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“Oskar, I know you care about this family and Aegiria more than anything in the world,” he began as more of the family headed toward the dais. It was a signal that the revelation of the Christmas Princess would happen soon.
Before Petrus could go on, Oskar turned sharply to him, leaned in as if conscious they were being watched, and hissed, “There are things that I care about more than this family and Aegiria.”
Petrus snapped his mouth shut and stared at his cousin with wide eyes. The news came as a complete shock to him. He couldn’t imagine what on earth his overly serious cousin could love more than—
It hit him so hard it knocked the air from his lungs.
“You love her,” he said, lowering his voice to the point where he could barely be heard over the low din of the ball’s guests. “You love Lady Jenny.”
Oskar flushed dark and turned his head away. To anyone else, it would look like he was staring out over his future subjects, his back stiff and his shoulders squared. His chin was raised as well, giving him a look of power. But Petrus knew him too well, knew that the emotion in Oskar’s eyes was misery and not aloof pride in his people.
“I do,” he admitted before peeking back at Petrus.
Absolutely everything fell into place—the way Oskar had been advocating for Lady Jenny for weeks now, the way they sat close to each other while deliberately not looking at each other, the way Oskar seemed to soften when he was around Lady Jenny. Even stumbling across Lady Jenny coming out of the family wing of the palace early the other morning took on a whole new significance.
“How did this happen?” Petrus asked, though it wasn’t quite what he wanted to say.
Oskar let out a breath—one it seemed he had been holding for months—and faced Petrus with more honesty than he had in ages. “Jenny was sent here to marry into the royal family, to marry you,” he said. “The match was meant to bind Aegiria and Sweden closer together, just as I have said all along. But you were off in England for so much of the summer. Someone needed to entertain Jenny to stop her from feeling cast off.”
Part of Petrus felt guilty for causing Lady Jenny distress, but if he had stayed in Aegiria and wooed her, he never would have found his half-brothers, or Charlotte.
“We found that we were quite suited to each other right from the start,” Oskar went on. “We share a fondness for the same books and for…well, for fishing, if you must know.”
Petrus burst into a smile despite himself. “You and Lady Jenny went fishing together?” The idea of two such serious people sitting in a boat, dangling fishing lines over the water was almost comical.
“Yes,” Oskar said, frowning as if Petrus were making fun of him. “We enjoy each other’s company.”
So many things made sense. “She loves you too,” Petrus said. “That’s why she’s been so miserable this last week. She hasn’t been upset because I’ve been dragging my heels proposing to her, she’s merely terrified that I mightactuallypropose. Then she would feel obligated to accept. But it is you she truly wishes to be with.”
“I…I believe so,” Oskar said, hanging his head.
Even more things made sense. Uncle Milas’s admonition to the two of them the other day, for example. And Oskar’s frustrated statement that he was sacrificing love too.
“Then dammit, man,” Petrus said, taking a step closer to Oskar as the dais became crowded with family and a veritable horde of Aegirian citizens flowed into the room. “Why have you not proposed to Lady Jenny? Surely, it would be an even larger diplomatic coup for Lord Lindstrom’s daughter to marry the crown prince of Aegiria instead of a dubious cousin.”
Oskar glared at Petrus, but Petrus could see there was more heartbreak than true anger in his eyes.
“It is necessary that I marry a German princess,” Oskar insisted. “Germany is far more dangerous than Sweden. They present more of a threat to Aegiria than Sweden ever could. It is absolutely vital that I marry a German to secure an alliance.”
Petrus shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face. Oskar was good and noble and cared so deeply for Aegiria, but he was being a rank idiot.
“Oskar, you have six younger siblings. And there’s Frederik and Briggita too,” Petrus argued. “That’s eight more chances for Aegiria to secure the all-important alliance with Germany through a royal marriage. And that’s only counting your family and mine. We have more cousins out there, you and I. You do not have to take all of this onto your own shoulders.”
“But I am the crown prince,” Oskar argued, his emotions close to bursting and his youth showing through. “I have a duty to my kingdom.”
“And would that duty not be best served by marrying the woman you love and showing our people what true happiness and wedded bliss looks like?” Petrus asked. Which was exactly what Uncle Milas had been arguing the day he and Charlotte had overheard from the library closet. “We could both show them, you and I. We could both marry the women we love.”
“I—”
Oskar seemed at a complete loss. He wasn’t given a chance to sort out his thoughts—which Petrus could see full well were tumultuous. The king and queen had made their grand entrance into the ballroom and had just stepped up onto the stage.
Everyone in the packed ballroom fell into a hush as the king raised his hands.
“Ladies and gentlemen, beloved subjects and guests,” the king began. “I give you my wife, the indomitable Queen Sylvia.”
The king gestured to the queen as the ballroom erupted into applause.
Queen Sylvia stepped forward, radiant in Aegirian turquoise and green, the gems of her crown and jewelry sparkling, and gestured for the people to be quiet.
