Ordained

Chapter Twenty-One

Cassius had let his mother talk him around, and after several cups of tea and comforting words he felt a little better. A little, but not much. The entire plan didn't sit right with him. Forcing a young girl into a situation where she felt her only option was to return home would certainly mean treating her with far less respect than she was due. Lower nobility, or not, she was still a person.

She had been forced into the pairing just like him. No noble woman would go willingly. Yet her streak of good luck in pairing with him, would turn to ash in her mouth.

Retreating to his rooms he made a show of straightening the papers he didn't want to really deal with. Before he had even realised it he had drifted to his window. Being so high up in the manor isolated him from the rest of the house, an entire floor existing between his and his parents chambers, but it was worth it for the view.

Staring out across the gardens, he could see for miles, the far off villages barely distinguishable in the distance. With a sigh he leant his forehead against the glass, his breath fogging up the glass for a few seconds with each exhale.

Cassius watched the leaves shiver in the breeze and he was once again struck by his longing for the Capital. Summer actually felt like summer there, here it was just cold and bleak, the days of true sunshine they had, rare and far apart. Instead he was stuck here with a partner he was supposed to ignore, in a situation he didn't want. Something silvery caught his eye as he visually traced the outlines of the treetops. A flicker of something pale against the greens.

Hair. Cassius squinted for a second before focusing on the source of the distraction. Emmeline's hair whipped in the wind, the pale tresses floating about her as she crossed the garden with her arms wrapped around herself.

She's probably freezing. He thought, his mind cast back to their carriage ride home. He had given her his jacket, her face so guarded but a little pleased as she put the horrendous thing on.

He half turned, his cloak was just across the room, and she didn't appear to be heading inside. Cassius even took a half step before stopping himself. His mother had made it clear how he was supposed to behave.

Chivalry would have to wait for his future wife, because any act of kindness towards the Elva girl would only delay their plans.

With an internal squeeze in his stomach of guilt, he turned away from the window, heading back to the reports he knew he really should be reading. 

.............................

It had been a week since Cassius had returned home and he was already longing for the Capital. He had been sent to the Capital for his education years ago, attending the Royal Academy alongside his cousins the Prince and Princess. While Marcelia had a rugged charm, he wanted to enjoy life outside the duchy as much as possible till he became Duke. When that day came he wouldn't be as free to travel about as he wished, his life tied to the lands he would rule.

Strolling around the gravel paths he was procrastinating heading for his mother's salon. She had summoned him and whilst a good son would have no doubt gone straight to her, he knew what she was going to say and needed a walk before he faced it.

Carmen Marcellus had talked incessantly about the marriage negotiations she had been working on. In times past their family would have held a grand ball where he could have gotten to know potential brides more easily before taking next steps. His pairing however, had forced his mother to act with more discretion when finding him a bride. It was with a kind of eerie detachment that he listened to her chatter excitedly most nights about the progress she was making. He heard her words but they seemed weirdly disconnected from himself, like part of his mind hadn't processed the ramifications of what this all meant for him.