How to Get My Husband on My Side

“I’ve finally found a worthy groom for you, darling,” announced Father, as he wiped off his lips with a napkin.

Laying on the knees of my oldest brother Cesare, I felt the urge to run back to my bedroom and throw up all the food I’d just eaten.

My second brother Enzo, who had been busily chowing down on an awfully smelly quenelle, slammed his fork down and cried out in protest.

“Not again! Father, how many times has it been already?”

“Enzo.”

“It hasn’t even been three months since her last engagement was called off! Regardless of what our family would gain from this marriage, shouldn’t you at least try to consider her feelings?”

“What a surprise to see you side with your little sister. Then would you rather battle the barbarians yourself instead of accepting Britannia’s support?”

“What are you talking about? Those savage barbarians up north wouldn’t stand a chance against the likes of me, the greatest, most noble soldier to ha—”

“Shut your trap, boy.”

The great noble soldier took the rest of the quenelle on his plate and shoved it into his mouth, aggressively chewing in protest.

The marriage proposal wasn’t any surprise to me though. I knew that it would come sooner or later.

“Who is it, Father?”, I asked cheerfully.

My father, who had been staring disapprovingly at Enzo, looked back my way and smiled.

“He’s Britannia’s hero. The king’s beloved nephew and famous knight of the South. He’s very handsome, I’m sure you’ll like him.”

“What! Father, do you know how bad his reputation is?!”

“Boy, was I talking to you?”

Enzo became quiet again.

any idea that this handsome knight would one day massacre their entire family. Oh poor, wretched creatures of

“Ruby?”

This time his long fingers groped the back of my head. I

eerie azure eyes, I shifted my gaze to Enzo who was

can at least be of some service to you with this

and pressed them up against

our sweet little

I really wanted

After all, the handsome knight of the South

***

untimely helicopter crash that my tiresome life had at last come to an end and I could finally rest. But if I’d known that I would be reincarnated as a lady in the Renaissance Era, and as a character in a novel that I’d read long ago, and, to make matters worse, forced to survive in an environment that was just as vile as my previous life, would I still

in this novel, couldn’t I have at least been born into a

“Ugh!”

throwing up silently that I didn’t need

de Borgia—I mean before I died—I was an adopted daughter of an upper-class family in Spain. I guess you could say I was a

my adoptive siblings, I attended

different than the kids around me was sometime around 4th grade, when a boy in my class laughed at me while pulling back his eyes. At first I didn’t understand

at home, despite the sophisticated, welcoming facade of my adoptive family, there was always an unspoken rule

my adoptive parents had a separate lover, and my second brother, who was a rising tennis star, was publicly exposed for his promiscuous private life and drug addiction. The only one in my adoptive family who would sometimes treat me nicely was my older sister, and she committed suicide at age twenty-one.

obedient daughter, since if I ever brought the smallest bit of

just hallucinating before l passed away. But when I looked in the mirror, instead of seeing my face, there

de Borgia, a character in the fantasy novel Sodom and the Holy

abused his power to subjugate others. It was a story about the countries of the North and the

people of the northern Romagna region of Italy, and ‘Holy Grail’ was a metaphor for the holy site of the Vatican City. And as for lucky me, I was reincarnated as

to die, and to die no less than at the

an attempt to gain even more political influence, were hellbent on marrying off Rudbeckia, and after three unsuccessful engagements and another last minute cancellation, she ended up being married off

his mind and decide to murder his wife’s entire family after only being married for six months, it was Rudbeckia who made

was hatred—hatred of Rudbeckia, who’d poisoned his little sister. Cesare

think about it though, more than being mad about Rudbeckia killing his little sister, it seems like Izek just got fed up with his backstabbing b*tch of a wife and ended up