Mother was looking at me, torn between elation and concern. “It’s never been done, dear. Not in…hundreds of years.”
Father nodded. “Yes, but he loves her, darling.”
Mother looked at me with a smile and cupped my cheek. “Fate is indeed a fickle mistress who works in mysterious ways.”
“You’ve been telling us that since we were little. I never knew it was real,” I told her.
Mother smiled. “You really love her?”
I nodded. “I do.”
Her smile grew. “Well, it is not my decision. Your father is king. It is his choice.”
“Yes,” Father said and Mother turned to him. “But he has also learned that listening to his wife’s opinion is always the best choice.”
The corner of my lips tilted in a half smile as I watched them. If it weren’t for them, I might not have truly believed that Tati and I could make it work. Their love was what made me believe that anything was possible. That even if reason was telling me that it was too soon for Tati and I to be engaged, we could make it work. That I could serve my duty and my heart after all.
Father looked at me carefully. “If you’re sure she will say yes. I give you my blessing as both your king and your father for you to announce a delay to the announcement, pending a proper proposal.”
I felt the smile break my face and the answering smile on my parents’ faces were worth the world to me.
“Are we ready, your highness?” Alaina asked from the corner of the room where she was doing her usual last-minute checks.
My father nodded, a warm smile on his face. “We are.”
Alaina nodded. “All right. Moving to position two,” was intended for us as well as whomever was listening via her headset.
I gave my mother a swift hug and she thankfully only laughed but said nothing.
“Miss Lloyd,” I called and she paused to allow me to stately catch up to her instead of charging forward as she usually did.
“Your highness?”
“A slight change of plans. I will be speaking without any introduction.”
Alaina looked me over, but nodded. “All right.”
I followed her with my parents to the doors where we would await the go ahead for us to walk to the raised stage.
Mother and Father talked to each other in hushed whispers and I tried to run over any version of what I might say. I’d given up using notecards or pre-written speeches years ago when it became obvious that my own words were not only perfectly acceptable but also preferred by the people, relying instead on pre-discussed dot points and notes. I was suddenly wishing that I hadn’t today as my stomach fluttered and my heart raced.
Alaina was obviously listening to something in her headset as she nodded to my father. “Okay,” she said then inclined her head once more. “We’re all set up and ready for you, your highness.”
I gave her a swift nod in return. “Thank you.”
“Mitya…” my mother started and I refused to look at her.
The murmur of the excited crowd outside was just enough to set me on edge. It got under my skin, making me grit my teeth and gave me an unusually antsy feel. I clasped my hands behind my back to stop myself from fidgeting.
I felt Mother lay a hand on my arm and looked at her out of the corner of my eye.
“We may be standing upon hundreds of years of tradition, but you are doing the right thing for you and for the country.”
I appreciated her words more than she could know and far more than I was capable of conveying at that moment. I was about to tell a whole county I was in love when I hadn’t had a chance to confirm it with her first. It was not exactly ideal, but it had been unavoidable.
The fanfare started and that was our cue.
My parents followed me to the stage as people in the crowd cheered and my eyes caught flashes of photography. Numerous cameras were set up at the back, following our progress. When we got to the top of the stage, I paused and touched my father’s arm gently. We exchanged a silent look until he finally nodded and I walked to the podium alone.
The noise slowly died out as I took my position.
“Good afternoon, my fellow Gallyrians.” I paused for the usual round of applause. “It has been the custom for over two hundred years for the heirs of the crown of Gallyr to announce their engagement on the Valentine’s Day before their twenty-fourth birthday. No one seems to know why, but we are here today to honour that tradition.”
Here was the part that was less easy to say. But I had to believe that my people would be as happy with my decision as I was, if only because I was happy.
“Customarily when a man gets engaged, he has had time to court his betrothed, they have had time to get to know each other and fall in love. When a man would be king, sometimes he is not afforded the same luxury. Sometimes we must marry and wait for love to blossom. Sometimes love blossoms and then we marry. And sometimes…” I paused and noticed every person in the crowd was waiting with baited breath. “Sometimes we get stuck in between. Gallyr, I intended to uphold our traditions here today. But I find I am unable to…”
There was a general uproar as I had expected. People muttered and booed, but I could also see that some were interested to see what exactly I had to say about the matter.
“Please, let me finish.” I held up a hand and was gratified when the crowd fell silent. “I cannot announce my engagement because there has not been a proper proposal. Yet. But I want to reassure you that as soon as I have asked her properly, and she does not take too long to say yes, then I will let you know.”
The mutters this time were less disapproving and more questioning. And I didn’t blame them. I was barely supressing a smile. I was barely suppressing a smile because I was actually standing up here making an announcement that was going to allow me to be with Tati. It had seemed near impossible for so long that I couldn’t believe it was actually happening.
I scanned the restless crowd for her, hoping she knew it was her. That it would always be her.
