Chapter Eleven
The Worth of a Woman
“Up.” Bella clapped her hands. “Annie, get those blankets off her.”
Annie yanked them away from me, but I reached out and grabbed them, engaging in a paltry tug of war that resulted in my win.
“No. Leave me alone,” I said, burrowing back under them.
“Absolutely not!” This time, Bella was the one who grabbed the blankets, and she was much stronger than me. “You’ve been wallowing in self-pity for the last two days and you must bathe. To speak frankly, you smell like the knights’ quarters, my lady.”
Annie gasped. “Miss Bella!”
My sentiments exactly, Annie.
I had a vague memory of visiting the knights’ living quarters once after a big training session.
Basically, Bella was saying that I smelt like a men’s locker room.
“You have no choice. You have guests coming this afternoon.”
“I don’t want to see them. Tell them to go away,” I grumbled.
“Lady Vivian thought you might say that, so she told me to tell you that she will break down your bedroom door if you do not receive her and Lady Sasha.” Bella sniffed. “We’ve already drawn your bath, so let’s not waste water.”
“You sound like my mother.”
“I’m not nearly old nor elegant enough to dare to dream of assuming such a position, my lady.”
The age part was true. She was the same age as me, after all.
“You will feel much better after bathing.”
“All right, fine, fine. I’ll bathe.” I dragged my heavy body out of bed and allowed myself to be steered into my bathroom. I shed my nightclothes and got into the bath, sinking down into the hot water.
It felt good.
Not that I was going to tell Bella she was right.
Annie and Bella got to work. Annie massaged my hand while Bella washed my hair, and I let my eyes settle shut as they pampered me.
This was one part of this life I could get behind.
I did not miss washing or drying my own hair, and the hair I had now was infinitely thicker and longer than mine had been in my past life.
“Forgive my impudence, but is a marriage to the Grand Duke really this disastrous that you must forlornly take to your bed, my lady?” Annie asked, massaging my fingers. “I would have thought him one of, if not the, most eligible bachelor in the empire. He is rather handsome and quite powerful.”
“He’s also quite fearsome, if the rumours are to be believed,” I replied.
“But you danced together at the ball.”
“I hardly had a choice. To reject his offer would be a slight against the Imperial Family.” I sighed. “Don’t misunderstand—he’s a perfectly suitable marriage partner, but he’s one I do not desire for myself. I don’t believe we are compatible in any way.”
“I’m not sure, my lady,” Bella said, massaging my scalp. “Does anyone really know anything for sure about the Grand Duke? All we have are rumours. Given that the nobles are split into two factions between the princes, there’s every chance those rumours might have been exaggerated.”
No, Bella.
I’ve read this book.
They’re not all exaggerated at all.
“I heard he cut off a servant’s hands after they were caught stealing from the kitchen in Stein Castle,” Annie said, moving to the other side of the tub for my other hand.
“And that he beheaded one of his aides in His Highness’ own bedroom after they were found to have been spying on him for the Empress. ”
Yeah.
The second one was true, at least according to the book.
Maybe I was a little cuckoo in the head, but I thought it was a relatively reasonable reaction. Although I might have chosen a room without a carpet.
Blood was a pig to get out of fabric.
Huh. Maybe we were somewhat compatible after all.
“Then perhaps his aide shouldn’t have been spying,” I replied blithely.
“It would serve as quite the deterrent for others, my lady.” Bella rinsed my hair. “That said, Stein is quite beautiful. The winters can be harsh, and I believe there’s snow on the ground there even now as we enter spring, but the community in the local towns and villages are unlike any other.”
“How do you know so much about Stein, Miss Bella?” Annie asked, looking at her with awe.
“Ah, my cousin is married to a young lord there.”
Wait.
Bella’s family were all commoners. How did her cousin marry nobility?
“A lord?” I asked. “What’s the societal structure there?”
“I never thought my useless knowledge about the place would come in so handy, my lady.” Bella giggled.
“It’s quite simple. Despite officially being a part of the empire, the province is self-governing with its own knightage, so the Grand Duke and Duchess are essentially the King and Queen in all but name.
