(Chapter 3) In the morning Jacob surprised me by calling again. "Hey," he said, "How do you feel?" He sounded concerned and that scared me, because I had no idea why. I cautiously asked," Feel about what?" "About our marriage! Our parents have decided we must be married within the next six month's. I was speechless, and after a minute or two of silence he said, "What are you thinking?" "That this is way too early, I am way to young, and that this is crazy and not true," I said. He assured me it was completely correct. I said bye, and hung up the phone. There was absolutely no way I was going to be married so soon. Married before eighteen! That was ridiculous. My own parents would not actually expect that of me. There was only one way to find out. I ran down the stairs, which was quite a lot of running, considering there are three flights to the bottom. I found both my parents in the sitting room, watching some news show on the TV. "Hi Kat!" my mom said, using my nickname. I did not bother to say hello back, I just said, "Tell me it is not true. Please." My father answered with an innocent, "What is not true dear." I was angry. They should know what I was talking about. This was life or death to me (not really.) "Have you two and King Andrew and Queen Corrina made up your minds that Prince Jacob and I are to be married in the next six months?" My mom smiled and said yes, but asked who had told me the "wonderful" news. I yelled, "That is not important! Do not want me here so much that you want me gone before I am eighteen. My mom answered in a totally innocent voice, "Of course not dear. We just want you to be happily married soon." "It won't BE a HAPPY marriage!" I exclaimed, "We hardly know each other, how can we be happily married?" My mom and my dad went into a rant about how they had barely known each other when they were married, and it had worked out wonderfully. They just could not accept the fact that my case was different form theirs. I finally gave up trying to talk them out of it, and went back up to my room, this time taking the elevator, for obvious reasons. When I got there, I started thinking. What was a way to get out of this? I could run away, but that was risky. One of the many downsides to being royal in a small country, everyone knows your face. I could also make him hate me. If he could not stand me, maybe his parents would let him out of the marriage, and then I would be free also. That was the best idea I could come up with so I decided to use it. That night I was again invited to have dinner in Swells. When I got there, Jacob was again waiting on the stairs. He came down to meet me, and again escorted me up to the castle. When we entered, Queen Corrina once more gave me a hug, yet not near as extreme as the last time. "How are you dear?" I answer that I was fine, and this time there was no mumbling under my breath. As we were eating dinner, Queen Corrina brought up the impending wedding. "I can not wait until you are my daughter-in-law!" she exclaimed. I smiled the biggest smile I could, and said that I was pleased she felt so, even thought that was not completely true. When we were done, Jacob asked me to go out to the garden with him again. This was the best time to start my "plan." I just hoped it would work. As we went outside, I had a deep sense of foreboding.