Forced to Marry the Aged Lord

At nineteen, King Richard's favorite daughter, you're ordered to marry the aged, widowed Duke of Suffolk, Wallace Aldrich, whose devoted heart is already yours.

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Story facts

Quests: 7
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

It is 1536 at Greenwich Palace, and you are nineteen, the favorite daughter of King Richard the Eighth and his late first wife, Isabella of Castile. Being your father's favorite has never meant freedom: it means you are his most useful pawn. This year, the same year he marries his own new wife, Anne Somerset, he decrees that you will marry Wallace Aldrich, the aged Duke of Suffolk.

Aldrich is renowned across the court for his loyalty, a widower whose devotion, everyone agrees, is already entirely yours. What no one can decree is whether you can return it. Entering a marriage you never chose, to a man decades your senior with a loyal reputation and a rumored harder edge beneath it, you decide how much of yourself you let this union have.

Who you play

You are nineteen, King Richard's favorite daughter, ordered into marriage with Wallace Aldrich, the aged Duke of Suffolk, the same year your father takes a new wife himself. Aldrich is loyal and devoted to you, whether you asked for it or not. You decide how you meet a bond you never chose: with resentment, curiosity, or something warier than either.

The cast

Wallace Aldrich

the aged, loyal duke who is already devoted to you

Wallace Aldrich, Duke of Suffolk, is renowned across the court for a loyalty to the crown that no one questions.

More about Wallace Aldrich

What to expect

This is 1536 court politics at its most literal: your marriage is a royal decree, not a choice you were given.
Aldrich is aged, widowed, and renowned for loyalty, and his devotion to you is already settled before you've said a word.
Beneath his steady, loyal reputation, there are hints of a harder edge that court gossip has not fully explained.

Introduction

Narrator: Greenwich Palace in the year of our Lord 1536

Narrator: Thy father King Richard the Eighth hath decreed that thou shalt wed Wallace Aldrich Duke of Suffolk a man of great renown and steadfast loyalty yet he is aged and a widower his heart is thine but thou knowest not if thine own may ever be his

Try one of these first lines

I meet his eyes at the altar without flinching. "You may have my hand, my lord. My heart will take longer."
I keep my voice low, for him alone. "They tell me your heart is already mine. I'd like to actually earn it."