AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER 1
Valeria
“If you want to survive, Valeria, you’ll learn to obey him. As my daughter, I’ve allowed you a lot of freedom. That all has to end, right this instant.”
I stared outside, feeling dazed and distant, watching the snowflakes dissolve on the carriage window as I pressed my finger to the ice-cold glass, dragging a line through the steam where my breath condensed on the beveled pane.
The snow was falling harder now, and the sound of the horses’ hooves was growing more muted as we wound our way down into Greengallow Valley.
The light in the carriage was on that cusp of shifting from the stark blue of winter afternoon to the sinister shadows of frigid dusk. I wished I could throw the carriage door open and run, but I knew I wouldn’t—I was in a dove gray silk ball gown, and horribly tight buttoned shoes made from a matching impractical silk. The fur coat I wore might protect me for a while, but not for long. My fate was sealed and the carriage rumbled on.
I had been dreading this day for months—the loss of my freedom, the end of my own life. My dreams of marrying for love, as my parents had done. Of living happily, raising children. Of one day being a world-class fencer, competing in competitions, winning the adulation of crowds. All of that was gone.
Today I was to meet my fiancée.
The end of everything had arrived. And I felt as cold inside as the air outside.
“Valeria,” my father snapped, whacking his cane on the carriage floor to get my attention. “You hear me? You’ll learn to obey him. In everything.”
I sucked in a freezing breath and turned to face my father. His cheeks were ruddy with too many years of hard living—drinking, smoking, and gambling. God, the gambling.
What a ruin my life had become because of his gambling. If it hadn’t been for all his losses, I wouldn’t be in this position at all.
“I will never forgive you for this,” I hissed.
I ground my teeth together as I stared at him. What I wouldn’t give to slap his chubby, red cheek. I clenched my fist, and my white, calf-leather glove stretched over my knuckles with a squeak.
He kept his eyes on mine as I finished. “Paying off your debts with me. Like some brood mare.”
Now it was my father’s turn to look away.
I knew he felt guilty about it all; he wasn’t a monster at heart. I knew that every time I reminded him of what he’d done, it stung him deeply.
Finally, he was going to face a consequence for his actions. One that would continue to confront him, day after day. A living, breathing reminder of what he had done to himself, to our family, and to me.
I would just prefer not to be a part of that lesson.
“You’re a princess, Valeria Valentine. Time to start acting like one,” my father said. “You come from noble stock, remember that. I am a prince, regardless of the circumstances of our existence, and I expect my daughter to comport herself accordingly. Do not embarrass our family name.”
He pecked at his chest with a chubby finger. He wore no rings because he had lost them all over the years. So easy to gamble away five hundred years of family history on a losing hand.
“An arranged marriage,” he continued, “was always your fate—it’ll be a good match, for you and for the Greengallows.”
“Save your excuses. You did this for yourself. To save your hide. If you hadn’t had me to marry off to Petre Greengallow, they’d have killed you. You know it and I know it. But instead, I get to call this godforsaken family of mobsters my in-laws. Well done,” I snarled, and turned away again.
I snatched my purse from the seat beside me and carefully opened the clasp so as not to break the small, delicate hinges. Like everything in my life, my little purse only gave the appearance of wealth. But look closely and you’d see the frayed silk and the missing beads.
We were titled and land rich yet cash poor, as the saying went. Despite everything, my father was still a prince as he rightly pointed out. His family disowned him when he married my mother, sent him away to the least loved castle in the harshest corner of the kingdom and forgot all about him, but they didn’t strip him of that damned title. It meant that I was a princess, and a more spoiled one you never did see.
Yeah, right.
My “fine clothes” were mended; my “jewels” were glass; our “castle” housed more ravens than people; the “carriage” where I sat was so rickety it was a wonder it could be used at all.
All I had was my title. It had doomed me from the start.
