"Where have you been?" My father, King Albert asked me.
"I, I." I started to stutter. Come on not again. Nardin stand up for yourself.
"Enough...! Logain told me everything. You were with a boy?" The king asked furiously.
I started to shiver. All through my life, I've always wanted to be bold and stand up against my father someday but whenever he spoke, I got really scared.
"This never happened with any of your sisters and with that said. Nardin, you're getting married tonight."
[A few hours earlier]
Trying to change the family custom in the house of king Dominic Ryan should have been the most suicidal thing to even think of let alone do. Having grown up under the roof of a king who thought women only had the right to worship their husbands, the husbands they had no right to decide who it'd be, I came up with an Idea to present my husband to my father when I was finally 20 years of age. At the age he married off all of his daughters and that turned out badly for me. No female child in my family ever had the right to decide who to marry or who to court, frankly speaking, we never even courted anyone. As long as my father was satisfied with the man he is your husband whether you like it or not and my father never made the right marriage choices for my sisters. He only gave out his daughter if it would only bring him more domination, wealth, and riches. He was a very greedy king and thirsty for power. And worse still he had no regard for the female gender. "What else is a woman made for if not sit and worship her husband." He would always tell my mother. But I was about to change that or so I thought.
My name is Nardin Ryan and I am the princess of Zugato, one of the kingdoms in the realm of the white foxes of the trio. I am not the only or first child of my parents but rather the last. I had two other elder sisters who my father also married off out of his greed for wealth and power and we never heard from them, we only heard of them in their different kingdoms and my father did not even care. I will be twenty years old in a few days and that has always been the age my father gave out his daughters in marriage and my mother never said anything about it, after all, she was a woman and like I said before in my family women are not allowed to speak or make decisions.
Do you know what hurt me the most? Both my sister's husbands had other wives and concubines but that never mattered to my father as long as he got his wealth. He was one of the wealthiest kings that were ever heard of and so was our kingdom. When I say wealth I speak of having the most expensive horses, chariots, golden goblets and chalices, biggest castle designed with nothing but gold and diamonds, most expensive regalia, golden crown, so many servants and guards and most importantly lots of money. To him, a poor king is nothing but an object for mockery and he never wanted to be that especially when his grandfather was already that. He swore that history would never repeat itself as he had no legal son and he loathed my mother for it. He not only loathed my mother, but the hate was also one thing my sisters and I could not escape.
If sending away my mother would not cause harm to his reputation I'm sure he would have done that a long time ago after my birth because that was when he got his concubine to bear him a son and father had no time for women drama perhaps he would have taken in his concubine as his second wife. Having just one wife was a ploy to look good before the entire realm of the white foxes of the trio while he kept his concubine a secret and lied that my mother conceived and delivered his son, Logain Ryan.
My father, king Dominic Ryan kept his son away from most people as he had a lot of enemies no matter how hard he pretended to be a good man, people only knew he had a son never could tell who the son was. My mother queen Calypso Ryan would speak up sometimes but her opinions were always null and void.
When I turned nineteen years old, I knew that in a year my father would force me into marrying one of those old wealthy and powerful kings so I decided to let myself fall in love with a hunter. His name was Edward Alba. Father never knew of him but I was hoping that when I finally turned twenty I would marry him instead and not a man with a lot of wives and concubines.
After my hunting exercise with Edward that day, I came back to the castle and went straight to my mother's room but stopped at the door when I heard voices. It was mother and father, they were arguing about something. Not really arguing I'd say, it sounded like mother was pleading with father but he would not listen. I heard my mother mention my name during their conversation so I had no choice but to eavesdrop.
"Please let her be, she's still a child." Mother begged.
"She'll be twenty in a few days Calypso and is of a marriageable age." Father responded.
"Her sisters, Gwen and Maya who you gave out in marriage at this age I'm sure are the most miserable people right now if we care to ask of them."
"I don't care woman, as long as they serve their husbands right. Now listen to me, Nardin's marriage to King Albert Eldrago will bond our kingdoms together forever and I'm sure you know what it means when two very powerful kingdoms come together." Father said.
Mother went on her knees and grabbed father's robe "Please just let her make her choice of husband. She is my last child." Mother pleaded.
"If she was a boy I would let her pick whatever wife she pleases without objection but she's not, so when the time comes for her to get married you will dress her up like you dressed her sisters and we will hand her over to the man that'll finally make her life useful." Father said as he knocked mother's hands off his robe and walked away. I quickly ran to my room before he ever realized I was there.
Really? If I were a boy he would let me have my ways? Over the years I never understood why my father hated my sisters and me so much but today I believe the rumors within the palace. If I were a boy father would not hate me. Well, hated by my father or not I think it's time to show him that women too could become powerful but where do I even start? I am not powerful without him.
I threw myself on my bed and stared blankly into the air. Why did I have to be born as a girl and to my father? This is so bad. My father's words kept ringing in my ears. So he did not care about us? He only cared about his son who had a special chamber there in the palace and other kingdoms thought Logain was his matrimonial son.
I was always either alone since my sisters left or with my maid. She was the only servant that was allowed to take orders from me. I had no right to send any other servant on an errand at all and honestly, I didn't even care. Irene my maid was the only friend I had except for Edward and she knew about him but kept the secret with me.
While I was in deep thoughts and wallowing in my misery Irene walked in.
"Princess Nardin?" She called out before I finally realized she was there. "You look pale, are you okay?" She asked.
"No Irene I'm not okay. I'm turning twenty in a few days." I responded.
Irene sat close to me and pulled me up then held my hands before she spoke. "I know and I also know why it bothers you, have you talked to the queen about Edward?." She said.
"No, and that would not be necessary anymore. I overheard their conversation, my father wants to marry me off to king Albert Eldrago." I said.
"What? King Albert?!" Irene did not even know what to say. Everyone knew king Albert. He had just one wife but had twelve concubines who took turns with his wife, how embarrassing.
"Will you tell Edward about it?" Irene asked.
"Do I have to? Once I'm twenty words about my marriage will spread and Edward would hear it at once." My face fell "and it would break his heart into a thousand pieces." I said.
"I know. Will you agree to marry king Albert? Everyone knows how dangerous that man is." Irene said.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice." I sighed as Irene put her hands on my shoulders.
"You'll be fine Nardin." She said.
A few days passed and it was my birthday, there was nothing special about that day except that I went out with Edward to hunt. Hunting was an exercise we enjoyed doing together and it gave us time for closure.
"So now that you're twenty what do you think about me coming to see the king?" Edward asked.
He knew my sisters both got married at that age, I mean everyone knew but what Edward and others did not know is that it was never my sisters' choice. Apart from family, nobody knew they were forced into that marriage except the personal maids that worked for them.
"How about we take it one step at a time?" I responded to Edward's question.
"Why Nardin? I love you and I want to make you my wife. I know I'm not a nobleman in Guzato neither am I royal but I can take care of you and our future children." Edward said.
"It's not about being able to take care of me, Edward."
"Then what is it about?" He asked.
I wanted to respond when a voice spoke from behind us, "It's about her marriage in a few days." I turned around to see my half-brother Logain.
"Nardin is getting married to king Albert Eldrago in a few days." He added.
My heart sank, this was not the best way to break this news to Edward. Logain was the worst person on earth and I despised him as much as he despised me. Looking at Edward I could see a mixed feeling of hurt, disbelief, and confusion in his eyes and I had to find a way around this.
