Arranged Love

1. Telling Their Daughter She's Getting Married

It's May 3, 1882 and Queen Annabelle Valerious and her husband King Boris Valerious are excited to tell their daughter Princess Anna she is to be married. Annabelle yells up the staircase. "Anna Dear! Could you come down here for a second please?!?"

There was a noise of running when fourteen year old Anna came rushing down the stairs to see what her parents wanted. "Yes, Mama? What is it?"

"Well, your papa and I have some important news to tell you."

Anna looked at her father. "What is it, Papa?"

"Well, you know your mama and I have been looking for a princess to marry your brother off to."

"Yes. What about it?"

"Well, we couldn't find one. None of them were good enough for him."

"So we searched for a prince to marry YOU off to instead." Annabelle said.

"ME?!?"

"Yes, you. You are our only other heir. We need to marry one of you off and we could not find a good enough princess for Velken, so we searched for a prince for you." Boris said.

"But I'm not ready to be queen!"

"Yes you are. Though you may not know it yet, you are." Annabelle said calming her distraught daughter down.

"What's his name?"

"His name is Gabriel Van Helsing. He's the prince of Italy. He's fifteen and he's just like you. We look at what they want for the kingdom they rule in the future and their personality. He's quite the amazing prince, Anna. He's just like you and wants a better future for the kingdom." Boris explained.

"So I'm to become the queen of Italy?" She asked excitedly.

"No. HE is to become the king of Transylvania. He has a younger sister Rose who will take over Italy's rule when she's old enough."

"Oh. I was hoping to move there with him and become the queen of Italy."

"Anna, you know the pact our ancestor made with God. You have to take over here. Especially when you're the only one we're able to marry off."

"What about Velken?"

"He'll still be here to help, but if he ever marries, it will be to a commoner. He won't be the ruler of anything. He'll just marry for love." Annabelle said.

"Oh. Well, when's Gabriel coming?"

"He'll be here in the morning. His parents won't be here until Thursday because they wanted you two to spend a few days getting to know each other."

"K. I'll go pick an outfit then." Anna replied.

"Pick one of your best dresses. You need to make a good first impression."

"But I HATE dresses!" She complained. "Can't I just put on my best riding outfit?"

"No." Boris said. "Pick one of your best dresses. It's final, Young Lady."

She sighed. "Fine. But if he comes in something NORMAL, I'll kill you." She said and ran back up to her room to pick a dress.