Prologue
MY name was Annerosa Ortegamo. I was born the eldest daughter of a count and given a rigorous education in the ways a noblewoman should conduct herself.
My father was Count Ortegamo of the Kingdom of Lacrofine, and my mother, the daughter of another count from the same kingdom. She held a deep sense of pride in that noble upbringing. With my younger brother having a personality pompous enough to rival my father’s, and my younger sister the spitting image of my mother in bearing and deed, my mother reveled in the fact that she had produced suitable descendants for the family line.
However, it was all a lie. There was no vast fortune such as one would expect to accompany the name of a family as illustrious as the Ortegamos. For many years, the land that composed our domain withered under the auspices of bad weather, and thus so, too, did our family coffers.
One would think such meager assets would lead our family to pursue a modest existence, but the nobility was not known for its frugality. One could not be expected to look the part of a noble without spending like one.
In particular, the pink dress with the ostentatious ribbon my mother chose for me was not to my liking. It was, however, to the liking of the second prince.
My mother informed me that the embroidery adorning the hem of my dress was the latest fashion, but when I asked her if the beads were not a tad unnecessary, she merely brushed me aside.
“They are just right for the future wife of the second prince.”
“That will never be me, Mother,” I insisted.
But no matter how vigorously I objected, my words had no impact upon her.
All my efforts to convince her that I wanted a simple life were for naught. The only thing I could do was suppress my tears and touch my hair, which had been carefully prepared for the evening’s festivities.
Torn between the life I led and the wishes in my heart, I, Annerosa Ortegamo, found myself thinking, Oh, to be a commoner!