CHAPTER TEN – FINN
“She’s got balls,” Oscar chuckles when I’m done recounting my conversation with Harriet.
“Big balls,” I agree. “God only know where she’s hiding them, because they definitely don’t fit in her bag.”
He laughs properly, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on his knees, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “So? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to marry her.”
“You what?”
“I’m going to marry her,” I repeat.
He frowns. “Are you fucking mad? This woman just walked in here, claimed ownership of you and your crown, threatened to ruin you if you choose her adoptive sister over her, and you’re going to give her what she wants?”
I tilt my head to the side, pressing my lips together. “I wouldn’t say it was a threat. It was more of a warning.”
“Wow.”
“And, for what it’s worth, it was pretty fucking hot when she told me I belonged to her.”
“Great. She made your dick hard for thirty seconds, and now you’re going to marry her. I can’t believe you’re the next head of state in this country.”
“I’ll have you know that my dick has excellent taste.”
“You’re a virgin, Finn.”
I hold out my hands. “Precisely. I’m practically a thirty-year-old virgin. If my dick wants Harriet Sinclair, who am I to argue with it?”
Oscar shakes his head, looking at me as if I’ve lost my mind.
Perhaps I have.
“Let’s move on from your royal penis,” he drawls, sitting back in the sofa and sighing. “I suppose it’s not the worst idea in the world. She’s honest about why she wants to marry you, and it won’t exactly be a nightmare for you to have a wife like that. She’s fucking gorgeous.”
“Hey.” I frown. “Keep your eyes to yourself.”
“Whoa, settle down there. Until you accept her proposal, I can look, can’t I?”
He fucking could not.
“There’s no proposal to accept. She’s right—the engagement that was arranged was between me and her originally, even if the official agreement stated ‘a daughter of the Sinclairs.’ The wording was deliberately left up to interpretation in case something happened to either of us.
We could carry the agreement forwards to another generation if need be. ”
“That’s archaic as fuck.”
“Isn’t your betrothal a two-hundred-year-old pact?”
“We aren’t discussing that,” he grinds out. “Can you really just switch like that, though? Everyone thinks you’re going to marry Jasmine.”
“I don’t see why not. My mother would much rather I marry Harriet, and she’s already said that she won’t give Royal Assent to an engagement with Jasmine because of this whole situation.
To be honest, I don’t care. It’s not as if I’m desperate to marry Jasmine.
All things considered, she’s not a bad choice, but she isn’t one I’d make for myself.
I also know her—I know how conniving and manipulative she can be, and even if I did care for her, I’m not sure I have the energy to doubt my wife’s sincerity every day. ”
“On the other hand, they do say ‘better the devil you know’ and all that,” he muses. “What about Harriet?”
“Oscar, the woman just looked me in the eye and told me she doesn’t want to marry me, but she will just to stop her sister from doing so. It doesn’t matter if I know her. She’ll tell me exactly who she is every time she opens her mouth.”
He laughs. “That’s true. She’ll be a hoot at parties.”
The thought scares me a little, and I’m not one to scare easily.
“But Jasmine expects to be announced as your fiancée on your birthday. How will you handle the Sinclairs? It doesn’t seem like Harriet is going to want to announce anything quietly. You’ll likely have to keep it a secret until the banquet. That won’t be easy.”
“My mother will handle it. They can’t defy the queen,” I reply. “Besides, they should have told us she’d returned as soon as she did. They can’t blame us for doing it this way when they’ve been lying to us for two fucking years.”
“Why do you think they’ve hidden her? Other than to make sure Jasmine is the one who marries you, of course. From the outside, you get on well enough, and the woman has half our circle convinced you’re in love with her despite never being seen together.”
God only knows how she’s managed that. I’m no more in love with Jasmine Sinclair than I am the idiot sitting opposite me right now.
“Because that old git made an agreement with my mother a few years ago when she once again refused to accept that Harriet was dead. If Harriet didn’t return by my thirtieth birthday and I didn’t meet anyone else, we would make it official between me and Jasmine.”
“And two years is nothing in the grand scheme of things, really.”
“Exactly,” I say, nodding. “Not when you consider that the engagement was supposed to be announced on Harriet’s twenty-first birthday.
They tried to push for it to happen on Jasmine’s, but my mother refused.
She didn’t want to give up on the idea that Harriet was still alive, but this was all the time she could buy.
Any longer and people would have started asking questions. ”
“You’ve gotten away with it until now by using your work as an excuse.”