Because of it, the Grand Duke has the power to grant a selection of noble titles to residents of Stein. ”
Right. It’d been a self-governing duchy before the Great War, and that was one of the reasons it’d been granted to Kalon in the first place. The Empress thought it might deter him and his supporters from challenging Torin for the throne if he had what was essentially his own kingdom.
The residents of Stein had surrendered after the then-duke attempted to run away, and Kalon had shown them all mercy, especially since several nobles had turned to the empire’s side beforehand and helped his army get to the castle.
The residents hadn’t been too upset to be swallowed into the empire as long as they maintained their autonomy, and I’d heard that the previous duke and his nobles had almost driven the province to ruin with high taxation—something Kalon had immediately changed upon assuming his role.
“It’s a larger place than you think, so the Grand Duke formed a council to manage it and gave each member either a barony or a simple lordship assigned to an area for them to watch over.
For example, there’s extremely fertile land to the southeast on the river, so there are now two young lords who manage the farmland either side of it.
Their families have been working that land for years, so it wasn’t a great change. ”
He’d essentially granted a whole bunch of fiefdoms.
“And your cousin married one of these lords?”
“Yes, my lady. The Grand Duke didn’t surround himself only with born nobles, but also commoners who have lived and worked there all their lives.
My cousin was already in love with Lord Idris when he received his barony, and the Grand Duke allowed them to marry.
I believe it was also the case for many others. ”
“Can the titles be inherited by their children?”
“Only if the child continues the position of their father,” she answered. “But they aren’t obligated to do so.”
“So, the title is tied to the position, not the family.”
“I suppose you can put it that way, my lady.” Bella helped me get out of the tub and wrapped a towel around me.
“That is why I don’t hold much faith in the rumours we hear here in the capital, you see.
I haven’t seen my cousin since her wedding, but we do exchange letters, and she says the Grand Duke is a fair and just lord of the land.
Reforms are slow, but they’re meaningful. ”
“Hm. Thank you for sharing all that with me.” I clutched the towel to my chest.
I knew that last part, of course. Even in the book, Kalon had been portrayed as a strong, capable ruler who was respected by his people in Stein, whether those people be his knights or the farmers ploughing the fields.
I hadn’t known about the rest, though.
The more I lived this life, the more I realised how fleshed out this world was compared to what I knew from the book. Which made sense—it was told through one point of view, and that was of a naive countryside noble. Of course I didn’t know everything there was to know.
Would the knowledge I possessed be enough to save my life in the end? Or would the missing gaps be my downfall?
More importantly, my fate was seeming to play out exactly like Alicia’s had in the book. It seemed as though there was no way to avoid my engagement to Kalon, so perhaps I had no choice but to leave for Stein.
I really thought I’d changed the story enough to veer my path off its predetermined course.
I’d stood up to my stepmother and sister, something that had resulted in making my father aware of their scheming.
Thanks to whatever he’d said to them, they’d largely left me alone since Lady Georgina’s tea party, and now, they didn’t dare touch me since Kalon’s proposal became known within the household.
They still huffed and puffed and screamed and shouted, of course, but words were all they had. They couldn’t do a thing to me. Father was no longer blind to their mistreatment of me, and to mistreat me could be interpreted as going against the Imperial Family.
I also had friends. Friends that were destined to be Lillia’s, strengthening my position even more.
In the book, Alicia had seen other people as little more than pawns to be used as she wished.
While my motives for connecting with people weren’t much purer than hers, I’d done what she failed to do: I’d cultivated real friendships with the ladies.
We’d bonded, and I’d been wholly accepted into their high society circle.
No. I had changed the story. Just because this was moving against my wishes right this second didn’t mean that I couldn’t keep changing the story.
An engagement didn’t have to mean a marriage.
After all, I’d proposed a contract engagement to Ezra without an explicit intention to get married at the end of it.
Getting engaged to Grand Duke Kalon Stein might have been inevitable for me, but was that the case for the marriage?
Was there a way I could stop a wedding from happening?
“All done, my lady.”
I blinked at Bella. “What is?”
“Your outfit.” She smiled. “You were daydreaming the entire time.”
I looked in the mirror. She was correct—my hair was dry and styled, I was fully clothed, and my makeup was done perfectly.
I had absolutely no recollection of any of that happening.
“Lady Alicia,” Caldwell said from outside the door. “Your guests are waiting for you in the lavender sitting room.”