“Talia, wait!”

  I stormed back to my room, the guards and the prince following me. Somehow I was quicker than all of them and I smmed the door behind me, locking it from the inside and putting a chair under the handle for good measure.

  “Talia, please open the door,” his deep clear voice permeated through the room.

  I sat on the bed. Stupid! I’d been stupid! Of course it was her, it was always her! The way they’d been talking the day before the wedding. The fact that she hadn’t come to the wedding! Her son probably wasn’t even sick! She just didn’t want to see her man getting married to another woman.

  My heart felt like it had been stabbed. I didn’t know why it hurt so badly. When we left for the honeymoon a little more than two months earlier all I could think about was Alvar, but knowing that Virtus was seeing someone else too I was devastated.

  “Talia, darling, please open the door,” his tone was soft, pleading.

  I sat staring at the wall, which was barely visible in the light of the candles and the firepce. I had kept them on all evening waiting for Virtus. I didn’t know what to do.

  “Talia, just open the door so we can talk please.”

  He was not trying to force it open. He could ask the guards to try to knock it down, but he didn’t. I decided to open it for him.

  He stood at the door with tears in his eyes.

  “Can I come in.”

  I just nodded as the guards stood awkwardly outside. He came in and I closed the door.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Were you ever going to come to me? Were you going to sleep with her tonight?”

  “No. I wanted to come to you sooner. It… It’s complicated.”

  “How!? I’m your wife! You couldn’t even wait until after our honeymoon?”

  “Talia, I love you.”

  “But you love her more?”

  He looked down.

  “Not any more.”

  I furrowed my brow.

  “Karina was my first kiss. She was my first everything. We first got together when we were very young.”

  I frowned.

  “Virtus you’re not helping your case.”

  “I’m sorry. I want to tell you the whole truth.”

  I frowned and nodded.

  “Could you at least get me a cup of wine to down this with?”

  He nodded and went to the table where a carafe of wine stood with two gsses. He poured one for me and one for himself. I sipped on it as he continued. At least the wine was good. Dark red, not too bitter, unlike me.

  “I wanted to marry her but of course I knew that would never happen. Royalty always marries for political reasons. We broke it off before her wedding. Her husband, the te duke was quite some years older than us. I dated some courtesans, women that were happy to sleep with a man and never marry him. When she had been married for only a few months she came on a visit to Medolina and… Well I couldn’t stay away. We started to see each other in secret. Then her husband died and we didn’t even have to be that secretive.”

  “You were together when she was married? Then the boy?”

  Virtus sighed.

  “We don’t know if he’s mine.”

  I got myself another gss of wine. This was a lot.

  “Then my marriage to you was arranged. Talia, I’m sorry but I couldn’t bear to break up with her. I hoped that you would not like me too much and that you would be fine with a separated life.”

  Tears welled up in my eyes. I squeezed them shut and sipped my wine.

  “But then I met you. You’re so much better than I thought you would be. You’re beautiful, intelligent, funny.”

  I looked up at him with my wet eyes.

  “I love you Talia, and I want to focus on our marriage. I was ending things with her tonight.”

  I hesitated. I didn’t know whether to believe him or not. After all, that is what he would say if he was caught cheating. I didn’t really see them kissing, he was only holding her.

  “When is the st time you slept with her?”

  “Darling…”

  “When?”

  He looked down and muttered.

  “It was the night before our wedding.”

  I wanted to scream.

  “I’m so sorry, and I know it’s unfair to you,” he continued. “You’re so perfect and pure. You would have never done anything to jeopardize your future marriage like this. I should have been stronger, I should have waited.”

  Oops.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hard on him. My cheeks were flushing, both from the wine and the shame. After all, where had I been the evening before our wedding?

  “Virtus, I have to think about this. Please go to your room, we can talk tomorrow.”

  He nodded and left. I locked the door after him.

  My rage was blended with guilt. I got myself another gss of wine. I knew that the healthiest and most logical thing would be to forgive him and forgive myself. We had both been with other people before we were married. I didn’t know if he had truly been breaking it off with the duchess, but they were both fully clothed, so that would speak to his innocence.

  I thought about myself and Alvar. What was my pn, really? I had been unable to stop thinking about him for the first days of our honeymoon, but now I didn’t really think about him most days. He had been very attractive, and we had been very drawn to each other, but had I really known him?

  I knew Virtus better now, and Virtus was my husband after all. If I had been so hurt to see Virtus with another woman, I couldn't imagine how hurt he would be to see me with another man. I couldn't do that to him. I decided that when I got home I would end things between me and Alvar.

  I fell asleep with my cheeks flushed from the wine, with a true determination to make my marriage work. From now on, we would do everything right.

  ***

  I woke up early the next morning, only feeling a little groggy from the wine. I was only twenty-two, wine was not an issue. I unlocked my door and tippled over to Virtus’s room, wearing my sleeping gown.

  He y curled up on the big bed, wrapped in the white bnkets. I walked around to see his face as the light from the window hit it. He looked so innocent in his sleep. Had it not been for his beard, he would have looked like a young boy.

  I kissed his cheek, and he opened his eyes. The light of recognition dawned in them.

  “My darling,” his voice was gravelly from sleeping.

  I smiled as he freed his arms from the covers, wrapping them around my waist and pulling me in to bed with him. I giggled as he kissed my cheeks and ran his fingers through my hair.

  “My darling, my darling, we’ll be happy from now on.”

  ***

  The st month and a half of our honeymoon were even better than the first part. The rest of our time with Duchess Karina was awkward, of course. She tried to hide her sadness, but now that it was clear to me what had happened, it was pretty obvious. In the cruellest part of my heart I was a little happy to see her mope about. It confirmed to me that Virtus really was mine.

  We travelled through three more duchies where everything went well. Not everyone was happy to see a princess from an enemy kingdom, but Virtus always defended me admirably. I learned more of the nguages to please the common people and the etiquette among the aristocracy to please the dukes and duchesses. Every night Virtus and I slept in the same bed, and there was no doubt that we had chosen each other fully.

  ***

  We were in the carriage on our way back to Medolina. I felt content, ready to face my life as crown princess of Medora and Virtus’s wife.

  “What was your favourite game to py when you were a child?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Sometimes I would pretend to be a farmer.”

  “A farmer? I would think a farmer’s son pys pretend to be a prince!”

  “You never pretended to be anything else?”

  “Well something like a fairy or a witch, perhaps.”

  “A witch!? Should I have you burned?”

  “How will you have me burned when you’re so busy tending to your crops?”

  He ughed and looked out of the window. Suddenly his ughter stopped and his face went pale. I looked out to see what he had seen.

  Over the city gates were Doctor Wulun and Queen Reena’s heads on spikes.