Fiona Hood-Stewart - The Royal Marriage

‘Daddy, what’s wrong?’ Gabriella cried, grabbing her father’s hand.

Gonazalo’s eyes closed and his breath came fast. Then his lips opened. ‘Promise me,’ he whispered in a weak voice. ‘Give me your hand,’ he said to Ricardo.

Ricardo frowned and took the old man’s hand, felt him place it over Gabriella’s. ‘I am leaving you, little one,’ he whispered. ‘I want you both to promise that you will marry within a month.’

Gabriella’s eyes flew in panic from her father to Ricardo.

‘But you can’t go—you can’t leave me, Papa,’ she cried, panic-stricken, tears pouring down her cheeks.

It was a split-second decision. But as Ricardo looked from father to daughter, saw the anguish in the dying man’s eyes, the lost distress in the girl’s, he knew there was no choice.

‘I promise,’ he said, loud and clear.

‘My Gabinha,’ the old man whispered, his voice weaker by the moment. ‘Answer me.’

‘I—Daddy, don’t leave me,’ Gabriella wept.

‘Promise me, my darling.’

‘I…I promise,’ she whispered, her head falling.

Ricardo watched as Gonzalo let out his last breath and Gabriella, her hair splayed over his chest, wept uncontrollably. A few minutes elapsed before slowly he lifted her and held her silently in his arms, aware that he had just made the biggest commitment—and perhaps the biggest mistake—of his life.

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