Fraleigh smirked. “Had you not been chaste, I would have smelled it onyou. Sit.”
We returned to our chairs as I tried not to think about what a lack of chastitysmelled like.
Fraleigh glowered at us as she spoke. “Tomorrow, you will present yourselves before not only the five suitors, but to an audience of nobility who travel to Hyton to watchthe Presentation.”
Five suitors? No, that was not possible. Derrick’s letter said our class had four suitors for the four brides. Having an equal number of suitors to brides was the only reason anyone from the military academy was allowed to participate in Selection Nightat all.
Fraleigh shot me a look. Maybe she could even read my mind! I straightened my back and folded my hands on top of my desk to look as prim and innocent as possible.
Fraleigh’s eyes moved from me to the rest of the Seniors as she spoke again. “After the Presentation, the suitors will adjourn to make their bride selections in secret. Once the selection is made, the brides are paired with their suitors in order of selection for the marriage ceremony. The blood bond takes effect immediately after the ceremony, but you and your new husband have until midnight of the next full moon to consummate your marriage or the bonding enchantment fails and yourmarriage annuls.”
She paused for exactly three seconds, a planned part of her centuries-old speech, to let the weight of the devastating consequences of an annulment sink in. Shame. Exile from noble society. Living under the charity of your father and other male relatives until you relieve your family of the burdenby dying.
“I can perform the marriage enchantment one time only,” Fraleigh emphasized. “Should your marriage annul, you will never marry a noble son again. You have only one moon cycle to be sexually intimate with your husband. Do youladies understand?”
“Yes, your majesty,” we all responded insoft voices.
The red and gold sunset streamed through the windows as I walked alone back up to the dormitory. I had tried to practice my dance steps for the Suitors’ Ball as I made my way through the sitting room, but a heavy weight sat in my mind ever since Fraleigh dismissed us fromher lecture.
You are manipulative and anexcellent liar.
Fraleigh had said cruel Annalisa was a satisfactory bride, but not me? Lies flew off my tongue like notes to a song and I could play the strings of someone’s heart like a harp, but that did not mean I would not be a satisfactory bride. I was a Ravenwood—I had to use all that I hadto survive.
Apparently all I had was a strong wit and aquick tongue.
Maybe Fraleigh was losing her mind after all those centuries. She did believe five suitors would be at Selection Night,after all.
The foyer steps creaked as I headed to the Senior dormitory to get into my ball gown. My fingertips gently traced the banister as I rehashed the rest of Fraleigh’s speech in my head. She said we had to consummate our marriages to make our blood bonds permanent, meaning I could be…intimatewith Derrick as soonas tomorrow.
My heartbeat quickened even though my footsteps slowed on the stairs. Headmistress Blackiston had given all the Seniors a stiff-lipped and prim-voiced lesson on sexual intimacy two weeks ago. With diagrams. She had grabbed the backs of our necks if we looked more than a few seconds at a man, but she forced us to study drawings of a naked man’s body parts and listen to a grueling lecture on the functions of each one.
Camille’s cheeks burned for hours after, Dinah could not stop talking about thepartsshe saw, Annalisa was finally quiet for an evening, and I could not reply to Derrick’s letter fortwo days.
I placed my hand on my lower belly like I was bracing myself as I walked through the dormitory halls. Derrick was sweet, but intimacy just seemed so…ugly and gross. Headmistress Blackiston never said consummating our marriages had to be enjoyable—I could just close my eyes and think about the power of the crown while the bloodbond sealed.
I bit my tongue and suddenly the sound of muffled sobbing reached my ears. I passed the dormitory doors and the crying got louder until I reached theJuniors’ door.
I took in a breath as I recognized the voice underneaththe sobs—Brietta.
I pushed open the door and quickly stepped inside the dormitory. Brietta kneeled on the floor and sobbed with her face on her bed. A woman with silver streaks in her curly brown hair and her Hyton Blue skirt pooled on the floor knelt beside Brietta and rubbedher back.
“Brie!” I cried as I kneeled beside her. “What happened?”
Brietta lifted her wet and splotchy face from her mattress and her voice hitched with her sobs as she spoke. “I am graduating. The Duke is forcing me into SelectionNight tomorrow.”
My stomach dropped. Fraleigh was not losing her mind—Brietta was the fifth bride for thefifth suitor.
Merri, the Duchess’s personal maid, eased Brietta’s shock about her graduation. After a long, reassuring talk, Merri patted Brietta’s sticky cheeks and promised she and the other maids would make her sparkle like a diamond forthe Presentation.
Lie. A lie she had to tell since no servant would deny the Duke’s orders, but Merri had no time to get Brietta ready for Selection Night.
All Seniors had elaborate Presentation dresses ready at Hyton Palace. Each Presentation dress took months to design and construct, and Brietta did not even have a full day to have a dress made for her. Merri still assured Brietta she would find her a dress and she left tomake arrangements.
I whisked Brietta away to the Senior dorm to keep her away from the other girls’ gossip. We sat on my bed as she told me what happened while I went throughFraleigh’s examination.
Brietta said she was reading one of her poems for the younger girls as an example of master wordsmithery when Headmistress Blackiston and Duke Hyton took her to the Headmistress’sprivate quarters.
“I thought the Duke knew about the you-know-whats and was going to interrogate me,” Brietta whispered. “Instead, the Duke said he was so impressed with my poetry and writing that Ashmore had nothing left to teach me and I was ready for Selection Night. Headmistress Blackiston tried to protest, but the Duke would not let her speak. He took his entourage, except Merri, and left as suddenly ashe came.”
