The wrong Valemont brother

CHAPTER 4

CRESSIDA’S POV

“Rise and shine, my lady.” Margaret pulled my room curtains apart.

“No,” I groaned, pressing a pillow over my head.

“Come on, my lady.” She walked over to my bedside. “It’s almost time for breakfast.”

“I don’t want breakfast,” I stated. “I have indigestion from last night.”

“That is no excuse.” She ripped the pillow from me.

I finally sat up.

“Good lord,” she gasped. “Are those dark circles? Did you not get any sleep last night?”

“No,” I mumbled. Thanks to the fact

that Lord Lucien’s words kept returning to my mind.

I couldn’t stop wondering why he’d asked me such strange questions and whether there was any deeper meaning behind them.

“I’ll go fix your bath.” Margaret stood up and left the room.

I walked over to the mirror beside my dresser and stared at my reflection with a sigh.

I looked worse than I’d imagined. I was surprised Margaret hadn’t already summoned my mother with all her fussing.

It was stupid of me to have denied myself sleep last night because I was wondering what Lord Lucien meant, when I should not have cared.

He was very much a stranger to me, and I shouldn’t allow one conversation with him affect my life, or my future.

I was going to marry Lord Sebastian. It should stay that way.

After getting dressed, I headed downstairs. Mother was talking to a group of people who I was seeing for the first time.

“What is going on?” I asked.

“Cressida.” She rushed over to me and took my arms, leading me to where they stood.

“Mother what is happening?” I asked again, in a lower voice this time.

“They’re the people in charge of the wedding,” she said.

“Huh?” My brows sprung up. “So soon?”

I knew the wedding was going to happen soon, but seeing everybody preparing like this made it more realistic and that terrified me, more than I could say.

“Honey, I still can’t believe how fast you grew up.” Mother blinked back her tears.

Then she went on and on with the whole story from how I was still on nappies, down to my wedding dress and all.

It was a bit embarrassing, but what could I do? Mother enjoyed talking, and it was almost impossible to stop her.

The best I could do was excuse myself to get some air in the yard.

The servants kept going back and forth with wedding goods, and this made one thing clear to me.

Everyone had already accepted my marriage as inevitable, there was no room for uncertainty.

Right now, everything felt complicated because of Lord Lucien. What was even

his deal?

“Lady Cressida?”

I turned around slowly, and Lord Sebastian was in front of me.

When I thought of one brother, the other showed up. Just great.

“Hi.” I flashed him a smile, knowing it was the only way things could feel less awkward between us, especially with all that happened last night.

“Your mother said I would find you here.” He moved closer.

“What brings you here?” I asked, leading him to the bamboo bench.

“Just checking on you,” he beamed. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes.” I smiled.

Right, this was Lord Sebastian. There was never an awkward moment around him. He simply had too much good energy.

“Are you sure?” He leaned forward. “You look like you didn’t get enough sleep.”

At this point, I almost told him everything that happened with Lord Lucien, hoping that he would enlighten me a bit about his creepy brother.

But on a second thought, I didn’t.

Lord Lucien had not made his motive very clear yet, it would be a disaster if I

was misjudging the situation.

“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “I’m just tired from the ball.”

“That is by the way.” He dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a small pocket watch.

“…”

“For you.” He handed it over to me.

“I can’t accept this,” I said.

“You can’t say no.” He forced the watch into my hands.

“You gift me all the time,” I said.

“It’s because you’re my wife-to-be,” he explained, “if I don’t, then who will?”

“Okay.” I lifted the watch to get a better view of it. “It’s beautiful.”

“Just like you,” he added.

I couldn’t help but chuckle.

With a man like Lord Sebastian, who needed to be in love to get married?

He was nice, funny and very generous. What more could I possibly need?

Besides, people fall in love after marriage, and my parents were living proof of that.

“My parents want us to begin the marriage plans immediately,” he said after a few seconds of silence.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “I can see how fast everything is moving.”

“They want us to get married in a month from now.”

“What?” My eyes shot open. “But…”

“I know.” He sighed. “Some things came up.”

“Oh.” I nodded.

It was funny how fast everything was happening. There wasn’t much time left anymore, my wedding was closer than I imagined. I was going to become a lady Valemont soon.

It should’ve been exciting, I’ve always dreamed of this day since I was a kid, but now that it was almost here, I was terrified.

“Also, my parents want you to come over for dinner.” He continued.

“Sure thing.”

“My brother will be there too,” he added. “You two haven’t had a proper chat yet.”

“Okay.” I bit my lips.

If only he knew just how much we had talked about.

“I hope he doesn’t cause you any trouble.” He chuckled.

“Why would he?” I asked.

I knew Lord Lucien himself was trouble, but Lord Sebastian didn’t know we had talked, so why would he say

that in advance.

He hesitated before casually brushing it off. “That’s just Lucien.”

There was something going on between these brothers. I didn’t know what it was, but there was definitely something.

After Lord Sebastian left, I went up to my room. The sudden shift in the wedding dates still had me thinking.

I stood before my mirror and imagined myself in a wedding dress.

I tried to picture myself standing beside Lord Sebastian but I couldn’t.

I could picture the wedding ceremony, the guests, vows and everything else, just not him.

When I tried to picture how I felt about him, my mind went blank.

At that moment, the one thing I could actually picture was Lord Lucien’s face, looking at me and the question he’d asked.

“Do you love him?”