“Mostly, we want to kill each other,” he says to me, filling my wine glass again. “Been that way forever.”
“Isn’t that most royal families?” I ask.
“Sure,” he admits. “At least in the middle ages it was. Modern royal families aren’t like ours, though.”
“How so?” I ask.
“Ours still plays political games. Most royals live in countries that aren’t actual monarchies anymore. They don’t have real power. But here, my family has all the control, and people are constantly jockeying for position around my father.”
I glance over to where the king and queen are seated, directly in the center of the table. People are constantly coming up to them, speaking into their ears. The king looks miserable, but the queen smiles and laughs and says hello to everyone that comes up to them.
“It must have been hard to grow up in a family like that,” I say.
“It was,” he admits. “But they mostly sheltered us as kids. I didn’t see all the bloodshed until I got older.”
“Is that why you left?” I ask him, treading carefully.
“Yes,” he says slowly. “That and my relationship with my father drove me away. I didn’t want to play the games or to become the man my father so desperately wanted me to become. I wanted to be my own person. And so I had to leave if that was going to happen.”
“And did it?” I ask him softly.
He smirks at me, tips my chin up toward him, and kisses me softly. “What do you think?” he asks.
Before I can answer, the band starts playing, and people move over onto the dance floor. Nolan turns to watch, a smile on his face. I have to admit, I like that smile. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him smile like that, so happy and carefree. He’s usually so much more guarded and secretive, but right now, I feel like he’s being himself without any hesitation. It’s the most attractive I think he’s ever been to me.
I lean back and watch the festivities with him. I don’t know what most of the people around me are saying, and there are some customs that I don’t understand. For example, some stewards are walking around with enormous goblets, and people keep dropping pennies into it.
“What is that?” I ask Nolan at some point.
“They’re collecting good wishes for us,” he answers. “Each penny is a wish, and the more you collect, the happier you’ll be. Or some shit like that.” He grins and sips his drink.
There are other things that I don’t recognize. Some of the food is traditional Polovian, and although delicious, it’s not something I normally see. There’s another tradition where the men keep tying blue ribbons around women’s arms and pulling them onto the dance floor, but when I asked Nolan about that one, he just grinned at me and didn’t respond.
The evening quickly progresses, and it’s almost overwhelming, but I have to admit that I’m having a good time. I haven’t had actual, simple fun since the night Nolan took me to the party with his other noble friends. I spot Ryan, Scotty, and Jessie in the crowd, but only Jessie stops by to say hello, and only very briefly. I wish she would stay and talk to me and act friendly like she did when we first met, but tonight she’s a little more reserved, which confuses me.
Slowly though, I start to see the shape of the room. It all circles around the king and the queen, with the queen acting as the conduit between people and her husband. People jockey to be close to him, to speak to him, and to win his favor. But beyond that, there are other little fights happening all over, and although I don’t understand most of it, I feel like I’m slowly starting to get what people mean when they talk about court politics.
By the time I finish my second glass of wine, it’s late, and some of the guests are starting to filter out. I didn’t even notice that it somehow went from early evening to after midnight. It felt like it passed in the blink of an eye, and I feel like I wish I had more time to sit here and try and figure out what the heck I’ve gotten myself into.
But before I can worry too much about it, Nolan leans over and whispers in my ear. “There’s one more tradition, princess, and I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
I look at him with a slight frown. “What is it?” I ask him.
“You’ll see.” He pulls back and grins then stands up. He raises his hands in the air and suddenly the stewards lining the walls begin to loudly ring bells. The band stops playing and everyone stops what they’re doing, including the king and the queen, although the king looks like he’d rather be anywhere but here.