He Chose My Sister, But Now He Wants Me Back novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: Southbay Pearls

Bridie slips about the pearls and a jade bangle turns up on her wrist. Linnet sits silent through the wedding plans and asks the royal press office if the bride may speak to the King.

Bridie came into my room at seven the next morning with three dress sketches and a tray of sliced oranges.

"I think the second one is you," she said, and spread the pages across my dressing table.

"Ivory satin, a line of pearls at the waist. Plain, but it catches light."

I did not look at the drawings. I looked at her.

"You never cared about dresses before. How do you know what a waistline does in a ballroom?"

Her smile stopped for a moment, then started again.

"Mother took me to a design house last month. I looked through their books while we waited."

"I only wanted to take something off your plate."

I thanked her and ate an orange slice.

Five years in Southbay, Father had said. Nobody spends five years in a place and then flips through a lookbook.

She stayed to share my breakfast.

"Garrick sent a box of Southbay pearls last night," she said, passing me the cream. "They're for your wedding jewelry. I put them in your dressing room safe."

"Southbay pearls?"

"He brought them up from the coast." Her fork stopped in the air. "I mean, he was stationed all over. He must have picked things up."

I drank my coffee and asked nothing.

She had never been to the northern border, and neither had the pearls.

At nine, Mother called me down to the meeting room on the first floor.

Father sat at the head of the long table with the guest list and budget on his tablet. Mother sat at his right hand.

Bridie took the place behind Mother's chair.

Garrick stood when I came in. He wore a gray suit and a black stone tie pin, since silver burns a wolf.

"Morning, Linnet."

"Garrick."

Father pushed the tablet across to me.

"The motorcade goes down Central Avenue with a Guard honor escort. The reception is at the Ironridge ceremonial center. His Majesty has accepted the invitation."

"The ceremony goes out live, but only to outlets the Crown has approved. Nobody in this city has seen a wedding like it."

I scrolled through the pages.

The dress, the jewels, the settlements, the honeymoon. Every line had a price and a date beside it.

On the last page were handwoven fabrics, a pearl-inlaid screen and a full set of furniture by designers in Southbay.

"All of this comes from the south?" I asked Garrick.

Something moved behind his eyes and was gone.

"My people bought through local dealers. The craft suits your taste."

"He nearly died up north for five years," Father said. "And he still found the time to do all this. You should be grateful, Linnet."

Grateful.

My father said it, and he meant that I owed them.

Bridie leaned in to set a coffee at my elbow, and her sleeve rode up.

A green jade bangle sat on her wrist.

I knew it. Three years ago a studio in the capital had put out a pair of antique bangles for thirty thousand.

I had saved for six months to buy the pair, for the day Garrick came home. When I went to pay, the clerk told me a young man had bought both that morning.

He had said they were for the person he loved most.

I had told myself it was a coincidence.

"That's a lovely bangle," I said.

Bridie pulled her sleeve down.

"A friend gave it to me. It's nothing."

Garrick lifted his cup and looked at the table.

Father started on the route again, and Mother added which gates needed more flowers and which reporters would be let into the hall.

The four of them planned my wedding with great joy and never once turned to me.

I sat there with my hands in my lap and my wolf asleep inside me, and let them.

The Crown wanted my name. The papers wanted my five years. The ceremony wanted a bride.

Nobody had asked what the bride wanted.

"You're very quiet," Mother said.

"You've done it beautifully," I said. "I have nothing to add."

She nodded, pleased.

Father tapped the table. "March ninth, then. Garrick, take good care of her."

"I always keep my promises, Godfrey," Garrick said.

Bridie stood in the corner with her head down and her thumb rubbing the jade.

I walked out into the courtyard, where the cold still had an edge.

Bridie ran after me and caught my arm.

"Is something wrong?"

"Was that bangle really from a friend?"

The color left her face.

Then she tugged it off and pushed it into my palm.

"Take it if you like it. I only wear it for fun."

Her fingers shook against the stone.

I closed her hand around it again.

"I don't want something that was already mine," I said.

She stood there holding it while her smile slid off her face.

I went up to my room and opened my laptop.

Mother's guest list had given me the press office's address. I wrote to them as the bride, politely.

I asked whether the bride might address His Majesty in person after the vows, as a courtesy to the Crown that had endorsed the day.

The answer came back within the hour.

The bride could speak to the King once, in person, after the vows were exchanged.

I wrote my name on the line.

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