The Prince's Bride (Part 1) - J.J. McAvoy Page 0,13

front gates. Either way, I was dressed properly now and had arrived at my father’s library, awaiting my punishment.

However, when I opened the door, there was only my brother...and Ambrose, the head secretary of palace affairs.

“Oh, Gale. Good, you are here. Come in,” Arty said to me, Ambrose nodding his head.

Doing as I was told, not sure where this was going, I entered and took a seat in front of the desk as Arty offered.

“As I was saying, Adelaar,” Ambrose went on, making sure to call him by his title as always, “we’ve finished our profile on Ms. Odette Wyntor.”

Now I see. My punishment was already in progress.

Ambrose was fifty-two, stoutly built, white-haired, and with a signature, caterpillar-styled mustache. He also did not have much care for me, though he would not admit it. He had made two files, and he seemed to be disturbed at handing me the thick-bound folder.

“Did you make a profile or write a dissertation?” I asked, astonished at how heavy the folders were. It had only been one full day since we had spoken about this.

“It was not made clear to me what the purpose of the profile was, and therefore, I did not know which information was or was not essential to keep,” he replied with his standard seriousness, even though I was only joking.

He also knew for damn sure what this was for. The crown never asked for detailed profiles of someone unless they were marrying into the family. And the only person who could marry this woman was me.

“Thank you, Mr. Ambrose. That will be all for the time being,” Arty said, already nose-deep into the file.

“Adelaar.” Mr. Ambrose bowed slightly with his hand over his heart to my brother and then to me. “Your Highness,” he said and gave a simple nod before taking a single step back and then turning around and walking out the library door.

I waited for the door to close before I tossed the file onto my father’s desk.

“You are not going to read it?” Arty asked as I leaned back into my seat.

“What is the point? If I do not like anything, does that mean I can be excused from marrying her?”

It did not really matter what her profile said. She was rich, and we needed the money. That was all that was important. I knew he was hoping that by getting me this information, I’d warm to the idea and just blindly agree. So, it was better that I didn’t read it.

“Her full name is Odette Rochelle Wyntor,” he began to read, because the man never knew when to give up. “She was born in Sunrise, Washington. Her father was Marvin Wyntor, founder and creator of Etheus, and her mother, Wilhelmina Wyntor— Oh, forgive me. They are divorced, so her name is Wilhelmina Wyntor-Smith now. She was the first woman of African-American descent to receive both the Miss America and Miss USA—”

“Arty, are you going to read the whole profile?”

“She has a younger sister named Augusta, and look at this. She is actually older than you by a few months. She was born on November twenty-seven,” he replied, coming around the desk to lean right on the edge of my seat.

“You are really—”

“I know you are not interested in any of that, so I’ll just skip to how stunningly beautiful she is.” He held a picture of her above my face as if she were live bait.

She had big, dark-brown doe eyes, a button nose, and warm almond-brown skin. She had an oval face and long, thick and curly hair, and when she smiled, her cheeks balled...she was beautiful. Very much so.

It was not until I heard him snicker that I brushed his arm—and the photo—away. He was using her beauty to rope me in because, apparently, that was all I cared about.

“I was not expecting her to be ugly after you told me her mother was a beauty queen,” I muttered.

“Not just her mother. Odette won an array of awards as a child, too—very interesting. She was Little Miss Sunrise, as well as Little Miss Washington, Little Miss America, and America's Royal Miss, as well as another nine titles—all before the age of seven.” He held up another photo of what I thought had to be a doll at first.

She smiled with all her might, a crown way too big for a child on her little head, and she wore a giant pink ball gown and even had her own star princess wand. She