I don’t know how, but things just took a turn for the worse!
That much, at least, I could tell. Why that was happening, I didn’t fully grasp, but I was certain I was about to have a very bad time.
So naturally, I immediately rushed back home.
“Lily! Let’s elope!” I pleaded.
“Unfortunately, my lady, I happen to be a woman,” my longtime handmaiden pointed out.
“Love knows no gender!”
“Unfortunately, my lady, there happens to be no love between us.”
“Oh, my heart!”
Lily’s blunt rejection was soul crushing. I stole a glance at her, but she was absolutely unconcerned. So cold! So cruel!
“Then think of something!” I demanded.
“For what purpose, exactly?” she asked.
Oh. Right. I’d proposed to Lily immediately upon returning home, without explaining what it’d all been about.
“For some reason my engagement has not, in fact, been broken off,” I said.
“I believe I told you so, yes,” she retorted.
“But that night at the ball he had this boingy, grating lady on his arm when he came in!”
“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘boingy,’ but...perhaps there was a reason for it?”
“What kind of reason?”
“I don’t know.”
“Useless...” I muttered.
Lily glared sharply at me.
“I-I’m just kidding, Lily!” I said hastily, trying to make amends. “You’re the most useful handmaiden of them all!”
“Very well, then,” Lily said, clearly dissatisfied but begrudgingly accepting my excuse.
As I sighed in relief, someone knocked on the door.
“Come in,” I said.
An elderly man—the only butler in this tiny estate—solemnly stepped in.
“You have a visitor, my lady,” he announced.
“Oh? Who is it?”
The people in the village shouldn’t have known about my presence just yet, and I’d moved here without letting anyone know, so I had no idea who it might be. Well, Lord Clarke somehow knew, so...so much for that.
“Master Nadir,” said the butler.
“My brother?”
I’d seen him only two days ago. What could he possibly want? Strange, I thought. Still, I had a question for him.
“I’ll be right out,” I said.
✦ ✦ ✦
And there stood my brother.
“Are you well?” he asked.
“Brother! What’s this about my engagement still standing?!”
My tiny new home might have been decrepit, but it was still a noble’s estate. It had a parlor, as was proper, and it was there that I pressed my brother, who sat gracefully sipping tea, for an answer.
“It would appear His Highness has not, in fact, broken it off,” he explained.
His words matched what Lord Clarke had said earlier at the river.
“What?! But back then he said we were no longer—”
“Try and remember, Leticia. Did he categorically state your engagement was broken off?”
I recalled that night. Lord Clarke had walked in with Brie and said he couldn’t keep me company that day, and then I’d asked, “Does that mean our betrothal is...” to which he’d replied “It does.” So he’d said that, but...
“He...did not explicitly say our engagement was broken off,” I admitted dejectedly.
“Indeed he did not,” my brother agreed.
“What’s going on, then?!”
“It would appear he never intended to break it off in the first place.”
“What?!”
So what had the whole thing about accompanying Brie been about?!
“He wanted to make you jealous, it seems.”
“J-Jealous?”
“Yes. As in, upset he was showing interest in—”
“I know what ‘jealous’ means!” I cut in before my brother could finish his unhelpful explanation.
He grinned widely at me. “His Highness fancies you, it seems.”
“He did say something like that earlier...”
“You never paid him any attention, so he wanted to test you,” he explained.
“And even through his test I paid him no mind,” I retorted. I’d never had the slightest interest in him.
“Indeed. But it would seem he was quite happy you actually looked at his face for once.”
That had to be about our conversation by the river. It was true I hadn’t ever looked at his face. I didn’t want to marry him, after all.
“Huh? How do you know about that when it just happened?!” I demanded.
“I was the one who brought His Highness here,” he said nonchalantly.
“You what?!”
So that was why he’d shown up so quickly!
Annoyed at my brother’s indiscretion, I cast him a glare, but he was unbothered.
“He said that now that you have a reason to get to know him, he wouldn’t mind it if you only fell for him after the marriage. He was, however, concerned about how quickly you ran off to one of our territories, so he’s making arrangements.”
“What arrangements?”
“For the wedding ceremony.”
“Nooo!” I cried out in despair, holding my head.
This was the worst thing that could possibly have happened. I thought I’d gotten away!
At this rate, I was doomed to be dragged back into a life of no fishing, no lying sprawled on the grass, no running around!
“Do something, brother!” I pleaded.
“I cannot.”
“Anything!”
“I cannot,” he repeated.
“Nooooooooo!”
My brother watched gleefully as I shrieked. Of course he did. This suited him perfectly. Being involved with the royal family and climbing his way up the social ladder had always been his dream.
“Um, have you considered, perhaps, not ignoring me?” a female voice called out, interrupting my fit of despair.
Looking at the source of the voice, I saw a woman sitting opposite my brother.
“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten all about her,” my brother spoke up. “She said she wanted to see you, Leticia, so I brought her here.”
“You forgot?!” the woman snapped.
Wait. I remembered her.
“Be... Buh... Brie!” I exclaimed.
“It’s Brianna!” she protested, firmly reminding me of her name.
She no longer looked like she was trying to seduce the first pair of pants that crossed her path.
“So, Brie,” I said, “I don’t mean to grill you, but you look different.”
“Bri-an-na!” she reminded me yet again.
“What happened to the croquettish— I mean, coquettish act?”
“I’m over it!”
Oh. She is?
Shocking.
“I thought I had a chance when the prince approached me, you know! Turns out, he’s head over heels for you! I was just part of his little test. What a joke!” Brie clenched her fist as she spoke. “And because of that whole kerfuffle, my punishment was to take those horrid princess lessons for who knows what reason! They make no sense! They’re so strict! What’s up with that?! Who scolds people for happening to yawn?! Isn’t yawning just a thing people do?!”
“It sure is,” I agreed.
“I knew you’d understand!” Brie exclaimed, clasping my hand. We were now kindred spirits, apparently. “You’re incredible,” she said. “You survived ten years of that?! I could never. I barely lasted a day.”
“Don’t give up!” I encouraged her. “You can do it!”
“No can do!”
“I mean, you could become the crown princess!”
“Not a chance in hell! The prince has categorically stated that if he marries anyone but you, he will not have children!”
He said what?!
“It would seem His Highness has no interest in marrying anyone else,” my brother said with an amused smile. “I would suggest you give up.”
“Nooooooo!”
Give me back my peace and quiet!