AllFreeNovel
Share Us
5
Etienne
Barely an ounce remains of the scotch I keep in the bar cart in my chamber.
Torben is happy, my parents are acting suspicious, and Kala looked crestfallen at being rejected by the same prince for the second time in her life. Today seems like a good day to stay drunk. Something big is about to happen, and it doesn’t include me or any of the spares.
I try to put all thoughts and feelings out of my head as I skulk down to the wine cellar.
I do not like that my parents are toying with Kala’s emotions. It’s no skin off my nose, but they shouldn’t mess with people’s lives that way.
And why should that woman allow her life to be toyed with? She’s attractive and accomplished. Surely if she wanted a relationship, she would have been in one by now. But then I saw the look on her face when Torben introduced Hailey.
I doubt anyone noticed the moment that bombshell hit her—the subtle flutter of her dark lashes, the bob of her swan-like throat. And then, she pushed it down.
We’re all professional at pushing that shit down, aren’t we? Kala St. Rain fits right in. I hear voices when my feet reach the bottom of the stone steps leading to the basement. I pause and listen.
“Don’t have a tantrum, dear.”
“I won’t go through with it. I simply will not stand there in public and announce that…American…as my future daughter-in-law.”
What in the world are my parents doing down here?
“A king doesn’t have to do anything that goes against his conscience,” the queen says.
There’s a pause and I crane my neck to listen.
“Everyone saw her exiting the plane with him. That woman rode in my motorcade with my son,” the king says.
“He’s sowing his wild oats. And after you officially announce Torben’s engagement to Kala tomorrow, that country rube will run back to America where she belongs.”
I knew my mother had claws, but I’d never witnessed her behave this way. She has such a soft spot for her children; I never would have thought she’d hurt her son like this.
“You mean simply go against his wishes?”
There’s a wicked-sounding smile in my mother’s voice. “And watch him fall in line. He may not enjoy answering to you, Otto. But he will always, ultimately, do what’s best for the country. And he knows as well as we do that what’s best for the country is to continue the line of succession with a woman who knows the score. Someone who has her own money and status, and knows what to do with it. Someone who would never make a laughingstock of our little country.”
I’ve heard enough.
My hand grips the neck of a bottle before I slip out of a side door of the basement undetected.
* * *
“You’re drunk and spouting bullshit again. It’s not a good look.”
Okay, maybe I need to practice my communication skills.
I’d drunk half a bottle of Syrah, but my conscience was getting to me.
I couldn’t just blurt, “Hey brother, Mom and Dad are scheming against you and Hailey.” No, I had to be an asshole about it. I might have said something about his stupid smug face.
Fine. I’m jealous. All the women want him, and Mom and Dad are obsessed with him.
“Ask him for yourself. Father won’t endorse your wedding. Just wait,” I tell him. “That’s why ol’ Kala’s been hanging around. Don’t you get it? The king and queen will forbid you to marry Hailey and instead give you Kala as the consolation prize.”
“Our parents cannot forbid me or force me to do anything,” Torben answers.
“Brother, you might be the Favored Prince, but you are definitely the slowest. They are scheming right now to get you to fall in line. Humiliate poor Kala for the second time, or humiliate the American. They’re gambling on where your loyalties lie.”
