In a Heartbeat

Once I reached the castle, I excitedly walked quickly to the library, getting the books about royal marriage off the shelf and throwing them onto the large table. Almost ripping a few pages, I leafed through to find the pages about the requirements of royalty, and I soon found them. I calmed myself down and scanned the pages until I found the heading ‘Part Royal Blood’ and began reading.

If the potential spouse has any quantity of royal blood in them, the following rules apply:
The first: If the potential spouse is half or more royal blooded, then the marriage may proceed as normal.
The second: If the potential spouse is less than an eighth royal blooded, or there has been more than three generations since the last at least half royal blooded member, the marriage may not proceed, unless there are no other potential spouses of higher royalty.

This was not bad, I thought as I reached the end of the page. Brian was a quarter royal blooded, and there had only been two generations since King Henry the Fourth, so the rules had not yet disregarded him as my possible King, though they had not confirmed him. Flipping the page over with a sigh, I hoped desperately that there would be good news upon the other side.

The third: The royal blood must have descended from a satisfactorily respected member of a royal family from a modestly respected Kingdom.

The third rule was potentially harming, I thought as I paused on it. King Henry the Fourth was not exactly the best King… Even though he had kept his people in his small Kingdom happy, the Hertia Kingdom collapsed because of him. His Queen died while giving birth to twins, the twins died not long after from unknown diseases, and then he committed suicide, leaving his people to my father to look after in his final will. The people that were once ruled by him still had fond memories of him, but the rest of the Cardolian Kingdom did not. But, perhaps that rule might be overlooked… I continued reading.

The fourth: The present King and Queen have authority over the decision of whether or not the potential spouse is acceptable.

No... It was still my father’s decision. I flopped my head forwards onto the large book as tears formed in my eyes. This was not how it was supposed to happen. I thought I had found a loophole! Brian had royal blood in him after all! But it was not enough… I forced the tears away, replaced the books, then strode off to my father’s room, full with tormenting emotion. I had never felt this strongly before… I desperately needed my father’s approval for the marriage. It was the only thing that was stopping me from being truly happy.

“Father! I urgently need to speak with you!” I shouted after I knocked on his door. My mother opened it and let me in, seemingly confused.

“Evangeline, why on earth are you behaving like this? What is that matter?” my father asked from the chair he was seated in, a cup resting in his hands.

“I wish to talk about my marriage, father. I-” I began.

“No! Not this again! I thought you liked Matthew now!” he roared at me, his voice echoing around the large room as he stood up.

“I have found a potential spouse who is not Matthew. He is from our Kingdom, father. He is a quarter royal blood,” I presented my case, hoping he would listen to me.

“Evange-” he started, clearly still furious with me.

“All I need is for you and mother to say it is acceptable! He is a lovely person and I really like him a lot!” I interrupted, pleading my heart out.

“Evangeline! Cease this!” my father hollered. His outburst caused me to stop dead in my tracks. “I have made my decision very clear, I had thought! You are to not disobey it!”

“But father-”

“Enough!” he boomed and I looked down at the ground, tears forming again. I had never seen him so angry… Not even when the Tyronian Kingdom, the Kingdom with one of the most powerful military in the history of the world, declared war against him. That was the only time I had seen him angry, but this was so much worse… “You are marrying Prince Matthew and you are joining our Kingdoms together! You will rule by his side, not some pathetic part-blooded peasant! Do you understand me?” The loudness of the last sentence made my ears ring.

“Yes father…” I scarcely whispered.

“Who is this man whom you desire?” he questioned in a quieter tone. I met his eyes, seeing there was still rage in them.

“Why? So you can permanently take him out of my life?” I retorted, causing him to glare at me.

“Who is he?” he iterated, but I held my stance. No way was I going to essentially order Brian to be killed. After repeating himself a few times, my father realised I was not going to say his name. “I do not want you to see this man again, you understand? You are only allowed to be with Matthew from now on. Behave like this one more time and you will no longer be a Princess, and you will never be Queen. Now leave.” His chilling words sent shivers down my spine, and I left the room with a glance at my mother. She had a sympathetic look on her face, but I knew that there was nothing she or I could do anymore. I was going to marry Matthew. I could not have Brian as my King… Weeping, I ran to my room, slamming the door behind me before I threw myself on the large bed.

“Evangeline?” Brian! His voice was filled with worry. “Evangeline, what happened?” I rolled over a bit and saw Brian approaching me from the other side of the room, cleaning rag still in his hand.

“I- I went to your house today and spoke with your grandmother and she told me that you are royal blood and then I came back and looked in the books again and found the rules about marrying someone who is part royalty but it said I needed my father’s permission, so I went to see him but he just yelled at me and said I had to marry Matthew and I do not wish to!” I blubbered in one large breath before breaking down into more tears as Brian cupped me in his arms and held me against his chest. He held me tightly for a while as I wept strongly, then stroked my hair to help me calm down as I tried to breathe properly.

“You should not have gone through all of that trouble, Evangeline,” Brian whispered against the top of my head before placing a light kiss on the same spot. “I thought we already knew that it was pointless to attempt to change the King’s mind.”

“I just h- had to t- try!” I whimpered before pulling out of his tight grip a bit. Looking into his brown eyes, I saw that they too were a bit watery. “Brian… I just need to b- be with you…”

“But you are!” he told me with a relaxed smile. “It is secret, but you are with me. I can make you happy whenever you want. I will always be here for you, and I will always love you.”

“I do not wish for it to be a secret, though, nor do I wish for the marriage to Matthew to continue…”

“Maybe this is just how it is supposed to be. Perhaps the only way this can work, for now at least, is for us to be together secretly,” Brian said and I looked away, wanting to cry again, even though I had no tears remaining. I watched as a hand came around to my front and then touched my chin to tilt it upwards so I looked at Brian in his eyes. “Listen… We can make this work. I promise. We will get through this, Evangeline…” I became so lost in his brilliantly coloured eyes that I hardly noticed he was leaning in, but my eyes naturally shut before he pressed his lips upon mine. The kiss soothed me and I felt the horrid emotions draining out of me. Somehow, the simple kiss enabled me to let go of the disappointing day, and I appreciated that so much.

“Brian… You are amazing…” I said, our lips barely apart. A small blush crept across his face and he took a hold of my hands in his.

“No, Evangeline, you are. You are the one who has given me hope of a better, happier future my whole life. The least I can do right now is attempt to return the favour and do my best to make you happy,” he said sweetly before kissing me again. After a few more soft kisses, I collapsed into his safe arms in a loving embrace. He had no idea how much he was helping…