Fine I'll marry the Grand Duke Myself!

Chapter 2: The Festival

I numbly walked to the front door to get into the waiting carriage as much as I wanted to enjoy the festival and reunite with Phineas, I couldn’t stop thinking of what the hell my father was thinking of trying to marry me off to the Grand Duke. Not only had I never met the man, but he lived at least a week's journey away from here, as far away from the capital city as he could get, and still live in the same country. He was part of the Imperial family but absolutely detested them with every fiber of his being. I think if he had been able to, he would have cleaned his blood of any part of the Imperial family. There are so many rumors going on about why he hates them so much, but no one knows the true reason. There are also so many rumors that the Grand Duke is a wild man, he’s violent and ill-tempered and his first wife died of mysterious circumstances. Supposedly, she was poisoned by the Grand Duke, but really what did he have to gain from doing that? She was from a lower noble class than he was, quite like me, and she had nothing other than her title. Perhaps she had just angered him one time too many. But surely the Grand Duke wouldn’t risk being stripped of his title and exiled just to get rid of a nagging wife?

I tried to not let Phineas know that something was very wrong with me, and I must have been very convincing, because the rest of the day was a blur of music, dancing, staring into my lover's eyes, and staring down at the small golden band around the fourth finger on my left hand. Even though I don’t really remember doing it, my cheeks hurt from laughing and smiling so much. I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my thoughts and the letters that my father had been writing to the Grand Duke, but, as I was getting into my carriage when it started getting dark, Phineas snuck in at the end of the evening, as it was getting dark. I had to hold back a scream of frustration, I must have played the part of a happy fiancé too well.

“Phineas, what if we get caught by my stepmother!? I’ll be ruined in society!” I whispered keeping in mind that all of the servants reported any of my behavior to my stepmother. A fact that brought me nothing but frustration, I was the head of this household now, but I still feared the idle gossip of servants to my stepmother.

Phineas rolled his eyes and pulled me into his lap, kissing me deeply as he held onto a bar in the carriage with one hand as it swayed and dipped with the road, and held the back of my neck with the other. If we keep it up like this, then when I get home, my stepmother really will suspect something. I tried to pull away from him, but he just pressed me closer to him, trailing kisses down my neck, nipping it gently with his teeth causing me to gasp.

“So what, you’re going to be Mrs. Phineas Chambers soon, let the old bats gossip,” He whispered in my ear, making me blush and shiver. With that, I threw away the last shred of morality and desperately clung to him for the rest of the short ride home.

Somehow with great care, we snuck into my home, and my bedroom with no one catching us. We did come close to being caught when a stable hand came in to feed and brush the carriage horses, but I managed to shove Phineas into an empty stall before the boy saw anything. I suppose that he’s right though, what's a reckless night together matters if I’m going to be marrying him soon anyway. I just hope that His Imperial Highness won’t deny us a marriage license, especially since my father was in talks of marrying me to his uncle.

I managed to grab some bread, cheese, and tarts from the kitchen, while Phineas snuck up to my bedroom. I figured if the servants heard noises from the kitchen they would be more likely to come down here than to go to my bedroom. While I was in the kitchen, I took off my high heels to make less noise when I was walking, so I crept up the stairs with a basket of food in one hand and my shoes in the other, praying that I wouldn’t trip on the train of my dress. As I got to my door I breathed a sigh of relief, thanking god that no one had seen or heard anything. I quickly opened the door and shut it softly, I’m sure my stepmother would be very cross at me for getting home close to midnight anyway, even if she didn’t know that I had a man I wasn’t married to in my room.

“I brought us something to snack on, I didn’t want to chance the servants seeing you if I called for them, besides, it's late,” I whispered, gulping when I saw that he had removed his suit jacket and unbuttoned his crisp white shirt, I could just see some of the dark fuzz that covered his chest.

“Come here lover,” He growled, patting his lap, the basket and my shoes were like lead balloons, I dropped them so fast.

Suddenly there was a soft knock on my bedroom door, and I froze terrified that my stepmother had heard us come in. There was nothing more terrifying than her when she was angry with you. I rarely saw that side of her, but I knew that something dark and evil was lurking behind those steely gray eyes. I heard the knock again, and a soft whisper and looked over at Phineas to see his reaction. Before he saw me looking at him, he had such a cold look in his eyes that I got chills, I'd never seen that kind of malice on his face before.