The Prize is Not Always as Great as One Thinks

Chapter 9

9) The Belle of the Ball

Margaritte did not know if she looked forward to the festivities after Prince Gerald’s investiture or not. There was to be a feast at the Guildhall and a ball as well. Well not a ball, but dancing, and she always excelled at dancing. At least the men all told her so even if she knew that she occasionally would stumble in figures whilst she did them. Their eyes never caught that, for men were always looking upon her face, her figure, her legs that showed as she danced. She had them all fooled, but did she fool herself the most? Her mother, thank goodness, had long ago left Steilenberg for their country manor, otherwise Margaritte knew she would have been berated about her skills. 

The dowager baroness, for Margaritte was a Princess, her mother was not, did not like the society of Steilenberg. At least her mother did not like that part which Margaritte and her late father encouraged. That the Prince her father had now been dead for six months did not help Margaritte navigate the court of Steilenberg. Her half brother, William, though did his best. William was a Baron with the family’s sizable holdings, he was betting a great deal that she should land the Crown Prince as her husband. William knew Gerald much better than she though.

He had marched with the man in the St. Michael’s pageants for years. That helped to paint a friendship out of an acquaintance. Next year William’s own son was to march in the parade carrying the palanquin of the Saint's statue. William thought the new Crown Prince was sharp, having realized that the safest place for the spare heir was far from the court which was surrounded by vultures. Her brother and she were two of those vultures. They had done their best to promote Margaritte to the top of the pyramid of good Almondian women for the crown prince to wed. 

Even the very day that Reginald had been killed they had been pursuing that plan. Margaritte had nearly given herself to the man. Years of kissing and caresses from admirers had fanned the flames of desire within her that fateful morning, and she had wished to culminate those passions in an act of lovemaking that still had been denied her. 

Margaritte had to be pure for the Crown Prince lest word be spread that some man knew her carnally. That some man who she would give up all her charms to would then tell others of the deed, she found hard to credit, but her brother and her father had both told her such was the case. And should she have given them to Reginald, the Grand Principalities worst womanizer, then surely her reputation would have been destroyed.

“Play him just enough to arouse him. You know what I mean?” Her brother had said.

“Yes, I know when a man becomes so. When he is hard and stiff. Then he is mine?” she had asked.

The Baron had shaken his head, “Not entirely. He has known so many women that even should you marry him and be the Grand Princess, know that Reginald will cheat on you. Often. It is a drug that he can not free himself from. He must have variety often and he will not stop.”

She had done as her brother had said and the Prince surely became interested. But Reginald also had told her the truth. 

That his interest was real but he could not choose her to be his bride unless the Principality required it. That the French had a candidate for the job as well. She knew the French or Germans married into the ruling branch of the FitzRoy Perry family often over the centuries. It had balanced out diplomacy. As did the other noble houses, such as Britain, Austria, the Low Countries, even Sweden once. Almondy was the largest of the secondary powers on the continent. They were a force to be reckoned with, a quarter the size of France in population, and land. And proportionately the same amount of soldiers, especially if a full induction of all serving men was undertaken. 

Her brother sat in the Assembly and said that could be two million men or more. And Almondy was not ready for a war. Her brother William questioned her just as Reginald had before he had been blown to bits. Did she want to be a Grand Princess in wartime Almondy? An Almondy that became the battlefield between France and Germany. Knowing that it seemed destined to become such a battleground, how could the Principality afford a French Grand Princess? If the Germans were strong and won, then they would doubly hate the Almondians despite nearly a third of the population with Germanic heritage.