The Promise of the Dawn

Chapter Twenty-Five: Legacy

The next morning felt like a bad dream as I walked up to the drawing room for my next lesson on how to pour tea, and I was greeted with three all too familiar faces. The Duke's, Brianna's, and Cael's. And they were all laughing merrily before I walked in, a sound which stopped the second I arrived.

"Oh, there you are. For a second I thought you weren't going to show up" The Duke says as he sees me enter the room.

"I'm only a minute late" I reply, glancing at the grandfather clock in the corner.

"Yes, and that's a minute you could spend on your much needed training. Now let's get started" The Duke replies.

Cael makes eye contact with me as he leaves his spot cozied up next to Brianna on the window seat, and makes his way over to his father, and I roll my eyes. He'd become distant since Brianna arrived here.

"Brianna said you worked on your tea pouring lessons yesterday. Let's see it" The Duke commands.

I walk over to the table and sit down daintily, glancing at The Duke and Cael one last time before I reach over and grab the teapot, holding it as Brianna had instructed me to.

"Who taught you to hold the teapot like that?" The Duke interrogates me as I do so.

"Brianna" I reply simply.

"I know for a fact Brianna wouldn't teach you to hold it in such a way, seeing as that way is entirely wrong. Hold it the correct way and stop wasting our time" The Duke demands.

I glance at Brianna over my shoulder, half expecting her to say something, seeing as this was the exact way she taught me how to hold it, but she says nothing, and just stands there passively. I turn back around in defeat, holding the teapot a different way, but unaware of how I should hold it, if Brianna's way wasn't correct. The Duke seems happier with this way of holding it and I begin to pour the tea, but my hands are shaking so the stream of tea is uneven.

"Even streams. Even streams. Honestly, it's like you never learned anything" The Duke critisizes.

I'm taken aback by how Cael is refusing to do anything about his father's behavior towards me. I felt betrayed. Cast to the side.

If I'd ever been anything to Cael, he'd completely disregarded it. He'd said he believed in me. That he was proud of me. But now, it didn't seem so.

"Stop daydreaming and get back to your work. Start again" I hear The Duke demand.

But I wasn't daydreaming. The world was just spinning around me and it was seemingly unstoppable, as all that I'd ever believed in and felt was suddenly stripped away from me.

Again.

I couldn't stand another lesson in how to pour tea into a cup. So I stood up from my chair abruptly, resentfully staring into Cael's eyes before storming past him and his father, leaving the room.

Cael called after me, but I didn't stop for him, nor would I ever. I had suffered through too much, seen too many things, only to be belittled because I couldn't pour a cup of tea correctly. I could defeat an entire squad of trained soldiers. Seduce anyone I was asked to. But just because I couldn't pour a cup of tea, I was seen as unfit to be a Duchess. The unfairness sent me into a fit of rage as I stormed down the hallway, ignoring Cael as he called my name behind me.

I burst through the front doors of the Estate, leaving the guards behind me in a daze of confusion. I'd worked too hard to get here. I wasn't about to let a simple lesson on tea parties stop me. Nor was I going to let anyone else stop me. That is, until Cael caught up to me and grabbed my wrist just as I reached the Estate's pond.

"Let me go!" I yell is exasperation as he grabs my wrist, trying desperately to release myself from his grip, but failing.

"Amaris. Amaris!" He says as I struggle to release myself.

"I will not just be a puppet on your father's string. So if that's what you expect me to be, you can forget it. Go pick someone else more willing for the role. Brianna, perhaps" I suggest, finally releasing myself from his grip.

"Ris, you're overreacting. It's just a simple lesson" He replies.

His response angers me even more and I scoff at him, pushing past him to escape.

"Where are you going?" He asks me.

"Anywhere but here" I respond huffily.

"You want to be Duchess, don't you?" He asks after me as I begin to storm away.

I stop in my tracks, turning to look at him with a pained expression.

"There's nothing I've ever wanted more. But you're not seeming to understand, my lord. I wasn't born to be soft and quiet like Brianna. I was born to make the world shatter and shake at my fingertips, and I was raised to know my worth, which isn't seeming to be respected here. So if being Duchess means that it's normalized for people to belittle and make fun of me, I don't want it. You can pick some other girl more willing to comply to your stupid ideals of a Duchess."

I snap, leaving Cael completely speechless.

"I-" He starts, unable to complete the sentence, but also unwilling to fight for me.

I scoff at his response, my gut dropping with disappointment in him.

"That's what I thought." I reply, turning and walking away from him as I fight back tears.

As much as it hurt to walk away from Cael and the title, I refused to become someone I wasn't. My legacy was meant to be more than just a Duke's wife, I wanted to earn the title, not just marry into it, and as much as it hurt, I knew my father would've been unhappy with me if I agreed to such an arrangement, so I walked away fighting back tears, but with a proud posture.

I walked away knowing I had chosen myself and my own aspirations, over what people wanted me to become, and that felt powerful. It seemed like I had made a good decision when I was standing on my balcony that night, looking out into the gardens as they shone under the moonlight, and two figures entered the moonlit walkway, arm in arm. And I wasn't surprised when they're identities were revealed to me as the perfect Lady Brianna, and her perfect Lord Cael.

They couldn't see me hiding amongst the shadows as they walked down the garden path, enjoying the sweet scent of the flowers and the company they had at their side. But it wasn't until Cael picked her up and slung her over his shoulder playfully as she laughed hysterically, that I came upon my realization.

It had been her all along.

She had been his home. She had been the one he longed to return to. The one he shared all his special places with first. His first, and truest, love.

I had been foolish to think he could love me after having already given his heart to her, and now here I was, the heartbroken one. Lurking in the shadows and watching as the last little bit of light I had had in my life was entirely extinguished, and I was left alone to cry in the darkness of the night.

But I suppose I'd brought it on myself.