“…Oh, my. Your notice came out, Miss. Quite thoroughly fawning, from the first line to the last. It seems you have truly struck the Duke’s taste with precision.”
“I cannot stand this. I told him to hold off on any announcement as long as possible! I’m going over there to have it out with him right now!”
The ‘content’ — what even was that? What were people going to think when they saw her?
‘A butterfly’s voice. Blindness-inducing beauty.’ What on earth.
She skipped her hair and went straight to changing into outdoor clothes.
‘This time I’m giving him a proper piece of my mind.’
She hurried down the stairs toward the front door with every intention of going directly to the Hardeion estate — and stopped.
In the hall of the Florence manor stood a familiar figure.
“Ivelina!”
“Ka — Kate? Dorothy?”
“You’re getting married? To the Duke of Hardeion?! What is going on!”
Kate shook the newspaper open and thrust it toward her.
Dorothy was already bristling beside her.
“What! You’re seeing the Duke of Hardeion?! How could you keep this from us!”
“That — well, it’s—”
She hadn’t even opened her mouth to explain when Kate cut in.
“Are you actually in your right mind? Do you have any idea who that man is? And more importantly — how could you let me find out about your engagement through a newspaper? I’m genuinely hurt!”
“All right, calm down. Let me explain everything.”
Her reassurances were entirely ineffective, and it took her quite a while to talk both of them down to something resembling composure.
* * *
“Why him, of all people? The Duke of Hardeion — do you know how bad the rumors are? I’ve heard so many things from my father alone!”
“…Mm.”
Kate’s reproach was relentless, but Ivelina couldn’t argue. He was notorious. Universally flagged as someone to avoid.
“That’s right! Ivelina, how do you manage to find men like this? He’s completely unhinged. They say he ‘enjoys’ violence.”
She knew that too. The rumor that his hobby was ‘listening to classical music while committing atrocities’ was fairly widely circulated.
‘…I’ve never seen it for myself. Though it might well be true.’
“What bothers me most is that you hid this from me. That’s a genuine betrayal, Ivelina. I’m hurt!”
Kate’s hands struck the table emphatically.
She had meant to offer some vague deflection, but it was clearly not going to be enough.
“All right, Kate. I’ll tell you everything. Just listen without panicking.”
She told Kate and Dorothy the whole story — everything that had happened, holding nothing back. What had occurred, where things stood, what she wanted.
“So — you’re saying you don’t want to go through with this marriage?”
“Yes.”
The agitation in both of them had gradually given way to attentiveness as she spoke.
“Can’t you just say no? If you don’t want to, what can he do?”
“…I tried. I was refused on the spot. Apparently I signed a contract.”
“Goodness.”
Dorothy, true to her fiery nature, produced several fiery and entirely impractical suggestions.
Kate rested her chin in her hand, frowning in thought. She appeared to be working through something.
“Oh! What about this?”
Kate snapped her fingers.
“What?”
“Dorothy and I will help.”
“How?”
“There are ways. Introduce us to him first. We’ll channel our inner nightmare mothers-in-law and make his life enormously difficult. Plenty of couples fall apart over exactly that kind of thing.”
‘…Would that even work on him.’
“Kate — you said you’ve heard things about him from your father. Do you really think you could go up against someone like that? A duke?”
“…Hmm.”
“What if he retaliates? Forget it. This is my problem, I’ll handle—”
“Hey! My friend’s entire future is at stake — why does that matter? And honestly, would he really be awful to his fiancée’s friends? Trust us a little. What’s the worst that happens?”
As Kate made her passionate case, Dorothy chimed in from the side.
“She’s right! Did you read the notice? He’s completely besotted with you! ‘Empire’s greatest beauty! Vision-destroying!’ Just give us a date — we’ll be such terrible friends that he dumps you right there!”
“All right, enough!”
She covered her ears.
After her friends left, she sat with the question.
‘Was it actually safe to introduce Kael to them?’
