Page 8 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

It was peaceful here, and he already felt better. The room was soft and warm, the winter sunlight streaming through the window. A series of decadent but comfortable chairs were arranged around a coffee table, his parents both occupying their preferred seats. Finn sat down in the empty chair left in the trio. He tried not to look too long at his father’s shaking hands, how they seemed to be getting frailer each day, how his fingers trembled despite gripping onto the head of his cane.

King Josef had started to shy away from the stares of the public and even his politicians, hating the looks of pity, preferring to see to matters in private these days. It was one of the reasons he’d relinquished so many of his responsibilities to Finn over the past year. He’d even been talking of abdication, which hadn’t happened in Eschenberg in centuries, having the lawyers look into the technicalities of it all. Finn hadn’t taken the idea of his father abdicating so soon seriously. He hadn’t wanted to think about it. Because if Josef abdicated, it meant he really wasn’t going to be getting any better.

But in the last few weeks, Finn had realized it was soon going to be a reality. As soon as he noticed that his father’s tremors had moved into his face with the occasional twitch of a cheek, reality had crashed down on Finn like a tidal wave, so he’d thrown himself into work trying to outrun it. It hadn’t really worked. Especially now as he was sitting here in a formal meeting with his parents, trying not to stare at the minute twitch in his father’s left cheek. Trying not to think about becoming king. Unfortunately, it seemed this particular conversation wasn’t going to let Finn forget about any of it for the moment.

“It’s good news,” his mother said, her voice bright and somehow able to fill the vast room all on its own. She was nothing if not an eternal optimist.

“Do you remember how we were discussing at Christmas that an arranged marriage might be better for you? A good old-fashioned partnership that takes all things into account. You yourself said you didn’t have the time to go out and meet anyone in the more modern sense.”

Finn went very still. Not from fear, exactly. It was just an odd sort of feeling, knowing that in the next few seconds his whole life was about to change. But he did indeed remember that conversation of a few months back. And he still stood by those thoughts. He was a crown prince, next in line to the throne, which was currently occupied by an ailing father. He didn’t have the luxury of marrying for love. Being royal was a job; his family was a business. If you brought things like love and feelings into business, then it all tended to go south very quickly.

Finn unfroze himself, looking at his mother’s expectant face.

“I remember,” he said, calm and collected as ever.

The queen seemed to relax at that, knowing that this conversation would most likely go how she’d envisioned it to. His father, too, seemed to soften his gaze towards him, almost as if he were proud. Finn clutched onto that feeling with all his might.

“We might have found someone suitable, my dear,” his mother said, still stepping lightly around the words as if not wanting to scare him off. “And I know we haven’t informed you until now, but you’ve had so much on your plate already that if talks fell through, I didn’t want to burden you further.”

“Mother,” Finn spoke up with a smile. It was rare for her to get flustered, but when she did, she tended to ramble. “Who is she?”

With a flourish, the queen pulled out a manila envelope and laid it out on the table before her. Where she had been keeping it until now, Finn had no clue. Now knowing her son wasn’t about to bolt, she pulled several photographs out and pushed them across the table. To present him with the information on a tablet or phone would have been uncouth according to her standards.

“The princess of Skärov,” she said, as if presenting the most prestigious of awards. “Eva Nilsson. A flawless reputation in her own countrydespiteher brother being a bit of a ne’er-do-well. Worldly, too. Apparently, she’s been in New York for the past few years studying. A lovely young lady by all accounts.”

Finn picked up the first photograph of Eva, showing her as a teenager, and he was immediately struck by her bright green eyes framed by blond hair. This younger version of her was obviously an official portrait from the royal family. She was standing at the foot of a grand staircase, dressed in a crisp green dress, her hair long, her posture pin-straight.

Underneath that was a much more recent photograph of her crossing a street somewhere that was clearly taken by paparazzi without her knowing. Finn didn’t like looking at the photo, knowing that the princess probably had no idea it was being taken. It felt like an invasion of privacy, like peeking a look at her around a corner. But he squashed down the uncomfortable feeling in his chest, entranced. She looked so different from the other, more official photos that his mother was scattering before him and his father. Her hair was bleached almost white and cut jaw-length. Her clothes weren’t that of a royal but those of a civilian, tattered and worn, with heavy boots on her feet and a scarf flying out behind her. Rings glittered on every finger, and her whole stance was less like a royal and more like someone ready to take on the world.

She was beautiful.

“She seems very nice,” said Finn, not sure what else to say, but his mother seemed pleased as punch by the words. “Not that you can tell all that much from photos, but she looks charming.”

Bewitchingwas what he actually thought but was too polite to say. Alluring and fascinating. But those weren’t words you said of a princess.

“We’ve organized a meeting for a week’s time, so you won’t have to depend on photographs and hearsay. How does that sound?”

“It sounds good,” said Finn, meaning it, but honestly still too tired to think that far into the future.

“It’s a good match,” said the king, nodding his approval in his stern way. “And you need someone by your side. Now more than ever.”

They all tried to ignore the somber mood that those words brought on them. Tried not to think ofwhyFinn might need someone by his side sooner rather than later.

With that, the meeting was over, the photographs of his future wife placed back in the manila folder and hidden from sight.

* * *

Finn walked down towards the kitchens to find something for breakfast, something more substantial than canapé’s and champagne. Hopefully something hot, but he’d take anything with an actual vitamin in it at this point. He’d even take a handful of carrots and half an apple if it meant it would wake him up enough to get through the day.

Finn wondered if this was how others felt after being told they were going to get married to someone they’d not yet met. Arranged marriages had been a thing for as long as humans had existed. And surely royal circles weren’t the only areas where it still happened. He might look it up later, the statistics of it.

His own parents had had an arranged marriage, after all, and they were perfectly happy in each other’s company—and had been for more than thirty years. And what his mother had said just now was right. He didn’t have time to meet people on a casual basis. He certainly didn’t have time for love.

CHAPTER4

EVA

You get told that you always have a choice in things, that you can be whatever you want in life, but Eva felt like that might be the biggest lie she’d ever heard. She certainly didn’t feel like she had any choice right now. She felt backed into a corner, like a mouse with a herd of cats looking on, waiting for her next move.

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