The Locket (16 page)

Christian nodded his head delighted that someone else shared his hatred for his brother. “I have the same opinion. He is after all—”

“Rude, annoying, cheesy, and—”

“I see that you’ve already met the royal family.”

Savannah grinned, remembering the kindness that they had shown her when she first arrived. “Yes. I had dinner with them before coming into the forest. They really are nice people, except for Rupert. And they seem like a perfectly normal family, except for Rupert. The king, Fredrick, was so sweet to answer my questions and get me ready for the trip, and Sophia, the queen, knew exactly how I felt about leaving and assured me that everything would be okay. I’ve only ever felt so at home twice before …” Christian looked over when she trailed off, taking notice of the melancholy in her expression. “And I’m afraid that I can never go back to those places again.”

Never before had he felt such sympathy and near close to empathy for a person, a girl, he knew so little about. She touched him so easily with just a few harmless words about missing her home. He supposed it was merely a feeling stemmed from his own desire to be safe at home, but still. It was both comforting and disturbing. Suddenly she turned to him, her face scrunched in question. “I told you yesterday that I’d met them, didn’t I?”

“You had not mentioned much. I believe all you had said was that the king sent you on this expedition and that was about it,” he said, standing up to stretch his legs. Coming out of his temporary sorrow for her, he took note of his companion’s use of first names when referencing the royal family. It was one thing to address me so, he mused. But it is another entirely to speak of my family, the royal family, so. No one in my kingdom would dare do such a scandalous act; they all know the penalty for conversing with the royal family too personally. Yet I suppose this woman, though interesting and highly appealing, does not know the proper conduct. “So you call the royal family by their first names?” he wondered matter-of-factly.

“Well, why not? After all, they are human beings like you and me. And with a few exceptions, like having servants, they live their lives much like every other family in town.”

She was right, in a way. Though it was true that their family still ate, slept, bathed, and conversed the same as everyone else, there were also aspects about his family that were not as ordinary. Such as marrying off their son at the age of seventeen against his will, he thought bitterly.

This girl was different, and Christian took notice of that immediately. A thought that had escaped him earlier suddenly came back and tugged at his interest. For a person who had just met the royal family, she did not appear all too delighted. Anyone in his kingdom who even had the chance to meet the king and queen would literally hold a party for their friends and family to tell them every detail of the account and have them share in their excitement. This was just the way their kingdom worked. Savannah, however, did nothing, not even an eager shudder. What’s more, she was not like any of the other girls in his kingdom. She was rude, disrespectful, improper, and extremely inappropriate. Though, somehow, Miss Morgan still managed to fascinate him in many ways. Small ways.

The next couple of minutes were spent packing up the supplies, putting out the fire, and refilling their canteen. Savannah thought nervously of the creatures to come and the day ahead of them. Not to say that she was scared, of course, but simply that she hated not knowing what was ahead of her. Silently they went about their chores until they were finally able to set back off into the wilderness.

At about noon, or what seemed like it from the scorching heat of the overhead sun, they took their first break by a tiny stream. “What’s with that marriage law, anyway? Where I come from you can marry whomever, wherever, for the most part. Couldn’t they at least allow royalty a chance to find love outside other noble families?”

Christian shivered at the thought of the marriage law, more so at the thought of having to marry in the near future. Then again, that was one of the many reasons for his running away. “I can’t tell you how the law started or when, but I can tell you what it states.”

Savannah raised a hand up. “Don’t bother. King Fredrick already explained everything.”

He gave her a skeptical glance. “Both parts?”

“There’s more than one part?” she asked uneasily. The first part was long and ridiculous enough, Savannah was not sure she wanted to hear the rest.

“Of course,” he answered sarcastically. “In our world, Miss Morgan, nothing can be that simple.”

“You say that as if I haven’t noticed,” she said, returning his disdain.

Grinning, Christian began to explain. “As it has been for many years, any civilian of a kingdom or town may marry at any point of his or her life unless otherwise instructed by his or her parents, which is rare. However, the royals have another decree to follow. A crowned prince or princess must be either engaged or married by the age of seventeen if they intend to inherit the throne. In spite of this, they must be officially married by twenty-one. If they are not married or have not chosen a bride or groom that their parents have approved by that time, then the king and queen are to choose for them.”

