Epilogue
Corbin
“I’m not going,” sulks Cilla, my seventeen-year-old daughter. I suppress a long-suffering sigh.
“The entire family is going. That means you will, too.”
She glares at me. I cross my arms and give her a stern look. Her glare deepens. I switch tactics and sit on the low stone wall, patting the place beside me. She lifts her chin defiantly.
Making myself shorter than her has the subtle effect of making her feel powerful—a trick I learned when the top of her dark head barely came to my knee.
I am not above using strategies one would use on a small child to persuade her.
It’s better than the alternative—throwing her into the carriage and forcing her to come along.
“Tell me, sweetheart. Why won’t you visit the King and Queen of Montrace?”
Her lower lip protrudes slightly, but Cilla’s legendary stubbornness does not falter. She adores her “aunt” Gwen and “uncle” Kai.
“I don’t want to marry Prince Etan.”
This time, I can’t contain my sigh of frustration.
This was supposed to be settled. We agreed when they were barely out of infancy that our children would marry, thus cementing the alliance between Montrace and Aisendelle.
The four of us believed this would be a good match based on the way Cilla followed him around like a lost puppy.
She adored Etan for most of her life. Then, two years ago at the annual Midwinter ball, she changed her mind.
Suddenly, she found fault in everything he did.
Etan, for his part, doesn’t seem to care.
He’s always been an independent lad. Training with the knights takes up a great deal of his time.
With Isanthia’s fall and war breaking out across the Five Realms, he will need to be a fierce fighter and level-headed leader.
Though he is young, I think he will distinguish himself in battle if it comes to that.
Cilla, however, doesn’t have all-consuming problems like war to keep her occupied. She broods, sulks, and snaps every time his name is spoken. But she won’t tell me what’s wrong.
“Then I will call off the match.”
“No!” I lift one eyebrow. Her face reddens. “I mean, don’t do it just for me. I will go through with it if I must.”
“I’m telling you there is no need to sacrifice yourself in a marriage you don’t want. I wish I understood why you object to it now, when you didn’t for so many years, but I suppose young ladies will have their secrets.”
This earns me a reluctant half-smile. I tug her hand. Finally, she plops down onto the wall beside me.
“Come with us to Montrace. All you have to do is be polite to him. Ignore him the rest of the trip. You want to see Ingrid, don’t you?”
A small nod. She and Etan’s little sister are close. Yet their friendship, too, has been strained by whatever calamity has come between Etan and Cilla.
“I’ll have a private word with Kai while I’m there. Put the wedding off.”
Her brow furrows. “Don’t. You can’t. I…I know what I have to do.”
“I am literally telling you that you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Kai and Gwen will understand.”
“But he won’t,” she says fiercely.
“Cilla. What is this about?”
Her mouth flattens into a mulish line. She hops up and stalks off, her spine ramrod-straight and her fists balled at her sides.
“What was that about?” asks Rowena, approaching from the opposite direction with confusion and worry on her beautiful face. Three faint white lines mark her right cheek. Apart from that, no wrinkles mar her skin. She is as lovely as summer sunlight on a mossy stone. A quiet and enduring beauty.
“She doesn’t want to see Etan.”
“Tell her to ignore him.”
“I did. I also said I would call off the wedding.”
Rowena slides into the space our daughter just vacated. “Would you really do that?”
“Yes. Kai and Gwen would understand.”
“Cilla has her papa wrapped around her little finger,” my wife teases. I kiss the top of her head. It’s true.
“I’d rather handle the split amicably than force the children into a miserable match. I remain baffled about what went wrong between them.”
Rowena slips her arms around my waist.
“Postponing the wedding until after Etan’s deployment is a good plan. We can wait until after his triumphant return from the Isanthian front.”
“You presume a lot.”
“I have faith.” She squeezes my middle. “Etan and the King of Belterre will prevail.”
This is why I love her. Her stalwart heart. Her optimism and courage. I could not have chosen a better queen, for such a woman does not exist.
“I hope you are right. We need all the alliances we can make in these unsettled times.”
We sit like this, with her head on my shoulder and our hands clasped, until a servant tells us it is time to leave.
Read A Kiss of Winter, the companion to this story, a dark fantasy romance retelling of The Snow Queen. This friends-to-lovers dark fantasy romance fairy tale is available in Kindle Unlimited.