I grinned at anna's comment, then I paused as she stood straight, and spoke, getting to the heart of the matter,

"so it's not dinner yet, and since I always just eat lunch whenever I suppose something is up?"

anna's face which had nearly been smiling went flat again, serious as she spoke,

"another delegate came from the southern kingdom, so I came to help you get ready, he's around your age this time, and since you just turned 18 I believe you know what the goal probably is correct?"

My face contorted as I tried to keep it straight, my thoughts running away from me, but I stopped them in place and decided to try to make an excuse

"but your 26 and you're not married?"

Anna paused and looked at me flatly,

"the duke's heiress said to her nursemaid"

I paused scrunching my nose in though as anna started escorting me back. I didn't want to get married sure, it was like agreeing to be a prisoner of war all your life if you and your husband didn't get along, it was better with commoners but even then it was bad. being the duke's heiress should help her case unless the person she marries is of the same or higher rank than her, but even then that wasn't the end of her problems, even if she didn't marry him, meeting with a representative of the southern kingdom always made her sick to her stomach, after the war ended nearly 17 years ago now a peace treaty was signed, and while that was amazing, I still couldn't get past the fact that the delegates seemed not to remember all the people who lost family to the war, and even as a person who didn't get to meet them, the letter my father sent still smells of the ash and metallic blood that scented the battlefield if only due to the magic that kept it that way. It made her want to punch them, but she couldn't because that could cause another war, and more loss. 

I paused in thought as we entered the dressing room, the large room with a vaulted ceiling smelling like roses making me want to barf at the strong scent, I turned to Anna and confirmed what I knew she was thinking,

"suppose I'm playing pretend again then today, Let's cover it all up."

I deadpanned, she nodded and went to grab the headdress veil and fan that went with the outfit that had been chosen for today, and as she did I opened the windows to try to get out more of the strong scent.