AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You know my feelings on this, Father,” Oskar said, lowering his voice a bit. “You know why I cannot simply indulge my own fancies.”
Something about the way his cousin spoke made Petrus frown. Something about it felt all too familiar.
Uncle Milas stepped closer to Oskar, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “You have a duty to your family, son,” he said. “Think of how it would look if you had your own way in this?”
Cold prickles raced down Petrus’s back. His uncle could have been speaking to him, for all the situation fit.
“Our people would be scandalized if they knew the truth of what you are proposing to do,” Uncle Milas continued. “It would be a black mark against the family, against our honor and everything we stand for. Look at what is happening across Europe. Royal dynasties that have existed for hundreds of years have been falling throughout this century. Some of those monarchs have been killed by people who once loved them, all because their princes have not remained true to the principles of their kingdoms.”
“The people of Aegiria are hardly likely to revolt because of who I marry, Father,” Oskar said, but he didn’t have the same intensity in his voice as he’d had before.
“Perhaps not,” Uncle Milas said. “But we must do everything we can to keep our subjects happy. We are not in this position of privilege and power for ourselves. We exist for them. Therefore, I ask you to do this thing for me. You will find happiness, I swear it. We all will.”
Oskar seemed to crumble a bit. He rubbed his forehead, then said, “Alright, Father. I will consider it.”
Uncle Milas and Oskar exchanged a few more words as they headed out of the library. Petrus didn’t hear them, though. He sagged against one side of the shelves, his heart beating in his throat, guilt pouring down on him.
“I think they’re gone,” Charlotte whispered, resting a hand on his chest over his heart. “Oh! My! Petrus, darling, your heart is pounding.”
Petrus sighed and reached for the door handle. As much as he would have loved to stay hidden with Charlotte forever, he knew they couldn’t live in their own little world forever.
He opened the door and stepped into the library, drawing Charlotte with him.
“Oh, dear,” Charlotte said when she saw his expression. “That isn’t an encouraging sight at all.”
Charlotte took charge, leading Petrus back to the couch where they’d been seated before.
Once they were seated, she said, “It’s what the king said about family duty and honor, isn’t it.”
Petrus sighed again. The conversation had been a bit cryptic, but he was certain he knew what Oskar and Uncle Milas had been speaking about. Neither he nor Oskar were at liberty to marry someone of their choosing.
He hated the way he would be forced to break Charlotte’s heart, and his own for that matter. “I have a duty to my family, my king, and my kingdom,” he said.
“To marry Lady Jenny,” Charlotte said. Surprisingly, she spoke as though the situation were a puzzle that needed solving instead of the end of their beautiful, but far too short, acquaintance.
“I wish to marry you,” he said, laying all of his cards on the table, even though it was not the most romantic way to almost propose.
Charlotte’s face lit with joy, and she took both of Petrus’s hands. “And I wish to marry you as well,” she said, her voice bubbling with determination.
“I fear we might be kept from it, though, darling,” he went on, his shoulders dropping. “Uncle Milas wants that alliance with Sweden, which means a political marriage. I am on the expendable side in this family, so I’m the one he’s chosen to serve that purpose.”
“Nonsense,” Charlotte said, shaking her head with a practical look and scooting closer to him. “I do not believe that is what your uncle, a man who loves you, as I have seen with my own eyes, meant by his insistence on marrying the right woman.”
“What else could he have meant?” Petrus asked with a shrug.
Charlotte didn’t answer his question. She was too deep in thought. She shifted, facing the Christmas tree for a moment, as if it could give her focus.
“There has to be more to the situation that we are unaware of,” she went on. “Or perhaps there is a way to dissuade Lady Jenny from hanging her heart on the hopes of marrying you. When I spoke to her earlier—”
“You spoke to her earlier?” Petrus was alarmed at the prospect.
“She seemed more concerned with leaving Aegiria than with losing you,” Charlotte finished her thought. “I must believethatis her primary concern. There must be something back in Sweden that she wishes to avoid. If she stays here, she would have far more ability to determine her own life. Things in Aegiria are quite free for women. I have no wish to leave myself.”
Her eyes turned soft with that final pronouncement, and she smiled at Petrus as though neither of them had a care in the world.
“My uncle is the king,” Petrus said, feeling far stupider than he wanted to for pointing out something so obvious. “Kings are to be obeyed.”
“But even kings can have their minds changed,” Charlotte said. “King Milas seems like a reasonable man. I am certain that if we work together, we can discover the truth of this situation and set everything to rights.”
