How to Win My Husband Over

Chapter 1

BlueBeard and the Shining Knight

“My child, I have finally found just the right man for you,” my father said, putting down the napkin he’d just wiped his mouth with.

I was sitting on the lap of Cezar, my oldest brother, and wishing I could return to my room and throw up the contents of my stomach.

My second brother, Enzo, who had been enjoying quenelle that smelled revoltingly fishy, roughly put down his fork to express an opinion no one had asked for. “Again? But Father, haven’t you arranged enough marriages for her?”

“Enzo.”

“It’s been less than three months since we broke off her last engagement! I know building alliances is beneficial and all, but this is too much for Ruby!”

“I’m baffled by your sudden thoughtfulness toward your sister. If you’re so concerned about her well-being, why don’t you fight off those barbarians in place of the troops from Britanya?”

“I don’t see why I cannot. I’m the greatest knight in the South, I can handle those primitive—”

“Enough with your nonsense,” our father said, cutting him off.

The craziest knight in the South expressed his anger by munching the rest of his nasty, sauce-slathered oval dumpling.

As for me, I had already accepted what was to come.

“Who is he, Father?” I asked brightly.

He stopped glaring with disapproval at Enzo and offered me a generous smile. “He’s a prodigy of Britanya, the king’s favorite nephew. He’s known to be the mightiest knight in the North. And he’s good-looking. I’m sure you’ll like him.”

“What? Father, he’s got a terrible reputation!” Enzo interjected.

“Which isn’t half as notorious as yours.”

My other brother became quiet again.

They were unaware that the dashing knight from the North would one day massacre them all. Oh, all the sons-in-law of this world. I pretended to be hesitant.

Cezar, who’d been stroking my hair, calmly said, “Ruby?”

His hand touched my head, and I fought the urge to shudder. It felt like a cold viper was slithering up my back. I slowly lifted my gaze to look into his cold, speculative azure eyes. I looked in turn at frowning Enzo, at Lady Julia, who was smiling as always, and then at my father next to her.

“Thank you, Father. It is a great joy to help you in this way.” I beamed at him, and he smiled as if he loved me enough to do anything for me.

Even Cezar smiled, which rarely happened, and then he kissed me on the forehead. “What a good girl you are, Ruby.”

I was eager to get away and puke. After that, I would try to figure out how to stay alive. Because if I didn’t come up with a plan soon, I would also be killed by the North’s mightiest knight.

***

There had been a sudden helicopter accident. I had been tired of my life and was relieved to finally be granted eternal peace, but then I woke up as a young lady, a character in a novel I had read years ago. Oh, and her life was surprisingly similar to my old one.

As I started my new life as a fictional character, I could have been given a nicer family, but of course, I didn’t have such luck.

Blargh.

Tears streamed down my face as I vomited up bitter bile. I had mastered how to puke undetected, so I wasn’t worried my maids might catch me in the act. Still, I was as miserable as ever.

One of the things my old and new life had in common was this eating disorder. Before I died and became Rudbeckia de Borgia, I had been an adopted child of an upper-class family in Spain—more accurately, I was their charity case. I had been adopted as a baby, so I knew little about South Korea, the country where I was born.

Like most rich kids in Madrid, I went to an expensive private school where students wore uniforms. My days were filled with ballet, tennis lessons, horseback riding, and charity balls. I was in fourth grade when I first realized I was different from the other kids. A boy smirked at me, pulling his eyes into slanted slits with his fingers. At first, I didn’t know what that meant. All the kids were laughing, so I laughed along. I had round eyes, just like the people around me, so I couldn’t even imagine he was making fun of me. That kind of racial discrimination grew bearable over time.

While my adoptive family appeared splendid and kind, they were rotten to the core. I was always an outsider to them. Both of my parents were having an extramarital affair. My second-oldest brother—who was a promising tennis player—had drug problems and slept around, which got his picture plastered all over the tabloids. As for my older sister, the only one in the family to be nice to me, she took her own life at the age of twenty-one. My eldest brother projected a normal appearance to the world, but he was a monster, just like his father.

Over the years, playing the part of a merry, smart, obedient, and grateful daughter became as easy as breathing. After all, I had to pay a price each time I angered or disgraced the family even a little—this new life was no different. At first, I thought I was having some kind of dream before I died. It was the only explanation I could come up with as to why I suddenly looked like a beautiful white girl in the mirror.

It took me a few days to realize I was Rudbeckia de Borgia, a character in the fantasy novel Sodom and the Holy Grail, which I had read online as a teenager. The novel took place in the Renaissance era, and the author used real historical figures as his characters. To sum up the basic premise of the story, the corrupt pope reigned in vile glory. But then a few righteous priests and noble houses joined forces to bring down the pope and his family, House Borgia. Basically, the good guys won, and the bad guys were punished.

Sodom was the state Romana was in, and the Holy Grail was a sacred relic, the heart of the Vatican. And I, Rudbeckia, was the pope’s daughter. In other words, I was destined to die—at the hands of my soon-to-be ex-husband, no less.

The original Rudbeckia’s crime was having an ambitious father and older brother. They used her as a pawn in their political game. After three called-off engagements and one annulled marriage, she married Iske van Omerta from the Britanya Kingdom. Iske was a great knight but an abstinent man, and their marriage lasted only six months. Then he went crazy and killed all of his former in-laws and his ex-wife. And Rudbeckia gave him good reason to do so—not love but rage. She had poisoned Iske’s little sister.

It was Cezar’s mistake. He hadn’t expected Iske to be so wrathful. As for me, I think he was more determined to kill his traitor ex-wife than he was angry about his sister’s death. At any rate, it must have been Cezar who ordered Rudbeckia to carry out that fatal deed.

Still, according to what I could recall, Rudbeckia was a handful in her own right. She was branded as the pope’s spy and an adulterous, wicked woman. No one liked her. And she made it worse by ignoring all the North’s customs and treating the women around her as if they were her maids. She even treated her husband’s little sister and childhood friend like that, even though Iske loved them dearly. Still, after three years of living as her, I could fully understand why she had ended up becoming such a wretched woman. People called me the Princess of Romana, the Lark of Cistina. They believed my family doted on me, but it was all a well-constructed lie, just like my old life had been.

“Ruby?”

I hastily shoved a pouch of mint candies into a drawer and stood up.

He came in without waiting for a reply. He always did.

“Cezar.”

Cezar, Cardinal Valentino, was still dressed in the black habit he had worn at dinner. He had our father’s black hair and blue eyes, and was as beautiful as a demon would be. To me, a demon was exactly what he was. The silver lining was that we looked nothing alike.

“You didn’t look well earlier. I was worried, so I decided to stop by.”

How sweet of you.

“Oh, you know me so well, Cezar.”

“You don’t want to get married to that man? You can be honest with me.”

He slowly approached with the lithe strides of a black panther, then paused to admire the carved turtle on the table. He seemed to approve that it was there. The fact that I despised turtles was a secret I kept to myself.

“Not really. I don’t know, maybe it’s because the North is too far away. I won’t be able to see you often, and I’ll be lonely.”

“You won’t be lonely. You will have your husband.”

“That doesn’t matter. If I could, I would marry God like you did and live with you forever.”

“I’m honored to be favored by the greatest beauty Romana has to offer.”

With a satisfied smile on his lips, he joined me at the vanity and placed a hand on my head.

Good. That’s what he wanted to hear. He gently caressed my cheek, and I closed my eyes like a kitten. Yet I knew that hand could strike me at any moment. It hadn’t happened for some time, but I was well aware I was far from safe.