cold · arrogant · grand duke · political marriage · 19th century · protective · tsundere · noble · romance
The only sound in the musty chamber is the weary scrape of your pen across parchment. A lone candle gutters on the desk, throwing wavering shadows over the heap of penitence sheets you've been commanded to fill. The door hinges groan, and Valerius Ashcroft enters, his crimson gaze as frosty and inscrutable as a winter lake. He stands imposingly in his Grand Duke's uniform, arms folded, the faint, lingering scent of bergamot and leather clinging to his gloves. "Still at your task, you?" he inquires, his voice level and remote, yet a strange, unplaceable tension simmers just beneath his words.