The Almighty Dominance novel Chapter 794

Serena could hear her own heart.

On her left, the lake. A husband who would never be cruel, because he would never care enough to be.

On her right, the joke. The man who had crawled round a ballroom on his knees for a fisherman, and then put a tray down on a paper and said no.

An old poet came into her head. Her mother's favourite, the one with the long beard on the cover.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

"I choose the prince," Serena said.

---

For one second, nothing. Then the great hall exploded.

"What did she say?" a woman shrieked, jumping up.

"The prince? The idiot?" a man cried, stunned.

"She can't mean it!"

Lady Honoria was on her feet, pink to the ears, pearls swinging.

"She misspoke!" Honoria cried, outraged. "Imelda, the girl misspoke! She's been in the dark two years, she's confused. She means Julian. She means the lake!"

"I don't mean the lake," Serena said clearly.

"Darling, you don't know what you're saying!"

"I know exactly what I'm saying, Lady Honoria," Serena said calmly. "I've had two years of silence to practise it."

Cordelia made a noise like a kettle and sat down hard, right on Marissa's pink coat.

"My coat!" Marissa squeaked, horrified.

"Oh, thank heaven," Cordelia sobbed, clutching her chest. "Dulcie, darling, you're safe!"

On the second bench, Dulcie burst into tears and couldn't stop.

---

The Baroness hadn't moved, small and straight at the high table, her ebony cane across her knees.

"Imelda!" Honoria snapped, turning on her. "We had an understanding!"

"We had an understanding," the Baroness said dryly, "that my granddaughter would choose. She has chosen."

"She chose wrong!"

"That's her business."

"Then let her choose again!" Honoria pleaded. "Let her sit down, have a glass of water, and choose properly!"

Serena turned to her grandmother.

"Grandmother," she said politely. "Tell Lady Honoria the law of this hall."

Something moved in the old eyes. It might have been anger. It might have been respect.

"In this hall," the Baroness said, cold and clear, "a Tiffany bride speaks her choice once. Two hundred years. I won't break it for a lake." She flicked a finger. "Sit down, Honoria. You're blocking the guests."

Honoria sat.

"And my terms, Grandmother," Serena said evenly.

The Baroness sighed and held out her hand. A footman put the folded paper in it.

"Whoever my granddaughter chooses," the Baroness read, flat and fast, "she goes back into the line of succession. Not after the wedding. On the day. And her mother's notebooks, all of them, returned." She glanced up. "Witnessed by Pauline Tiffany."

"On the day?" a man whispered, stunned. "That's today!"

"She's ahead of Patricia again," a woman breathed.

"Mother!" Patricia hissed on the front bench.

"I signed it, darling," Pauline murmured, her smile not moving. "Let her have the chair. A joke with a chair is still a joke."

"Thank you, Grandmother," Serena said quietly. She looked down at the front bench. "And thank you, Aunt Pauline. For your advice. I took it."

Lady Honoria swung round on the front bench.

"Your advice, Pauline?" she said, dangerously sweet. "You advised her? Against my son?"

Pauline's knuckles went white on her little card.

---

The old keeper of the house came forward with the book. Nothing surprised him.

"Lady Serena," he said gravely. "Do you take this man?"

"I do," Serena said firmly.

"Your Highness. Do you take this woman?"

Alexander looked at her. For one second, his eyes weren't vague at all.

"I do," he said softly.

At the back of the hall, by the doors, one person started clapping. Small, quick hands. A grey maid's dress. Felicia, alone, clapping as hard as she could, tears on her face.

"Is that a servant?" a guest hissed, appalled. "Somebody stop her!"

"Let her be," an old man said gruffly from the third row. "She's the only one in here who means it."

"People clap at weddings, sir," Felicia said loudly, still clapping. "Didn't anybody tell you?"

Dulcie stood up, red-eyed, and clapped too. Then Gideon.

Three people, in a hall of hundreds. It sounded very small. It was the best sound Serena had ever heard.

Julian Pryce took the white flower out of his buttonhole and dropped it on the floor.

"Julian!" Honoria hissed furiously. "Do something!"

"Like what, Mother?" Julian said, almost cheerful. "She looked at me for a long time, and then she chose the one who crawled. I've learned something about myself." He gave Alexander a small, crooked bow. "Congratulations, dog boy. You've bought me a week of freedom. Mother will have me back on the market by Friday."

"Good luck on the market," Alexander said seriously.

"I'll need it," Julian said dryly, and walked out of the side door with his hands in his pockets.

---

A young servant hurried down the hall with a small leather case.

"Lady Serena," he said breathlessly. "Begging your pardon. A man in a dark car left this at the front door. He said it's for the bride. Only the bride."

"From who?" Patricia asked sharply.

"There's no name, Miss Patricia. Just a card."

The Baroness held out her hand. "Give it to me."

The servant didn't move. "He said only the bride, madam," he whispered, terrified.

Slowly, the Baroness lowered her hand.

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