She had expected anger or frustration from him, and instead, she was met with compassion.  More and more, Eve was starting to believe the gold flame was not some strange fluke.  Maybe her sister and his brother injuring a war vet was an act of fate.  She smiled at him and shook her head gently.  "My mother would have found a way, I think, if I was willing to delay things.  She's very determined when she wants to be."<br/><br/>Eve could already plot her mother's moves in her head.  She would have gotten Eve to delay the wedding and tried to appeal to the council by claiming that such a marriage was a cruel punishment, like forcing a woman to be bartered into marriage for land or other gains, as people had done centuries before.  It wasn't true, it wasn't true at all, but that was the kind of person Lauren was.  She would play any game she needed to get what she wanted.<br/><br/>"She would use that against you.  She'd paint you as the mindless brute who forced me into a marriage to fuck me or beat me or something."  A sardonic laugh escaped her lips as a look of slight disgust filled her features.  "She would pain you as the evil conquerer and me as the conquered, until the council agreed to an annulment.  It's best we just show a united front.  We show that we're a couple fantastically in love with one another, despite our family feud.  That way, she can't use the council to try and tear us apart."