Earning the Love of a Princess-Chapter 298: Violet: Our Ambitions

Lord and Lady Thierre exchanged more smiles.

"Husband, I think you have a letter to write and send to court with the greatest of urgency?" Lady Thierre purred like a content cat. "Isn’t there some happy news you wish to share?"

"I do." the duke replied. "An auspicious event to gladden their hearts of Their Majesties, the imminent arrival of their first grandchild."

"Grandson." Lady Thierre quickly corrected. "With any luck, Violet is carrying a boy. A new little prince for the House of Devon. How delightful."

Violet swiveled her head between the two of them, unnerved. "Father...Mother. What’s going on?"

Lady Thierre beamed her loveless smile at her. "Nothing for you to worry about. You may retire and rest now. In fact, you’re to do nothing but rest from now on. You must care for the babe in your belly as if it’s your greatest treasure, because it is."

"You’re not going to try and contact Prince Leo, are you?" Violet asked faintly.

Her father chuckled as if he suddenly found his daughter amusing. "Ah, Prince Leo, the proud father to be. He’ll be glad to know of his own potency when he hears the good news."

"B-but he doesn’t want me. Leo doesn’t want me." Violet said in a small voice. It was the unfortunate truth. Baby or no baby, the prince would probably never give her the time of day again. He didn’t seem the type to take a second look at a woman he’d already set aside.

Lady Thierre shook her head as if Violet was just as simple as her twin. "Fool. We won’t waste our time trying to approach that silly lad. He holds no power to make these decisions yet. We’ll speak directly to His Majesty himself."

Violet blanched. That seemed like an even worse idea. Given how Queen Celia had reacted to finding out Violet had been anywhere near her son, she couldn’t imagine the king receiving the news any better -

"Did you not hear your mother before? Go rest." Lord Thierre said impatiently. "Let your betters take care of the rest."

"If you hope to convince the king that Leo and I should be matched, it won’t work." Violet muttered. "If he didn’t think Ilse was a worthy match despite Leo being so fond of her, he won’t want me either. And it doesn’t help matters that the prince and I don’t like each other very much."

A strange thing to say out loud given how ardently she’d pursued him, but it was the truth. She’d lusted for him, and he for her. But she’d never particularly liked his company or liked him. The two of them had nothing in common and nothing much to talk about.

Being around the prince also just made Violet more aware of the darker side of her own character. She didn’t thank him for that.

"Whether you like the prince or not is beside the point, silly girl." her mother replied. "What matters is you have his heir in your belly. That should be reason enough for King Edward to consent to a union between the two of you. To be the mother of the eldest prince’s son is a powerful thing."

A union...mother of the eldest prince’s son...

The words swirled around in Violet’s addled mind. If her parents were suggesting what she thought they were, it would be beyond anything she’d ever imagined possible.

She’d hoped to merely catch Leo’s eye for a while and use his attention to accumulate some wealth and influence. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she had a chance of marrying him.

"If I marry the man she loves, it will break what remains of Ilse’s heart." she whispered.

"Love and marriage are two very different things, daughter." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Not to Ilse they aren’t!" Violet could feel the familiar nausea building up in her belly. "If I marry the prince then she’ll never forgive me. You’re asking me to give up my twin’s love to secure my future!"

"Life is full of hard choices."

"This isn’t a choice you’re having to make, Mother!" Violet hissed. "You’re not the one being forced to give up a part of your soul!"

The duke furrowed his brow. "We’re not asking you to do anything that you weren’t already willing to do beforehand. You decided to seduce the man Ilse loves, all on your own. You weren’t worried about sparing her from heartbreak then, were you?"

"No, but I never thought-"

"Spare us the dramatics then, Violet. Stop acting as if we’re pushing our ambitions onto you, as you obviously have plenty of your own. And we’re proud of you for it. We’re simply making sure your efforts aren’t wasted." Lord Thierre spoke so calmly and logically, it was as if they were discussing some minor issue.

Violet shook her head in confusion.

"Besides, you just heard Ilse say that she wants nothing more to do with the prince." Lady Thierre added. "If she’d said she wanted to try and salvage her relationship with His Grace, we would’ve done whatever we could to help. But if she won’t seize her chance, she can’t be upset with you for doing it instead."

"Y-y-yes, but Mother. Ilse already hates me-"

"For the love of heaven, Violet! Enough with your protests and useless questions!" Lady Thierre snapped. "Either you go and lie down now, or we’ll lock you in your bedchamber!"

Feeling thoroughly sickened, Violet hurried out of the main hall. She couldn’t go to the old chamber she’d once shared with her sisters though, not with Ilse already there.

Once she reached the top of the stairs, she made her way to the winter chamber instead.

The room was empty and icy cold. Wrapping one of the fur throws around her, Violet sat in the window seat and watched as the wind shook the surrounding trees’ bare branches.

Only a week ago, her greatest fear had been seeing Ilse as a royal bride. Now - if everything fell into place like her parents hoped - it would be her.

She’d rise, not Ilse. Violet would be the most successful, most exalted Thierre daughter.

The triumph was bitter on her tongue.

- - -

Dinner was late that night and it was a miserable affair. After months of the finest food imaginable, the meal of only two roasted quails and green beans seemed comical to Violet.

Not that she was even hungry.

Lady Thierre made a point of serving her the breast meat of one of the quails, making sure her plate was filled even before Abel’s. Violet wanted to refuse but didn’t want her mother to unleash her anger on her again. So she nodded her thanks and tried not to gag as she took tiny bites.

"Why does Violet get the best cuts of meat now?" Sancia whined from her end of the table.

"Because she’s doing important work for our family and needs to remain in perfect health." Lord Thierre replied.

Sancia scrunched up her lips. "She doesn’t look in perfect health. She looks thin and like she wants to be sick everywhere."

"That’s enough, child!" the duke bellowed.

Sancia refused to be quiet. She turned to Ilse and said in a softer voice, "You look sick too, sister. How come you don’t get the best cuts too?"

Violet looked over at Ilse. Her eyes were shadowed and her face was ghostly pale even under the warm glow of the tallow candles.

Ilse shook her head and tried to smile at Sancia. "Don’t worry about me, you little rascal. I’m not as hungry as you." She tipped the meagre portion of dinner on her plate onto Sancia’s.

The younger girl beamed and started tucking into the extra food. Ilse pushed her chair back from the table and stood up.

"You’ve hardly touched your meal." the duke protested.

"I’m not hungry, Father. I just want to go to bed."

Lord Thierre looked up at her, eyes softening with sympathy. "Will you be alright, pretty dove?"

"That remains to be seen." Ilse said flatly. "But I don’t think I’m going to feel any better by sharing a meal with the people around this table. Goodnight."

"Ilse! Daughter!" Lady Thierre immediately took offence. "We won’t tolerate such words-"

"Let her be, Jeanne." Lord Thierre silenced her with his hand on her forearm. "She needs time to reconcile herself with the new reality our family will soon face."

"Once we are royal kin, her value as a bride will soar to the heavens! She can take her pick from every eligible nobleman in Islia and beyond!" Lady Thierre shook her head in bewilderment. "Why spend your time moping and not thinking about what a glorious opportunity is within our grasp?"

Even Lord Thierre looked at his wife for a moment through narrowed eyes, as if she puzzled him. With a sigh, he began to eat his dinner again.

"What glorious opportunity? What’s wrong with Ilse?" Sancia piped up.

As usual, no one bothered replying to her.