Second Meeting

Edward quickly dismissed his mental theory. The government system would have picked out a female, not him. The prince must be visiting them first for some reason before going to his actual fiancé's house.

That must be it.

“Come and sit down,” his mother told him and led him to the sofa. “This lady is Camilla Roberts and I’m sure you know who the other visitor is.”

The blonde woman nodded at him. Her eyes were an icy blue and he got a feeling that she wasn’t going to turn out to be a friendly person.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Edward said politely.

“I am pleased to meet you as well. Mr Grey, this is the heir to the throne, Prince Sebastian Hallowswift. I am his royal advisor, hence my presence here.”

Edward took a deep breath and bowed his head to the prince. Some part of his brain was registering that the boy that most girls at his school had a crush on was sitting in the armchair he had spilled tea on last week. Most of his brain however, was running on adrenaline and automation.

“I am honoured to meet you,” he said formally.

Surely that would do? Prince Sebastian flashed him a brief smile in return.

“I’m charmed to meet you,” he said.

His voice sounded exactly like it did during his media appearances. Edward wasted a moment being star struck. Then he remembered that he had no idea why the heir to the throne was in his house.

“May I enquire as to the exact purpose of your visit?” he asked in his politest voice.

Camilla coughed lightly.

“You are so delightfully curious. Well, we are here for a reason. I will not delay in telling you.”

Edward risked a glance at the prince. Prince Sebastian’s face was stony now that introductions were over. His eyes held none of the warmth they showed in his public appearances. Camilla simply looked like she was looking down her nose at him.

He waited for her to explain why she and the prince were drinking tea in the sunroom.

“As you will know if you pay any attention to the news and current affairs, today is the day that Prince Sebastian Hallowswift turned 18 and the day that his future partner is picked for him by the government system,” she began. “Prince Sebastian put in his ideal characteristics, but he didn’t specify if his marriage partner was to be male or female. The candidate picked by the system today was you.”

Edward didn’t know what to say. The possibility had been floating somewhere in the back of his mind since he had seen Prince Sebastian, but it had been too unlikely to be true. He couldn’t marry the prince, he was male.

“You will have to marry Prince Sebastian,” his mother informed him with visible nervousness. “It’s already been formally decreed. The government system is taken seriously.”

Edward felt like his world really had been turned upside down. This morning he had gone to school with the easy assurance that it was his last day in compulsory education and he wasn’t going to do much besides eat sweets, socialise and play games.

Now he had come home to find out he had to marry the heir to the throne.

Gay marriage was legal in his country, but he would have never expected to be in one let alone a gay marriage with the crown prince.

“Do I actually have to publicly marry him?” he asked to make sure he had understood everything correctly.

Camilla nodded gravely.

“We are planning to give you lots of training and you will have a public wedding. We were hoping to announce the engagement in the next six months, if not sooner.”

Edward sat back on the sofa. It felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. Everyone in the country would know his name in the next six months. It was a terrifying prospect. He was someone with a lot of confidence, but he wasn’t full of himself. Being under public and press scrutiny was never something he had wanted.

“Have some tea,” Prince Sebastian said and gestured to the tea tray that was on the table between them.

Edward reached forward for the teapot. He needed at least five spoons of sugar in his tea to regain his strength. He didn’t quite know where his strength had gone, he never felt this drained no matter how exhausting his matches were.

He made himself a cup of tea with automatic motions and felt the eyes of everyone in the room. He took a sip and felt much better immediately. His mind had come out of its panicked state.

“Is there any chance that the selection made by the government system could be redacted and a selection made again?” he enquired. “I think everyone was expecting Prince Sebastian’s marriage partner to be female.”

Camilla’s jaw was tight when she replied.

“That was the first response. As you know, tradition is very important to the royal family. Tradition states that the selection is final. Based on the information submitted to the government by your school and the information they have, you are the final and only marriage partner for Prince Sebastian. Fortunately same sex marriages are already legal here in Albion so there’s no need to change any legislation.”

Edward was disappointed by the answer, yet he wasn’t surprised. Tradition did tend to be absolute in Albion. The fact that they still had a royal family was testament to that.

He glanced again at the prince. It was hard to gauge his feelings on the subject of his marriage. It was hard to read his face.

Was the prince even interested in men?

He wasn’t sure about his own sexuality yet. He had been planning to find out at university. Exploring his sexuality had been impossible at school, everyone was too close knit and some students were related to him. University felt like the right time to see if he liked males or females or even both.

He really wanted to know what the prince was thinking about everything, but he didn’t have the confidence to ask. The atmosphere in the sunroom was tense. Camilla radiated an icy aura, the prince seemed blank, his mother was visibly nervous and edge and he was feeling lost.

