Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
How utterly embarrassing this was! I felt like a fool, a lovesick fool. I had to avoid most of my former acquaintances, because I was sure they would not recognize me, as I did not recognize myself. Nor could I explain how I’d come to be so afflicted. So, since my return, I’d spent my time looking for property. What kind of a man marries a lady without an estate of his own? I could not expect her to join me and live in my aunt’s palace. Unfortunately, with my banishment came much less money than I had assumed.
It was brilliant. One more title to add my name: Wilhelm, the banished, near-poverty-stricken prince. Just one more thing to make her family despise me.
Truly, I was a fool.
I had not the situation or means to marry. Yet here I was at the door of their London estate, to take her with me.
“Welcome, Your Highness, please follow me.” The footman bowed his head to me when I entered.
I nodded a short thank-you to him, and ignored the maid peering into the hall as I was led into a large, light-blue drawing room. There waited almost all of the Du Bells.
The marquess and his son Damon stood by the fireplace, speaking. They immediately became quiet when the footman announced me and stepped in. Not just them, either. There was also Damon’s wife, Silva, their daughter in her arms, along with Hathor’s younger siblings: Devana, who sat at the piano; Hector, who sat by the window reading; and Abena, lying on the floor, eating cookies. They were all silent, staring directly at me, as if to ask who this most unwelcome intruder into their perfect family could be.
“I object to this union!” the little girl on the ground suddenly shouted.
“Abena!” Silva hushed her.
“What? Whenever people get married in church, they always ask if people object. I object!” She huffed, tossing her cookie on the plate as she moved to rise.
“You can only say you object during the actual ceremony, Abena.” Hector snickered, shaking his head at her. “It’s useless now.”
“Then how do we stop it? I’ve been waiting for all of you. And none of you are any help!”
“Abena!” Damon snapped at her. “Do not be rude.”
Though the small smirk on her father’s face was not unnoticed by me.
“And what reason do you give for your premature objection to our union, Lady Abena?” I finally spoke, getting all of their attention again.
The girl turned to me, her face bunched up as if her cookies were sour, and with all the seriousness in the world she crossed her arms and said, “You’re not handsome enough to be my brother-in-law.”
All her siblings snorted with laughter, along with their father, though they tried to hide it quickly. Apparently, this was a vicious bunch, and she was their leader. Even I could not help but grin. I knelt down to her level in order to look her in the eye.
“Unfortunately, I cannot change my face to fit your high standards, my lady. Can you be persuaded to compromise?”
She shook her head no. “I dislike compromises. They never work in my favor.”
“I see. Then can you be bribed?”
Her head tilted to the side. “Bribe? That’s when you give someone something, and they do what you want?”
“Exactly.” I nodded, smiling.
“What will you give me?”
“Your sister told me you like pastries. I will buy you any treat you want, once a month, forever.”
Her eyes widened and she gasped. “Forever? As in, the rest of my life? Even when I grow up?”
I nodded. “Yes, even when you grow up.”
She was thinking. “How many pastries?”
“A box.” I grinned.
“That’s a lot! And I can pick from anywhere?”
“You’d trade your sister for a box of pastries?” Hector asked her. “Have you not learned what a fair trade is?”
She turned back to him. “Ladies have to get married, because you all say ladies have to get married. I do not want him to take Hathor, but no matter what, she’ll get married. No one else has offered me anything whenever someone gets married. So far, this is in my favor. Right?”
She posed that question to her father, who stared at her with a very calm expression that made her shoulders drop. She turned back to me, shaking her head no. “Du Bells do not accept bribes.”
“I see. Then, you leave me with no other choice.” I sighed, rising to stand.
“What does that mean?”
Before I could reply, the door opened and Hathor walked in dressed in light green, a string of diamonds around her neck, her hair pinned up in curls, a single long curl over her right shoulder. Her cheeks were a bit pink in color, but it was truly those eyes of hers that caught me. They were as dazzling as ever. A small smile appeared on her lips as we looked at each other, and I was all of a sudden much more relaxed.