Chapter 4 A Letter to Break the Engagement

Three days later, Roselin wrote a letter a full page long, asking to cancel the engagement with Prince Caspian for reasons that were polite and clear. She had Marian take it to the royal palace, but no reply came for days, until she decided to go herself in a dark blue traveling dress.

In the rose garden behind the palace, she found Prince Caspian reading alone. His golden hair fell across the page until it seemed to glow. He looked up at her, his blue eyes as cold as ice that would never melt. “Lady Valent. Why have you come to see me?”

Roselin sat down across from him without waiting to be invited. She laid the letter on the stone table and said plainly, “I’ve come to ask you to cancel the engagement, because both you and I know this marriage isn’t born of love.” Caspian opened the letter and read it slowly, as if he hadn’t heard that sentence at all.

“This engagement is an alliance between House Valent and the royal family,” he answered without looking at her. “Before my birthday ball, no one can withdraw it. Not you, not me, not the Duke.” Roselin pressed her lips together. It was the answer she had expected, but the chill in his voice made her feel she was being watched at every moment.

Before leaving, she turned back to ask him one question. “Do you think I’m the same person as before?” The prince was silent for a long time, as if weighing something, before answering softly, “I’m not sure yet. But what you just said is not something the previous Lady Valent would have dared to say.”

Roselin walked out of the garden with her heart pounding harder than before. She now knew that survival wouldn’t be as easy as writing a plan in a notebook, and that the person she had to watch most closely might not be an open enemy.