AnotidaMandemwa

[This book is complete]
Everyone is playing a regal game. Everyone except Lucia (who probably should).

After her father faced accusations of trying to seize the throne from his father and king, he was exiled along with his family. They were no longer royalty, but his wife would not have it. She was friends with the queen of Vershia and used that to her advantage. Her two older daughters were the right age to marry the two princes, and she would make that happen come what may.

That became a problem when the oldest daughter was ignored by the crown prince, who formed a friendship with the youngest of the girls. There was still hope; Lucia could become the future queen. But Lucia was not groomed for this role. She did not want to live for the type of marriage she could snag. She did not want to take the man who had been planned for her sister.

But that’s the thing with plans, isn’t it? She never planned to fall in love with the man, and there she was: an unwilling participant in the regal games. Would she capture the crown? How would everything affect her relationship with her sister? Was there ever pleasing her mother?

[WSA 2024 Entry]

Regal Games

Lucia and Michael did not go to the palace but went straight to his private estate. When they got out of the car, Lucia could not help but remember the first time she had come here. She had been so nervous. So unsure of her future. So uncertain of her heart, in pain and expecting to be hurt even more.

How differently things have strayed from what I had expected, she mused with a little smile.

"What are you thinking about?" Michael asked as he flicked her nose playfully. She had been so distracted that she had not seen or heard him get out of the car.

She wrinkled her nose and looked at him.

He could never get over the way she looked at him—the love shining true in her eyes. All for him. Undoubtedly all his.

"Nothing serious," she told him with a little smile.

"As Kindly As I Could"