Novela de Mi Id

“In Fear and Trembling”

Chapter Two

“My wife,” he stammered. “But I have no wife.”

“I am the one our elders have chosen for you. Not that you could not have chosen for yourself, but... Anyway, I'm the one who has been chosen for you.”

“I see.”

“No, you don't. You are the heir to a powerful empire. It is your duty to produce an heir as well so that there will be someone to carry on in your place after your death. I am to be the mother of that heir. Do you understand?”

There was something about her crisp, clear enunciation which disturbed him. He felt as if she was talking to a child.

“And you agreed to this?” he asked.

She lowered her gaze. “No, I did not. Not at first.”

She looked at him again.

“Not that you are not attractive in your own way but --”

She looked down again.

“I had always hoped to be able to choose my own lovers. But my father never gave me that privilege.”

She looked upwards again.

“Instead he gave me to you.”

“I see,” he said. “And who is your father?”

She looked downward again.

“You don't want to know.”