She hesitates, like she wants to say something more, and part of me hopes she will. I’d like to stretch this moment out a little longer. But all she says is, “Goodnight, Fred.”
“Goodnight.”
She slips inside, and I stand in the corridor longer than necessary, staring at her closed door, wondering about the effect she has on me.
Lady Letizia’s words echo in my head:You’ll be in love before the month is out.
I reject them outright.
Love has never been a part of this agreement. It has no place in treaties or succession plans. Astrid may be light and laughter and everything I’m not, but that doesn’t make her my weakness.
It makes her a risk.
And risks need to be managed.
This marriage is a transaction, a way to save a thousand years of history from a referendum. Astrid may be a breath of fresh air, just as we hoped she would, but she’s a variable I must control.
Not a feeling I must indulge.
I turn away from her door, my decision clear in my mind. This marriage will remain exactly what it’s meant to be. I can enjoy her smiles, perhaps even continue with my new-found joviality. But one thing I can say for certain: I will not fall in love with Princess Astrid of Elkevik.
Chapter Seven
Astrid
I wakeup in a bed with the light seeping around the edges of the curtains. I’m momentarily confused. I’m sure I’m at home in my childhood bedroom with the view out across our rambling gardens. I’m half expecting to hear the chickens clucking and the goats bleating as they always do in the morning.
Instead, I hear nothing, and it takes me a moment to work out where I am.
Then it all comes flooding back.
Ledonia. The palace. The proposal. Last night’s state dinner.
My fiancé.
I sit up and rub my eyes, feeling an unaccustomed weight on one of my fingers. I turn my hand to see my engagement ring taking up a considerable amount of my hand’s real estate.
I’m engaged.Engaged. To a man who probably thinks I’m completely ridiculous.
Actually, there’s no probably about it. I’m sure he thinks I’m ridiculous, from my chatter to my accidents and everything in between.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and pad to the window. I pull back the heavy velvet drapes, and am immediately blinded by the shockingly bright Ledonian sunlight.
Well, I’m awake now.
When my eyes finally adjust, I take in the manicured hedges, a fountain with sculpted figures, and several pheasants pecking at the ground. It’s picture-perfect.
And yet I feel a little out of my depth here.
Okay,a lotout of my depth.
Sure, I somehow managed to charm Frederic’s parents yesterday despite my clumsiness. And yes, I made friends with people at dinner, even making my future father-in-law laugh at my stories.
But Fred? He’s an entirely different story. There may be small signs of humanity beneath that perfectly polished veneer, but they’re only tiny cracks.
We’re supposed to be getting to know each other. Opening up. Sharing who we are. Preparing to spend our lives together. Husband and wife. Future King and Queen of Ledonia.
King and Queen of Ledonia.
