Page 5 of Reign

The ensuing silence was deafening. Those two words seemed to reverberate through the room—words that had the power to make or break Daphne’s entire future.Your wedding.

Jefferson had gone pale. “Wedding?”

Daphne noticed that her parents were careful to say nothing; they were very still, like two people holding their breath at the blackjack table, waiting to see if their monumental gamble had paid off.

Well, she wasn’t the Poker Princess for nothing, was she?

“Of course you’re getting married,” Adelaide said briskly. “What else do you plan on doing? Living in sin?”

Jefferson reached for Daphne’s hand. “Mom, we’re a bit young to be discussing marriage.”

“If you’re old enough to have a child, you’re certainly old enough to take on the responsibility of marriage,” the queen countered.

Jefferson’s grip on Daphne’s hand tightened. “It’s notliving in sinanymore. This is the twenty-first century; people don’t expect us to rush into anything.”

“What are you ‘rushing into,’ precisely? You’ve been dating for four years.”

Some of the conviction had drained from Jefferson’s voice. “Mom, that’s not the—”

“You are aWashington.” The queen stood taller now, her voice ringing through the space with authority. “You are not some rock star whoknocked uphis girlfriend—forgive my crude phrasing,” she said absently, with a brief glance at Daphne. “You are a prince and the steward of this family’s legacy, and this situation is problematic enough already. My first grandchild will not beillegitimate.Especially when that child might—”

She broke off, but Daphne could fill in the end of the sentence.Especially when that child might rule someday.

With Beatrice on life support and the whole complicated situation with Samantha, Jefferson might actually become king.

The prospect was so dizzying that, for a moment, Daphne didn’t even register the queen’s other words, about how the situation wasproblematic enough already.This was, presumably, her tactful way of saying that her future daughter-in-law was currently the butt of national jokes, her family a gross embarrassment.

Slowly, Jefferson turned to her. “Are you okay with this, Daph?”

She and the prince had been dating for four years, and Daphne had spent all four of those years imagining Jefferson’s proposal. Sometimes she’d pictured it at a black-tie function, Jefferson sinking to one knee as crowds watched with bated breath, and she would accept to tumultuous applause. Other times she’d imagined that it would be just the two of them on a romantic mountaintop somewhere, her hair artfully mussed by the wind as he slid a ring onto her finger.

Never in all her imaginings had Daphne dreamed that Jefferson would ask her to marry him because his mother had forced him to.

He hadn’t even sunk to one knee or said the proper words. All he’d asked wasAre you okay with this?

Oh well.

“Of course I’ll marry you,” Daphne assured him. “I love you.”

Queen Adelaide broke into a relieved smile. “It’s settled, then. We’ll need to set a date—I think we can plan something in eight weeks’ time, perhaps even six if we hurry. Time is of the essence, of course.”

Right, because if Daphne wereactuallypregnant, she would begin to show soon.

“What about New Year’s?” she heard herself suggest.

To ordinary people, New Year’s Eve was about champagne flutes and sequined dresses and kissing someone at the countdown. But Daphne had always thought of it as a liminal state, a transition point where the old, stale, mistake-ridden past gave way to an unknown future. It was a moment of change, of excitement.

“A new year, new beginnings,” Daphne added, and the queen’s expression softened.

“That’s a lovely sentiment.”

Moments later a footman was sailing into the room, holding a tray of crystal flutes brimming with champagne. Daphne almost reached for one before remembering that she was supposed to be pregnant.

“To Daphne and Jeff,” the queen exclaimed, and everyone lifted their glasses in a toast, repeating her words.

Daphne didn’t have a glass to lift, but it didn’t matter. A heady sense of satisfaction coursed through her.

After all her years of hard work, she would be a princess at last.