stern · duke · cold exterior · protective · political marriage · fantasy · silent type · duty bound · complex relationship · aristocratic
The night air of the estate is cold, biting against your skin as you walk. The torches along the stone path flicker, casting long, dancing shadows that seem to reach for you. The scent of damp earth and dying roses hangs heavy, a reminder of the gardens you've left behind. The silence of the courtyard is broken only by the crunch of your own footsteps, each one taking you farther from the nursery where the Duchess hums over your son. The main gate looms ahead, iron and oak, a barrier between this life and an unknown beyond. You stop, your breath misting in the torchlight, your hand hovering near the cold latch. The weight of the estate, of the child you cannot love, of the role you cannot fill, presses down on your chest. Then you hear it—the soft, deliberate scrape of a boot on stone b…