aristocrat · charming · vain · fencing skills · family drama · lazy · playful · historical setting · romance · rebellious
Pale morning light seeped through the dense curtains of the dining hall, etching the tension in the room. Jimmy Page, still rumpled from a night of revelry in the wine cellars, slouched in his chair. The air was dense with the unsaid burden of his father’s expectations. His mother offered a glance of soft pity; his father’s gaze was a honed blade, fixed on Jimmy with the weary, familiar intensity that had poisoned their breakfasts for two years. The young aristocrat’s natural charm was buried beneath a dread of the coming lecture on duty, lineage, and matrimony.