The Reluctant Princess - a Novella

Chapter 4 - Rebuked

She decided she would keep the incident to herself. She couldn't even bring herself to tell her sister about it, in fact. It was too humiliating to know her future husband was still gallivanting and indulging in women and drink mere days from their wedding.

She rose early and, with Lavinia and Mildred in tow for propriety as well as company, she took a long walk through the majestic gardens, longing to venture off into the woods, but unable to convince her chaperones to do so.

"You seem distracted, sister, what is the matter?" Lavinia inquired.

"I can hardly believe you have to ask that," Elizabeth muttered and sank into a nearby stone bench., "But if you must know, I am racking my brain for a way out of here..."

Lavinia sighed heavily and glanced over at Mildred, then took a seat beside her sister and motioned to the maid to make herself scarce. Mildred dutifully wandered down the path and hovered a few yards away, pretending to study the jasmine hedges.

"You have not yet given up on that?" her sister asked, taking her hand in hers.

"Do I strike you as someone who would just roll over and take it?" Elizabeth countered, with a mirthless smile.

"No... you don't. I'm sorry Lizzie, I had hoped perhaps you and Henry might get along after all. Now I'm not so sure. I don't blame you one bit. But I also don't think you should get your hopes up. There is just no time left to change things. The wedding is in a few weeks."

"I know, but I now know that Henry would also love nothing more than be a bachelor for a bit longer. As ridiculous as it may sound, I might have an ally in him."

Lavinia frowned, looking unconvinced, as Elizabeth continued.

"We all know that nobody cares how I or our family feels about the arrangement. I have been trying to convince everyone I am not fit to be a princess for years, but nothing I've said or done has made any difference. In fact, I could threaten to jump off a bridge in protest and no one would bat an eye. Only the royal family has the power to call off the wedding, so I think it's time for a new strategy. I need to enlist Henry's help to make it so he or the regents will call the wedding off. It is the only solution. If we succeeded, I would finally be free to carry on with my life, and hopefully convince our father to let me help out in the running of their estate. Marriage and children could wait a few years..."

Lavinia shook her head and sighed.

"That seems like an impossible task, and you know it," she said, in a chiding tone. "I fear you are getting your hopes up for no reason. Have you at least thought about the alternative? Are you mentally prepared to fail, and become not only a wife, but the future queen of this kingdom?"

Elizabeth bristled and bit her lip looking in the distance.

"Of course I have" she said, sounding a little forlorn, "You know me, always the practical one."

"Have you, though?" Lavinia insisted, "As a married woman you would not have to answer to our family much longer, and if you play your cards right, you might just be able to strike a suitable deal with him that might allow you some freedoms, most women do not have."

Elizabeth thought about this for a beat. It was true, she reasoned, that he did not seem the tyrannical kind, appearing rather congenial indeed. Perhaps if she overlooked his indiscretions, he might treat her kindly. Frankly she hated to reason in this calculating way, so like her own mother. Lady Crawley had always maintained that her own arranged marriage had not been based on love but on a mutual, respectful friendship, which had then grown into affection. Certainly, respect was a strong word when thinking of a relationship with Henry. The man was anything but respectful, but surely at the very least she could try to find in him a redeeming quality. And perhaps if he were willing to do the same, he might stop trying to humiliate her... One could hope, at any rate.