My Broken Knight

Chapter 3: A Wedding

-Grace-

“Princess no running! Think of your heart!”

I did not listen, as my governess Estella yelled out to me. Instead, I kept holding up my long blue dress, as I ran through the gardens, enjoying the first warm day after the long cold and hard winter. The winter was always very dangerous for me. It was always a good question whether or not I would survive it. Many physicians had not believed I would survive my first year, but I had surprised everyone by making it to my twenty-one year, and still not seeming to be slowed down by the birth defect in my heart. It was weaker than most. No one could say why, but it had been a complicated birth, weakening my mother and a few years after sending her to God, leaving my father to raise me. Do not get me wrong, he did a good job, but his many duties always called him elsewhere. It was hard to get any time with him really, where some lord wouldn’t interrupt us, saying he had to meet some peasant or rich men coming from far places in the world to discuss secretive things that weren’t for a princess to hear.

“Princess!”

“Oh, come now, Estella, it is spring. Do you not feel the warmth in your bones and the love in your air?” I asked.

“You talk about love, as if you know something about it,” she yelled back.

Estella was an older woman, her hair mostly grey, but while she was a stern woman, she had not ever treated me unkindly. She could grow impatient with me, of course, and a lecture would follow but never anything that hurt. She would maybe just send me to my room, making me study in there and if I did not do as she said, there would be no dinner, but I was a good girl. I did what I was told. I did not like being a burden to anyone or causing any sort of commotion. So, I did what I was told.

“Have you never read a romance novel?” I asked her.

She had finally caught up to me, and while the ground was no longer covered in snow, she was still panting. Her body and lungs were not what they used to be.

“Those are filled with nonsense,” she told me. “You use your time on reading history and geography and languages. Not those silly stories.”

“Estella, do not lie to me, I know you have read at least one,” I teased.

“I am your teacher,” she stated.

“That is not an answer!” I laughed.

She just smiled secretively at me, before getting serious.

“I mean it, your highness. Do not let yourself get fooled. Those stories lead to ideas of what marriage is, when you know a marriage is-“

“A beneficial act between two families. I know … but-“

“No buts!”

“My parents had love in theirs. You even told me that anyone could see from afar how in love they were!” I said.

She did not comment on it, but I had been right. Even she knew it.

“Princess Grace!”

Suddenly, a young maid came running towards us. She was out of breath as she finally neared us, but we had walked quite far.

“What is it, Lisa?” I asked.

“Y-Your father has returned.”

“My father?!”

I didn’t wait for her to confirm it for me twice. I ran past both of them, hearing Estella yell,

“Princess! Your heart!”

But I did not listen. I just ran back to the castle, inside, up the stairs and rounded a corner, just as my fierce and strong looking father, who carried both armor and crown came walking from the other direction.

“Father!” I yelled.

I ran towards him. He was followed by trusted knights and lords. His angry glare turned soft as he saw me, and he smiled and caught me, as I threw myself at him.

“Grace,” he said happily.

It was never easy being apart from him, even if he rarely had time for me. He and I were the last of what was left of the royal family, and it was not always easy to make friends. We really could only trust each other.

I was finally put back on my feet and my tall, tall father looked down at me, running a hand over my hair.

“What did I tell you about running?” he asked.

“Not to do it,” I said with an innocent smile.

He laughed and placed an arm around my shoulder, as we walked to his study with all his trusted men behind him. Others were intimidated by them, but to me they were just a part of this crazy family. I always saw them around.

“How was the north?” I asked.

“Fierce,” my father told me, as we got inside the study.

He placed himself behind the big desk, and I stood beside him, tipping my weight back and forth on my feet, while holding my hands behind my back.

“What?” he asked.

“Have you not forgotten something?”

He looked confused for a few seconds, but then smiled before laughing whole heartly.

“Of course. I always bring presents from my travels, don’t I?”

I nodded, as he reached inside a purse he had tied to the side of his belt and pulled out a beautiful black stone with small white dots on it.

“It is said to hold magic,” he said.

I took it from him, admiring it, just as Lord Edward spoke out,

“Should she really be touching that? It could be cursed. Remember it was used by the barbarians.”

My father just waved his hand in the air, at his eldest advisor. Sadly, I had been told Edward had lost a son in the fight in the North, and I understood his concerns for me. He had watched me grow up and was close with my father. I sat down beside my father, a little away from his desk, as the rest gathered around.

“Well, maybe it was time we talked about the wedding then,” Lord Edward suggested.

I looked away from the stone and over at my father.

“There is going to be a wedding?” I asked, confused.

My father’s face darkened, and I did not understand at first why, but as the men glanced at me, I finally understood. I got back on my feet, not believing what I was putting together in my head.

“No, father. Please,” I said.

“The fight in the north was harder than we had predicted. We lost too many men. Marrying King Hector-“

“King Hector?! You mean that old king from Henla in the south? You cannot be serious?”

“Grace-“

“No! He is an old man! He has four sons. Why am I marrying him?” I yelled.

“He has lost his sons in the war …”

“So, I am compensation for a war you started?” I asked.

“I did not start it!” my father shouted. “Those barbarians were going to come here some day, killing us all. We needed to take them down before they got a chance.”

“But he is fifty!”

“And he is very rich. With more soldiers than we have in this entire kingdom!” he said.

“Please. You cannot … He is far too old.”

My father sighed but did not seem to change his mind. Estella truly was right. Marriage had no love. It was all a beneficial act between two families. The king got a young new bride to make him sons and my father got soldiers.

“Father!”

But he did not look at me. I turned to the rest of the men, only to see them avoiding my eyes like cowards. I groaned, frustrated and I banged my hands against my father’s desk.

“I refuse!”

“You cannot refuse.”

“But I do!” I yelled.

“Grace, I am your father, and I am king. You will do as I say!”

“You will condemn me to loneliness. I will throw myself off the roof!”

“Grace, do not threaten me,” he growled at me. “Go to your room. You will stay in there for the rest of the day.”

I could not believe him. Any of them. They were giving me to an old fool, and no one said anything about it. I turned away angrily, knowing if they wanted me to marry him I would, but I refused to make it easy for them.