“Betrothal?”
I had no idea what that word meant, so I repeated it to my father. He was crying a lot. My mother was smiling. After hearing the word, my brother had gone off somewhere, saying he had things to do.
For a while, I just sat there, watching my father cry and my mother grin. Neither of them were stopping, so I repeated my question.
“What’s a betrothal?”
My father didn’t answer, just went from crying a lot to sobbing a lot.
My mother just kept smiling. “It means promising to marry someone,” she answered instead.
Oh! Marry! I knew that word!
“I’m going to be a bride!” I said.
Just about a month ago, my parents had taken me somewhere. Um, some man, Count What’s-his-face, was getting married. And a lady had walked into the church wearing this pretty white dress, and smiled at the man next to her the whole time. It was really beautiful!
“I get to wear that dress!”
I was excited! But my mother told me to calm down. “It’s not going to happen right away. You need to grow up a bit more first,” she explained.
“Whaaat?”
I wanted to wear it right away, though!
As I sulked, my mother patted my head.
“It’s too early for marriage... Too early for a betrothal...” my father mumbled through his sobs.
My mother totally ignored him. And if she was doing that, it meant I had to leave him be too. So I ignored my crying father, and enjoyed my mother’s head pats.
✦ ✦ ✦
My father told me I was going to meet my fiancé today.
“Is my fiancé inside the palace?” I asked him.
He nodded. “Yes. Well, rather, he lives there,” he explained. His eyes were red and swollen from all the crying. It looked very bad.
I’d been to the royal palace a bunch of times. Usually I went to the courtyard, but today my father said I was going inside with him. Normally he told me I’d get in the way of his job if I stayed inside, but I guess today it was okay.
I’d never been very deep into the palace, so I was nervous. Walking around this place made me feel like an adventurer on a journey.
“You need to be a good girl now, okay?” my father said as we stopped in front of the largest doors I’d ever seen. We were deep inside the palace now.
I nodded obediently, and my father cried a little more.
“Oh, you’re such a good girl,” he wailed. “And you’re only seven...”
“Father, hurry up!”
“Oh, my daughter’s so heartless...” he said between sobs. He looked kind of pitiful wiping his tears. Even a kid like me could tell.
I’d overheard that my brother, who was still young too, had been doing most of our father’s work. I could imagine my father being slowly pushed to the side by his son. Poor father.
I couldn’t reach his shoulder to pat it, so I just grabbed his leg instead. He covered his mouth when he saw me.
“Oh, my daughter’s so cute...”
“Father, hurry up!”
“Oh, my daughter’s so stern...”
He was sniffling when he announced himself to the soldier standing next to the giant doors.
The soldier opened them slowly. Behind the doors, I saw a kind of chubby man, a charming lady I’d never seen before, and a cute boy around my age. He looked a little like a doll.
“Your Majesty,” my father said. “I thank you for inviting us here today...”
“There’s no need to be so formal,” the chubby man replied. “We shall soon be family, after all.”
With a smile, the man called “Your Majesty” waved his hand at me to come over. I obediently went to him.
“Oh ho. What a lovely girl. My son certainly is discerning,” he said, patting my head and laughing. I wondered what “discerning” meant.
The lady next to Your Majesty chuckled. “Oh my! How precious! I’ve always wanted a daughter like her,” she said as she lifted me up. “Oh dear, they’re already so heavy at this age!”
“I-I’m not heavy!” I protested.
“Oh dear! You’re upset I called you heavy? You certainly are a proper little lady,” she said with another chuckle as she put me down. “Come now, little Lettie. The person you’re supposed to meet is over here.”
She pushed my back gently toward the beautiful boy I’d seen when the doors opened.
“H-He’s a doll...”
“Huh?”
“The doll spoke!” I exclaimed.
It was so surprising that I hugged my father’s leg again. He panicked, and Your Majesty and the lady started laughing a lot.
“Isn’t that nice, Clarke?” the lady said. “She thinks you look like a doll!”
“Mother, that’s not exactly a compliment for a boy,” the doll-like boy replied.
“Oh dear. How picky you are.”
“She thought you were pretty,” Your Majesty said. “You should be happy, don’t you think?”
Your Majesty and the lady looked at one another like, “Right?” The child made a face I wasn’t sure how to describe.
Slowly, he turned away from them and toward me. I was still hugging my father’s leg as he held out his hand.
“I’m Clarke. Your fiancé, Lettie.”
“Clarke,” I repeated. It didn’t sound right. “Fiancé.”
My father encouraged me to take his hand, so I did. I knew what to do in this kind of situation! I was supposed to introduce myself!
“Lord Clarke!” I said, grinning. “I’m Leticia Dorman!”
The doll-like boy blushed. The adults all had different reactions.
“Oh my!” the lady said.
“Oh ho,” Your Majesty said.
“Urk... Sniff...” my father said.
“Father, am I going to marry him?” I asked.
“Y-Yes. You will,” he replied.
“I’m going to marry this handsome boy! Yaaay!”
“H-Handsome?” the boy repeated.
“You’re very handsome, Lord Clarke!” I said, holding his hand.
His face turned even more red, and his eyes got a little wet.
“Oh, the innocence,” the lady said. “Ah, yes! Would you like to see our flower garden in the courtyard, little Lettie? It’s the best time of the year for it.”
“A flower garden! I wanna see!”
The beautiful lady smiled widely at my reply, said something to one of the soldiers, and started walking. Everyone followed, and I did too.
We all arrived at the same courtyard I knew well.
“Wow!” I said, looking at all the flowers blooming everywhere.
“They’re not quite as extravagant as roses, but I figured you would like these, so I let them grow in,” the lady said.
“Yay! Flowers!”
Little flowers were sprouting from the ground and spreading all around me. They were beautiful. I was so excited. I ran to the middle of the flower field and sat down. Lord Clarke took a seat next to me and smiled, so I smiled back, and he blushed again. Maybe he was feeling hot?
“Well look at you, sitting together like two little lovebirds,” the pretty lady said with a cheery laugh.
“You two have fun, little ones,” Your Majesty said.
“Oh, it’s far too early to leave them alone like this!” my father whined.
“Hurry along, now,” the pretty lady said as she dragged my father away.
After I’d waved goodbye to him, I started picking flowers.
“What are you doing?” Lord Clarke asked.
“I’m making a flower crown!” I told him. “I read about it in a book!”
“I see...”
One by one, I began tying the flowers together.
“Huh?”
My flower crown didn’t turn out very much like a flower crown. It was more like a sad, droopy ring. It was already falling apart in places too...
“I messed up...”
The book had lied to me! I was so sad my eyes filled with tears.
“Wah...” I began to cry.
“Lettie,” Lord Clarke said.
“Wah?”
He put something soft on my head, and I reached up to touch it.
“It’s a flower crown!” I said excitedly as I held it up.
The one I’d made was all messy and came undone, but this one was a perfect circle!
“Thank you!”
Lord Clarke looked down and turned super red. I was so happy I put a flower in his hair! Then he made a strange face. Did boys not like flowers?
“Lord Clarke!”
“Yes, Lettie?”
“I love you!” I said, and I gave him a little kiss on the cheek.