Chapter 2
I had always been under the impression that Edward was a man of keen intellect. However, even the cleverest man makes the mistake of assuming everyone else is a fool.
I stared at him, my expression stoic. "Have I been too kind to you, Edward? So much so that you have forgotten your place?"
Melanie's eyes went wide in disbelief. Before she could utter a word, Jane had already seized her and dragged her into the courtyard to face her punishment.
Edward's head remained turned from the force of my slap. After a heavy silence, he gathered his coat and slowly bowed.
"Melanie's mother was my mother's eldest sister," he began, his voice tight with suppressed emotion. "Years ago, during the Great Famine, she sold herself as a concubine to a wealthy local merchant just to keep her siblings fed.
"She died mere days after Melanie was born.
"As a motherless girl of illegitimate birth, she was a pariah. Had my mother not brought her to the capital, her wretched father would have sold her off to some crippled widower.
"She is an orphan with no one to teach her the ways of the world. She truly meant no malice toward you today, Lady Charlotte."
"She may be ignorant of the law, but are you?" I looked at him, my gaze unwavering. "Your failure to govern your own household is a sin of negligence, Edward."
In recent years, many a social climber had whispered that the Young family was a spent force, that with my kinsmen fallen on the battlefield, I was merely a lonely orphan incapable of upholding our legacy.
They whispered that the king and queen's favor was nothing more than a hollow performance for the public eye.
They thought I could be led by the nose. They seemed to have forgotten that I was the Lady Charlotte of Calderon, personally invested by the Crown with an estate and revenues that rival a Princess of the Blood.
"I shall see to it that Melanie is tutored in proper decorum," Edward murmured. "And I shall petition His Majesty for forgiveness, citing that vermin in the storehouse ruined the bridal gown."
"She will learn her lessons in due time," I replied, my tone measured and calm. "But a debt must be paid. She has had her taste of the rod, and now it is your turn. Twenty lashes of the whip. Do you have any objections?"
Edward stared at me, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. After all, until this day, we had maintained a veneer of mutual respect. Never once had we raised our voices. But now, I was deadly serious.
He bowed his head. "I shall take my punishment, my lady."
During my years at court, I had watched the king and queen share a deep bond.
His Majesty kept his bedchamber largely exclusive to the Queen, though every now and then he strayed with a housemaid.
Her Majesty did not become the vengeful wife of legend. She simply ensured the girls knew their place. She once told the princess and me, "If a man's heart is prone to wandering, no amount of scheming will tether him."
It was for this reason I hadn't judged Melanie too harshly even though I could see right through her petty little thoughts.
I believed that as long as Edward remained a man of honor, her little infatuations would amount to nothing.
Clearly, I had given him too much credit.
*****
At a gala hosted by the princess, I spotted Melanie holding court among a flock of debutantes, flaunting a gold locket engraved with a sprig of rosemary.
"Edward told me that regardless of what the world says, I shall always be his sweet, innocent girl," she cooed. "He chose the rosemary so I might remember to stay pure and untouched by the world's cynicism."
Her spring-green gown made her look charming and vibrant. When she saw me, she skipped over and dangled the locket before my eyes. "Lady Charlotte, is it not exquisite? Edward gave it to me himself."
It wasn't some fancy treasure, but it was hauntingly familiar. It was the very token I had personally engraved and gifted to Edward when our betrothal was first announced.
I reached for the ivory-handled hunting dagger at my waist. It was his gift to me all those years ago. I had once believed he was the one man who truly understood me.
More fool me.
The guests at the princess' villa were a sharp-witted lot. I could feel their judgmental eyes darting between Melanie and me.
I let out a laugh and reached out, snatching the locket from her neck. I squeezed it in my palm with a strength born of fury, then opened my hand.
The delicate mechanism was crushed, the gold mangled beyond repair. I let the ruined scraps fall into the dirt.
"Rosemary is for remembrance, or so the poets say," I said, my voice cold and steady. "A pity he has such a short memory."
I looked at Melanie, whose eyes were already welling with tears of grievance. "Go back to Edward," I said calmly. "Tell him the token is destroyed. Tell him our engagement is dead in the water."