Arranged Marriage (MxMxM)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

I couldn't even begin to describe the feelings that flooded through me upon seeing the wizened face of the woman that had lied to me for over twenty years. No, it wasn't quite resentment I felt...but it was like a peculiar mix between curiosity and disappointment. Why was she even here? What were her intentions? Why stoop so low as to raise your youngest son as a woman?

I tried to read that light gaze, tried to read the woman before me...but of course I didn't get anything. I was never good at reading her. Either that, or she was that good at hiding her true intentions.

"Melani," Mother commented after a tense moment of silence.

I frowned. "Mother. To what do I owe this pleasure? Surely you're not here to see how I'm faring."

Mother tilted her head in disapproval at my tone, a frown forming on her face as she pulled dress forward and sat down, drumming her thin fingers against the surface of the stone table. "I do not appreciate your tone, Melani. Now sit, we have much to discuss."

I stared at her with hesitation, before I obliged her wishes and tentatively sat down, folding my hands over the table. "Alright Mother, speak away."

Mother straightened her posture and leaned back against her chair. "Well, we can begin with the massive elephant in the room-"

"You mean the one where you failed to tell me I was a man?" I narrowed my eyes and leaned forward, and sweet Mary, it angered me to see her so calm and unfazed. "I want to know why you did it, Mother. Why would you go so far as to raise your youngest son as a woman for twenty years? What would you even gain by doing that? I mean, how could you have known that William would accept my malehood and not try us for treason?"

I hated the little smirk that twitched on Mother's lips, as if all of this was causing her some sick amusement. And after a moment, she leaned forward, raising those thin, dark brows of hers. "I'm sure William or Henry has told you this, but long before Henry married Beth, he and I were lovers. I was seventeen at the time, and we were so in love that there was nothing in the world that could tear us apart. Goodness, I thought he was going to propose to me at one point. But no, leave it to that whore Elizabeth to steal him away from me."

"What does that even have to do with why you raised me as a woman and lied to me my entire life?" I demanded with a frown, causing Mother to roll her eyes and sit back.

"After Henry married that wretched woman, he told me that our children could be betrothed after Elizabeth conceived the heir to England. Do you know that she had nine miscarriages before William was even born? It took them years before they were even able to come to term with one of their babies, and by that point, I was pregnant with your brother, Maddox. Once I knew they were having a boy, I hoped and prayed that I would have a daughter to wed him, but as soon as I saw that Maddox was male, I tried for another child."

She rested her head on her hand and gestured to me. "After I had you, I knew it would be no use to try again, for I felt like I was cursed to birth nothing but males."

"So you raised me as a girl," I muttered, looking away from her as I wrapped my arms around myself, Mother pulling out of her head to stare intently at me.

"I had to. I could never know the life of royalty if I couldn't even do something as simple as producing a wife for the future King of England."

I stared at her for a moment, realizing just how selfish she was to manipulate her own child for nothing more than status. Sweet Mary, what sane woman would even think to do that to her own child? "How did you know William would accept me? For all you know, he could have been angry, disgusted even, when he found out his wife wasn't even a woman. You could have signed the death warrant for the entire Rosethorn family."