14. Edward

Proposing turned out to be the easy part. Who would have thought that it’s nearly impossible to marry someone if you don’t know their name?

Red flags popped up everywhere, most of all from my father—the same who had pressured me to continue our family tree.

“I need to meet her first,” he asserted.

“That’s the plan, but I want you to know right away that no matter what you say, I will marry her.”

“You don’t even know her fucking name,” he yelled through the phone.

I send an apologetic grimace at my princess. I should have known my father wouldn’t take the news well and should have called him without her present.

But she only smiled, as if she wasn’t surprised. Given what I had told her about him she probably wasn’t. Still, I was embarrassed for him.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” I responded coolly.

“Well, it will when I disinherit you,” he threatened.

Now my princess looked at me with stricken eyes. I waved her concerns off. “You can’t disinherit me. I’m your only heir and you hate charities even more than me marrying someone whose name I don’t know,” I pointed out.

The silence on the other end was telling, but didn’t last very long. “I’ll be there tomorrow to meet my future daughter-in-law.”

I sighed. I had known that this would be the result, but I couldn’t indefinitely stop him from coming, especially once his grandson or granddaughter was born. The problem though, was that I didn’t know how to keep my other secret from him. The one I knew for sure he would disinherit me for, even if he had to give his wealth to charities.

My princess placed her hand on my arm and squeezed lightly. We had talked about him coming to visit and invented some plots to keep him from finding out what I did at night. It wouldn’t be easy, but it needed to be done.

One of the swans nudged my back leg a bit harder than usual and I nearly toppled over. “Ouch, what was that for?”

He squawked and my princess laughed. She pulled her ring off her finger and put it on her palm. Holding it out, she marched up and down the library we were in.

Perplexed I stared at her. “He wants to be the ringbearer?”

She nodded pleased I had understood her charade. I shook my head. “No way.”

The swan pecked at me again. “Ouch, I said no.”

I moved to the side but he followed me, his beak moving backward and forward aggressively. “Some help here?” I pleaded with the girl who owned my heart, but she only laughed, pushing the ring back on her finger.

“You blackmailing, feathered bandit. No!” I hopped around a padded chair, grabbing it to keep the swan from pecking at me.

Meanwhile, the woman who was supposed to love and honor me, bent over laughing so hard, she was holding her sides.

“Alright, let me think it over,” I finally conceded, and the swan pulled his head back.

I glared at him, but he only glared back, daring me to deny him again.

The day I proposed to my princess was the day I learned that her swans were more than mere pets or animals. I had suspected as much, because of their eerie eyes, but that day they showed an intellect that no animal could possibly possess.

We came home and she rushed out to the pond where the swans usually hung out together. Without fanfare, she jumped up and down, pointing at her finger and laughing. She looked so adorable, I stopped dead in my tracks, watching her like the love-besotted fool I was.

It was hard to believe how much and deeply I loved her. Her joy was so pure and contagious I felt like skipping.

The swans came out of the water, waddling over to her and inspecting her ring like a group of friends might have done, throwing curious and warning glances at me.

The one who had been injured a year ago began to walk threateningly toward me, but she grabbed him by the neck and yanked him back under loud protests from him. The way he stared at me even while she was pulling him back, for some reason brought an angry father or brother to my mind.

Over the next few days I forgot about the incident, but now that another one had cornered me and demanded to be the ringbearer, I remembered.

“Uhm, we should talk about something else,” I said.

She looked questioningly at me.

I ran my hand through my hair. “While my father is here… is there a way to tell your… swans to keep a low profile and act more… swanly?”

Nodding, she giggled. I felt like I needed to impress my request more though. “I told you my father would disinherit me if he found out I was cursed, right?” I waited for her expression to turn more solemn and hated seeing the downturn of her amazing lips, but she needed to understand the kind of man my father was.

“Trust me, when it comes to a choice between you and him or my inheritance, it will always be you. I have enough money on my own for us to live comfortably. I don’t want to deceive him, but I do love my father and I would rather keep things that are unpleasant to him from him.”

Her features were as always easy to read. “It’s okay. He is who he is and we will deal with him, but I would rather it not come to a huge blowout before the wedding. It would be nice having it here.”

She pointed from me to the swan who was still here, staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

She pointed again, making motions with her lips.

“You want me to tell them?” I asked incredulously.

She nodded with another one of her grins.

“Fine, I will,” I resigned myself to making a fool of myself, but honestly, later when we sat by the pond and all eleven swans were gathered around us, listening to me speak… I could have sworn they understood me.