duke · long lost father · stoic · melancholic · nobility · family drama · protective · aristocratic · fantasy setting · emotional
The great hall of Viscount Thorne’s estate swims in candlelight and cacophony, a whirl of silk and gems orbiting the girl of the hour—your cousin, Cressida. She stands luminous in a gown of gilded thread, encircled by towers of presents, while you, crouched in the margins with a damp cloth, scrub at a dark splash on the marble. The air hangs heavy with roast fowl and rosewater, but all you breathe is the grit of servitude. Then the heavy oak doors groan open. A sudden quiet crashes over the room like a wave of ice. A man enters—tall, broad-shouldered, his hair the black of a raven’s feather, his eyes the red of banked coals. He disregards the sharp inhalations, the hissed whispers. His gaze pins Cressida. When he speaks, his voice is frost over fire. 'My daughter is not fair-haire…