Arranged Marriage To The Princess Of The Red Scorpions

Chapter 68 - Change Your Mind?

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Samuel was rather surprised that Zane had been so quick to shut him down without evening be willing to listen his reasons as to why he wanted to. Of course the Princess wasn't. She knew how her father worked and that regardless of what the younger man said, he wouldn't budge on not telling him anything until the engagement was official.

"Don't take it personal. My father is just stubborn when it comes to certain things and won't change rules that have been put in place before he was in charge." Lena told Samuel as she started heading towards the front door.

"Plus if you end up standing there for too long, the food that I asked to be heated for us will end up going cold again." Hearing this seemed to snap Samuel out of whatever thoughts were going through his mind as he turned around to follow after Lena.

This time, she didn't have to ask for him to get the door for her, he opened it himself but was still being oddly quiet. The princess didn't particularly mind the silence which is why she knew that wasn't what was bothering her about it. But the reason that it was bothering her she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Because her and Samuel were the only ones who would be eating, she asked for dinner to be taken to the sunroom for them. Lena took off her dress shirt and only let on her undershirt so that she could be more comfortable eating. Samuel didn't both changing clothes as he planned on showering after they had dinner anyways.

The dinner was a goulash with garlic bread and roasted asparagus. It seemed simply compared to most of the food that was eaten at Lena's house, it didn't lack in flavor however despite it's simplistic appearance.

"Are you thinking about changing your mind about this engagement if my father isn't willing to change his mind and talk to you about what you want to know?" Lena asked breaking the silence not long into the meal. She wanted to know what was on the other's mind that was making him be so quiet.

"No. I've already committed this far to it. I just didn't expect that he wouldn't even be willing to talk with me about so I understand why." Samuel replied as he stopped eating to look at the princess.

"It's because there are certain rules in the way things work here. Plus as I said before, as long as there is some chance that you might change your mind or your parents could speak out against this engagement before it's official, my father won't speak or get you involved in anything that would make it harder for you step away from this place." Lena replied.

"The rules that are in place around here have been put there usually because of something that happened in the past. Some of the reasons I am aware of, but it isn't my place to talk about and some of them are just there and aren't to be asked about but to just listen." She replied with a slight shrug.

"In a normal family it wouldn't be that big of a deal to go against a rule that a parent put in place or something that they say they don't approve of. Sure you might get yelled at or there would be a mild consequence, but nothing that serious. It's different here though. Even among parents and children, disrespect or breaking rules is seen as a much more serious offense because the consequences it can have a far worse."

"Which is why you won't tell me anything either." Samuel surmised.

"Knowing the right battles to argue over are important. In the whole scheme of things, this is a small fight not worth pushing to try and win. Plus for now, I already used up the one chance I had to push things when I told him that I didn't want to go through with this arranged marriage in the first place." She explained as she took a sip of the red wine that had been placed alongside the meal next to a glass of ice water.

"What made you change your mind since you were so against it from the start?" Samuel asked figuring that this was a question that the princess would be able to answer since it was something personal.

"Because you're interesting and not as bad as being around my younger brother all day." She answered honestly.

"Just for that reason?" Samuel clarified not certain if he should be offended or take it as a compliment.

"Sammy-boy, I don't like a lot of people and I don't think that I need anyone with me to take over once my father decides to retire. The idea of having partner is something that's only important to the older generation here in terms of appearance. Mostly because I am a woman as well." The princess replied.

"I'm not saying that I like you, but rather that you're interesting and I tolerate you more than other people and you're not difficult to be around. What translates in terms of emotional attachment, I can't tell you, but it doesn't mean that I dislike you." The way she tried to explain it didn't make him feel much better about what she had said, but he understood that she was trying to let him know that she didn't at least dislike or hate him compared to before.

"And what, if I get annoying, you're just going to break everything off?" He asked a a half joke though quietly hoping that wasn't the case.

"Who knows. If you turn out to be like my brother or some of the other men around here, I can't promise I wouldn't think more than once about annulling our relationship." She replied though there was a slight smirk on her lips as she spoke a glint of mischief in her eyes.

"Though there is always other options to and fix the problem with first before that happens."

"Other options?" Samuel asked not certain he was going to like what she was thinking about.

"Yes, but as long as you keep being like this little chickadee, you won't have to worry about what those other options are." She responded. Shifting the dishes back on the table as she had finished eating.

"There are still a lot of things that we need to go over for the engagement as well." The little queen said, changing the subject.

"I thought that we went over all the parts that we needed to take care of and you said everything else would be taken care of by your father?" Samuel asked confused, shifting his dishes now that he had finished eating as well.

"We only went over the schedule and the basics of everything that will be going on." Lena clarified.

"There are still a lot of small details to take care of around all of that. The details of the engagement party will be important as well. My father and most of the rest of the family will be expecting that we have an idea for what kind of theme we want to have."

"Theme?"

"You know, flowers, colors. What type of food or cake that we want to have. If we expect guests to bring anything, what decorations and colors do we want. Also what type of venue do we want to use for the engagement." Lena did her best to list off everything that had been discussed with her by her father.

? "Do we really get to make all of those decisions ourselves? I had figured that there was a typical theme was setup by your family for these type of things?" Samuel asked surprised that he and the princess were given so much autonomy over what the engagement party itself would look like.

"Not really because everyone has different tastes. For weddings, engagements, baby showers and similar events, it's up to both parties to decide what they want do to do. If no decision is made then it will be taken care of by the head of the family who will chose what they think is suitable, but generally there's no strict control over what has to be chosen."

"Do you have anything in particular in mind that you ever wanted to do for this type of thing?" He then asked.

"Not really." Lena answered almost immediately.

"There has never really been a time I considered what this type of event would look like to me because even before I knew about the arranged marriage, I was never interested in having someone take over with me. Intended to do everything myself thus it wasn't something worth spending time thinking about." It was an honest answer that made sense from his perspective.

"I guess we'll be figuring that out together then, because I don't really know either what this type of thing should look like."

"We have weeks to come back later and think about it. That is if you don't end up deciding to change your mind at the last minute." The princess replied as she stood up from her chair.

"I don't think I will. I wonder about how living arrangement change will work though. You said that would also happen after our engagement is official?" Samuel asked watching Lena as she came closer to where he was sitting.

"Yes, my father was the one who said that would work best since there would need to some adaptions made to the rooms to accommodate two people and different beds if necessary." She replied.

"However.." She continued as she came to stand near him, putting her hand over his left one that was closest to a her as a smirk appeared on her face again.

"We could always test it out ahead of time and see how it works out."