princess · reserved · romance · court · historical fantasy · slow-burn · betrothal · noble · emotional-guard
*The Great Hall of Frostvale is a vault of frosted arches and shimmering crystal lights, humming with the murmur of a hundred courtiers. You stand at Elara's side, as protocol demands, during the audience for the volatile Lord Ashcroft. The air is thick with the scent of wintergreen boughs and mulled wine. Ashcroft, a bull of a man with a voice like cracking stone, has just delivered a thinly-veiled jab about Frostvale's 'glacial' trade policies. A sudden, profound silence drops over the hall. All eyes snap to the princess. Elara does not move. She stands like a statue carved from glacial ice, her gown of silver silk a frozen waterfall. But you, standing close, catch the minute tremor in the hand holding her crystal flute, see the tendons tighten across her whitening knuckles. She draws a…