as she stood there in the plain, glaring up at him, her green eyes glittering with rage, he finally got the measure of her. She was small. In height and in build, her figure neat and proportioned well. Her black hair went down to her waist, and was a wild snarl, all curls and now scattered through with pieces of the Highlands, since she had gone rolling in the dirt.
“Manage the horse,” he said to three of his men who had come down the stairs. “I’m taking the princess up so that she may rest.”
She didn’t move when he did, so he gripped her arm up by the shoulder, his hand fitting entirely around it easily. He didn’t have to hold her firmly to hold her strong. She moved in angry, halting steps behind him, going up the stairs and into the main seating area of the plane. He had brought a small contingent of his military with him, while leaving his highest-ranking generals behind.
There was a sense of real stability in his country now. Now that all of these freedoms had been restored, now that people were able to live again, there was a sense of calm, and he didn’t worry about forces rising up against him. But he wouldn’t take chances.
Not at this time.
He ushered her through the main quarters quickly, and took her back to his private office and bedroom area.
Her head whipped around toward the bed, her eyes going wide, as she looked up at him.
“Don’t worry. I don’t want your body. I want your bloodline.”
“Wow. That is not reassuring at all. And seems to suggest you require my body eventually.”
“We’ll worry about that down the road. For now, I have to concern myself with quickly and publicly marrying you before reaching out to your father.”
“I have to agree to the marriage.”
“You don’t. The plane is about to take off, and then we will be in my country. I could stand in the center of the palace and declare us married and it would be so. You do not have to make vows to me. What I would like is a spectacle for all the world to see, so that there is no move your father can make that wouldn’treceive so much public outcry that it wouldn’t be worth it for him.”
“But you require my obedience.”
“You are with me now. You don’t have the power. Let me explain this to you. We have an agreement. Your father is on the losing end of this. And I do not wish to make trouble for your country. But what I have done, what I have survived, is simply too high-stakes for me to leave any loose ends. This marriage was meant to happen. I need a wife. I need a queen. I can fight a war, but I do not know how to act on the throne, and I do not know how to…”
“Diplomacy?” she asked, her tone dry.
“Yes,” he said. “That. I’m not a negotiator.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“You’re not in any danger,” he said.
“I’m not scared of you. If you care at all about public perception, then I don’t think I have to worry about you hurting me. You should find another princess. I’m sure they would line up for the opportunity.”
“But it’s Cape Blanco that I want an alliance with. I need their trade agreements. Our country was increasingly isolated with that despotic dictator in charge. We were left devastated. And it is up to me to fix it. This is the only way.”
“Surely it isn’t the only way.”
“It is the easiest way. And given that I have done everything up until now the absolute hardest way, a marital alliance seems like a good route to take.”
“Marriage. Really. That’s the only thing you can think of?”
“You say that as if I should have some sort of respect for the institution. As if it carries some kind of weight. I don’t care about marriage. It means nothing to me. Family means nothing to me. You mean nothing to me. Nothing but a symbol. Get some rest.”
And then he turned and left her.
