Destined Love by Marline (i can read book club txt) 📕

of my nicest dresses. It was made from light pink silk and it had lace around the sleeves. The collar was a bit too low cut for my liking but it made me look more sophisticated, which was exactly what I needed to be. The body of the dress fit around me tightly and the skirts flowed out. The servant helped me dress. Another servant came in and did my hair. After they were finished, I could barely recognize myself but I had to admit I looked beautiful. I wondered why I had to get this dressed up, if I didn’t know any better, I would think that my parents wanted me to seduce Durwald. A couple minutes later I was sitting in the carriage, which was being pulled by two horses, on my way to the Lianna River. I was extremely nervous. My mother was in the carriage with me.
“Honey, you look beautiful and the peace talk is going to be great.” I smiled at my mother thankfully. She always knew how I felt and always had the right thing to say.

We arrived at the field next to the Lianna River by midday. The field looked like the Sahara desert, there was sand for miles and it was very dusty. I looked down at my gown and was disappointed that it would get dirty. But there was nothing I could do about it. The golden door of my carriage was opened by the driver and he held out a hand to help me down. I took it and elegantly stepped out of the carriage. I looked up and saw that the King of Tokito and his family had already arrived. They turned around and looked at me the moment I stepped out of the carriage. I recognized him immediately. The only difference about him was that he was wearing a suite and his hair was neatly combed. I could not believe this. How could I have been so stupid? Our eyes met and I could see that he recognized me as well. I was too embarrassed to look at him for long. He looked shocked and surprised, the same way I felt. My father came from out of nowhere and stood next to me. “Remember everything I taught you.” He whispered in my ear. I nodded at him reassuringly.
My father led me towards the Tokitian King and with eyes twinkling of pride he said:
“King Luperd, may I introduce you to my daughter Cleopatra?” King Luperd took my hand and kissed it. I smiled at him, said “how do you do?” like I was supposed to but my thoughts weren’t with him. I was declaring myself an idiot over and over again. Then prince Durwald took my hand. A shiver went through me as his gloved hand toughed mine. He looked up at me when he bent down and I felt my heart beat faster when his lips touched my hand. I could understand now how seductive he could be and was determined not to show him the effect he had on me. I took my hand back and looked at him in a way that showed him he should not try anything with me.
“Why don’t we all go to our palace?” My mother suggested.
“No, I think we should stay right here.” King Luperd said. “The peace talks could be held under the trees over there.” He gestured towards some forest that was miles and miles away and hardly visible. I knew I had to be polite and therefore didn’t look up at him as if he was a complete idiot but just smiled and stood there. But King Luperd’s wife, Queen Marie tugged softly on his arm.
“I would enjoy a cool glass of water.” She said quietly. King Luperd looked grim but gave in.
“Our children can get to know each other on the way to the palace.” He said, meaning that we would have to ride in the same carriage.
I stepped in the carriage and he followed me. There was no one else in the carriage and I knew this was going to be an awkward ride.
I was furious and knew every word I said would sound that way.
“So, how are you Nathan

?” I asked him sarcastically.
“You didn’t tell me who you were either.” He defended himself.
“No, but at least I didn’t lie about my name!”
“Neither did I. My middle name is Nathan, my friends call me that too.”
“Is it true that you have dated nearly all the girls in your school?” I asked him, still trying to find a way to hurt him.
“Is that what they say about me here?” He asked in return.
“What, are you going to deny it?” I couldn’t believe this. If he was that way he could at least tell the truth about it.
“Yes, I am. Actually, I’ve never been on a date.”
“Yeah right, and you expect me to believe that?” What did he think I was, stupid?
“Believe it or not, I don’t care, but it’s true.”
I wasn’t even bothered to comment on that. If he wanted to lie to me, so be it.
We didn’t say a word to each other for the rest of the trip. I was happy when we arrived at the palace because any longer of that piercing silence would have caused me to jump out of the carriage screaming. I was helped out of the carriage and then walked towards my mother who was talking to Durwald’s mother.
“We will have a ball in your honor the night you leave.” My mother was saying.
“Yes, and so that our children can get to know each other better, they can dance with each other!” Queen Marie was getting excited. Oh no, this was not happening. I was not dancing with that arrogant annoying, self centered, perfect boy. But what could I say? It would be rude to refuse a dance. I could only hope that he would have the guts to tell his father that he wasn’t dancing with me.

