Alina had never eaten a meal so delicious.

A pork roast accompanied with apples, carrots, and onions all simmered together in the meat’s juices…

The potatoes… creamy and golden…

She worried she would begin drooling at first, but there was one saving grace…

And that was that the most delectable meal was being paired with one of the most awkward situations of her life.

She had opted to have the Viscount’s meal be a more private affair, and so she found herself dining in her father’s council room.

On her left sat Brendan, stoically eating without bothering to glance around himself.

On her right sat Katarina Ashowan, across from her sat Tam, who was staring at the people around the table in open bewilderment. Beside him, Duke Iones, followed by the Viscountess Lady Ashowan, and at the head of the table, the infamous house witch himself, Finlay Ashowan.

Lady Ashowan was staring at her daughter without blinking for an impressive amount of time...

Meanwhile, the Viscount was shooting warning glances at Duke Iones who looked as though he wanted to say something troublesome, and Katarina was… well… actively pretending not to notice the murderous aura emitting from her mother as she focused on eating the impressive heap on her plate.

Alina did her best to pull herself away from the food, and address the awkwardness.

“So… Duke Iones, do you find yourself in Austice often?” she asked, her voice pitched higher than usual.

The Lord looked at her with an amused grin that for some reason made her blush.

“Every now and then I like to come down for a few weeks and heckle the Ashowans, yes.”

Alina nodded and gave a strained smile.

As the sound of nothing but cutlery on plates could be heard in the room, it prompted Alina to try again.

“Do your wife and children join you normally?”

The Duke made a show of picking up his napkin, wiping his mouth, and leaning his forearms against the table as his hazel eyes sparkled with mischief.

“No one wants that chaotic brood joining me unless it’s unavoidable. Now, are we all going to address what exactly we’re going to say to our beloved King when he returns? Your Majesty, you disappeared in the middle of the night, and suddenly are back here, with his daughter, announcing your engagement. If I know anything about our King and his protective nature towards his children, I’d say he might jump to some… colorful conclusions.”

Alina frowned in confusion, while Brendan’s fork dropped and he straightened in his chair, glowering daggers at the Duke.

“I’m not sure I understand…” Alina looked towards Tam to see if he understood, but he seemed to be focusing intently on shoving a rather large piece of roast in his mouth.

“Alina, dear…” Annika cleared her throat uncomfortably while fixing the young woman with a pained stare. “Your father might… wonder… if you’ve been compromised.”

The Princess’ face burned. “Gods, he wouldn’t! He knows I would never-”

The Viscountess’ gaze grew apologetic. “He knows you might not intend to, but-”

“Any further insult to my honor will be duly noted, Lady Ashowan,” Brendan growled, his black stare boring into the woman.

Annika’s gaze grew sharp, but her face remained calm. She was definitely a strong Troivackian woman at heart.

“This has nothing to do with honor, or what either of you have or have not actually done. It is what the King might assume when he realizes how strange it is.”

“Why can’t we just tell him the truth again? That Alina and I decided to go camping? I feel like the truth is significantly less troublesome than all this,” Katarina remarked glibly while reaching for her goblet and taking a drink.

“Well, there is the matter of you whisking her off without guards, into the woods, with her breathing condition, that consequently will most likely have you exiled from court,” Annika reminded her daughter coolly.

“Especially given that, Brendan disappeared in the night, for hours into the forest. A lot could be questioned by the nobles,” Lord Harris reminded them for once looking slightly more serious. “Which brings us back to what you are going to tell your father when he finds out that you and your betrothed announced your engagement. We sent a messenger to inform the camp of the Troivackian King’s whereabouts. However, once our ruler returns there will be a great deal of questions. So… perhaps we organize our stories, hm?”

“Gods Harris, sometimes I forget that you’re all grown up and a Duke now,” Fin complimented with a wry smile directed at his friend.

Lord Harris raised his goblet to the redhead and took a drink.

“Well… I need a reason for my disappearance, and what we can say is I was with Kat at your estate,” Alina began slowly.

Fin nodded seriously. “That would make sense, and it is guarded. We just need a reason for you to have disappeared there.”

“It should be something… not too serious, but definitely something that would make sense if you needed to send for the Viscount and I to summon Brendan,” Duke Iones continued slowly.

“It needs to be something only he could help her with, and not an emergency… it’d be better if it was something she would feel too awkward to ask her father,” Annika added while withdrawing her flask from her skirts and topping up her goblet.

She wordlessly offered some to the Troivackian King but the man simply stared icily at her in response.

Alina worried her lower lip as she thought about what potential excuse could be so believable…

“What if you just said you were second guessing the engagement?” Kat suggested while resuming her work on her dinner.

“Not a bad idea, but it could make the King grow suspicious of whether or not Alina truly wants the marriage or not,” Fin noted thoughtfully.

“What about if I pretended to be worried my new fiance would be attacked by the other men on the hunt who may want to eliminate him as a contender for my hand?” Alina turned to gaze at Brendan but found that his eyes were still fixed on the Viscountess.

She knew that the woman was still remarkably beautiful, but it was a little hurtful that he was staring so openly at her… then again he didn’t appear to be looking at her in any kind of friendly way… odd.

“Princess, I mean this as respectfully as possible to the both of you,” Duke Iones began pressing his hands together. “No one, not even Lord Laurent, would be dumb enough to try to attack the Troivackian King. Pardon my saying so, Your Majesty, but you look like you would get a kick out of breaking people’s legs.”

Brendan nodded sternly at the Duke. “Thank you.”

