Chapter 29: Company Of Another
Princess Ivy, who had joined her parents in the large hall, smiled warmly at them before speaking with the important guests that they were conversing with. Once the guests had left to interact with others, her Mother was the first to pull her to her side, and she questioned her daughter with eager looks, taking hold of her hand.
"My dear, did you enjoy your time with Lord Ivan?" She whispered, looking behind her daughter as if she would catch sight of the nobleman before retracting her gaze back to her daughter. "You both took longer than you normally do, did you speak of anything important?"
Her Mother demanded with inquiring eyes, waiting to hear the gist from her daughter, but Ivy secretly rolled her eyes as she pulled her hands away from her Mother’s hold, knowing the response she was about to give would upset her Mother tonight.
"He asked for my hand in marriage." She finally revealed to her parents, who’s faces lit with surprise, that was until she said. "But I don’t think I will accept his proposal. Lord Ivan doesn’t want a wife for marital purposes Mother, this is based on plain politics, and I do not want that kind of marriage for myself."
Ivy shook her head in denial, and her Mother’s smile dropped after hearing her daughter speak her thoughts. "I hope you didn’t say this to him." She warned in a whispering tone, trying to keep her voice down, "why do you speak like you have no idea how this type of thing works? There’s always marriage before love, and if Lord Ivan never admired you once, he would never have asked you."
"You do no not know Lord Ivan more than I do, his mind is more twisted than you think." Ivy refused to be persuaded by her Mother’s words. "I like Lord Ivan, but I am afraid his conditions aren’t something I can readily agree to, and I do not wish to get on his bad side."
"Maybe you should give it some further thoughts before giving your answer, I do not think there’s any need to be so hasty with the decision." Her Father thoughtfully suggested, "whatever your choice may be in the end, your Mother and I will support you."
"Thank you, Father." Ivy appreciated her Father with a slight bow. If she wanted to be honest, she never liked Lord Ivan during their first meeting, even when she had never met him in person, the rumors about him had made her come to dislike him.
She had lied about her name being princess Mallory to save herself when she broke one of their treasured antiques during the soiree event that was held here three years ago, but Lord Ivan was no fool, he caught up to her lie when he found out she was using her sister’s name instead.
He told her something true but heartless, it aggravated her, and she retorted coldly. Since then, they’ve been appearing in the same event, and the more they conversed, the more she figured he wasn’t actually a monster like people said, but a difficult person to understand. Lord Ivan was a man who possessed a very unique charm, he was different, he could be straightforward, but subtle with his words without caring if it was misunderstood.
He only stayed with her because he assumed she doesn’t harbor those types of feelings for him, but in truth, she secretly does, and that is why she’s more than afraid of accepting his proposal.