Chapter 7: How not to set a crown prince on fire.
Sigrid inhaled sharply and looked around, they were still on castle grounds in the territory of the king. What he had just insinuated however thinly veiled it was, could easily result in both of them losing their heads.
"Grandfather, maybe we should not be having this conversation in this place because we risk drawing the ire of certain someone's."
Duke Thorin laughed. "You worry too much Sigrid, don't we have the death free medal?"
He reached his right hand out and touched her head, patting it carefully as if she was a small kitten. "Relax, I would never set the crown prince on fire, that would make you a widow. That is not to say I cannot do something else if he humiliates you." He sighed. "I really don't like this match Siggy, the crown prince doesn't love you, let alone like you. I am afraid that your marriage is going to be an unhappy one."
"It's not as if I truly had a choice grandfather, I am a woman, I have only a limited say in these matters."
She looked up at the clear blue sky, a flock of birds was migrating to the West. Sigrid envied their freedom, at least they could go anywhere they wished. She could not even pick a husband as she wished, the decision was in the hands of her parents, the king, or the office of marriage.
Who knew that a day would come when she would envy a bird? On earth, she never appreciated the freedom she had, it was a constitution given right that nobody could take away. If a woman was in an unhappy marriage, she could divorce.
On Eldoria, a woman could not apply for a divorce but she could be divorced by her husband__a thing of great humiliation.
This unfair law was the reason why some wealthy men had new secondary wives every few years, they just kept swapping out old ones for younger fresh ones.