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Petrus’s mouth dropped open, and he struggled to follow what Oskar was saying.
Of course, then Oskar flew off on another tangent as he paced away from Petrus and said, “Our alliance with Sweden is crucial to our continued survival, particularly with Germany gaining so much power just to our south.” He reached the end of the room, then turned to stride back. “Lord Lindstrom has been specific in the sort of alliance he wants and who he wants it with. His influence with King Oscar is vast. We need that connection.”
Petrus didn’t disagree with him, but he was at a loss for how to express that. He merely nodded when Oskar reached him again.
“I see,” Petrus said when Oskar looked at him as though he demanded an answer.
Oskar seemed to be engaged in some sort of inner conflict, so it was a long time before he paced off in the other direction, saying, “We need an alliance with Germany as well, which is why I will be traveling there in the spring. Princess Feodora—you remember her from that holiday two years ago—has been suggested as a potential future queen.”
Petrus frowned, having a difficult time following Oskar’s wild train of thought. “I remember her. Is she not a bit young for you?”
“She will be of a marriageable age soon,” Oskar said. “Father doesn’t approve, of course.”
Petrus shook his head, even more muddled. Oskar seemed to be talking nonsense now. “Why would Uncle Milas not approve of a perfectly fine German princess?”
Oskar had reached the far end of the room and he glanced back, his expression as pinched with emotion as ever. He seemed to balance on the tips of his toes, as if wishing to confess something.
Petrus was growing extraordinarily tired of his cousin’s antics. He wanted to get back to Charlotte, wanted to see if they could plot a way to defy his uncle’s expectations where Lady Jenny was concerned, but also to discover a way for Lady Jenny to stay in Aegiria against her father’s wishes, if that was what she wanted.
Petrus nearly laughed aloud. Fathers and their expectations. He vowed to never be so strict with his own children.
Thoughts of the children he might have with Charlotte softened his irritation a bit, but when Oskar marched back toward him as though the devil were on his heels, Petrus snapped straight.
“Don’t you see?” Oskar demanded. “Our lives are not our own. We are the future leaders of this kingdom, and of Europe. We must think strategically, plan carefully, and marry in a manner that best serves Aegiria as a whole.”
Something about those words tickled in the back of his mind. It was almost as though Uncle Milas had been arguing against what Oskar was saying when he’d scolded the two of them the other day.
Before Petrus could express those thoughts, Oskar turned his face away and said, “You must marry Lady Jenny to secure the alliance with Sweden, and I must pursue Princess Feodora to secure our place with Germany. It is the only way.”
Petrus opened his mouth to protest that it was certainly not the only way, that Oskar never had been very good at plotting strategies, or in changing his mind once he’d made it up, but a flicker of movement near the doorway caught his attention.
“We’ve been overheard,” he said with a sigh, peeling away from Oskar and marching toward the door. He hated the thought that it could have been Charlotte who had overheard him and that she’d taken Oskar’s words to mean the two of them couldn’t be together.
But Charlotte was far more intelligent than that, which stopped him.
He stepped back to Oskar. “You seem to have your mind made up on this matter, but you have not taken the most important factor into consideration,” he said.
“And what factor is that?” Oskar asked, half-mocking.
Oskar’s petulant and desperate attitude did not help Petrus approach the situation with the kindness and compassion he knew he should have had. Oskar was thinking as a king only and not as a man, certainly not a man in love.
“I love Charlotte,” Petrus said. “That argument alone trumps any attempts at diplomacy and politics that you can come up with. I love her, and while I will do my utmost to make certain things end happily for Lady Jenny, my first loyalty is to love.”
“Your duty is to your family and your kingdom,” Oskar argued as Petrus marched out to the hall, done with the argument. “Just as mine is. I am sacrificing my heart for Aegiria as well, you know.”
Those last words were shouted, but Petrus was no longer in the mood to hear them. His frustration had reached its limit. The Christmas Ball was in a matter of hours, and he was determined to claim the woman he actually loved as his bride, even if it got him thrown out of the family.
ChapterNine
Charlotte thought nothing of getting up from the breakfast table and following to see where Petrus had gone. She was desperate to talk to him and to tell him what she believed King Milas’s words to her the other day meant. She’d tried desperately to tell him before Christmas Eve, but the Aegirian royal family kept themselves and their guests exceptionally busy during the Christmas holidays. They’d toured the city and visited prominent citizens—and common, everyday shops, which Charlotte thought was lovely for royalty—they’d entertained guests and a local children’s choir at the palace, and they’d decorated for the ball in every spare moment.
It was a wonder that Charlotte could remember her own name, let alone find time to share her thoughts with Petrus. But now was the time. Even though it meant leaving the breakfast room just as Priya was arriving—she truly would have enjoyed telling the whole saga to her friend—if there was even a slight possibility that Charlotte could catch Petrus before he was dragged off into more holiday preparations, she would take it.
And besides, she’d been able to leave poor, distraught Lady Jenny in Ellen’s capable, American hands. No one could withstand the gregariousness of Ellen Rathborne-Paxton, once she decided she wanted to talk to you.
Charlotte was surprised that she didn’t have to go far before she heard the sound of Petrus’s voice. He and Prince Oskar must have secluded themselves in one of the parlors not far from the breakfast room, but out of the way of foot traffic.
At first, she approached the door at her usual pace, a smile on her face and a spring in her step. But as Prince Oskar raised his voice, as she heard the angst of his words, Charlotte slowed her steps. Instead of bursting into the room and interrupting the men, which could embarrass them, she crept up to the side of the door and leaned carefully so that she could listen without being observed.
