The Duchess Cannot Sleep || ONC 2021

1 | The Duchess

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Marivatan Manor, Nasavte
Eighteen years later
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Andreya pulled the ivory curtains aside to peer through the window, her other hand checking the lock on the door for the fifth time that day. Upon sight of the empty front garden, she brushed past the door and down a short flight of stairs to the kitchen, where she touched the lock on the servants' door and instinctively glanced at every window in the room, though there were only two. Both were closed and locked.

Andreya pulled the many layers of her navy dress up to her shins to tackle going back up the stairs and peeked at the front door lock again as she passed. Her morning rounds were extra fastidious today. Extra thorough. Extra safe. She'd made sure of it after the letter she'd just stumbled upon with its jade wax seal and its crest from the Radenbutan House. The Radenbutans kept order in Nasavte, and order, for Andreya, never seemed to be of the good sort.

"If they see me," she muttered to herself, pulling closed the minuscule gap in the full-wall draperies and bathing the parlor in semi-light. "If they see me, if they see me..."

She tossed a stray lock of hair from her face and plopped into her seat in a pool of fabric, continuing to chide herself in a lower tone. She couldn't continue hiding in her family's manor forever, denying every ball or offer of courtship, every tea party and social outing. Even invites from the royals went unopened, gathering dust in the chest she'd placed next to the front door for the very purpose of collecting unwanted mail. It had been something like seven or eight years since she had openly participated in social activities. The only person she ever saw was in the mirror that used to stand in her room, and the woman there was still twenty-two. Andreya was far from twenty-two, and so the woman in the glass was not her. She didn't even have herself for company.

The clock chimed mid-afternoon and Andreya jumped into a brisk round about the house again, checking every window and every door and tugging every curtain and redoing every lock just to hear it click. When she swept back by the front window she came to a skidding halt, pulling the curtains apart with a single finger just enough to see the garden. There, her fears had come true in the form of a jade carriage out of which emerged two well-dressed men and their elegant sister, Teline. The Radenbutans had known her entire family for generations, which was precisely what made them so dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. Too dangerous by too much.

They and one servant wove through the short garden path to the front door whose window Andreya was peeking through and Andreya prepared herself to meet them in every way she could think of. Straightened her hair—though she'd broken all her mirrors months ago—yanked her traveling cloak from the rack and flicked the hood up, pulled on her periwinkle gloves and placed a dainty, shaking hand on her corset, under which she had hidden a dagger. When the Radenbutans were close enough she could hear the clack of their shoes, Andreya swung the door open and burst out, apparently in a hurry and nearly knocking Teline over.

"Oh!" Andreya gasped. "I'm terribly sorry, I was just on my way to my cousin's estate, if you'll excuse me—"

"Andreya?" Teline's dark eyebrows shot up. It had been over a decade since they had last met and unlike Andreya, Teline actually looked the part. "Is that you, my dear friend?"

Andreya tried unsuccessfully to slip through them while hiding her face. "I'm terribly, horribly sorry, I really must be going—"

"Duchess Marivatan." The oldest Radenbutan's harsh voice made Andreya stiffen. "We sent notice two weeks ago announcing today's visit. You'll kindly remember our audience with you today is made obligatory by King Diewel himself."