Not a single person said a word against it.
A reverent hush fell over the room.
I looked frantically between my parents, speaking with my eyes alone.
‘Come on — object! Say something! What are you waiting for?!’
At that moment, Kael interlaced his fingers with mine. Then he let out a short, quiet laugh — the smile of a man who had just won something.
“I believe our intentions have been made very sufficiently clear.”
‘W-wait — that’s not how this was supposed to go!’
I struggled to pull my hand free, but Kael held on without yielding a single inch.
“Well — ahem — I do feel it’s perhaps a bit premature. Given Ivelina’s circumstances, there’s still the matter of — “
“That’s not something you need to concern yourself with.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Would anyone dare say a word against Ivelina once she’s Duchess of Hardeion?”
“…”
“And if any tongue does wag — we simply find the culprit and deal with them accordingly.”
“…A-ah. There is that approach, I suppose.”
Father didn’t look convinced, but he nodded regardless.
‘Don’t cave, Father. Please.’
‘I need to help him hold the line.’
I immediately switched sides, throwing my support behind Father’s objection.
“B-but — I do understand your concern, Father. It hasn’t been long since the broken engagement, and in terms of a lady’s reputation—”
“Ivelina.”
“Yes?”
Without warning, Kael leaned toward me, bringing his face level with mine. It happened so quickly I could only blink. He was terribly close.
He held the back of my head gently in his large hand and rubbed slow circles into it, as one might do for a small, fretful child.
“I believe I told you those worries were unnecessary.”
“O-oh — r-right, yes, of course—”
I caved immediately, rattled into agreement. His crimson eyes were unusually vivid tonight, the colour deep and unmistakable.
He withdrew his hand from the back of my head a moment later.
‘My heart nearly stopped. I thought something was about to happen to the back of my skull.’
I drew a steadying breath and looked across the table. My parents and Jacqueline very deliberately avoided my gaze.
“I intend to hold the formal meeting of families within the following month. It is a formality, but it is the proper procedure.”
“Y-yes. That seems quite — appropriate.”
“Then I believe the main matter is settled.”
Kael spoke with quiet finality. And that was that — my parents had not managed a single firm objection, right to the very end.
They’d had every sharp word in the world for me, but when faced with their prospective son-in-law, they’d folded without getting out a syllable. The injustice of it burned.
“There is one further matter I’d like to propose.”
“And — what might that be?”
To Father’s credit, he was holding himself together reasonably well — speaking up, meeting Kael’s eye.
“Over the course of the coming month, I would like to undertake what I’ll call a bridegroom’s apprenticeship — in preparation for the marriage.”
‘Pardon?’
“Naturally, Ivelina would be staying at the Hardeion residence for the duration.”
“I — I beg your pardon? A — a bridegroom’s apprenticeship?”
“That’s correct.”
“Did you perhaps mean a ‘bride’s’ apprenticeship?”
“A bride’s apprenticeship is not required.”
Father’s jaw dropped. Mother’s expression was much the same — something between profound astonishment and genuine bewilderment, with the faintest flicker of curiosity.
I, too, was staring. ‘Bridegroom’s apprenticeship.’ I had never heard such a phrase in my life.
Into the speechless silence that followed his announcement, Kael offered an explanation with unhurried generosity.
“Surely a husband ought to know something of his wife’s preferences and daily habits in advance. Even the small things.”
“Oh…”
Mother let out a murmur of some indeterminate meaning. Her expression was unreadable — I wasn’t sure what she was thinking.
Regardless. ‘A whole month — doing what, exactly?’
‘This is just an excuse to haul me back there and keep me locked up, isn’t it? For a month?!’
Every effort I’d made to delay the wedding would be completely meaningless if this went ahead.
I could not let this happen.
I leaned back in my chair, angling my body so Kael couldn’t see my face. Then I set my mouth in the firmest, most resolute line I could manage and began shaking my head at my parents — meeting their eyes directly and deliberately.
‘No. Absolutely not.’
I shook my head with all the force I could put into it, making it unmistakably clear. In case that wasn’t enough, I mouthed the words as well.
‘Tell him no.’
But Father avoided my eyes. I cleared my throat sharply, wrestling his attention back to me. Then, ensuring Kael couldn’t see, I crossed both index fingers in front of me and gave Father the most pointed look I possessed.
“H-however, Your Grace. Whatever promise of marriage exists between you — a young woman who is not yet wed, taking up residence in the home of a man who is not yet her husband… that is rather—”
“I’ll allow it.”