“Good morning Princess Cleopatra.” I was woken up by one of the servants who opened the curtains. It was a rainy, gray morning, the exact way I felt. Usually I enjoyed this weather and I loved listening to the raindrops on the roof. But today I knew it would be a gloomy day, a dark day in my history. I knew I was exaggerating but I didn’t care, I wasn’t bothered to be perfectly mannered today. Unwillingly I stepped out of bed. The servant went through my cupboard and pulled out a perfectly folded suit. It was a short skirt and a tight blouse. She also put some high heels ready. I didn’t understand why I had to dress up like a businesswoman if they had all seen me in other clothes already anyways. But I did what everyone expected of me, got dressed and went downstairs to eat breakfast. I wasn’t hungry but had to eat something under the watchful eye of my mother. I then walked into the room that was in front of the meeting room. Durwald and his parents were there. So were the prime minister and my father.
“Good, the meeting can begin.” My father said delighted. I tried to smile but it didn’t really work out. This first day we would only discuss basic things, not the actual peace talks. We would be polite, ask each other how our trade was going and how infant mortality rates were. We would give each other advice and then eat lunch together. Afterwards we would relax and then later come together again for dinner. It wasn’t until tomorrow that the actual peace talks started. I was dreading them because I would have to go into the meeting room alone with Durwald. I was sure it would end up in a fight


“Let the meeting begin.” The prime minister announced. I followed Durwald into the room and the doors were closed behind us. There was a table, two chairs, a writing block and a pen. I sat down, picked up my pen and started biting it. I was more nervous than I wanted him to see and I realized that biting my pen didn’t exactly help to convince him of my courage and independence. But I always bit my pen when I was bored or nervous and today it was definitely the latter. Finally I looked up at him. He was observing me. I felt like his brown eyes could see right through me and it was making me uncomfortable. I had to bite my tongue so that I wouldn’t say something nasty.
“What are your demands?” He asked me.
“We want the city Kipter back. Furthermore we also want you to pull back your troops from our land and 5 million dollars for the damage they have done. What are your demands?”
“We want to keep Kipter and we want you to stop exporting rubber.”
“What? That’s ridiculous! Rubber is one of our main export goods.” What was he thinking? Or what was his father thinking? Or Whoever! Stop exporting rubber? That was just too far.
“Fine, you export rubber, we keep Kipter and do not pay you 5 Million dollars.” He tried to compromise.
I thought about this for a moment and then said: “We export rubber, you take your troops out of our land and you don’t have to pay us 5 Million. Deal?” I was not going to let him off that easily.
“If we do not have troops in your land, you will declare war on us.” He announced. “Therefore, we will not take our troops out.”
“That’s why we’re having these peace talks!” I exclaimed exasperated. Was he really that dumb?
“No, we’re having these peace talks to compromise so that we will have a better chance at getting peace.” He tried to explain.
“Wait; is that

what you think these peace talks are for?” I could not believe this. Durwald and his parents had not come here to discuss peace; they had just come here to discuss a better chance at having peace. Which meant that actually they just came here for their own benefit, so that they, for example, didn’t have to pay the 5 Million. I desperately needed to discuss this with my father but knew that I couldn’t. I was trapped.
“Do you agree?” He asked me.
“Let me think.” I ordered. I looked away from him but could still feel his stare on me. It made me so nervous that I couldn’t think.
I looked at him annoyed. “Could you just.. not?” I motioned towards him.
“Not what?” He asked innocently.
“Stare like that, it’s making me nervous.” I didn’t feel like explaining. I stood up and walked around. What was I supposed to do? Whatever I said, my father would say it was wrong. Suddenly, I had a perfect idea.
“Ok. We will not declare war on each other. We both export rubber, we keep Kipter, you do not pay 5 million dollars and neither of us will expand our armies. Furthermore we can both have our armies in each other’s countries.” I gave him time to think it over.
“Agreed, on one condition.” He said.
“And that is?” I asked him.
“We split Kipter in half.”
“What? You want to split Kipter in half

?” He didn’t answer me. Actually, it wasn’t such a bad idea except for the fact that we would need to discuss where the borders were. I walked over to the intercom, which was a tube in the wall that led to the servants’ quarter and which could be used if anything was