Page 68 of House of Blood and Roses: Vol. 1
"The Prince." The satisfaction on Lord Fallmartin's face is impossible to ignore. If I wasn't so horrified about the idea of getting married, I might have even understood why. It's a high match.
"Marcus?" I ask, horror coming through my voice. "He's our cousin."
"The other prince," Lord Fallmartin corrects. "Sadly, my aunt would never approve of your marriage to Marcus. It would be good to have a crown princess in the family, but no matter."
A dizzy feeling takes over me as I process what he's saying. My betrothal is here.
And it means an end to a lot of things. My freedom. My safety. Linc.
"It's an excellent match," Lord Fallmartin says, without any idea of the turmoil currently passing through me. "Especially considering that you've only been at court for a few weeks. We couldn't expect better."
"I could have fallen in love with someone," I mutter, my mind straying to Linc without it meaning to. I know I'm not in love with him, but considering I can still feel the echo of his lips on mine as he kissed me goodbye only a few hours ago, it's hard not to. That's going to be our last kiss now that this has been done.
Lord Fallmartin sighs. "I wish I'd known about you earlier, then I could have prepared you for court life better."
I barely refrain from pointing out that he would have left me to die if he'd known about me earlier and hadn't been desperate enough to concede to Bastian's demands.
Lord Fallmartin sighs. "If love is really going to bother you, then just take a lover once you're married. You'll have to be discrete about it lest you be staked out in the sun for treason."
I blink a few times. "That's your solution?"
"That's how it is, Beatrice," he responds without a hint of malice in his voice. That's genuinely what he believes to be the solution. "We need this marriage in order to affirm our alliance with the royals, and you're the way of doing that, particularly after everything that happened with the princess."
"What happened?" Bastian asks.
"No one truly knows. I had put forward for a marriage contract between you and her, but the King rejected it. Then she disappeared from court. No one knows exactly where she is, but there are rumours that she married against her father's permission."
"Did he kill her?" Bastian asks.
I look at my brother, trying to work out his response to the idea. Does he like the idea of killing someone who doesn't do what he wants?
"There's a question," Lord Fallmartin muses. "He wouldn't be the first father who killed a wayward child. But no, I don't believe so. The King has a sentimental streak. He tries to hide it well, but it's reasonably well known. I suspect the princess is hiding somewhere in the country."
"When will the betrothal be announced?" I ask.
"I'm not entirely certain of that, the King will want to make sure this is all done properly. But you should be pleased, daughter, this is a good match."
"I am pleased," I lie, but only because I think that's what I think he wants to hear.
"Good. Bastian, we have a meeting to get to," Lord Fallmartin says, downing his goblet of blood and striding towards the door.
My brother scrambles to his feet, seeming to at least have some fear towards the man with power over us.
It isn't until the door shuts behind them that I slump back in my seat. Everything around me seems a little hazy, and I barely even care that Bella is still in the room.
"What just happened?" I murmur.
"I'd have thought you'd be pleased," Bella says, picking up her goblet.
"Why would I be pleased about being betrothed?"
She shrugs. "You seem to like the Prince."
"I've never met him."
"You don't need to lie, I've seen you dancing with him multiple times," she says.
I blink a few times, trying to think back through all of the people I've danced with since arriving at court and wondering which of them is the man I'm supposed to marry. None of them said they were a prince, and surely someone else would have said something if I'd been spending time with a prince without using the proper terms of address.
