Apparently, I'm the Infamous Earl's Legendary Bride

Book 1: A Girl in Another World - Chapter 6

The continuous echo of his darling daughters' wailing was beginning to hurt Lord Bedford's ears. It had been three days since he had received the missive from King Henry, and as of since, he still hadn't figured out how in goddamn hell he had come into this predicament. What wrong had he committed to rile King Henry's infamous temper to make the man go to such length to show his displeasure? Surely, it wasn't because he hadn't been paying his tax appropriately. Surely not?

"It's all your fault, Papa!" Calla, his beloved daughter, snapped, pointing a slender finger at him. "It's all your fault. You did it again, didn't you? Not paying your tax?"

Iris, his other darling daughter, the younger one, nodded her head furiously in agreement. "If you were to pay your tax properly to King Henry, then he wouldn't be doing this to us. Us! I can't believe one of us is being offered like some sort of sacrificial animal to that loathsome murderer." She shuddered at the thought of the infamous Lord Aldric Templeton, Earl of Norsewood, warrior of the north. "I don't want to be murdered by that monster like his previous wife. I really don't, Papa. You must do something."

Lady Katherine Bedford, who was sitting to Lord Bedford's left side at the dining table, said, "Indeed, my dear, you must do something. I refuse to allow our daughters to be wed to that creature. I cannot bear to even think of him touching our precious darlings with those..." She shuddered and made a disgusted face. "...bloody, sordid hands of his, let alone..." She trailed off, her eyes on her two beautiful darlings.

Hair the color of spun gold, eyes as blue as the summer sky, cheeks rosy, skin fair and soft, and lips ruby red, they were enchantresses, and to let either one of them get defiled by that barbaric monster was simply inconceivable in Lady Bedford's mind.

Chuckling in amusement, Austin, the eldest of the Bedford's four siblings, said, "What indeed can Father do in this case? It's an order from King Henry. Father goes against him, we're guaranteed to be cut off from court at the very least. At worst, it'll be off with our heads."

"No!" Calla wailed, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I don't want my head to be cut off. I don't want to."

"Then one of you will have to marry Lord Norsewood," Austin said. "It's that simple."

"But I don't want to be murdered either," Calla said, sobbing severely.

"Dear, you must do something," Lady Bedford said urgently. "Isn't he arriving sometime within the next two weeks?"

At the mention of the next two weeks, both Calla and Iris howled even louder like the pair of spoiled brats that they were.

"Mama, I don't want to be murdered," Iris said, sniveling.

"You won't be murdered, my love," Lady Bedford said.

Charles, the second child, said, "Father, I'm just curious. In the missive, did King Henry specify which daughter is to be married to Lord Norsewood?"

Lord Bedford shook his head. "No, he simply stated one of my daughters."

Charles, being the cunning one of the family, smirked, his eyes twinkling. "One of the daughters, I see."

Calla snapped, "Why are you smiling, Charles. You know we're in a dire situation, yet you find it amusing?"

Charles shook his head. "No, I don't find it amusing. Why would I be when one of my beloved sisters is to be married off to that monster? Not to mention taken to that forsaken land up north."

"I'll surely die of boredom if I'm not dying from murder if I were to be taken there to that godforsaken land," Iris said. "It's so far away from anything and everything."