Chapter 53
Taking a deep breath, Annabeth stopped her pacing and looked at the door again. She needed to just do it already. If nerves didn't keep stopping her this whole situation would already be taken care of. It had been a long time since she had been this nervous. Maybe she should have taken Percy up on his offer to come with her. To late now. Besides, it was probably best to do this by herself.
Time was running short. She needed to get it done tonight, and if she didn't knock soon her father would be on his way to bed and dealing with him when he wanted to be asleep was probably the opposite of helpful. So, despite the pacing having done almost nothing to calm her nerves, Annabeth took a quick step forward, and raised her hand, forcing herself to knock.
Stepping back she started to fiddle with her sleeve, trying to channel her nerves as she waited. It was about a minute before she finally got a response "Come in."
Another deep breath later, Annabeth was on the inside of the office, the door closing behind her with a soft thunk. Her father looked up in surprise, raising an eyebrow "Annabeth? Can I help with you something?"
"Yes." Part of her brain was nagging her, telling her she shouldn't be bothering him. But those were her step-mother's words, and she wasn't there. It was just her and her dad, and this was too important to leave till later "I need to talk to you about something."
"I'm a little busy at the moment," Frederick was already looking down at his papers again as he spoke.
"You're always busy." The response came out before Annabeth could really think about it. Shaking her head she quickly added "It's important, dad."
"Annabeth," He sighed in the all to familiar way, the one that usually got her to step back and wait till later to ask her question "I'm sure that whatever it is can wait. We can talk about it on the way to the castle tomorrow."
"No."
The response surprised Frederick enough to make him look up from what he was doing again, and letting out a breath, Annabeth looked back at him "Dad, please. I need to talk to you, it's important, and it has to happen now."
For a moment Annabeth was scared he would ignore her or just brush it off again. Instead, he finished the sentence he had been writing, before setting down the pen and focusing on her "Would you like to sit down to share this very important information?"
Annabeth wasn't sure that she did, but she grabbed the extra chair from the corner of the room anyway and brought it over to sit on the opposite side of the desk from him. This was partly to buy herself time, partly because she knew pacing back and forth while talking probably wouldn't help anything. However, buying time did nothing, and her nerves were still going crazy when she sat down. Just do it Annabeth. "I know you and Andrea have been talking about finding a suitable person for me to marry, if not right away than with in the next couple of years."
Frederick raised an eyebrow slightly, but that was the only sign of surprise he gave "I take it we haven't been as quite with our conversations as we thought we were being?"
"That, and Andrea's been taking me around for tea with eligible men since I was fourteen, and I'm smart enough to put two and two together about what was happening," Annabeth shrugged, trying to act like it really didn't bother her. Getting emotional about it right now wouldn't help her case.
"I'm sorry, I should have talked about it with you before you discovered it on your own, but you also had to have been expecting this to happen soon." Despite the second half of the comment, Annabeth really did get the feeling that he was sorry he hadn't talked to her about it. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part. "I take it you have some thoughts on the matter?"
"I wish you would have actually talked to me about it, but that's not the point now." There was no point trying to argue against it at this point. The damage was done. Besides, even if Annabeth hadn't put it together it wouldn't have been surprising information. They weren't noble, but Andrea liked to act like they were. "The point now is, I believe I have a solution that will make all three of us happy."
"Annabeth I don't think-"
"Just listen," Annabeth interrupted. She probably should have just let him speak, but she needed to get through this before she lost her nerve "Percy has asked to court me. He wanted to ask you himself, but I convinced him it would be better if I did it."
"Annabeth-" and there was the sigh that she knew all too well. The one that usually meant he was tired of her questions or her logic didn't make sense "It won't work. I know you and Percy are close, but you can't be courted by him."
"He is going to talk to his father on Friday, and he has faith he can get him to agree," Annabeth pushed past the objection "It works for all of us. What more of a status bump could Andrea get? The twins will be able to become knights, or whatever they decide they want to be when they're older than seven. You get to know you will always have a place at court and the resources to work on your projects, and I am with someone that I actually care about and I want to be with."
