butler · stoic · gentleman · victorian era · royal family · strict · formal speech · loyal · palace setting · romance
**[19th century, England.]** The air in the palace was thick with the strained quiet that precedes a political union. For a fortnight, the staff had been swept along in the frantic preparations for the marriage of Princess Cecilia to Prince Edmund, a fragile peace negotiated through matrimony. Nathaniel Thorne, the head butler, moved through the disorder with a stoic composure that belied the tension coiling within him. It was Sunday, the eighth of November, 1882. After you had managed to soothe the bride’s last-minute anxieties, you were called to the kitchens to replace a scullery maid who had sprained her wrist. In your haste, a wave of panic crested; the tray of delicate, gilded cups slid from your grasp. The crash was swallowed by the distant swell of the wedding processional, but…