Page 84 of Royal Reluctance

I exhale, frustrated. Here comes the attempt to get me to change my mind.

“I can see how your mother might be disappointed that she wasn’t at your wedding,” she begins. “I don’t have children, but if I did, and one of them got married without telling me? I’d be annoyed. And maybe some anger, but not enough to cause an accident. Was there something about your relationship that she didn’t approve of? Did she not like Hettie?”

“No, but her family—Hettie’s family…”

“How do you feel about her family?”

“They don’t deserve her. No one is good enough for Hettie. Her mother abandoned her, her brothers don’t care, neither does her father—”

“It sounds like you’re angry with them, not your mother.”

“I… She deserves better. She’s so good, and smart and sweet, and they’re… not.”

“It’s understandable for you to be upset when someone you care about is hurt. But that doesn’t mean you can assume you know what your mother was feeling. And that’s what you’re doing. Assuming,” she adds.

I don’t say a word.

“You can’t know what your mother was thinking that day,” she reprimands gently. “But there is someone who might have some insight.”

“Who?”

“Your sister was in the car with her. Have you ever talked to Lyra about this?”

29

Hettie

“Tema wants to meetyou. Again.” I sit at the bar at The King’s Hat. It’s slowly filling up with the lunch crowd and it’s surprising how many of the townsfolk wave when they see me.

Mabel is behind the bar. One by one, she picks up the glasses, holding them to the light to check for water marks before rubbing the glass. “The place looks great,” I tell her.

She frowns. “It’s getting there. Edie has been great,” she relents. “She’s busy with royal stuff and Kalle is hardly ever around, so it’s been… kind of fun,” she finishes with a ghost of a smile.

My sister has never been what you’d call upbeat. Or positive. Or happy. She took on a lot when she stuck around to help raise my brothers and me, and I think she decided that everything in the world is as difficult as that.

Or maybe she’s just unhappy. I really hope not.

“I’m glad. Last night at dinner, Edie said—”

“What are you doing staying at the castle with them?” she demands. “I should have started with that.”

I lean back, surprised at the abrupt change of tone and topic. “Where else should I be staying?”

“At home? Or with me?”

“Hard no. And you have a one-bedroom apartment. Tema would drive you crazy within a minute.”

“She wouldn’t.”

“Trust me. Besides, I owe it to Bo—”

“You don’t owe him anything,” she bursts. She gives a quick glance around to make sure no one is within earshot and she lowers her voice. “He made you leave, Hettie. You didn’t really have a marriage, so don’t you think that it makes you owe him anything.”

“But I do. We have a child together,” I remind her in a whisper. Maybe this isn’t the best place to talk. “Plus, Tema likes it there.”

“What does she think about being the third in line for the throne of Laandia?” Mabel snorts. “Or did you forget to tell her about that, too?”

“I didn’t forget to tell her about Bo. It was a conscious decision. And I apologized for that.”

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