Neither Hubert nor Gerard Black respected the authority of the crown prince, despite his elevated status, and the fact he could have had them severely punished for their hostile accusations. It was Rhiane they begrudgingly accepted the authority of. While they had been utterly destroyed by the deaths of the family's matriarch and second-eldest son she had pushed aside her own grief to become their cook, their housekeeper, their accountant, their manager, their salesman, and the glue that not only held them together but kept their lives afloat. No one spoke of the sacrifice out loud, but all of them knew this is why she ruled over the residence despite being the youngest. They glared at Luke but reluctantly sat, the father on the farthest end, the elder son in the middle, and Sebastian on the side closest to the engaged couple.

"My BLESSING?" the patriarch roared incredulously. "I'm not giving a [i]murderer[/i] my blessing," he glowered with animosity. His loathing of Luke appeared to fester by the moment. Gerard looked as if he might also object to the request, protesting the right the royal had to ask such a thing, but Sebastian's hand on his knee drew his attention away. Rather than launch into his own diatribe he leaned back and crossed his arms.

"Don't call him that," Rhiane snapped furiously. "Mom and Edwin..."

"Don't be blind, Rhi! He's complicit to what is going on in this country, to the queen! Can anyone except him claim they really don't think the throne's to blame for all the people that died from the plague? That work themselves to death? I'll be damned if I let him murder you like his mother murdered her husband!" They were dangerous allegations and yet it was clear how, in the midst of his angry frenzy, he desperately loved his daughter. He had never recovered from the loss of Violet Black. Day and night he mourned her with an endless sea of yearning, of melancholy, of despair, as if a light had been ripped away from him. What drove him to such madness now was the fear that he'd outlive another one of his children. Burying his wife had been hard, but burying a son had broken him a second time, and he could not handle a third. Cruel claims against Luke's character had a pleading undertone. There was nothing he wouldn't do to save her from an early grave.

"I told you I knew the risks before I left! This is my choice to make, not yours," Rhiane replied hotly. She was avoiding the issue of the guilt or innocence of the monarchy for the casualties of the plague. Internally she agreed with her father, but she wouldn't leave Luke without a defense, and she was not certain that her fiance himself played a hand in how the treatments were distributed to the public. Within the last week he seemed to be genuinely realizing that what he saw on paper was not the reality his lower class citizens faced.

"Hubert," Sebastian intervened calmly, as if they had been having a conversation about the weather or their favorite book. "Rhi cares about Prince Alessandro, and you always said that's what you wanted most for her in a marriage."

"That assumed [i]he[/i] would care about [i]her[/i]! I'm not an idiot, Sebastian! I've seen the headlines about that actress! I'm not giving my blessing to a man who is with her because his first choice left the country and is going to kill her off when he's done with her!" he boomed, nearly rising from his seat before he sat back down again, uncertain what to do with all his pent up aggression.

Although she did not show it, the allusion to Luke's lover stung Rhiane and made her convictions falter. Even she had to concede that Sofia was a beautiful, talented women, the sort that any man would be proud to bring home to his parents, who effortlessly charmed people with her grace. No matter how hard the former farmer strove towards her ideals, she couldn't reverse her low birth, or erase a childhood of which ultimately Luke would be ashamed. This was what she had been so apprehensive of when she warned that coming to her home would be a disaster. Blow after blow would be delivered and, because they knew her intimately, they would fracture and wound the confidence she had built over the last two weeks.

"Go back to the comfort of your plane," Gerard finally spoke up gruffly. "Rhi knows how to survive in your world, but you wouldn't last a day on this farm."