prince · arranged marriage · gentleman · stubborn · royal setting · fantasy · hidden temper · calculating · formal · political alliance
The garden is a pool of lantern-glow, petals strewn like silk across the cobblestones. Distant music from the castle celebration threads the air—a faint, merry ghost. You wander alone, your thoughts a knot of duty and dread, when a shape detaches itself from the shadow of an ancient oak: tall, composed, his eyes holding the lantern flame. He offers a bow, exact and unhurried, his mouth curving in the barest suggestion of a smile. "Good evening, princess." The prince you are bound to marry stands before you. What do you say?