The Dream Oath

Chapter 5.5

Ralse glared at the bouquet sitting on his desk. It was beautifully done. Doubly impressive for the dead of winter. But it lacked personality. If delivered without a card, it could be from anyone.

He'd have it delivered to his wife anyway. No sense wasting the effort when they were still stretched thin. Next time, he'd do better. There had to be a way to make a bouquet more personal.

Edgar hadn't been any help. "Why are you courting your wife?" was the only input. If the man couldn't understand that he wanted his wife to like him, he was useless in this situation.

Things had been better. The mild winter shook some of the stress off their shoulders. Maria spent most of every day at his side, co-ruling. She didn't have the nerve to kill him so he figured there was no harm in training her to rule in case someone else did.

The practical part of his mind told him that plenty of monarchs hated their spouses and he was lucky. The cynical part argued that maybe it was even worse for one spouse to care and the other to feel indifferent. At least if she hated him there wouldn't be some sort of feeling to attach to.

But Maria remained perfectly neutral. Lying awake at night he figured he may as well be a pane of glass in one of her windows for all she noticed him.