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The next time Aina woke up was in the dimness of her room. She feels the sensation of her light, satin sleeping gown across her skin and knows that her maid probably changed her out of her dress. She looks out of the window beside her bed and sees the moon casting a shadow on the trees outside. It was midnight, she assumes. How long had she been out of it?
"My lady?" She felt a ruffle beside her and saw her maid seated beside her bed, with a towel on her hand. She looks as if she had just been awoken from sleep. Was Allie sleeping on the chair beside her? That couldn't have been comfortable at all.
"Allie" she says and her maid slowly sobers out of her sleepiness. "Go back to your room, what are you doing, staying here?" she says, slowly getting up from her bed with her maid's help.
"You were unconscious for more than a day, my lady. Everyone was worried" Allie looked as if she was on the verge of breaking into tears but was holding herself. The maid's eyes were glassy as she gripped the towel in her hand tightly enough that it looked like it was being suffocated.
"Was I?" Aina looks out the window, gazing above at the moon staring down on her just beyond the large arched windows of her room.
"The Duke has ordered for the medic to stay near your room for the time being. And Lady Leianna has informed him that you had just recovered from a fever" Allie informs. She straightened her back as she asked, "Do you want me to fetch the medic, my lady?"
"No need" the information that the medic was staying nearby made Aina irritated. She doesn't like medics, not when they were the reason her mother had died.
"Please, please help my mother!" Aina begged until her knees were scraped from kneeling against the harsh ground.
"You beggar! You wouldn't even have any money for your mother to be treated!"
"No, please!"
Aina shrugged the memory from her mind. She tossed her cascading, black hair to her back as she used her whole strength to slip away from the warmth of her bed. Wait, warmth?
She looked at the fireplace, and what was usually a cold, dusty mess was now crackling with the heat of warm fire. Warmth that she hasn't experienced since the previous head butler, Thomas has retired from his job. Aina's pale eyes reflected the blazing fire of the fireplace, and for once in her life, she didn't feel lonely.
"Go to your room and have a rest, Allie. I know you were tired from taking care of me" she says, and she didn't reply when her maid excused herself and left the room quietly.
Aina walks to the window seat just beneath the large arched window that shows a view of the spectacular moon that hung above the sky. She took the brown shawl that laid on it and wrapped it around herself. Aina takes her knees to her chest as she rests the side of her head on the glass to her right, quietly observing the view she had of the large lake outside her room that reflects the moonlight magnificently. The silence that surrounds her room was her only solace and she tries not to think about her family. The Duke, Yulian, Arkin, and Leianna.
Even the Duke of Fremont.
The marriage.
She wanted to forget it all.
"In the end, I'm being used as a political pawn" Aina was more than confident before that the Duke would never use her politically. She was a bastard, therefore no one of particular significance would want to marry her. At least, no one significant enough that would make the Duke gain even more power. However, she hadn't expected that the Duke of Fremont would be desperate enough to take an illegitimate child as a wife.
What's the difference?
What makes him so desperate?
She knew everyone would just ridicule him. An illegitimate child, though included in the family registry, was in the end, still illegitimate. A bastard will forever be a bastard. And even if Aina were to bore an heir, that child would never be considered legitimate, at least in society. At most, Aina would probably be a concubine of some high-ranking noble. But she always thought the Duke would never do that to her.
I thought wrong.
"I've always been confident that the Duke will never marry me off. I guess my insight had been wrong" she whispers to herself.
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Duke Lorian Fremont had always been a bachelor unparalleled to anyone else. Though born as a product of the Duchess' affair with another man, the previous Duke Elvin had always treasured and treated him like his own. The previous Duke, overwhelmed by his love for his wife though she was unfaithful, remained loving her till the end of his last breath. After the previous Duchess died from birthing Lorian, the previous Duke took everything in his power so that he wouldn't ever feel the loss of a mother. He did everything for his son, except take in another wife.
Soon after Lorian turned 20, the Duke passed away, unable to cope with the loss of his wife anymore, and at the age of 20, just after he became an adult in the eyes of society, Lorian was titled the new Duke of Fremont.
Though he had the support of the Emperor as well as the Duke Evrian, the eyes of society barely acknowledged him as the new Duke. To them, he was simply a man with tainted blood, impure and dirty. They always showed their distaste for him, that he wasn't meant to be the new Duke Fremont. And that instance really aggravated him.
Young and ambitious, Lorian wanted nothing more than to dispose of those who threatened his position. Similar to a wounded beast, he acted cautious around the people, and punished those who dare to even speak of his legitimacy. In doing so, Lorian was able to grasp most of the authority the other nobles attempted to take away from him. Though they didn't approve of him, he was and still is, the Duke of Fremont that the previous Duke had chosen.
But still, ambitious as he was, Lorian knew that wasn't enough.
He needed something more convincing. And it was during those days that one of his vassals suggested something to him.
A union with the most prestigious family in the Empire, the Evrians.
Marriage.
There was talk that the eldest daughter of the Evrians was soon to be engaged with the Crown Prince. Still, Lorian had thought that was just mere baseless rumors. He wasn't one to listen to such rumors anyway. However, the reply that came from the Duke had him seething.
To Duke Fremont,
I assume you have already heard of my eldest daughter's upcoming engagement with the Crown Prince, therefore, I am assuming that you are asking for the hand of my youngest child, Ciana Evrian. If you are able, Ciana would be willing to meet the Duke.
Sincerely,
Duke Alixandre Evrian
Lorian had crumpled that reply in his hands the moment he read it. Of course, he is talking about Leianna Evrian, and not the second daughter. He didn't know, however, that the rumor of her upcoming engagement with the First Prince was real. In the end, the Crown Prince had already taken the first daughter and left him with the second insignificant daughter.
An illegitimate child.
Just like him.
Lorian seethed. He doesn't know if the Duke meant no harm, but even the thought that he wanted an illegitimate child to be his bride meant even the Duke had no ounce of respect for him. How dare he suggest I marry a bastard? Lorian didn't even care that he was also a bastard, only that the notion of the suggestion that came from the Duke irked his nerves.
I am the Duke of Fremont.
Lorian had kept repeating the words in his head. If he repeated them enough, he would believe them. Lorian was the Duke, he deserved respect. He wrote that letter hoping to establish his authority through marriage, and what? The Duke wants to wed him to his bastard? He almost wanted to throw the letter to the fireplace.
He thinks for a moment. Though a bastard, the youngest daughter of the Duke is still an Evrian. If rumors proved right, she was distant from her family and barely went out to society. Still, she bore the name Evrian. And that was enough for Lorian to think deeply of his plans again.
"Peter" he calls the name of his most trusted assistant.
"Deliver this letter to the Evrian duchy and tell them I ask to meet Lady Ciana as soon as possible" he orders, as he takes a sip from the glass that contains brandy.
"Yes, my lord"
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