“Am I still able to go to university as planned?” he asked. His mind had moved to focusing on a more trivial matter.

“Of course, it looks good for public relations,” Camilla replied. “I think we might get your degree changed though. Photography is quite a plain subject. We’ll decide for you later.”

Edward opened his mouth to protest that he didn’t want his degree to be changed and then closed it. There was no point trying to talk back to her. It was clear he didn’t have a choice in the matter. He looked over at the prince who had his eyebrows raised. If even the prince was showing a reaction, it was an unfair decision.

“It will be a good chance to expand your knowledge,” his mother commented and tapped his shoulder. “You weren’t sure about studying photography in any case.”

Edward knew he was going to be having a long talk with her later. His mother didn’t normally act like this, she was definitely trying not to lose face in front of Camilla and the prince.

“The university issue can come later,” Camilla said dismissively. “I need to tell you about the current plans we have for you. You will be spending a lot of time with the prince to get to know him better. It won’t do if you two look like you’re strangers who don’t know each other in public. I’m not saying you need to be friends or like each other, you just need to get used to each other. Meetings will be planned and we will let you know when your presence is required.”

Edward took another glance at Prince Sebastian.

Instead of looking bored, he now looked positively foreboding.

Edward internally sighed. Did he really have to marry him?

It was going to be a miserable marriage.

***

Edward didn’t speak much until the prince and his advisor had finally departed his house. The last twenty minutes of the encounter had consisted of Camilla telling him about his training and the prince hadn’t spoken at all.

His mother turned to him once they had seen them off. It had been strange to watch bodyguards suddenly appear as Prince Sebastian had walked outside.

“I’m guessing you have lots of questions,” she said.

Edward nodded fervently. Despite the information dump from Camilla, he was still confused by what had happened and what lay ahead in his future.

“Please, I feel like she told me a lot and nothing at all at the same time.”

Lady Grey led him to the sitting room and sat him down on the plush sofa. The sitting room was their family room rather than the sterile looking sunroom that was intended to impress guests. She opened the drawer in the coffee table and pulled out a bag of sweets.

“Have some sweets,” Lady Grey said and handed him the bag. “For once, I won’t make any comments about ruining your appetite for dinner.”

Edward steadily ate his way through the bag of sweets without much thought.

“Where’s Dad?” he asked suddenly.

He could have done with his father being around when the situation was being explained to him. His father had a much more defiant and stronger personality than his mother and he felt that his father would have supported him.

“He will be back for dinner. He does know about everything so don’t worry about having to explain. He did want to be here when you arrived, however he was called away.”

Edward folded up the empty bag and decided that now was the time to learn more. He had sugar in his body and there was no one connected to the royal family in the room so he was ready for anything.

“Is there a chance that I get a choice about anything connected to the arranged marriage?” he asked.

“You don’t,” his mother said with a tinge of sadness. “It’s tradition and you can’t go against the royal family. Everything was decided the moment you were chosen by the system as Prince Sebastian’s perfect match.”

Edward looked at his mother. Her mouth was set into a thin line and she didn’t look happy.

“I won’t hold your behaviour earlier against you,” he said. “I know you were very nervous.”

Lady Grey winced and flushed red.

“I’m really sorry. I didn’t do a very good job as your mother. I was very confused when people working for the royal family descended on the house earlier and told me that you were now the prince’s fiancé. I’m still in some state of shock. I never thought it was ever a possibility.”

Edward felt exactly the same way. He was a man, he had always thought the royal family would have same sex marriages.

“I don’t want you to marry someone you didn’t choose,” his mother said with sudden fierceness. “I tried to refuse everything before you got here and Camilla completely steamrollered over me.”

Edward could understand what she meant. Camilla had the air of someone who didn’t like being opposed. The thought of all of this being planned while he was having fun at school was alarming.

“I don’t blame you for any of this,” he said softly. “I understand that it’s all been decided for me. Who cares about my views and needs when I’ve been chosen to marry the heir to the throne?”

“I did have some stipulations that I made sure were listened to,” Lady Grey said. “You will keep your privacy to some degree and the public won’t get to know all your personal information. You are very young to marry and I really worry about the effect it will have on you.”

Edward hadn’t even thought about that part properly yet. He would be married at 18 and he hadn’t experienced much of life yet. He had liked to think that he would have at least completed a university degree and travelled around Europe before he settled down to marry.

“Do you think the prince likes me?” he asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” his mother reminded him. “You have to marry him and pretend to like him in public.”

Edward could only see a dim future ahead of himself.