“Please, papa. I will do better.” Her pleas rang out over the clatter of the barreling coach. “I can do better. You must believe me, last evening’s outburst—” “It was not only last evening.” Princess Violetta Margherita Eleanora Josephine of Hastings—more familiarly known as Violet—leaned closer to her father, pleading with her gaze as well as her voice. “I promise, promise, promise I shall comport myself in a more charming demeanor from now on, and do as you bid me, and leave off terrorizing the servants. I promise on my life that I shall consider more seriously the marriage prospects you present to me in your wisdom.” The king—who was kind and wise, if a bit overindulgent—avoided his daughter’s eyes. “You’ve frightened off every eligible marriage prospect in the past two years. What else is to be done?” He shook his head, saddened that he must take this step.