“That was not a compliment, you giant dum-” Katarina began to mutter before her mother and father looked at her with such fury she refocused on filling her mouth with potatoes.

The Troivackian King shot the young Lady a flat expression, and Alina was heartened to see that he no longer looked at her friend with obvious animosity.

Glancing across the table at Tam, she found herself wishing that all the Ashowan’s could endear themselves to Brendan… while she had only just met them, they made her feel… happy. Safe… as though she had an extended family that adored her…

Alina froze.

“I know exactly what I can say.” Her hazel eyes grew bright as she smiled excitedly. “However, if it’s going to work, we’re going to need Tam’s help.”

The future Viscount finally raised his face from his food, and gave her a look of mortal dread while everyone around them shared looks of uncertainty.

***

Alina waited for her father nervously in their library, Lady Ashowan was keeping her company at her side, quietly reading as the hours ticked on. Katarina was sadly grounded until further notice, and since Alina had fired her main Lady-in-waiting, needed a chaperone around the castle.

The woman had been all too happy to help, and as the hours ticked on and the Princess’ nerves grew more and more raw, she found herself growing increasingly grateful for the woman’s calm, steady nature.

Then, at long last, the door burst open, and in strode Norman. Covered in mud, his face a mask of tension, while his hazel eyes immediately landed on his daughter. Mr. Howard was behind him, and behind the assistant was the Viscount and Duke Iones.

“Alina, I have just received news that you and King Brendan Devark announced your engagement.”

Alina stood and immediately clasped her hands in front of her skirts nervously. “Y-Yes, we did, father.”

“How is it… that this happened… when only two days ago, that man was in my hunting party, and not mentioning a word of this to me?”

Alina felt herself growing pale.

‘Gods can I really do this? Lie to my father to save Katarina? Perhaps he wouldn’t be as angry… but then again I’ve already come this far…’

“Y-You see, father… while you were away, something happened.”

It was at that moment that Brendan Devark and his own assistant entered the library, they had both clearly hurried there after hearing that the King had wasted no time in finding his daughter…

“What… happened? Did he do something? I thought it was strange he disappeared in the middle of the night! Also, why are people saying you were scheduled to have a meeting with him? I never condoned such a thing!” Norman stepped closer to his daughter who flinched.

“Well, you see, father… I-I had to say that because I was actually at the Ashowan’s estate in Austice, when I discovered from Katarina something rather important…”

Norman folded his arms impatiently, his gaze furious.

“You see… I discovered that, Tam Ashowan was intending to propose to me in a highly public fashion while everyone was away.”

Norman blinked in astonishment.

It was at that moment, that the very man his daughter was talking about appeared from the shadows of the library. No one had even noticed Tam was there, save for his mother and the Princess who had already been aware of his presence.

“It-It’s true, Your Majesty. I… was unaware… that the Princess was already engaged to the Troivackian King.”

Norman turned on Tam who had his eyes fixed on the ground and his hair hanging around his face hiding the embarrassed flush in his cheeks.

“Lord Tam… I thought you had made it perfectly clear that you had no intention to marry my daughter.” Norman barely managed to lower his voice.

“Ah, well… that was because I… well…” the young man took a long breath, and for a moment, everyone’s breath was held as they wondered if he was going to crumble under the pressure.

“It’s because I’m strange.”

There were several beats of deadened silence.

“I’m not sure I understand what you are getting at, Lord Tam,” Norman began slowly.

“I… said I wasn’t interested because I’m strange, and I didn’t think I was good enough for the Princess. I thought I would bring her nothing but misery,” Tam managed, though it sounded as though he were being strangled.

“So when did you change your mind?” Mr. Howard was the one to interrupt as he stared around the room at everyone’s stricken expressions.

“My mother… told me that my Da had the same fears before they got married. So I figured I would ask her, and… see how she felt.”

“What was this… lavish proposal going to be?” Norman asked, looking highly skeptical.

Everyone could see Tam’s fists balled up in the pockets of his trousers.

“I… was… going to have her new vocal teacher sing in the center of the rose maze, where I would have a special lute that I’d ordered to be made there for her. I’d be nearby, and… would… propose.”

Alina had to admit, the part about the hand crafted lute was a nice touch. Though there was something he had mentioned about a new vocal teacher?

Norman eyed the young man in the quiet for several long moments before turning to stare at the tense expressions around him.

Finally, his gaze moved to his daughter. “So you learned of this plan, and immediately summoned the Troivackian King? How? There wasn’t any messenger.”

At this, the Troivackian King cleared his throat. “What you had said by the campfire that night bothered me. You had mentioned your gut instinct, and so I rode an hour from the camp towards the castle, when I came upon Duke Iones and Viscount Ashowan. They said that the Princess was stressed. So I decided to return, and they chose to go with me seeing as it concerned the Viscount’s son, and Duke Iones didn’t feel safe riding alone to the camp.”

Norman’s eyes narrowed when he glanced at Finlay whose expression was completely blank.

“So why were the Viscount, Alina, the Duke, Lady Katarina, and the Troivackian King coming out of my forest instead of from Austice if they were returning from the estate?”

“We… we didn’t want people to know Alina had stayed the night at my estate with Tam, so we made it appear as though she had been ordered to spend supervised time with her betrothed. Katarina came to help the Princess feel more comfortable,” Finlay recited a little too hastily.

The Daxarian King’s expression was wry as he looked around at each, and everyone’s tense expressions. For many moments he said nothing, until he glanced at his daughter’s wide, fearful gaze.

“I don’t buy that nonsense for a ruddy moment. Now, what in the world is going on, and so help me if any of you attempt to lie again!”