I turned around to look at her. "What's wrong?"
Becca had an angry expression on her face. She whispered quiet enough that Tyler and Taylor couldn't hear, "come with me right now."
I whispered back, "alright."
I looked over to the twins who didn't know how to react to Becca suddenly pinching me. I gave them an awkward smile, "sorry, give me a second to talk to my wife."
Tyler replied to me, "okay, we will wait here for you guys to finish your conversation."
After I walked with Becca to out of ear shot of the twins, I stopped and asked, "so what's wrong?"
Becca pouted, "you can't be so nice to a beautiful woman like Taylor!!"
I was in disbelief, "huh?!"
"Don't 'huh' me! Why did you insist on paying her? She is a noble already. She doesn't even need the money."
I looked into Becca's eyes to convey how serious I was. "In my estate, I will do everything in my power to make sure we do not exploit any of our workers. I'm not trying to be nice to Taylor. I just have a strong belief we should pay her what she is worth, so I asked her a few questions to figure out if she could do the job of a military strategist assistant properly. Her answers lined up with someone who has all the talent needed to do the job, but they can't do it only because this Kingdom won't allow women the opportunities they deserve. If we want to change the society, we need to find these type of people and give them a chance to show their ability. That way we can demonstrate to all the men how women can be equally as good as them in most jobs."
When I was a student in college, I got an unpaid internship over the summer with an engineering firm. I was excited at first because I was getting my foot in the door and gaining valuable experience. However, once I started working, I had a distinct feeling that I was being exploited. I was bringing a lot of value to the company with the level of work I was doing, but I never got a share of the money I earned for the company because they thought the experience I gained was enough value. Once I graduated and started working, engineering internships started to become a majority paid. It made me happy for all the new engineering students. Now that I was in charge of my own Duchy, there is no way I would exploit my workers like those greedy companies.
Becca shouted at me, "I understand that, but you can't be too nice to her! She was about to be your second wife! I bet she probably thinks she has a chance with you now since you are still treating her well."
Becca suddenly calmed down and stared at the ground. She then whispered, "did you see how beautiful she is and decide she is better than me? In the noble social circles, she is known as a top class beauty, while I was ridiculed as the plain girl."
She didn't even give me enough time to be shocked by the revelation that Taylor was one of the daughters of nobles that were in talks to be my next wives after Becca.
I put my hand on Becca's face and gently lifted her up so that she was looking at me face to face. Normal, I would love that Becca was feeling jealous, but the sadness in her eyes really broke my heart.
"Hey dummy, nothing has changed. Even after seeing Taylor, I still think you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on. I don't care what the social circle thinks. They are dumb for thinking your effortless beauty is somehow plain. And you know something I noticed while talking to her earlier? I thought about how much I would hate to be in a relationship with someone that had an emotionless face like hers all the time. I much prefer someone like you who blushes and squirms from the simplest displays of affection. It makes me feel so much more fulfilled.
But I can't get too mad at you for being jealous. When I saw Tyler, I was also worried that you might prefer blonde haired guys and think he was better looking than me. So Becca, did you decide Tyler is better than me?"
Becca's eyes popped open and she furiously shook her head. "Of course not! I never felt this way before with the original Nicolas, but now with you Nick, I think you are unbelievably handsome. The moment I look into your eyes, my heart starts racing. To me, no one can ever compare to you."
"Haha, that is the rose tinted glasses you get when you like someone. From now on, remember I also have these glasses for you, so you don't have to worry about me suddenly changing my mind about us just because I meet a random good looking person. I too will also try not to get too jealous, but you should know that I'm a pretty possessive guy. Now let's focus on the real problem. I had no idea Taylor was one of the girls that was supposed to be my next wife."
"You really didn't know? I thought James would have told you."
"Yeah, I guess he assumed only Tyler was going to come today. Lets make it clear to her that I love you and there are no hard feelings, but I decided I only want one wife in my life. It should be good practice for when we have to reveal to all the nobles at a party that we love each other and I will not take any more lovers. Hopefully when the twins learn about it, they will tell it to their noble friends and the rumor about us can start spreading even before we make our public debut."
"Ok, let's make sure that she doesn't get any funny ideas."
I grabbed Becca's hand and started walking back to where we left Tyler and Taylor.