Damn-it!

Roderick didn’t use the word dare as a figure of speech, or out of habit. He knows I’m incapable of backing down from a dare – and that this character flaw has pushed me into some pretty stupid things in my life, including bungee jumping, kissing Kaylyn Jennings in third grade, white water rafting, riding that stupid thoroughbred after it had already thrown three experienced trainers, and eating an entire jar of mayonnaise when I was fourteen.

Each time I knew I was getting into something I’d regret, assuming I lived through the experience, yet even so, I couldn’t stop myself from accepting the challenge. It was like taking dares was a part of my DNA.

Of course, those experiences have been some of the best of my entire life. But marriage, that's a pretty big deal. The biggest, you could say.

“I don’t know.”

I’ve never hesitated in the face of a dare before. I always just shake hands and leap into the challenge.

I hear a click behind me as a door opens and closes in the distance. Roderick and Tim grin at whoever has just entered. Probably one of the younger team members. Carlos usually works with four or five fourteen-year olds about this time of day.

Roderick jostles Tim with his elbow. “C’mon, back me up. Marriage is perfect.”

“Lucas, you’re getting married?” The soft, feminine voice behind me makes me want to grab my saber from Tim and genuinely run it through Roderick. “May I inquire as to the identity of the lucky lady.”

I groan, this is the last thing I need right now. “No, mom.”

I turn around to find that not only has my mother come for a visit, but that she’s brought both her lovely personal assistant, Eileen, and my sister, Shelly.

She arches a brow and holds my gaze with hers. “Why not?”

“You can’t because there is no lucky lady. There’s no lady at all.” As I’m speaking, my forehead furrows into a frown. “Anyway, what are you doing down here?” I can’t remember the last time she visited the training center.

“I wanted to speak to you about the possibility of having some of the family's collection of antiques appraised before we donate them to museums. Since you seem to spend all your time training these days, I had to come down here.”

“Now, what is this about you getting married?”

“It’s nothing,” I grunt. “Just Roderick playing the fool.” I flash him my best side-eye. “Like normal.”

And he’s not about to let up. I wince. I’ve given him an opening, and just like on the quad, he’s going to take it.

Roderick grins at my mother. They’ve always been close. “It’s a dare, Aunt Lynette. You know how he is about those.”

Shelly shudders. “I’ll never forget the time you dared him to put a toad in every single one of my shoes. Sometimes, I still worry that we didn’t get all of them and that I’ll open a closet or dresser drawer and find one we forgot.”

The memory brightens my day. That had been a truly epic dare, one for the history books.

“What’s the connection between matrimony and a dare,” my mother asks.

This will do it, I think, she’ll put her foot down.

“I dared him to get married before the European Fencing Masters Competition.”

“That’s four months away,” Shelly points out. “Plenty of time for him to find a bride.” She looks like she’s already warmed to the idea.

Not good.

“Too much time, if you ask me,” Tim says, adding his two cents. "And they could have the entire deal annulled after the event. I vote not only does he have to find a bride and be wed thirty days from today but he still needs to be married during the competition.”

“Excellent,” Roderick rubs his hands together, an evil smile pulling his face apart. “If you’re not married by midnight, thirty days from now, you have to give Tim and me joint ownership of that sweet little villa you bought this winter in return. And let’s be honest”

My fists clench unbidden. I love that villa.

Not only is it gorgeous and located on, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best pieces of real estate in my country, but in the few months I’ve owned it, it has become my quiet place. The one spot I can go and just be, me. Something I can’t do when I’m surrounded by the various members of the royal family, and all our hangers-on.

“What if he gets married but she dumps him before the competition?” Shelly asks. “Then what happens?”

“Um,” Lucas took a moment to think about it. “He has to strip down to his tighty-whities, cover himself in orange Jello and sing karaoke. At the event. And take the entire jousting team camping for three nights. In tents.”

This might have come off the top of his head, but that doesn’t make the threat any less effective. The list of things I don’t do includes singing, touching anything that so much as resembles Jello, sing, or camp.

Especially camp.

I glance at Eileen who is studying me with narrowed eyes. Sometimes I get the impression, she’s calculating something and that it’s something that involves me, I tense and wait for her to add her own two cents, but she doesn’t.

“I’d pay big money to see that little exhibition,” Shelly says.

It’s good to see her out and about, ever since Phillipe Evans, the world-renowned maestro started helping her with her piano playing and prepping her for a multiple country piano recital tour, it seems like she spends all her time locked away with him.

I meet my mom’s eyes. She’s my last ally. Surely she’ll have something to say about the plan. Like how there’s some law about the heir to the throne not being able to marry as the result of the bet.

Something.

Anything.

“Mom?”

“I think it’s a grand idea.”

“Mom!”

It’s like she’s thrown me to the wolves. I can’t believe she just said that.

She cups my face between her hands. “Lucas, it’s not my fault you’re incapable of saying no to any challenge. Besides, royal weddings are always good for national morale. I want grandbabies while I still have the energy to keep up with them.”

I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. I don’t want to do this, but something inside me that I’ve never been able to suppress won’t let me back down.

If I’m sensible, I’d walk out of this room and ignore this situation. Unfortunately, you can’t accuse me of being a lot of things – but never sensible. Instead, I turn around and clasp the hand Roderick extends with a smug, knowing grin.

“You’re on.”