Finally, my eyes found her standing with Natalia towards the front. Her face was the picture of confusion and I couldn’t stop my smile from breaking through fully. It was the first time I’d ever smiled in public. The first time I’d given more than a polite slight upturn of lip at least. And the crowd noticed. But I tuned out the rise in mutterings and the beginnings of excited energy as she frowned at me and shook her head.
I gave her a single nod.
She gave me a single nod back, her brows still furrowed. A question. A clarification.
I gave her one more single nod and I could tell that the crowd was trying to work out who I was communicating with and what I was communicating.
She said something in response to Natalia, then she was pushing through the couple of rows of people. I watched her run up the stairs, completely unladylike and one hundred percent the woman I was in love with, and she threw her arms around my neck in total abandon. I wrapped my arms around her tightly, huffing a laugh of extreme relief and wishing I never had to let her go.
“Me?” she asked in my ear.
“Of course you,” I told her honestly.
She pulled away and thumped my arm. “You didn’t want to warn me?”
“Is that a yes, Lady Tatiana?” someone yelled and there was a smattering of laughter.
I looked around us with a warm smile, not caring one whit about decorum or dignity or anything other than I finally had the woman of my dreams in my arms and there was going to be no question who I wanted to marry.
“Oh God…” Tati breathed, burying her face in my chest.
I huffed another laugh and heard the crowd chuckle with me.
“Is that a yes, Lady Tatiana?” I whispered.
“Of course it’s a yes,” she mumbled, her face still hidden against me.
“Can I tell them it’s a yes?” I asked.
I felt her tense. “Mum’s going to kill me.”
; “Why?”
“She told me she would if she found out we were engaged through any media report.”
“You’re under the protection of the crown prince of Gallyr now, my lady,” I reminded her.
She laughed, nodding as she looked up at me. “Okay then.”
I couldn’t have supressed my smile now if I’d wanted to, especially not when she looked up at me adoringly with a gorgeously happy smile on her own face. So I took her hand and turned us to face the waiting crowd. I felt her hand tense in mine and squeezed it reassuringly.
So it was with a full heart and a rare smile on my face that I announced my engagement. “People of Gallyr, I present to you my fiancée, Lady Tatiana Penrose.”
A huge cheer rang out. The cynic in me was sure that the cheer would have been the same no matter to whom I had announced my engagement and no matter how happy I appeared. But it buoyed my elation that my choice had been met with approval by my people.
“Your highness, when will you give her the ring?”
“My lady, were you expecting the news?”
“When will the wedding be?”
Questions came at us from all sides, but even they couldn’t wipe the smile from my face. I answered a few as standard then finished with the traditional delay tactic, “All questions will be answered in due time. On behalf of my fiancée and our families, I thank you for coming out today. I look forward to seeing you at the ball tonight.”
Then, still holding Tati’s hand, I pulled her to my parents and we were ushered back inside and into the Small Drawing Room. My brothers and Natalia followed us and the congratulations begun in earnest. I finally felt like I had no cares in the world until max walked in and I realised I’d forgotten one incredibly important thing.
“Dmitri!”
“Max… I can explain.”
“You’d better. Because if you get my little girl up I front of the whole country to tell them you’re engaged, I’d better bloody well see the ring on her finger.”
“Max, I–”
“I gave it to you last week. Don’t tell me you lost it.”
I frowned at Max. He may have been like an uncle to my siblings and me, but he knew I wasn’t an idiot.
“Of course I didn’t lose it,” I snapped.
“Then why isn’t she wearing it?”
“She has a name,” Tati interjected and it was probably the first time I noticed that her Gallyrian was so good.
“She had better call her mother before her mother calls her father and loses her shit,” Max said, turning to Tati with a warning frown.
Tati nodded. “True.”
She put her hand to my arm for a moment, then and ducked out of the room.
“Where is it?” Max asked me.
I held my hands up again. “It’s in my room.”
“And she’s not wearing it…?”
“Because it was all rather sudden. I have a plan.”
“Did this plan include you mentioning any of this to me?”
“Max,” my father said, coming over. “I thought you’d be happy about this.”
Max sighed. “I’m not…unhappy. I just… How did we not know the two of you were…together? How long has this been going on? Have you…” He paused and closed his eyes. “I do not want to know that.” He opened them again and fixed me with a glare. “Why didn’t you say something, Mitya?”
“I’m sorry, Max. I should have. I meant to. I just…”
“If it helps, Max. I only found out last night.”
“He knew!”
And I could have told Max at the council meetings. I could have told him in any number of meetings that morning. But…
“I felt like I needed a decent amount of time to talk to you. Should I have just sidled up to you in Chambers yesterday and mentioned I’d proposed to your daughter, I thought she’d rejected me, she’d then made me late to Chambers because she was telling me she hadn’t rejected me and Father came to get me to go to Chambers before I had a chance to reassure her she wasn’t too late?”
Max’s surety deflated a little. “Uh. Well… I want to say yes. But no. That wouldn’t have flown.”