"It won't work Annabeth, the king will never agree," Frederick insisted as he looked over at her, and Annabeth decided not to mention that it didn't really matter if the king agreed or not. If Poseidon really did refuse to let them, than the plan was to leave. Which could make this whole conversation pointless, but they had agreed it would be best to have everything else already figured out before talking to the king, and that included getting her father on board.
"Let Percy worry about that. He has an argument prepared that he thinks will convince him," Annabeth replied simply "Right now, what I need is your blessing. Percy will ask you for it himself I'm sure, but I convinced him that it would be better if I did it at first and he waited until after he had talked to his father."
"You're probably right," Frederick agreed, though he sounded rather lost in thought, as if the comments about Percy were an afterthought and not all that relevant to what was happening. Then he sighed again, though this one was a real sigh, not the one he usually gave her "I'm sorry, but I can't give you my blessing, and it wouldn't be proper for him to court you. Regardless of what the king decides, you can't marry him."
"What?" Annabeth blinked in surprise at how completely he had shut it down, even if the king did agree "Why not? I mean, I know you don't like Percy, but he's the crown prince. Surely that overrules your personal feelings about him."
"Believe me, I wish I could say yes, but I can't," he shook his head, and as he did so a feeling of slight dread came over her. He couldn't. There was really only one reason he couldn't. Surely he wouldn't have done that without at least talking to her first though, right?
"Why can't you?" Annabeth asked, slight angre raising in her voice now, her brain already filling in what the reason had to be before he said it.
"Annabeth, please, try to stay calm," Frederick replied, though there wasn't a ton of authority in it. For once he knew her anger was justified. "While you've been meeting with Luke, Andrea has been having meetings with his benefactor, and working out details. When she approached me with it most of the details had already been worked out. It was a good agreement, and I know you and Luke are friends so I assumed you would be happy with it-"
"So you were going to marry me off without even talking to me about it?" Now she was actually glad for the anger in her voice as it hid the pain she could feel building "Were you planning to tell me before we arrived at the church?"
"Of course. It won't be for at least a year. Plenty of time for you and Luke to continue to reconnect and grow more fond of each other and still propose the idea to you." Even as he tried to reason it though, she could hear he was floundering. It caught Annabeth by surprise. It was the first time she'd ever seen him know so clearly that he was in the wrong.
"I will never be 'fond' of Luke Castellan," Annabeth replied, almost disgusted with the idea "I am polite when I am with him, but I don't even like him, let alone want to spend time with him for more than an afternoon tea twice a month."
Her father's face paled a bit as he listened to her speak, and it was clear she had caught him off guard with the comment "I'm sorry Annabeth. I knew you were friends when you were younger- the two of you and that girl- Thalia? You three were always running around together- and than Andrea said you two were fond of each other so I just figured-"
"Well maybe you should try talking to me about who I'm fond of instead of a woman who's never shown the slightest bit of interest in my life outside of ways I can help her." Annabeth's hands clenched on her lap, and to her surprise her father didn't rise at the comment about her step-mother "So whatever you've done, undo it."
Shaking his head, Frederick looked down "I can't. I already met with Luke and the agreement had already been drawn up when I got there. It seemed like everything was in order-"
"You signed away my life without even talking to me about it first?" Annabeth looked at him with complete disbelief. Her step-mother manipulating her life to suit her purposes without talking to her about it, that she expected, but her father? They weren't close, but she thought he respected her enough to at least tell her it was happening.
"Call it off- burn the paper you signed. Something, because there is no way in hell that I'm going to marry him," Annabeth said, hoping the anger was still managing to mask the desperation and hurt from her voice "If you're sorry, then make it right."
"I can burn my copy of it, but Luke also has one, and the officiator." This time her father didn't try to justify what he had done. Instead he just looked up at her, face stricken, eyes shiny. If she wasn't so angry it would have made her heart drop to see the clear pain on his face. "I'm sorry, Annie."
The nickname struck her. It had been a long time since he had used it. Even when she was little her father had almost always called her by her full name. The twins sometimes used it, and Percy occasionally used it to tease her, but that was different than hearing it from her father. The affection it held even in this moment.
Annabeth pushed herself up. Turning away from him she walked out of the office, slamming the door behind her. Immediately she headed to the front door, not bothering to grab her coat as she left. That door slammed shut as well.