She had her arms folded and her thoughts running in circles when Emily, having finished making the beds, came and sat across from her.
“I think it would be fine, Miss.”
“What if they end up getting hurt because of me?”
“I don’t think he would do that. The Duke has his dignity — he wouldn’t do anything unpleasant to ladies of standing.”
Right. Nothing to lose.
There wasn’t really anything to risk. She’d bring it up when she had the chance.
‘Though — why hadn’t Camilla come with them?’
* * *
Her friends’ visit had cost her some time, but she still had another matter to attend to.
‘Publishing that notice without so much as asking me?’
She confronted Kael — who was sitting with his legs crossed, entirely composed and entirely unapologetic, as though this were all perfectly ordinary.
“Kael, announcing our marriage without consulting me first — that’s not fair!”
“We’re going to be married regardless. What’s the problem?”
He raised an eyebrow. The mild condescension in it made her involuntarily shrink.
“…W-well. That may be true. But you said you’d hold off on the announcement as long as possible—”
“The fact of our marriage doesn’t change.”
“…Th-that’s also true, but—”
Every point of protest ran straight into a wall of composed certainty and bounced off.
She rolled her eyes internally.
‘How does he not lose a single exchange? It’s genuinely impressive.’
Nothing was getting through. She kept scrunching her mouth into a pout in sheer rebellion, but found she had nothing left to say, and pressed her lips shut.
‘Just wait. I am practicing very diligently to become a woman of questionable morals. I will give you quite the shock, Your Grace.’
One thing at a time, though. First — this.
She made the suggestion carefully.
“Actually, Kael — I’d like to introduce you to my friends.”
“To me? Why?”
‘Why, indeed. What reason should she give?’
“I want to brag about how handsome you are… and they were quite hurt. That I’d been keeping all of this from them, and then suddenly announced a wedding out of nowhere.”
“Hm.”
As expected — a faint shift toward discomfort the moment the words landed.
He was an extreme introvert who didn’t particularly enjoy other people’s company. Of course he would feel that way.
“If it’s uncomfortable, you really don’t have to agree. I can explain things to my friends myself—”
“This Saturday afternoon. Does that work?”
But he agreed more readily than she’d anticipated.
* * *
Saturday afternoon.
She arrived at the restaurant Kael had booked and found herself first. She’d rushed a little from nerves.
“Your reservation has been confirmed. Right this way.”
The waiter led her to a table. Floor-to-ceiling windows, white interior, clean and immaculately elegant.
This was a restaurant known for its multi-course meals. The atmosphere was refined and the prices were steep enough that only those of considerable means could visit — and even with the means, the demand was high enough and the scale small enough that a reservation was nearly impossible to come by.
“Nobody here? I heard this place has a waiting list a mile long.”
Kate came in behind her, looking around with wide eyes as she took her seat. Dorothy arrived shortly after.
“What! It’s completely empty!”
Apart from the three of them, the restaurant was entirely deserted. Strange — this was the height of the lunch hour.
“Excuse me — you are open today?”
Dorothy, never one to sit with unanswered questions, addressed the staff member standing nearby.
“Yes. We have no other reservations today. The Duke of Hardeion arranged an exclusive booking for the full day.”
“…Wow.”
Dorothy, momentarily struck speechless by something she hadn’t expected, scratched the back of her head.
“Not bad.”
“Not bad? Please. For the Hardeion estate, this is nothing at all.”
Kate, more discerning as always, punctured the moment. True enough — for the head of the Hardeion house, this was trivial.
“Right. He does dislike crowds.”
The three of them sat sipping water, glancing around in fits and starts. All of them quietly on edge.
When she came back to herself, the agreed time had passed by ten minutes.
“Honestly. Being late to his own first introduction. This is not a good start.”
“No, it really isn’t. I’m already unimpressed. Time to show him what’s what.”
And then — the sound of measured, unhurried footsteps.
And a familiar, low voice.
“Ivelina.”
