The man standing guard outside Jonathan's study really had tried to keep those not invited out of the meeting taking place inside, but between Liam, Alan, and Lianne, he was greatly outranked, and eventually overruled.
The conversation, which seemed to be on the verge of breaking into shouting (again, Lianne suspected) died as soon as the trio entered the room, and Lianne, the first through the door, found more pairs of eyes on her than she had expected.
Jonathan was present, of course. He was seated as his desk; Thayet had pulled a chair up beside him. Scattered about the room was almost every other renowned figure in court. Alanna was seated in a chair near the door; George was leaning on the wall behind her, and Myles of Olau, Jonathan's spymaster, had settled on a small couch nearby. Buri occupied the other seat on the couch, looking particularly thunderous; Raoul had pulled the rooms only other chair up beside her. Both Gareth and Numair were standing. Gareth had stopped mid pace near the bookshelf while Numair hovered near the large picture window set into the far wall, arms folded across his chest. The surprise on the faces of those now staring directly at Lianne faded, replaced by various degrees of annoyance or barely hidden amusement.
Jonathan was the first to speak. "Interesting. I don't remember asking any of you to come."
That was when it dawned on Lianne that they probably should have given their approach a bit more thought than they did. The thirty minutes it took them to get from the Tree to Jonathan's office was possibly, in retrospect, not enough time.
"Er – well," she began, aware that there really wasn't any going back, now that she was already in the study. "I wanted to – talk to you. About Prince Hiresh."
"Prince Hiresh who we haven't spoken to you about yet?" Thayet asked, eyebrows raised. "Who you should know nothing about?"
Liam, standing to her right, suddenly became very interested in a spot on the wall.
"Yup," Lianne said, after a deep breath and a quick internal debate over whether there was any safe answer to that question.
"Oh," Jonathan leaned forward to rest his arms on the desk before him, fingers interlaced and expression nonchalant enough that Lianne knew she was going to be in very big trouble later. "Well, then?"
She glanced to each side, looking for help and finding none. Liam was still staring innocently into space and Alan appeared to be having a silent conversation with his mother, who did not look pleased.
"I just wanted to say that, uhm, that I – can't marry him."
Her father's mouth thinned slightly, and if he was trying at all to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, Lianne couldn't tell. "Well, that changes everything."
She huffed in exasperation, which apparently amused both Myles and Buri terribly. "And I have we really good reason why I can't, too."
This caught the general attention of the room; Numair stopped looking out the window uncomfortably, Alanna stopped glaring at her son, and Liam stopped pretending he was somewhere else entirely.
"Which is?" asked Thayet.
"I can't marry him," Lianne explained, smiling brightly, "because Alan and I have already been engaged for four months and there'd be all sorts of problems if you forced us to break it off!"
For a moment there was silence in the room, during which those gathered mostly looked at one another and tried to make sense of this new information.
And then, there was chaos.
"What?" Alanna demanded, turning in her chair to look at her husband for confirmation.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Thayet stared at her daughter, speaking over Alanna entirely. "You are not."
"Did you know about this?" Buri murmured to Raoul as Myles shifted and covered a smile with his hand.
"What's all this, then?" George asked, eyeing Alan dangerously.
"It would be their children," Gareth was telling Numair.
"Stop." Jonathan rapped sharply on his desk, ending the confused, overlapping chatter quickly. He looked at Lianne and Alan sharply. "Explain yourselves."
"We're not really!" Alan was quick to assure the room, holding his hands up defensively. "It's just what we're going to say."
Lianne turned to Liam, muttering, "I didn't put that very well, did I?" and receiving a shake of his head in reply.
Jonathan pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling heavily, before exchanging a look with Thayet, whose mouth was pursed tightly.
"If you'll all excuse us for a moment," he said, rising. He crossed the room to the door, Thayet right behind him, and took Lianne by the shoulder. Lianne didn't argue, and allowed herself to be led from the room.
As Thayet shut the door behind them, Lianne could hear Raoul asking, "Could anyone please explain to me what just happened?"
-
Her parents were very quiet as they made their way down the hall to Thayet's study, which was a bit smaller and not at all suited for large meetings. Jonathan deposited Lianne in a chair when they entered; he did not sit himself, and instead stood looking down at her with his arms folded and his eyebrows raised. Thayet locked the door and joined them a moment later.
"I think," her father told her, seriously, "you had better start from the beginning."
"Alan and Liam came up with the idea," Lianne said, "that you could tell Prince Hiresh that Alan and I already been betrothed for months, and you had given your word that I could marry him. That way you wouldn't have to come up with a political reason to say no, and you wouldn't be personally insulting him, either."
"And by the way," she couldn't resist adding in the quiet that followed her explanation, "thank you so much for telling me about all this in the first place. I really appreciate it."
Jonathan sighed and turned away to take a seat. "We had reasons to not tell you, Lianne."
Thayet sat also, adding, "But we probably should have told you, anyway."
"If you forget we didn't tell you," Jonathan offered, looking at her, "We'll forget that you found out on your own anyway, and we won't ask how. Agreed?"
Lianne nodded, fully aware this arrangement was really much better for her than it was for them.
"Now, about your plan." Jonathan stroked his beard absently, considering the idea. Finally, he admitted, "It's not a bad one. But I don't think it would work."
"Why not? It's a good plan, you must see that!"
"Generally it is, but you have to realize, if you and Alan had been engaged, Rubinyam would have known about it and probably wouldn't have bothered sending the prince in the first place. What reason could we have had to not formally announce it?"
Lianne hadn't thought of this, as though she tried to search her brain for an answer, she could find none. "Oh," she sighed.