“Starting the foundation took eighteen months out of it, but I can’t use it anymore.
People will start mentioning my age and why I don’t have a family or an heir soon enough.
It’s none of their fucking business, but it’s hassle I can’t be bothered to deal with.
” I run my fingers through my hair, glancing away.
“The last thing I need is someone speculating about my sexuality and stalking me to find proof of a non-existent gay affair.”
“Hey, if you need someone to help you out with a gay affair, you can call me.” He motions to himself. “A fake one, that is. You’re handsome and all, but I’ve got enough on my plate without being your princess.”
I stare at him flatly. “Shame. You’d look lovely in a ball gown and tiara.”
“Ask my sister. She probably has pictures of my childhood trauma.” He shudders, then gives me a small smile. “You’re really going to do this, huh?”
I wiggle my toes inside my shoes. It sounds crazy, I know, but how can I not? Even if we disregard our childhood and the pact made between our families, I can’t deny that I haven’t stopped thinking about Hattie since the moment I laid eyes on her in the park.
There’s a magic to her, and I fear I’m already under her spell.
Plus, her honesty is wildly refreshing. It’s a far cry from the bullshit I hear on a regular basis from those trying to get into my good graces. I actually respect the fact she doesn’t want to marry me. I wouldn’t want to marry me if I were her, so that’s just fine as far as I’m concerned.
As for her revenge… Well, that’s none of my business. I don’t have enough information on what she’s been through or why she’s so determined to destroy her family. I can’t form an opinion without it, but she doesn’t strike me as the kind of person who’d rip someone’s life apart for nothing.
I trust that she has a good reason, whatever it may be.
“When’s Alec getting here?” I ask, swiftly ignoring his question.
“Five minutes ago.” Alec nods to the maid at the door and strolls in lazily, dressed head-to-toe in his customary black. He lowers himself onto the sofa opposite me and sits back, resting his hand on the back of the sofa. “It’s not like you to be so eager to see me, Your Royal Highness.”
“Drop the act,” I say dryly. “There’s something I want you to look into for me.”
He raises his chin, peering at me with his indigo eyes. “What do you want to know?”
I tell him what’s happened with Harriet, and for the first time in a long time, his usually stoic, expressionless mask cracks.
“Fuck.” He rubs his hand across his jaw. “And you’re going to marry her?”
I nod sharply.
“Sounds like she’s got balls.” He chuckles, echoing Oscar’s earlier sentiment. “Shame you’re going to take her up on her offer. If you weren’t—”
“Don’t finish that sentence if you want to keep your tongue,” I say darkly. “Find out what’s been happening in the Sinclair household over the last two years. If you cross paths with Harriet, keep your hands and your eyes to yourself.”
He smirks, tilting his head to the side. “As you wish, Your Royal Highness. Do you think the lady is aware of your devilish possessive streak?”
“Alec,” Oscar groans.
He laughs in response. “I’m only asking.”
“She’ll find out soon enough,” I reply. “Not that she has any room to talk with how boldly she declared I belong to her.”
“What a woman. She’s wasted on you and your gilded cage.” He shakes his head. “All right, I’ll see what I can find out. Anything specific?”
“When she came back and how the secrecy came about. I want to know what her life has been like for the last two years. Leave no stone unturned.”
Oscar’s gaze snaps to me. “What her life has been like?”
I nod. “The first time I saw her, she was taking photographs in the park. She’s a freelance photographer. Why is the legitimate eldest daughter of the Sinclair family with access to a trust fund working? And if she insists on working, why is it not in the family business?”
“Maybe she’s a rebel,” Alec says dryly.
If only he knew.
“We all know why she was kept secret,” he continues. “Jasmine Sinclair is obsessed with you. There’s no way she’d allow her cousin or sister or whatever they are to come in and take what she believes to be hers.”
“Mm. Even if she is of Sinclair blood, she’s still adopted, and the Royal House’s preference will always be Harriet.
Even without the element of deceit.” I run my hand through my hair and sigh.
“I don’t know. Something tells me we’re missing information.
Harriet has too much hatred towards her family—there’s something going on. ”
Alec pulls out his phone. “All right, I’ll get onto it now.” His thumbs fly across the screen, and he puts it down a second later. “If the Sinclairs are hiding something, I’ll find it. They can’t keep anything from me.”
Oscar eyes him. “Are you telling me you have someone on the inside in the Sinclair household?”