Loving a Prince Charming - By Danielle Monsch Page 0,5
well-worn argument yet again, Seth stood and ruffled the hair she’d straightened only moments ago. “Hey!” she cried, batting at his hands and glowering at him.
“Any particular reason you are here, or is it you just don’t like sharing me with the other ladies?”
She snorted. “If they got to know you, they’d give you back in five minutes, tops.” After her hair was back to its former sleek appearance, Kira lowered her hands to her hips, her right hand resting lightly on the hilt of her sword. “As it happens, I’m here to collect you for your father.”
Great. His father and he had not been getting along recently. There were a couple obvious reasons – his father’s decision to make Kira his bodyguard one of them – but most of it was a subtext he could not decipher and could not erase. “Any possibility of you saying you couldn’t find me?”
“Sure, the same amount of possibility that Deva is going to be the next queen of the land.”
“Why do you like him more than you like me? I thought I was your best friend.”
Kira grabbed his hand, dragging him the way he so often had dragged her. “Come on. Get it over with, and I’ll let you complain to me the rest of the day about it.”
“Fine. But I’m going to be extra -grumbly.”
Behind the large desk, his father looked almost too regal, the perfect actor to play the character of a king. His hair was pure white now, the lines around his eyes and mouth ever-present, but his hair was thick without a hint of balding, and the lines did nothing except emphasize the bright blue of his eyes and the white, even teeth. His father may have been getting older, but to dismiss him even now was a mistake.
“Father,” Seth said, giving a small bow. King Thomas did not look up from the correspondence he was reading. “I was told you needed to see me.”
“I wish to discuss your birthday celebration. Many notable dignitaries will be there, and I want to make sure you know what to tell them when certain questions are asked.”
Add another reason for the increased friction – his father’s inability to let go. Seth was a prince, trained since birth to care for his kingdom once his father passed on. And yet his father sat there ready to instruct him like an obedient schoolboy on how to answer questions. “What questions worry you?”
“Many will bring up your succession and-” Seth’s father paused, discomfort painting itself over his face. “And your engagement.”
Two months. Two months until Rosamund turned twenty-three, the deadline for the curse to be fulfilled. With the end in sight, he had expected his Father and King Matthias to start making wedding arrangements, but the status quo remained.
For his whole life, it had been that way. His father always sounded uneasy whenever anything to do with Seth’s engagement was mentioned, but he also would never hear of it being broken – no matter how tempting the offer. Seth knew of several more powerful kingdoms that had proposed an engagement, and his father could easily use the excuse of the curse to end his betrothal with Rosamund, but the king had never taken that avenue.
Not that Seth would have allowed that. He had made a promise, and he would keep it. But it was best that fight had never happened.
“What would you have me say if anyone should ask about either of these things?”
The discomfort left his father’s face, and only the regal ruler remained. “You are to deflect the questions however you deem best. These events are not to be discussed.”
This was the perfect moment to bow to his father and leave. Their interaction could end on a civil note, and he could spend the rest of the day with Kira, reading in the library or practicing their archery.
Instead, roughened pride demanded retaliation for being spoken to like a child. “And what if I would like to know what the plans are for my succession and for my marriage? I should think I have a right to know such things.”
His father, who had just returned to his correspondence, paused but did not look back up at him. “We will talk about those things later.”
“Rosamund will be free of the curse soon. We should have the wedding planned so we can be wed right after.”
“That is not your concern, boy.”
Boy. He loathed his father using that word against him. He was not some slack-jawed