“Celia, I would never allow either you, our sister, or your mother to fall lower than we already have.” I said firmly, “I have taken precautions so that – in the event of my early death where neither of you or Anna are married – than all three of you will be taken care of.” I reached down and touched her cheek, rubbing away her tears with my thumb. “We might never live as we once had, but I assure you, you will never lose what you have.” She let out a sob and I looked to my stepmother, “Your mother is a very good bookkeeper. She will ensure what I have saved away will take care of you and Anna so that you two will live just as we do now, forever.”

When I looked back to Celia, she didn’t look soothed at all, crying quietly as she looked around her mother’s shop with a look of disappointment and confusion, making a quiet, unhappy noise at that as she gestured to it. I chuckled and tweaked her spoiled little nose, patting her head as she pulled away from her mother and dragged herself to the steps leading up to the living quarters.

The door to the stairs closed as I sighed, giving my weepy looking stepmother a brief embrace before I helped her put away the things in her shop and neaten it up so she would be prepared tomorrow while I was down at the port getting the fabric. While she went upstairs, I returned to my shop to finish with my work, packaging the gown and making sure everything was locked up before I went upstairs.

As I passed by the girls room to make sure they were both in bed, I saw Anna sitting up at her vanity table and twisting her straight, rust colored hair around cloth strips, something she rarely did outside of important events. Celia’s own golden blonde hair, the same as mine, was braided like usual as she sat up in bed reading the collection of society pages she and my sister had gathered over the years.

I looked back to Anna an eyed her as she did her hair before bid them goodnight, both giving me unenthusiastic replies before I pulled their door closed.

I went to my room then and sat down at my desk to write down in my diary all important things I needed to remember, any expenses and all conversations I had encase I needed to refer back to them.

When I was done, I picked up the stack of mail that I had earlier deemed ‘not in immediate need of attention’ when the carrier came earlier in the day. I fingered through them before I came across one letter in particular.

A letter from my cousin.

Rather, a letter from my father.

I sighed and stared at the wall for a brief second, feeling suddenly very drained. He rarely sent note. Though I communicated twice a week with his son Phillip, who was only three months younger than myself, it was only once or twice a year at most I heard from his – our - father.

I opened the letter and saw a second letter inside. I pulled the enclosed letter and scowled, standing immediately to quickly go to my bedroom door and pull it closed, locking it before I turned to look down at the paper in my hand.

An invitation from the prince Viktor for his twenty first birthday.

I balked and went to read the letter my cousin had written.

Though he owned the land that came with the title, the title was still very much my own. My cousin had half joked he would have taken it for himself if not for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to return to the other kingdom’s high court if he had, but as of right now, I was still the Viscount and the invitation was still for me.

I was surprised to see there was in invite to Christmas dinner at his home – my old home.

But immediately I knew it was surely an attempt by his wife to rub my stepmother’s nose in the changes she made to what had been her home. My stepmother had been kind to me after my mother died, and kind to things my mother had put great value in, and that had included our home. She changed it little by little until it was a home that was her own, but one I could still see my mother in with it’s hints of vibrant blue here and there so I was always able to keep my mother with me in the home she built.

She was very kind like that, my stepmother, which was not in her nature. She was a bit of impish woman and took delights in great drama, but she had always made an attempt to be considerate and protective of me, and it was something that I think saved me from a miserable time in my life when my mother had passed.

My cousin’s wife, however, was not so kind.

As my cousin had openly admitted to me after my father died, my cousin was in fact my father, but he had decided to hold out to marry a much wealthier woman than my pregnant mother, a maid. My mother had always held out to the fact that he might come back for her, but she was forced to marry the only man I would ever know as my father, and my blood father went on to marry an upperclass woman from a very well known house.

Things like that were important to him.

But not to Phillip, my half brother.

Phillip was an upper class gentleman but had crippling, crippling shyness, his voice stammered terribly from him. He closed himself off in his study and focused on his studying and reading, which his grandfather insisted so he didn’t become attached to our kingdom in the hopes Phillip would return to our neighboring kingdom after the civil war ended.

And so Phillip was rather isolated, with no friends outside of myself. He and I sent letters back and forth by falcon, communicating at least twice weekly – sometimes as much as every other day if the weather permitted it – so I considered him to very much be my brother.