“…Hmm?”
“…Mother?”
Out of nowhere — Mother’s blessing.
What on earth was happening?
“I’ll confess, I was rather taken aback. I’ve never met anyone who proposed a bridegroom’s apprenticeship before.”
‘Please don’t flatter him. It’s a pretence — nothing more than an excuse!’
The nightmare of the afternoon with Kate and Dorothy flashed through my mind. Kael had worked on them with the same effortless ease — like a nine-tailed fox with an infinite supply of charm.
I needed to pull Mother back from the edge before she went any further overboard.
“M-Mother — I really think this isn’t necessarily the best idea… Father has a point, after all — she isn’t married yet, staying in an unmarried man’s home seems rather—”
Before I could finish, Mother fixed Kael with a look of warm, settled conviction.
“Please take good care of our Ivelina, Your Grace. I look forward to seeing how this month goes. I do hope you’ll take the time to learn all of her little preferences.”
* * *
After Kael had gone.
“‘Waaah’ — why didn’t either of you stop it?!”
I wept again. Properly this time — collapsed onto the floor of the sitting room and wailing without restraint.
Was this really happening?
Was I actually going to be carted off tomorrow and kept in that house for a solid month?
Mother and Father perched awkwardly on the sofa, not saying a word between them.
I had abandoned every shred of composure I possessed — sitting on the floor, sobbing, every member of the household staff free to stare as they liked. I simply could not bring myself to care.
“I mean — you’re carrying on like a princess being carried off to marry a monster from a fairytale. Weren’t you just throwing a fit about dying if you couldn’t marry him?”
“Excuse me — ‘what?'”
“…’Elder sister.'”
“Say it properly, every time, or I’m telling His Grace everything — don’t test me!”
I glared at Jacqueline through my tears, red-eyed and ferocious. He shrank back, suitably chastened — though not without a small, sideways appeal to the fact that Kael was still, in some sense, a presence looming over this household.
My fury wheeled toward Father, who was sitting there in perfect silence. He’d had so much to say to me — and then not a single word for Kael?
“Why are you just sitting there, Father? You’ve gone completely quiet! You had plenty to say to me!”
“What did you just —?!”
“You’re the most old-fashioned, tradition-bound person I know! And you just — agreed to send your unmarried daughter to live in a single man’s house? Don’t start pretending to be progressive now, of all times!”
Father went red to the roots of his hair but failed to come up with a rebuttal, so he simply got louder.
“There — there was nothing I could do!”
“You should have refused! All the way to the end! You should have told him this so-called bridegroom’s apprenticeship was absurd!”
I brought my fist down on the sitting room table for emphasis. Father shot to his feet, fuming.
“I — I was ‘frightened’, all right?!”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“Seeing him in person is worse. Much worse.”
Father exhaled heavily and pressed his fingers to his temple. At that, I found I couldn’t quite hold onto my resentment.
‘He is frightening. The voice alone, the way he looks—’
But still.
“Mother! Mother, how could you just say yes like that?!”
Mother was the truly inexcusable one. She hadn’t even made a show of objecting — she’d simply agreed.
“Ivelina. In all my years, I have never met a man like that.”
“What?”
“A bridegroom’s apprenticeship. Don’t you find it rather remarkable?”
I stared at her, entirely at a loss.
“What’s remarkable about it?!”
“Most men heap their brides with lessons and obligations before the wedding and think nothing of it. But this man reverses it entirely — he takes the instruction on himself. How could I see him any other way?”
“Oh, come on—”
“Go and stay for the month. A man like that doesn’t come along twice. Not ever.”
“‘Waaah.'”
More tears. How was it possible for everything to keep going so spectacularly wrong?
If only my parents had come out firmly against it — that would have been the end of it, wouldn’t it?
I sobbed openly, and no one stopped me.
Tomorrow. Kael had arranged for porters to come tomorrow morning to collect my things. A month’s worth of belongings, to be taken to the Hardeion residence.
“Oh — goodness, I can’t sit here. Emily will never manage all that packing on her own. I’d better go and help.”
Mother stood briskly and swept out of the sitting room, with a distinctly energised air about her.
“Don’t. Don’t pack anything — please — don’t do this to me…”
I scrubbed at my eyes with the back of my hand and cried until my voice gave out.
‘There are bodies in that basement. And a taxidermy room.’
* * *