When Savannah merely stood and stared at him in silence, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Confusing, I know, though one does get used to the laws they are bound by. And that is not to say these rules do not have loopholes or alterations. In many cases, things happen and the law serves as more of a guideline than anything else.”

Savannah sighed as she thought of how awful it would be to have your parents choose your future spouse. In the twenty-first century, people take advantage of the fact that they have the option to do what they want with whom they want. Comparing what life was like in this time and what it’s like in hers, she grimaced at the idea of how many people used their freedom to marry five, six, seven different people just because they could, when the people here are stuck with the person their parents picked out for them.

It seemed almost unreal that this was the case in this dimension. Then again, was this place even real at all? Of course not. “No wonder why the prince ran away. His birthday is coming up soon, and his birthday gift is a kingdom to rule and a marriage to a girl he probably doesn’t even know.”

Christian frowned into the stream. “Yes, and the girl they wish him to marry is rather dreadful. She is absolutely boring and does not talk, sit, stand, eat, sleep, or do anything unless she is told to. It is as if she does not have a mind of her own.”

“Who is she?”

“She is the princess from the next kingdom,” he said with a sneer. “Princess Adelaide. The king and queen seem to think that this marriage will bond the two empires and strengthen our side for the war.”

Silence followed, allowing Savannah to figure out how to word her next question. “Can you change your fiancé once you have already been betrothed or engaged?”

“What do you mean?”

Adjusting the pack on her shoulder, Savannah had a sudden feeling that she should be more careful with what she said in front of this man. “Well, we know that the prince is betrothed right now to the princess from the next kingdom. But if he finds someone else whom he would rather be with, can he choose her over the princess? Or is he stuck with her because there’s a law stating that once a woman is chosen to become the next queen, you cannot change it?”

Christian considered this for a moment, creating a small crease on his forehead as his brows lowered in concentration. “I suppose that you could, although almost no one within the kingdoms in our world marries for love. They marry for the money or for what is in the best interest of their families, particularly the royals. I do not believe that anyone in our kingdom has ever married for love before.”

“I see.” Savannah couldn’t understand that, and she certainly did not wish to believe it. Not marry for love? Who does not want to spend the rest of their life with someone they love? Not that she has ever felt that way for someone, but she knew her parents loved each other and she knew it made them happy. If that were true, it couldn’t be that bad.

Then again, certain duties and obligations must come before romance and passion. Not to put down anyone in love, but perhaps that’s not what life should be all about. After all, even though it was true that love made her parents happy, look what happened to both of them. Not to mention Marie’s aunt and uncle married for love, and now they were in the middle of an enormously expensive divorce.

Another silence followed. While Savannah contemplated if it would be more beneficial or detrimental to fall in love, Christian contemplated if there really was a loophole he could use to get out of his marriage situation.

“Back in my world,” Savannah began, startling him a little, “we have this movie, uh, play, about this young girl who falls in love with the crowned prince, but her dream is something far from becoming queen.”

At the words, “crowned prince,” Savannah knew that she had grabbed Christian’s attention. His eyes widened just a little as he turned to face her, but went back to normal almost instantly. “Really?” He forced his attention back onto the bunch of cluttered trees and bushes ahead of them. Do not seem too interested, he warned himself.

“Yes. Her dream was to be a doctor and travel to all these places all over the world. Then, out of nowhere, this guy enters her life, they fall in love, and he proposes. Now she’s stuck in this engagement, finally realizing that she would soon become queen and that she would never get her chance to fulfill her dream. So she breaks it off with him to finish college, only to have him follow after her and that, unfortunately, is where the story ends.”

Christian gave her a curious stare. “What is so unfortunate about it?” The look on his face reminded her of the time Timmy Hannigan asked her why his portrayal of Captain Hook was so mediocre in the ninth grade drama club play. He was one of the most popular boys in high school, and everyone but Savannah complimented him on his performance. When he asked her if it was believable—which it wasn’t—she decided to actually tell him the truth and not lie just because he was handsome and popular. After all, who ever heard of a Captain Hook who wore his boxers above his pantaloons and ordered his victims, whom he called “dawgs,” to “walk the plank, yo”?

