Fate's Choice

On the Way

In the kingdom elite men and women married to form a hierarchy that maintained the majority of the wealth and power.

The Crown Prince in his thirtieth summer was promised a bride—a claimant from one of those  upper echelon families. Only in the rarest of occasions had a crown prince ever had a claimant be his true mate. Stories written in the history of the kingdom records these perfect matches, of an all-consuming love that proved best for all as the pair ascended to the throne.

The matching cannot be forced or pretended. As Lady Aimee rose in her horse drawn carriage amid an entourage of attendants she chatted with her parents over the possibility.

"Can you imagine it?" Lady Aimee gushed, clapping her hands. "The Prince taking one look at me and be bowled over with instantaneous passion?"

"Yes indeed! That would be marvelous, wouldn't it, Edwin?" Exclaimed Lady Almora.

A slightly more withered version of her daughter, Lady Almora had directed her slave to rouge her cheeks and perfectly quaff her silver hair to match Aimee's. Meanwhile General Edwin of Ridgewater sat like a bull squeezed inside a military dress uniform, stern-faced with a chest full of medals.

"Whether it happens or not does not matter," the General growled. "You will marry the Prince and you will someday be queen!"

"Yes!" Lady Almora agreed. "Absolutely nothing will change that."

As her parents carried on their discussion, mostly about the party they would host to celebrate their daughter as claimant, Aimee reclined on the plush carriage seat and looked out at the twilight.

The crenellated towers rose above the tops of the trees and lights shone on the magnificent edifice that was the palace, Aimee drank in the view, her hand weighed down by her ring pressed to the glass window of the carriage. This would be her last ride as an unclaimed woman.

"Soon all of that will be mine," she whispered to herself, her eyes wide and dreamy. "Nothing can stop me from being queen. Nothing!"