And he was just as much on my mind as my sisters when it came to marriage.

Unlike my sisters, who needed to marry for stability, my brother had his own difficulties.

If all went well with the war, my bother would inherit his grandfather’s title of Duke as well as a position in the new king’s court. However, if the war did not go well, then Phillip would be my heir and become the next Viscount.

Either way, we decided between us that he would need to marry a girl local to Evergreen or the surrounding area. If he became duke, then he could take his bride with him and his second son could inherit the title of Viscount of Evergreen. If he did not become duke, then he would be more secure in the area as viscount himself if his bride was already known to the locals.

I frowned at that.

It was a terrible shame that Mildred had confessed to me and not Phillip, since they would have made a fantastic pair.

Mildred was lower class, yes, but she had all the training of a lady and had worked as a governess for several upper class young ladies, since that was about as much as a woman could do with Mildred’s intelligence, the baker’s sister especially gifted in mathematics. Her brother was also well known in Evergreen due to his wedding cakes, since Evergreen was only a half a day carriage ride from our own town.

Phillip would be very open to marrying someone of a lower station, and to be completely honest, upper class men marrying lower class girls was a hugely popular thing in our kingdom due to the fairies showing special favors to those that made such dramatic unions, which is why even lower class girls were trained to be ladies if at all possible.

I suppose though...if I asked her parents, they could very well be supportive of me making an introduction to Phillip.

I could take her to meet them over the holidays.

I had mentioned her a few times in my letters to Phillip, but while I would have otherwise told him about today’s events, I would keep my little conversation with her to myself – or at least, most of it. I would still tell him about it, as it would be dishonest not to, but I would word it a bit more carefully now that I knew that I would be trying to introduce her to him as a future bride.

While I had no doubt he would not mind that she had a previous crush on me, his mother would absolutely use it against her.

And that was the one snag in an otherwise idea match.

His awful mother.

But if Phillip was willing to finally stand up to her…

Then this marriage would be a wonderful blessing to both of them.

I grinned, deciding that I would do everything in my power to make this union a reality.

I would wait to write back to my cousin about his invitation until I confirmed with Mildred and her parents that I could take her with me, and than just she and I would go.

I would never bring my stepmother and sisters to our old home to subjugate them to the bragging and petty show of wealth from my cousin’s wife, but I would absolutely bring Mildred to introduce her to my cousin.

The invite to the prince’s birthday was a bit more complicated.

The invite said would be a masquerade ball, which was no surprise. The fairyfolk loved the mystery and drama of a masquerade, which they often used to sneak in and stir up things themselves. It wasn’t entirely uncommon to have at least one fairy at even a lower class masquerade, brightening things up with a wave of their wands.

There were thirty one founding families in our kingdom – the King’s family and those of his thirty knights, each having defending the fairy against the dragons invading their mountains and been gifted a fairy godparent to bless their efforts as they created our kingdom. Though most of those families had died out, some still hung around and still possessed a fairy godparent that might show up from time to time.

Technically my mother’s family was part of one of the founding family, but I had never seen our fairy godparent, and when my mother died…

I admit I lost faith that we even had one.

I lost faith in a lot of things when my mother died, but my stepmother held restore my faith in family, and so that was where my heart and soul were firmly invested.

Not in the partying of spoiled princes.

I flicked the envelop into the cinders of my fireplace. I would burn it before my sisters had a chance to see it.

In fact, the plan had been to burn it before I went to bed, but I got so distracted drafting a letter to read to Mildred’s parents to ask for permission to bring her to introduce to my cousin, before I knew it, it was time for me to leave for the port.

I got dressed for the four hour journey before I went down to the stables, renting a horse and cart before I went and asked the baker’s father, a retired military captain, if he would ride with me. He agreed, and on the way I read the letter to him and we talked for a while about Phillip and the possibility of the match.

Mildred’s father was willing to let her go, but he knew very well about my stepmother, her reputation for being nasty to servant girls well known even as far as our town. But on my promise to not let her bully Mildred, he agreed to allow her to go with me and came home very hopeful and in good spirits.

That did not last long.

I was one foot in the door when Marge came and told me that Anna had left shortly after I had, and she was nowhere to be found.