“Because,” she went on, failing to hide the slight annoyance from her voice, “everyone expects that at the end the girl will choose the charming prince over her dreams, or that he will simply wait for her until she is ready. I mean, come on, nothing can really end that perfectly, especially when the guy has a kingdom to run and responsibilities to keep. It’s not like he can just sit on his butt and wait—”

“And I imagine you believe that the maiden should forget her love and move on to do exactly what she was doing before he entered into her life. Am I correct in my assumption?”

Savannah agreed, though not before flashing him a warning glance. He had a way of bringing out the worst in her without ever breaking a sweat. The truth was, she didn’t know what she would do in that situation. It made the most logical sense to break up with the guy and live happily ever after without him. But Savannah was intelligent enough to know that love is claimed to be so powerful that it could change people. Movies and books were created based on that emotion alone, so it had to be worth something. Sure, she loved her parents, yet she had a feeling that wasn’t quite the same thing. Though without feeling the emotion herself, it was difficult to say how she would decide between the man of her dreams and the job of her dreams. “Maybe. Anyway, no one else thinks she could have just … blown him off and left to fulfill her dreams.”

Christian nodded his head while his face was deep in thought. Apparently, where he came from, people did not think like that. Women did not think like that. Then again, who would expect anything else from this dimension? “So you are saying that these two people fell in love—love, the strongest power in the whole universe, supposedly—and you do not want them to end up together?”

“Well when you put it that way …” she trailed off with a sigh. “I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that I think that the more logical decision is to do what you have wanted to do your whole life first, and then marry the guy of your dreams later. In the movie, the guy just seemed to be getting in the way of her road of life, that’s all.”

As she turned her hiker’s tread into a confident stride, her head held high in triumph, Christian held out a firm arm to block her from moving any further. With a smile sweet as honey and eyes that leaked ridicule, he declared, “You have never fallen in love.”

Caught off guard, Savannah stumbled from his words as much as from his physical block. She knew the answer. All too well, in fact. Though instead of revealing anything to him, she put on her stubborn face and shot him a cold scowl. “I don’t think that that is any of your business.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” For every millimeter his smirk grew, so did her disgust. Who did he think he was, asking her all these personal questions? This guy seriously needed to lay off before she slapped him. “I can’t believe you would even ask me something like that.” Letting out a growl of irritation, she stomped her way under his arm and away from where he still stood staring at her in with his brash, I-know-everything-and-you-don’t expression. “God, I hate boys.”

“Is it that you are too afraid to tell me?”

“Excuse me?” She whirled around.

He chuckled, an eerie and unnerving sound. “You heard me.”

“No,” was her curt reply.

He put a hand to his chin. “Perhaps you are not a good enough homemaker.” A snort was her only reply this time. “Ah, I have it,” he said to her back with a snap. “You are so icy and full of bitterness that you are incapable of love and will therefore warm your bed for no man.”

He got the pleasure of watching her body grow rigid. To go along with his nonchalant tone, he made sure that he kept his hands busy playing with a branch when she turned around, so as to indicate at his mockery.

She strode back over, and upon reaching him, stood on her tiptoes so that they were eye-to-eye. The mix of her deepened eyebrows, her wrinkled forehead, and her frosty stare told Christian that he should not press her any further. So of course he was going to.

“Are you that egotistic—and let me just say stupid—that you would insult a perfect stranger to win an argument?” she retorted.

He simply grinned at her. “I am used to getting what I want.”

“Well, don’t make the mistake of thinking that I am going to let you insult me, affect me, or above all, get what you want from me.”

She was obviously not intimidating him the way she had half-hoped. Older guys were always harder to crack, especially stubborn ones like him. Not that she had to scare off many men in her life. But the ones she did never bothered her again.

“You do not frighten me,” he replied.

“Maybe not now, but eventually I will.” Savannah set herself back on her heels. “In the meantime, I don’t discuss my personal life with almost total strangers.”

Christian’s face soured. He had to hand it to her, she was a lot tougher than she first seemed. That lanky, feminine body carried more than a light punch of attitude. “Consider this my way to get to know you better. Have you ever fallen in love before? My guess is,” he began as he walked idly away from her, “no. I would bet my entire fortune that you are not one to show much affection toward the opposite sex.”