he had spoken, it had been electric. He had been a firm favorite of the people for a variety of reasons. He had established festivals and parades. He had brought a much-needed levity to the culture.
She loved her country. She always had.
Her mother was American, and she had spent a great deal of time in the States as a girl, and had also been privileged enough to travel around the world. She felt that gave her the context to truly appreciate Liri and what was unique about it. But she could also appreciate the fact that it had an old-fashioned feel to it, that there was a sense of seriousness derived from years spent with the people in poverty, and with uncertainty surrounding them while war had raged.
There had been generations of that sort of unrest, all resolved when King Darius had been in power. But the psyche of the people was rooted in that, and those things did not change overnight.
Dionysus had seemed like the medicine the country needed.
It had seemed as if he had been born not feeling the weight of the potential crown. And it had been a good thing.
Alex himself seemed to bear the weight of a mountain on his shoulders. And he walked straight and tall all the same. But there was...a gravity to him that seemed to affect the rotation of her when she was around him.
It was disconcerting at best. But then, this entire situation was disconcerting. Because she had spent a few years feeling like she might be a normal girl. Not one who had been set on the rarest and strangest of paths as a child, only to be completely derailed from it, then spat out into the real world alone and aimless.
But she’d had a chance to rebuild herself from the ground up. In Boston, there had been no expectations, no decisions about her future made anymore.
And in the back of her mind she’d known about the stipulations in her father’s will but it had seemed so distant.
She hadn’t imagined they would be enforced.
But now she was back. A reminder that she was part of a relatively old-fashioned system, and that she was the daughter of a king’s advisor.
But what if you did walk away?
She would walk away with nothing. And she had no idea what she would do with that. What would she be able to offer...anyone? How would she take care of herself? The job that she had at a charity was fulfilling, but it didn’t make a large amount. And she had always known that she would have an arranged marriage. It was just that...
It was just that she had wanted the marriage that was arranged.
“I can see it’s going well.”
She whirled around, and the book flew off of her head. And there he was. Standing in the door, the object of her consternation.
“Very well,” she said dryly.
“Concentrating hard in your lessons?”
“Thinking about running away.”
He began to move closer to her, and her heart beat faster in response. She didn’t know why she found him so... So.
“There will be none of that,” he said.
“Why?”
“You know what happens when people run into the woods.”
But he was not teasing her. His voice was heavy.
“I’m not going to run into the woods.”
“A relief. Good to know that you do have some sense in your head.”
“I was actually beginning to wonder if I do. I could go back to America.”
“You could,” he said. “With nothing.”
“I don’t need a lot of money.”
“But your charity...”
“Yes. It’s an astronomical waste of privilege, isn’t it.”
“Interesting that you think that way. When it isn’t as if you have a whole lot of choice.”
“I don’t. But I do have... I have benefited very much from all the money that has surrounded me my entire life. To completely disregard it seems shortsighted.”
And she realized that she stood there, staring up at him, that she also had no idea what her life looked like if she cut ties with Liri. With her homeland.
With this palace, and with this man.
No, she had never been close to Alex. But he had always been there. He had been there during her years at University, however distant.
It hadn’t been her mother who had supported her then. But the palace.
Her mother had gone off to find a way to keep herself in the lifestyle she was accustomed to, at least from Tinley’s point of view. She’d found lovers who aided in that pursuit.
She’d told Tinley she couldn’t understand why she didn’t find a rich