A Kingdom's Expectations & A Shocking Revelation {Sequel}

Chapter 3

The state affair that Sebastian had promised to be five hours of boredom veered off its chosen path and into the roaming lands of my irritation when I found that I was seated next to Lord Woosley and Lady Grace. The latter was talking with the gentleman on her left while I pretended to be enthralled by Woosley's wit (of which he had... none).

Which was making the task quite difficult.

"You know, young lady," he persisted in addressing me as if I were still a youngster instead of the princess of this nation and of twenty years of age. "England is a force of power in these times, power that can be corrupted and fouled by foreign breath. If we don't guard against them, our country will be overrun, I tell you, overrun."

"Horrifying," I replied, nodding my head in what I hoped to be an enthralled manner. I certainly wouldn't know of that attitude. The esteemed lord had been blathering in my ear about foreign agents and enemies for what felt like eons. We weren't even on the third course yet and I already felt a strong urge to thrust my head into my soup bowl. 

Which would completely ruin my cream of barley appetiser; that would be a dreadful pity. 

"Princess," a different voice drew my head to the opposite direction. The raven-haired lady that sat next to me did not have the slightest idea of the rampant daydreams running through my mind that mainly involved the lady herself and lots of sharp instruments. 

Very sharp instruments. 

"Lady Grace," I addressed her pleasantly. It might have appeared otherwise however. Stretching across my lips was a pantomime of politeness, a ruby-red smile that didn't show the depth of new-found hatred for her. "This dinner has... enthralled me to the point, I simply haven't noticed you by my side." 

"Oh, I completely understand," she laughed. "My own conversational partner has been extremely witty and amusing in his speech- I imagine you have had the same experience with the Lord Woosley." 

"As you might have guessed," I replied. "Our repartee has been... enthralling." I really needed a new adjective. Strangely enough, Lady Grace's eyes gleamed with dark amusement, as if she knew how much I was bored out of my skull by Lord Wishy-Washy. 

The conversation fell silent as the number of things I wished to impart to her of appropriate, lady-like topics were... nil. I imagined the same applied to her. Whatever you said about Lady Grace, I was not dimwitted to think she didn't have her intelligence. Behind those perfect rules of etiquette that she aboded by to the public eye, that duchess's daughter was a wild-cat.

I turned my head back to the table, eyeing up the spectacle that had been placed before us. The golden chandeliers were lit, the flames' shadows on the patterned walls leaping and dancing. It reminded me of the movements of partners at a ball, the courting of each other through dance. I remembered when Sebastian had first revealed himself to me, through the guise of William. 

The moment at a ball when a stranger in mask had asked for a dance. I had felt so discarded before, as if there really was a shelf life on marriage as my mother had bemoaned. Just two years before, Zachariah- the man I had loved entirely- had betrayed my trust and my family, with the prodding of my mother. 

It was hard to feel treasured when you had been publicly disgraced, every eye following you as if you were going to explode. I had been made to feel that way, always fighting for the control in the way I sometimes dug my nails into my hands and gritted my teeth so that I wouldn't plunder my name with another syllable. 

Then, William had taken my hand and unveiled a different future for me - one where I wouldn't have to marry a man I despised, but one that I could slowly grow to love. Respect should be given to your husband, that was drilled enough into my head as a child - and yet I felt there was another facet to the saying. Respect should be given to your husband, but he must first give you something to respect.