Rhiane pretended not to hear her fiance chastised by the queen and her prince consort into dancing with her. Not only was it the polite thing to do she was quite aware she could do nothing in this scenario. The farmer did not have any sort of leverage over Luke. Until such time she was wed and officially crowned she had very little power even over the servants that littered the edges of the room with platters of hors d'oeuvres or bearing concealed weapons meant to protect the gathered dignitaries. There was no threat she could issue to compel compliance. Likewise there was no reward she could offer that would entice him- she had no illusions about how little he wanted anything to do with her. If copulation weren't implicitly required at some point in time she could have conceivably better tempted him with [i]not[/i] touching him rather than indulging any proclivities.

His haste to reach the dance floor very nearly caused her to tumble but, with the grace of an acrobat, she managed to make the almost-stumble flow into another step almost seamlessly. For someone pre-occupied with making certain she did not trip he was not doing either of them any favors to their image. Rhiane covered her temptation to frown with a smile as she thought back to the security now guaranteed to her diminished family. Her father wouldn't have to work himself to the bone trying to make a living while the ghost of his lost love haunted his every move. Finally he would be allowed to rest and remember the good times they had. Gerald, ill-tempered as he might be, would be able to build a life with his partner and perhaps even adopt children. Any such babes would not be allowed near their royal cousins but happiness could be found for the two very well-deserving men at least.

"I can dance, but not [i]quite[/i] at your level. There was no sense in teaching all the candidates since we were all but one useless to the crown, don't you agree?" she asked with a sort of sly self-depreciation that would be all too well-received by nobility. Rhiane knew her audience if nothing else. The princess elect was not without pride; she just sought to have a sense of humor about her circumstances.

Luke drew her into him as he slowed their rhythm. For a split second a faint rose spread across her features. As much as the farmer had steeled herself against expectations she struggled to not notice that he was intensely handsome, that his eyes were a brilliant blue to her green, that his cheekbones were high, his jaw square, and his height just tall enough it was horrendously attractive and not off-putting comparative to her own.

"I think you will find, your highness, I am understand my role quite well," she reassured as she reestablished that charming smile that had made her famous. "And I will honor that to the best of my capability, even its finality," Rhiane remarked breezily with a cavalier attitude towards her own death. The princess elect was not full of false bravado; he could see in her gaze how sincerely she was fearless on the particular issue.

"We can do that, minding one another's business, if that's what you [i]really[/i] wish to do. I'm rather tit for tat, so if you indulge in certain activities I will take that to mean I can as well." The queen would have dismissed her if she knew that Rhiane was all but acquiescing to Luke having extra-marital affairs if she could do the same. It was improper for a prince and treasonous for a princess elect- something that Rhiane clearly understood from the sparkle in her eyes. Her way of speaking danced on the edge of being explicit and dwelling in innuendo; enough no eavesdropper could be certain what she was suggesting and actually have her condemned.

"Would not want to buck tradition, would we?" It was a challenge. Peasants, merchants, and world leaders all knew that the arranged marriage to a commoner for breeding stock was a farce of a fairy tale. Heads turned the other way when there were fractures demonstrating the royals and their lowborn spouses never truly fell in love the way propaganda led one to believe. To emotionally entangle would be disobedience on a grand scale that most of the boldest would not dare. "Do you know what I see when I look around this room, your highness? People who are separate. People who stand together but are loosely bound and whom have a different fealty than someone such I imagined. Don't you ever... think you deserve more? Ah, the song is over."

Abruptly she disentangled herself from his inviting embrace and dipped her head as a lord, a few years older than the prince, wandered over and asked Rhiane for the next dance. She was a novelty to the elites. This was their one chance to move across the floor with the curiosity that was a princess elect before they were old men watching the next generation. If Rhiane knew they mocked her in private it did not show on her face for she accepted the dance without pause. The farmer knew what she was to them but she was being compensated for this charade so she would play it to the fullest.