First Meeting

Edward stretched his arms in contentment. There was only one minute left before it was the end of school forever. He was finally at the end of compulsory schooling. It was a wonderful feeling to behold.

Naturally the last day of school had been the best school day he'd ever had. He had eaten lots of party food and played plenty of games with everyone in his year group, but the best part was undeniably winning the sports trophy.

There was a general feeling of excitement in the air as he sat in the classroom waiting for the last minute to tick by. A lot of it came from the day being the end of the school year, but there was something else.

Today was the day that Prince Sebastian Hallowswift, the future king of the country turned 18. When an heir to the throne turned 18, their marriage partner was picked out by the government system. The government system held a profile on everyone who was considered eligible to marry into royalty and the prince would input his preferences into the system and receive a match.

The government system had always picked out someone from a suitable family who was a similar age to the royal wishing to marry. Girls at Edward’s school were likely to be selected by the system as his school was the most exclusive in the country and was intended for rich and titled children.

The bell finally rang and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Everyone in the classroom stood up immediately and picked up their bags to leave the classroom for the final time.

“Who do you think is going to go home and find there’s a prince who wants to marry them?” his best friend Hayden asked him as they were leaving the classroom.

The prince was very popular with the public. He was known to be kind hearted and generous and always had a smile on his face in public. There would always be plenty of people willing to marry him.

Edward considered the question. If the government system today followed its past pattern of choices it was going to be a girl from a titled family that had been around for a while. Simply being rich wasn’t good enough for marrying into the royal family.

“Possibly Rose Smythe?” he guessed. “She’s from a long family line and isn’t related to any of the royal family. There’s no black sheeps in her family either.”

He was also from a long family line and his parents had titles, but he was a male so he wasn’t going to be in the pool of candidates.

“That was my guess too,” his friend agreed. “Do you want to go to the party later? It might be the last time we all see each other. You’re going on a long holiday in France pretty soon so we need to take any opportunity to meet.”

Edward was willing to go to a party with everyone from school. As Hayden said, it was potentially the last time a lot of them would see each other. His school year was small due to the size of the school so they all knew each other well.

“Sure. What time?”

They discussed times and where to meet up. They parted when Hayden was picked up by his driver. Edward waited a few more minutes outside the school before his family’s car arrived for him.

He removed his tie as soon as he was in the front seat. The dress code of his school was very strict. The school tie had to be tied correctly, the shoes had to be the ones sold by the school, the trousers and skirts had to be a certain length and no individuality could be expressed. He was glad to be finally free from wearing a uniform.

“Did you win a trophy?” the driver asked. “Lord and Lady Grey will be impressed with you.”

Edward took off his jacket before replying. It was too hot to keep all layers of his uniform on.

“I won the sports trophy mainly for beating all the other schools in matches.”

Edward’s skills were heavily on the sports side. He could play all sports that had been offered at his school to a high level so he had been on all the teams. His weaknesses were science subjects and music.

“Excellent work,” the driver commented. “I expect you’ll join all the sports societies when you go to university.”

Edward was hoping to get a place at the top university in the country on the photography course. Hopefully his exam results would be what he needed and his place would be confirmed. For now, it was best to not think about it until the exam results were announced in a couple of months.

“I’ll have to see what’s available,” he replied.

The car soon pulled up into the drive of his house. There was something different about the familiar sight of his house today. There were two black cars parked ahead of them with tinted windows. They looked to be very expensive cars.

Edward remembered that his parents had mentioned they were going to have some visitors during the holidays. The visitors must have arrived sooner than expected and had a lot of money to throw around on cars.

He got out of the car with his trophy in one hand and his discarded school uniform jacket in the other. He walked up the stone pathway and dug his house key out of his pocket with difficulty due to the trophy.

As he held up the key to put in the lock, the door was opened from inside.

“Welcome back,” the family butler said.

Edward waved his trophy.

“I won a trophy,” he announced proudly.

The butler smiled briefly, but it didn’t meet his eyes.

“Edward, an important visitor is here,” the butler informed him gravely. “Your mother requested that you go straight to your bedroom and change into something appropriate. Then you are to come to the sunroom to meet the visitor.”

Edward took that to mean that someone with a very high ranking title had come to visit. It never occurred to him that someone royal could be in his house.

“I’ll be down as soon as I can,” he assured the butler who still looked tense.

He went up the stairs to his bedroom, put his trophy carefully down on his desk and opened his wardrobe. Smart would have to mean trousers and a plain shirt. He pulled out a pair of dark blue trousers and a light blue shirt. After changing he ran a comb through his thick black hair.

He checked that he looked presentable in the mirror before going back downstairs. Edward walked to the sunroom and was met by his mother.

“Edward, you’re back from school,” she said and gave him a brief hug.

“I’ve finished school now,” he replied. “I won the sports trophy.”

As he spoke, he looked around for the important visitor. There was a blonde woman he had never seen sitting on the sofa with a very straight back. In the other armchair was a very familiar face.

Edward had never personally met him before, but everyone in the country knew his face.

The heir to the throne was right in front of him.

Prince Sebastian had come to visit his family.

That didn’t seem to be right. Prince Sebastian should be visiting his selected fiancé today instead of visiting his family.

Unless the government system had picked him as Prince Sebastian’s marriage partner.