“Flown?” Father and I both asked.
Max waved a hand. “Never mind. The ring?”
“She’ll get it.”
“When?”
“Do you think I’m just going to let my fiancée run around without it?”
“When, Dmitri?”
“Can I not just give it to her in private?” I snapped, my voice rising uncontrollably. I took a breath and said more quietly. “I’ve planned it. Okay? Can you just trust me?”
“Trust you like the time I let you take your sisters to Spain?”
I frowned. “That wasn’t my fault and you know it.”
Max glared at me with all the love and warning it was possible with which to glare at someone. But he just called, “Anya.”
She was still talking to her mother as she walked back into the room.
Max, still glaring, said to me, “You know I love you and I’m happy if you’re both happy.”
I schooled my expression and nodded. “Thank you, Uncle Max.”
“Ew! No,” Tati said with a cute wrinkle in her nose as she came up to us. “Here’s Dad.”
She held the phone to Max and I shamelessly wrapped my arm around her, fully intending to not let go of her for the rest of my life, although knowing I’d probably have to settle for the rest of the afternoon at the most.
Chapter Five
Medina brought in some Champagne which was popped to laughter, and Father told him to keep it coming.
We called Faith and Lina, managing to catch them between lessons to tell them the news, and they unintelligibly squealed in excitement for about fifteen minutes before one of their teachers told them they needed to get to class.
Samson, Alaina and Sergei flitted in and out, scheduling interviews and appearances with different newspapers and channels and outlets while Tati and I sat with our family and chatted. It was slightly annoying but it was necessary and it did offer me the chance to confirm with Samson that everything was ready for Tati later.
Congratulations were offered by everyone we saw and by our parents and siblings numerous times. Mother was beside herself with joy. Father was quite clearly proud and I could tell both he and Max were quite pleased that their friendship was going to result in family now. Kostin was as sedate as ever, although he managed one smile for Tati.
And Nico teased and goaded, but it was all good natured and, as much as I usually despised my youngest brother’s antics, it didn’t bother me in the slightest. It may have been because I was the one who had ended up with the girl, but I hoped it was more than that.
Already we were fielding questions about the wedding. Never mind that no one had known we were even a real possibility beyond media speculation before a few hours before. It was baffling. But they were put off with replies of, ‘We haven’t talked about it.’
At one point, Tati said, “I promised not Summer,” as she looked at me apologetically.
And I had just laughed. “Not Summer. I can work with that.”
Eventually though, I had to let her go.
“You think this just happens?” Natalia laughed, hooking her arm through Tati’s.
I looked between them, finding it very difficult to not laugh as well. “I wouldn’t presume anything of the sort. Although I’m not sure if it’s safer to tell you I believed you were naturally that beautiful or if I should say that you are beautiful without it.”
Natalia smiled again and I wondered if people were looking at me just then as I was looking at her; that it was refreshing to see her so relaxed and happy.
“You bagged a smart one, Tati,” she told her sister.
“Eh, he’s all right,” she teased.
“But we really do have to go and get ready!” Natalia said.
I nodded. “I’ll see you soon,”
I said to Tati, giving her a quick kiss.
The two girls rushed away, arm-in-arm and giggling.
When she was safely out of hearing and sight, Samson walked back in.
“Everything ready?” I asked him.
“What are you up to, Mitya?” Nico asked me, a wry tilt to his mouth.
“None of your business, brother.”
His grin grew and he merely saluted me with his glass.
“One more drink until the men need to get ready?” Mother asked, looking around.
“Why not,” Father said with a chuckle.
Mother nodded. “All right. I will see you all later.”
As she passed me, she kissed my cheek and whispered, “I am so proud of you, my Mitya.”
“Thank you, Mamma. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She left and I had two more drinks with my father, Max and my brothers where we were a little rowdier than we had been with the women around. I wasn’t sure if we’d been being polite or if it was the drinks.
Then we made our way to our respective rooms. As I quickly washed and dressed, Samson ran over the preparations I’d asked him to sort out for me.
“Samson?” I interrupted.
“Yes, sir?”
“I know this sort of thing is strictly within your job description, but thank you all the same.”
“You are very welcome, sir.”
“It has not escaped my notice that many men would not have people to fall back on for this sort of thing.”
“Perhaps not, sir. Are you offering to repay the favour some day?”
I laughed. “I can’t promise anything other than if I am able I would be honoured.”
Samson gave me a warm smile. “Thank you, sir.”
He held up my jacket for me and I slid my arms into it.
“Nikolai has been given instructions to bring Lady Tatiana down on schedule. From there, you’ll propose once more, then meet us at the entrance to the ball room to be announced in time.”
I nodded, checking my bowtie. “Okay. I think we’re set.”
“If it’s any consolation, sir. At least you know she’s going to say yes.”
Royally Unprepared: Prince of Pout (Part 1) (Royal Misadventures Book 5) Page 3
