AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But…” He would never countenance his children being raised outside of Zohra. She finally stuttered as much out loud.
“Naturally not, but since it won’t happen, I fail to see why I should become upset over your need for the reassurance on that score.”
He was right, it was a reassurance. He might not maintain fidelity for her sake. However, she was wholly convinced that he would for the good of their children and the sake of the throne he protected so carefully.
Feeling light-headed with relief he’d accepted the first and she would have thought the hardest hurdle to overcome, she said, “I am glad you are not offended.”
“I would be, if I believed your request was based on a lack of trust in me personally.”
“You don’t?”
“It’s obvious that your past has a great deal of bearing on this, as I have said.”
“And you do not think your ongoing relationship with Elsa figures into it all?”
“That was before we were formally engaged.”
“You said you considered us as good as.”
“In one respect that is true, just as in the same respect, a part of me already considers the throne of Zohra mine. However, it will not in actuality be until my father abdicates in my favor or sees his final days on earth.”
“So, you did make a distinction.” She was more thankful to hear that than she would ever admit to him.
“Do you not know me even that well?” he asked, sounding like he was finally feeling the offense she’d expected him to take earlier.
“I thought I did and then I got those pictures.”
He winced. “Point taken.”
“I realize now, I was hopelessly naive in my expectations, but those photos devastated me,” she admitted.
She had no trouble reading his expression for once, it was pure dismay. “You believed I would be celibate once the contract was signed?”
“Yes.” She felt foolish for that belief now. It had been a teen girl’s fantasy she’d never reconsidered in the light of adulthood. At least, not until she’d been forced to. “You see, I was.”
“When I signed that contract, I was a twenty-four-year-old man. You were a thirteen-year-old girl.”
“Are you saying it would not bother you if I had taken a lover since becoming an adult?”
He opened his mouth and then shut it again, no words emerging.
“Smart choice.”
He frowned. “My initial response does not paint me in a favorable light.”
“No doubt.”
“Your other conditions,” he prompted, clearly not wishing to dwell on his unpalatable double standard.
“There are only two more.”
“They are?”
“Your heir is allowed to have a childhood.”
“I had a childhood.”
“Until you were seven, yes I got that.”
