Dark One Rising Read Online Free PDF Page B

It will be alright, father.”
    “All the other women her age have been married for quite some time and are nursing babies, some on their second by now. Twenty-one is too old to be unmarried. Time after time I’ve told her she must choose a husband, but she refuses. I even gave her the option to find someone of noble blood that she loved, but even that didn’t work. Now my options have run out, and I’m left with only one.”
    Kevaan looked concerned. He knew what was coming and was sad for his sister. He loved her, but he knew this time he would not be able to get her out of it as he had always done in the past. This time she was on her own.
    “I must choose a husband for her. It’s time for her to marry.”
    “She won’t like this, father. You know she will refuse.”
    “She will have no choice this time. I have given her plenty of time. I have been patient, putting her needs for love first, but she’s deliberately defied me. She has given me no choice. She will marry whether she likes it or not, to whomever I choose.”
    “And have you chosen?”
    “I have, but I would rather wait to reveal it. I want to surprise her with a celebration for her twenty-first birthday. Then after the celebration, I will tell her. I want her to be happy during the party, not worried about what is coming. I expect you to make sure she attends. It’s an honor I want to bestow on my only beloved daughter.”
    He wanted to argue that the party itself would not make her happy, but he didn’t. “Alright, father, but you will tell me first, correct?”
    Randor waved his hand in dismissal. “Yes, yes, one thing at a time. Party first, then nuptials. I have made all the arrangements. You just get her there.”
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    ***
     
    Melenthia sat next to her father, finishing her meal as she looked around the room at all the nobles and their families that had come for her birthday. She had tried to make her father understand that she didn’t want a birthday party, especially when no one on the guest list were friends of hers; she had none. She didn’t want strangers at her party, people who didn’t even like her, but her father insisted and would hear nothing of it. She looked back on that day a week before.
    “These are people you have grown up with, Melenthia, people who have known you all your life.”
    “They know you, father, and Kevaan. They refuse to know me, the real me. They don’t even like me.”
    “That’s preposterous, Melenthia. Of course they like you. You’re their princess.”
    “I know what people say about me. They may sing praises about me to you, but behind your back is a different matter.”
    “Maybe if you would try to be more demure and princess-like, they would respect you more.”
    “It’s not those people that I want or need to respect me, but those that live in this realm, those that look to us for protection and guidance.”
    “We are dropping the subject, Melenthia. It’s your twenty-first birthday and you will not embarrass me by not attending your own party. I expect you to mingle and dance and talk.”
    She had swallowed back another retort and suffered the week in silence. Only to Kevaan did she make her plight.
    “This is the real reason you rode in from Charbonneau, to bully me into something he wants me to do. He knows I can’t say no to you.”
    “I will not bully you. I will only ask nicely.”
    “And if I still refuse?”
    “I will try harder.”
    She changed the subject. “He doesn’t understand me. He expects me to be someone I’m not, someone he wants me to be. I can’t pretend to be what I’m not. And I absolutely dread having to dance with some nobleman who will paw at me and expect me to giggle and bat my eyes at him. I don’t want to have any part of this!” She stamped her foot and scowled.
    “Melenthia, I know you hate parties, but it’s something father wants to give you, to let you know how much he loves you. He wants to show you off as the beautiful