Page 65 of Songs and Spun Gold
The king picked up a pen and scrawled something on one of his papers. “She is free to reject the marriage and leave at any time.” Axel kept his eyes from widening in surprise. Was it really that easy? But then his father continued. “Of course, if there is no wedding, there will be no wedding gift.”
“You mean her father would still have to pay the money,” Axel clarified, fighting against the tightening muscles in his jaw.
“Of course. That was the deal.”
“This isn’t right, Father,” Axel argued. He unclasped his hands but kept them behind his back so he could ball them into fists instead. “She should have a choice about who she marries.”
“She had a choice.” Father paused his writing and met Axel’s eyes. “She could have chosen to not ask for the deal in the first place. After I offered it, she could have chosen to spin normal yarn instead of gold. By choosing to spin gold, she chose to marry you.”
“A choice?” Digging his fingernails into his palms, he struggled to keep his voice level. “She asked for a chance to protect her family. You gave her thechoiceof an undesirable marriage or losing her family’s livelihood. That doesn’t count as a choice!”
His father’s expression changed to a glare. “The lesser of two evils is still a choice, Axel. Someday when you are king, you will often be faced with that kind of choice. Get used to it.”
But I don’t want to be king!
He kept the thought inside, knowing it wouldn’t help his cause. But it had never been truer than at that moment.
The king returned his focus to the document in front of him. “If you want her choice to fit your definition of fairness, there is one thing you can do.”
“And what’s that?” Axel asked. Keeping the surliness out of his tone was difficult.
His father didn’t even look up. “Convince her that the marriage is desirable.”
Feeling the dismissal, Axel gave his father a stiff bow and jerked the heavy door back open. Couldn’t his father simply relent? Why was it so important that he marry Katy?
Because how was he supposed to make her want to marry him without feeling guilty about it? She’d been very clear about her feelings on the matter; to take steps to persuade her otherwise would be selfish. He could tell himself that he was doing it for her own good, but that sounded like his father’s logic.
It was one thing to attempt to win over a lady who was free; it was quite another to attempt to win one under duress.And even with a lady who was free, there was a point at which it was boorish to continue bothering her.
He wished he understood how he had crossed that line between yesterday and today, between when she “had to see him again” and when the prospect of marrying him made her cry.
Although…she had told him yesterday that he should forget about her.
Because she was expecting to be betrothed to…well, him…today?
Or for another reason?
He was still mulling the situation over when he reached the sitting room. Leaning against the doorway, he let his eyes trace her still form. Her left arm had slipped from where she’d tucked her hand under her chin and was now hanging limply over the side of the settee. Her dark curls had likewise shifted, obscuring her face. Otherwise, she was just as he’d left her.
Otto had removed his jerkin, symbolizing his off-duty status, and was sitting on the floor next to her. Leaned up against the settee by her feet, he had rested his arms on his raised knees, and his head was tipped back, eyes closed.
Katy looked like a vagrant curled up on a very fancy bench with her husband dozing while watching over her.
Axel let his head fall against the wooden doorframe with a soft thunk. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He was supposed to court her first so that she was pleased when he proposed marriage, after which he could bring her triumphantly into the castle as his bride, if not as an honored guest earlier. She would have been radiant, glowing with happiness, and clothed in a dress made by the royal seamstress and fit for a princess.
Instead, she was distressed and exhausted, unconscious in an empty sitting room. She was wearing a travel-stained woolen peasant dress; her hair was messy and tangled; and her dearesthope was that he would return with the news that the wedding into which she was being forced had been called off.
And because he’d failed her, he would court her as an unwilling fiancée.
“You don’t have to lurk in the doorway, Your Highness,” Otto called in a low voice.
Straightening, Axel stuffed his hands into his pockets and ambled toward the guard, whose eyes were still closed. “I thought you were asleep.”
“Just resting,” Otto replied. His lids lifted halfway. “My useless worrying over Kat kept me up half the night.”
Axel dropped next to him and leaned back with a sigh. Katy’s arm hung near his shoulder, but he resisted the urge to reach over and trace patterns on the back of her hand. “If I’d known it was her, I would be in the same condition.” He rolled his head to look at the bit of her chin he could see at this angle. “Maybe I should have been anyway. It wouldn’t have been less terrible for a different girl.”
Otto lifted a shoulder in response. “How did things go with the king?”
