Back in the palace, Joel stormed into his chamber with his family behind him.
The news of Freya's future had been shared and settled after what felt like an entire day of negotiating how Joel would appease the third prince, who lost the woman he was to be engaged to.
Joel appeared to be happy and apologetic when he stood before the king, but he was fuming inside. Not only had Freya placed him in a bad position with the king, but she embarrassed the family name.
"Father," Freya cried as she ran behind Joel. "I did not mean for it to be like this. I only wanted to be queen."
"I placed you to be the wife of the third prince. It was an honour many ladies in your position would have loved to be bestowed, but you didn't listen and placed yourself in hot water. I would have liked for you to be queen, but I knew it couldn't be so, so I set you up for what was next best," Joel said, trying to restrain his anger.