"Kalasin." Thayet said, expression thoughtful. She spoke slowly, as if only voicing the words as they formed in her mind. "We could say that we didn't want to…distract from her wedding. …And that we were planning on keeping the engagement a secret until after she was married. So neither of the girls would overshadow the other."
Jonathan sat back, mulling this over. After a long pause, he nodded slowly. "That could work. We'd have to plan it out properly before with met with Rukhev and Imam; the right people would need the same story, in case they double checked. But it could definitely work."
Lianne beamed.
-
January 26, 463 H.E. – 23rd year of the reign of King Jonathan IV and Queen Thayet
Corus, Tortall
-
Breakfast that morning has been a very tense affair.
As Jonathan and Thayet had ultimately agreed to go along with Liam and Alan's plan, both boys had just managed to escape serious trouble with their respective sets of parents. Still, Jonathan had been cross with Liam most of the previous evening, and Alan was wisely staying well away from Alanna.
The boys had offered to take Lianne into the city again, hoping to keep her mind off the meeting which commenced in Jonathan's study immediately after breakfast. Lianne had refused, preferring to stay indoors. Liam and Alan had gone off alone, promising to stop in and see her when they got back.
Truth be told, the last few days had left her mentally exhausted; she felt as if she could sleep for a week and still be tired. If Jasson hadn't found her on her way back to her room, she probably wouldn't have left ventured further than the chair in front of her fire for the rest of the day. Because he did, Lianne spent most of the morning wandering the palace with him, glad for the company.
He had, of course, been informed of the plan, and was very vocal about his mixed emotions regarding it. On the one hand, Hiresh was set to be good and gone, and that, Jasson had assured Lianne, was just fine by him. On the other, he was absolutely appalled that his sister would even joke about being married to Alan.
'You're only encouraging him, you know!' he had exclaimed between phrases not generally suitable for polite company. 'He's never going to act like a normal person around you now.'
Lianne knew it, and when she eventually confessed to Jasson that comparatively, she didn't mind, he had accused her of turning everyone around him mad and stalked off, disgusted. Left to her own devices, Lianne returned to her room and remained there for the rest of the morning.
It was a little after midday when someone knocked on her door. Expecting Liam, Lianne opened the door quickly. Standing in the hall was Hiresh.
"Prince Hiresh," she greeted him, when the shock had worn off. "I thought you were in a meeting."
He looked at her seriously, hands clasped behind his back. "Please, you may call me just Hiresh."
Lianne swallowed, uncomfortable. "That would not be very proper."
"May I come in? I'd like to discuss something with you."
"That would not be very proper either." Lianne stepped fully outside her room, shutting the door behind her. "I don't mind speaking here."
He frowned at her briefly, possibly for the first time since they had met, that she could recall. "I…presume that you have known why I came here since I arrived."
Lianne hesitated, but nodded.
"I have just been informed that you are, in fact, already engaged. You knew why I was here – why didn't you say anything?"
"It – it was a secret." Lianne answered, wishing desperately to end the conversation and go back inside.
His eyes darkened and he shook his head slightly. "I have met this boy. He is beneath you."
"He's not!" Lianne said, defensive. "His mother comes from one of Tortall's oldest families."
"And his father?"
Lianne didn't reply.
Again he frowned, the movement more pronounced this time. Lianne could not help but notice that other than sometimes moving his head, Hiresh was standing completely still. It unnerved her.
"I want you to marry me."
His announcement briefly stunned her into silence; she hadn't expected to him to be so frank.
"Why?" she managed to ask, once her voice had returned to her.
The look he gave her was not unkind; it reminded her of how adults often looked at children who asked foolish questions.
"You're beautiful," he said. "And you would bring a strong alliance to the Copper Isles."
"Is that all?" Lianne asked.
"I'm not in love with you, if that's what you mean. You've obviously been spoiled by your parents; it's completely disgraceful that you're allowed to wear men's clothing and study weapons, such behavior would never hold in the Copper Isles, but I have heard of Tortall's unfortunate leniency for such things, so I suppose I shouldn't be entirely surprised. I know you have manners somewhere in there, despite your being purposely rude to me." Hiresh smiled indulgently at her, completely ignoring the outrage that Lianne knew must have shown on her face. "I'm not worried. These are habits, not flaws. They can be broken."
She took a deep breath, literally biting her tongue for a moment to control her anger before she spoke. "In the future, you may find, when proposing marriage, that that is not the ideal way to win a woman's affections."
"Your answer is no, then?"
Lianne set her jaw, chin raised just a touch. "It is."
He sighed, looking at her with something close to remorse in his eyes. "I wish you would reconsider. I would not be a bad husband. You would learn to like me well enough, after a time. You would want for nothing."
"I've given you my answer."
Hiresh inclined his head to her slightly, almost as if he could not bring himself to nod. "I'm sorry you feel that way."
"Good day, Prince Hiresh." Lianne turned to go back inside her room.
Much later, when she regained consciousness, she would think herself stupid for having done so.
As it were, however, the dagger hilt which connected suddenly with her temple dropped her instantly to the ground, and she did not think anything for a very long time.
-
A/N: And there you have it, I told you it was on the way. This chapter marks the end of what I've been mentally referring to as 'the setup' – more to come very soon, I promise!
M'Cha: Maera is pronounced 'MAY-ruh'. The e is meant to harden the vowel it immediately follows, which is why it's in the middle, rather than at the end, which would cause the name to be pronounced 'mah-RAY'. And, I'm glad you like it! I used the name once a long time ago in an original story for English class, and I've always loved being able to stick it to some of my other stories, when I can. As for Hiresh, don't worry; we'll get the whole story eventually =D
To my faithful reviewers – thank you, thank you, thank you! You encourage me more than you know.