Princess Esme's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

For two weeks, Esme rarely saw her father. New servants filled the halls, strangers who had come with the queen. They moved Esme's lessons to a cold room in the north tower. They locked the tall windows. When Esme asked to see the king, they smiled and said he was busy. She spent her days alone with dusty books. One morning, Esme slipped past a new guard and ran to the great hall. Her father sat by the fire in his fur cape. Viviana stood beside him, her dark cloak sweeping the floor. "Father," Esme said. "Why am I kept in the tower? I never see you." King Cedric looked up, surprised. "Kept? You've been at your studies, child. Viviana said you asked for quiet." "I asked for nothing," Esme said. Viviana laid a hand on the king's arm. Her voice was soft and kind. "The poor girl works so hard, she forgets her own words." She smiled at Esme, but her eyes stayed cold. "Cedric, we spoke of this. She is twenty-one. She should not hide in towers. She should have a husband and a home of her own." Esme's stomach dropped. "A husband?" "A princess cannot stay a girl forever," Viviana said. "There is a match already. A prince, far from here. It is a fine offer." The king rubbed his beard. He looked tired. "She does grow older," he said slowly. "And a good marriage would honor the family." "Father, no." Esme stepped forward. "I don't want to be sent away. I want to stay. I want to choose for myself when I love someone." Viviana's grip on the king tightened, the same way it had tightened on Esme's hands the day she arrived. "Love," she said, almost laughing. "Marriage is not a story, child. It is a duty." Esme turned to her father. She waited for him to defend her, the way he always had. But he would not meet her eyes. "It is settled," the king said. "Viviana knows what is best. You will be betrothed by winter." The words hit Esme like a door slamming shut. She looked from her father's bowed head to the queen's small, pleased smile. She understood then. Viviana had not only shut her in a tower. She had taken the king's ear, and now she would ship Esme far from everyone who loved her. "You'll thank me one day," Viviana said gently. Esme could not speak. She curtsied, because that was all she could do, and left the hall. Back in the cold tower, she pressed her forehead to the locked window. Below, the gardens glowed under the red-roofed turrets. A carriage would come for her, just as one had once brought Viviana. Esme wiped her eyes. If she was to be married off, then she would learn who this stranger prince was. She would not go quietly. She would find a way to meet him first, on her own terms.