"Daniel, you should really let me talk to my parents about this, I'm sure there's something they could do to help," Isabelle suggested as she cleaned the mulpitle cuts on his back.
"Isabelle I told you, I don't want anyone to know. Besides, if I'm there to be an outlet for his rage he won't take it out on my mother or my sisters. Once I'm a knight I can take care of things." He winced as pain shot through his back.
"Sorry."
"Ahem." Neither Daniel nor Isabelle had noticed the servant now in the stable with them.
"Yes Emma?" Isabelle asked while Daniel recovered his injuries with hir shirt.
"Your Highness, the King and Queen wish to see you in the royal conference room." Emma bowed when she had finished.
"Thank you." Emma left the two alone once again.
"You should go," Daniel said.
"What about you, we haven't bandaged all your injuries."
"I'll be fine. You don't want to upset your parents," Daniel told her as he packed up his things. Hesitantly Isabelle left Daniel to meet her parents.
As Isabelle entered the royal conference room the conversation immediately hushed and everyone rose to their feet, her father, the King, at the head of the table with his advisors filling most of the other places at the table, and her mother, the Queen, in a chair against the wall.
"Father, Emma said you wished to see me"
"Yes, yes my dear. Come have a seat by me." The advisors moved around so that she could sit beside her father. Before sitting down, Isabelle glanced at her mother, who smiled, but Isabelle could see that she wasn't really happy. Whatever her father wanted to talk to her about must be important and something she wouldn't like, otherwise he wouldn't have his advisors there to try and convince her it was for the best.
"We have a very important issue to discuss." Everyone in the room remained still. "Isabelle, you are sixteen years old, and we have been putting it off for awhile now, but its time for you to be married. We have just finished negotiations with the King of Callorn. His eldest son is nineteen years of age and looking for a bride. Contracts have been signed, and you and Prince Hector are now betrothed."
"WHAT?!" Isabelle screamed and stood up so fast her chair fell with a loud thud silencing the room.
"Isabelle, mind your manners," the King told her.
"Sorry father, but why?"
"Well, the thing is your Highness," one of the advisors chimed in, but quickly quieted at the glare he got from Isabelle.
"The thing is that you are of age and must be wed," another braver advisor continued. "Your father won't be around forever and before his time is up you need to be wed and working on an heir. The kingdom needs a king. No offense your Majesties."
"Not to mention," another added, "that Radigan is still after the kingdom and we can't have any weaknesses any vulnerabilites."
"I-I need some time to think. I just need to be alone right now," Isabelle replied as she walked out of the room and into her bedchamber.