Evangeline

Chapter 2

"Prince number one." I gestured discretely at the tall man with dark hair and dark eyes, across the room. "Julian, from the southern kingdom. He's twenty-two, and the oldest of our three contestants. He's obviously good looking and he obviously knows it. Apparently, being the youngest of four brothers has given him a complex and need to prove himself as being the best at absolutely everything. When he talks, he does little but brag about his every accomplishment to date."

"Sounds charming," Lily said with a grimace.

"Yes, doesn't he?" I nodded, meeting her eyes and then Matthew's before looking for the next one.

"Sebastian, prince number two," I said when I spotted him. Lily and Matthew followed my gaze to where the man stood not far from Julian. "Sebastian is twenty and from the west kingdom. As you can see, he isn't nearly as handsome as Julian, but based on his ego, you'd think he didn't realize it. He's twice as pompous." I looked at Sebastian critically, trying to imagine finding him even a little attractive, but I couldn't do it. He wasn't fat, but he was so large, it was almost absurd. Everything about him was just huge. He was nearly twice as big as a lot of other men in the room. His features weren't exactly ugly... but they weren't especially attractive either. Plain was really the most favorable way to describe him. Which honestly wouldn't bother me if he wasn't so arrogant and rude. Or so large. It was a little scary to think about how large his children might be.

"He is even more charming than Julian," I said sarcastically. "He pretends to have manners when he feels that he will benefit from them. He believes that people should simply be impressed by his mere presence and that everything he says is absolutely brilliant. Royal complex, I suppose." I sighed.

Matthew frowned at Sebastian and I looked for the next one.

"Last but not least, Prince Henry," I said after a moment of searching. "Henry is seventeen and the younger brother of Sebastian. Fortunately for Henry, they don't look that much alike." Henry's hair was a sandy color and Sebastian's was a very dark brown. Henry was pretty average sized and he was quite a bit better looking than his brother. If you looked closely, you could see a few similarities, but mostly, they seemed to be total physical opposites.

"It's hard to say very much about Henry other than the obvious. I've rarely ever heard him open his mouth, but he's basically always isolated and wearing that lovely expression."

Unlike Julian and Sebastian, who were surrounded by people, Henry was alone near the wall and he was scowling at the room. Clearly, he was above all of this and wanted nothing better than to leave.

If only, I thought wistfully. Among other things, the ball was to welcome their arrival. They would be staying in the castle for at least a month. It was one of my grandfather's efforts to force a match between me and one of them. He wasn't in favor of Papa's decision to give me a say in who I would marry. He didn't like the fact that I was allowed to wait so long either. Apparently he thought I'd fall madly in love with one of the princes if given enough time. Their visits in the past had always been relatively short and I'd never actually spent time with any of them before. I hadn't even really been introduced to them. I'd always just been included in gatherings with the rest of my family when they visited with their families or when my family had visited their kingdoms.

"So, we're leaning toward Henry?" Matthew asked.

"Possibly," I said. "I suppose it's not terrible to think that he might leave me alone a lot of the time... but I can't be certain of that. And he might be very cold and cruel. Besides, if his brother is any indication, he might be very unpleasant otherwise. Obnoxious as Julian is, to my knowledge, he's relatively harmless and semi-friendly."

"But he's so much older," Lily said.

I sighed. "I know, but it's not as if it really matters. Look at how much older your father is than your mother. Besides, that might just mean he's more mature."

Lily nodded.

"So unless I can miraculously find someone else I can tolerate, who is socially acceptable, it'll likely be one of them."

Matthew frowned and looked between the three of them, clearly not liking my prospects any more than I did.

Matthew was my cousin. Well, technically, he was Lily's cousin. He was my second cousin or something like that. Like Lily, he was more of a sibling to me than anything else. He was the same age as Lily and grew up along side the two of us. Sometimes, it was impossible not to wish that we were actual siblings. If I'd been born to his parents, I wouldn't ever have to worry about marriage. Not to mention a host of other things. Aunt Keira and Uncle William lived nearby and were involved in business at the castle all the time, but they weren't really part of Society at all. They lived just outside the kingdom and met only their own expectations. Matthew's older sisters were married, but only because they had wanted to marry. Not because there was some rule dictating that they marry. Or that they marry a particular type of person.

"Well," Lily said after a moment. "They all expect to win the prize. I say we make them work for it."

Matthew and I exchanged a glance and smiled at the gleam in Lily's eye.

"How exactly would we do that?" I asked.

"Nothing too drastic," she said. "Just give them the vapid, silly, air-headed princess they're already expecting. Times ten. How are your acting skills?"

"Not bad." I grinned and began to get a few ideas.

"Good, because I think you're out of time," Matthew said, looking across the room. When I followed his gaze, I saw that Sebastian was now speaking with the king. Their eyes were on us and a servant was headed this way. He'd undoubtedly been sent to bring me over for a formal introduction.

Wonderful.