The journey towards the proud lake of their manor was met with only the sounds of their feet walking towards their destination. Aina made small talk, as she was still the host of their current guest. She explained the history of the lake, as it was explained to her before during one of her past lessons. She told her the legend of a spirit who dwells within the lake and brings good fortune to those near it, and that it was the reason why the first Duke of Evrian bought the large plot of land surrounding the lake to build his main manor.
"I see" was all the response she was given after all the words she said. It was too tiring for her. Aina hadn't spoken so much in such a short period of time before.
She wraps the shawl tighter around her, as another breeze plays with her hair, flinging it upward playfully, making the cold, autumn air hit the base of her neck. She shivered at the feeling of the cold, icy air. She turns to her left, where the Duke stood at a distance of a few feet away from her. He had his eyes on the lake, and they seemed to glow as they reflected the setting sun before them.
"Might I ask something?" Duke Fremont turns to face her and Aina doesn't avert her gaze, merely waiting for the Duke. She raises her black lace fan to her lips as she nods.
"Is your father mocking me?" He smiles, yet the coldness in his emerald eyes held no mirth in them.
"What?" Aina was stunned.
"Marry an illegitimate to an illegitimate? Is that right?" his smile dropped, revealing what might have been his real nature all along - his flaw. The Duke eyes her with contempt, as if looking at dirt beneath his shoes. He was insulting her to a degree Aina never knew was possible as a noble.
She's been insulted before, countless times behind her back. But never in her life was she humiliated so blatantly. In front of her. In her own home.
Aina drops the hand which holds the fan on her lips. She glares at her fiance. A truly contemptuous man. She knew there was something that could be wrong with him. But she never knew it was a flaw so horrendous that he began insulting her to her face.
Aina is quiet, that was a trait she always had.
But she wasn't one to back down either.
"And here I was thinking, what a man pretending to be perfect could be hiding beneath his flawless exterior" Aina began, she opened her fan and covered half of her, her pale purple eyes filled with fuelled anger.
"So it was this" she says.
Duke Fremont doesn't respond, but combined with the hostility in his sharp eyes was something else she couldn't identify. Aina steps forward, until there was only a foot of space between them. The autumn air was harsher than ever, and she feels even colder with the tension in the air between the two of them.
"If you wanted an answer to your question, your grace, I don't approve of this marriage, either" she retaliates, fire in her eyes as she speaks her mind for once in her life.
"You weren't hoping to elevate your status to a Duchess, is that it?"
What is he saying? Aina never wanted to punch something more in her life. She already hated being the daughter of a Duke and what? He thinks she wanted to marry one?
"If you have any qualms about this marriage, your grace, why don't you speak with my father, instead? As a woman of this empire, I have no power over the decisions my father makes" Aina wanted so badly to push the man in front of her in the lake.
"And even if I were to choose who to marry, I surely wouldn't choose a man like you, your grace" she sees the change in Duke Fremont's expressions as he went from hostile to taken aback.
Aina smiles internally. A win for me. She turns around and shouts. "Guard!" and she doesn't wait for the Duke to recover from his astonishment. "His grace is feeling cold and wants to return, why don't you escort him back?"
"What about you, my lady?"
"This is our manor, surely no harm will come to me. Tell my father I will follow soon"
The guard nodded and bowed to her before walking with the still surprised Duke of Fremont. She couldn't wait for him to recover and tell her father everything that happened. And even if he tells her father everything, she only hopes he would break the engagement off as well. Though he might break the engagement which would prove to be beneficial for her, Aina doubts he would tell her father what had happened. Most noble men don't like when their large egos get stepped on, after all. If anything, it would be more humiliating for him.
"Bastard" she whispers to herself.
Never had she met a man so infuriating.
She grips her fan tighter as she kicks a stone out of anger. Aina was too angry to care if anyone could be watching. She only wanted to vent.
Her father wanted to marry her off to such a man?
A man with only good looks, and a superficial personality?
But is really a man with a rude, filthy, dirty, and irritating personality?
Aina feels her chest tightening, and it wasn't due to anger this time. It was something else. She clenches at the bareness of her chest, covered in a large, sapphire necklace. What, again? Heartburns have become a weekly thing for her now. She tries to take a breath, only for it to become more painful and she grabs a nearby post for support. Aina feels a warm liquid coming from her chest, slowly rising, and rising until to her throat and she covers her mouth. She feels the warm liquid travelling from her mouth down to her lips, to her jaw and neck. Aina knew it wasn't bile, but blood. She was vomiting blood again. The iron taste left a tang in her mouth as she pulled her hand from her tinted lips and saw her black gloves turned darker. And from the periphery of her vision, she sees small splatters of red on her neck, and her dress. Immediately, she wipes everything using the black shawl. She pulls it away from her shoulders, revealing her bare back and chest to the chilling, autumn air.
Aina carefully folds the shawl to avoid revealing the secrets left behind. She makes sure she is presentable again before heading back to the manor.
.
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