“No, you didn’t ask.” He sounded almost accusatory now.
Jocelyn waved a dismissive hand, the motion pulling my attention back to her and away from her son. “You’re helping Davin keep Lithlinglau, which helps the whole of the kingdom. It’s the least we could do.”
Was she really that confident in this whole betrothal arrangement?
“Besides,” Davin interjected, “it’s not like we want Wolf coming after us.”
Was that where the accusation came in? That he thought I hadn’t warned him sufficiently about the repercussions?
“Would that make a difference?” his father asked.
“I’m…not certain,” I admitted, not having considered it before. “We would need to go through my uncle first, allow the offer to be made through him. So he would still need to accept this betrothal, and it’s a risk to leverage any benefits of my particular arrangement with Davin, because if my uncle’s approval hinges on that, we’ll be right where we began.”
Jocelyn and Oliver exchanged a look.
“Well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” the prince said, though I got the feeling I was missing something. “At the very least, it can’t hurt to try.”
With that settled, it was still another hour before we finished crafting the letter to my uncle.
In the end, we settled on language we thought had the best chance of swaying him, ensuring that it absolved Davin and Rowan both of any responsibility. I had insisted on clarifying that I left of my own volition, and that my and Davin’s betrothal was not secured until after I left Socair.
It was a last-ditch effort, offering a technicality of the law for my uncle to fall back on, should he decide against punishing me.
“And your parents?” Oliver asked gently when we were done. “Should we reach out to them as well, or would you like to?”
I considered it, longing gnawing at my insides.
I wasn’t sure my mother would want to hear from me, though. Was she disappointed? If I told her the truth, would she be still?
A lifetime of raising me day by day, teaching me everything I needed to know to be a perfect Socairan lady… Did it feel like betrayal when I walked away from it all?
I didn’t know.
“...Galina?” Jocelyn was looking at me with concern.
A flush rose to my cheeks.
“Apologies, Your Highness.”
“Jocelyn,” she corrected gently, not for the first time. “And think nothing of it. It’s been an exhausting few days.”
“Weeks,” Davin corrected.
The truth of that reverberated down into my soul. It had, indeed, been an exhausting few weeks.
“I shouldn’t write them until I hear from Uncle Mikhail. Depending on his reaction, I wouldn’t want them involved,” I decided.
“Very well,” Jocelyn said over the chiming of the clock. It was just now nine, but the signs of exhaustion were present in all of us. “Then, I believe the last matter is your former betrothed.”
Davin didn’t look up from where he was bent over the letter to my uncle, but he did get markedly more still.
Jocelyn went on. “Do you think he would take the news better coming from you or…”
The blood drained from my face.
How had I not considered that I would need to tell him? Had I really thought I could walk away and never have to speak to him again?
Jocelyn’s shrewd gaze assessed me, and I was grateful Davin wasn’t looking in my direction. I fixed my features as quickly as I could.