“Tasks? What do you mean?” Lord Wilfried sputtered. He had not refused me, but neither had he acquiesced; he appeared simply confused. However was I to proceed?
“Lady Hannelore, Lord Wilfried must not know about Dunkelfelger proposals,” Lord Ortwin said. He was the picture of calm—contrasting the knights outside the gazebo, who began shouting our names barely a moment later.
“Lady Hannelore?!”
“Lord Wilfried, is something wrong?!”
The walls of the gazebo reached only as high as our shoulders when we were seated. From the perspective of those waiting outside, two of us had suddenly vanished. Their anxious voices grew louder.
“Everything is fine. Lady Hannelore merely stumbled,” Kenntrips assured the knights, waving them away with one hand while urging me to stand with the other. “Lady Hannelore, are you okay?”
“My sincerest apologies, Lord Wilfried. Thank you for easing my fall,” I said, dropping my sound-blocker and scooting away. I had made my move assuming that he knew about Dunkelfelger proposals. If that was not the case, then there was no point in continuing.
Rising slowly to his feet, Lord Wilfried shot me a look of pure confusion.
“Lord Wilfried, are you okay?!” his guard knights exclaimed.
“Yes, thank you. Stand down; we have more to discuss.”
“Understood.”
Having sent away his knights, Lord Wilfried surveyed the gazebo, clearly disturbed by the fact that only he was taken aback. Lord Ortwin gave an exaggerated shrug in response; the look in his eyes told me he was planning something.
“Seems I’m the only one in the dark,” Lord Wilfried said, his expression turning from confusion to determination as he handed out sound-blockers. He gave one to Kenntrips as well. “I suspect you, too, have something to say.”
“Thank you,” the apprentice scholar replied.
Once we were all carrying sound-blockers, Lord Wilfried allowed himself to sigh. “Well? What in the world was that?”
“Do you really not know?” Lord Ortwin asked. “That’s how the women of Dunkelfelger propose to men their fathers would not want them to marry.”
At long last, Lord Wilfried grasped the truth. He turned to me, eyes even wider than before, then swiveled back to Kenntrips and Lord Ortwin, looking deeply uncomfortable. “Lady Hannelore proposed to me?! H-How are you all so calm?!”
Kenntrips’s composure made sense—we had planned this attack together, after all. Lord Ortwin’s, on the other hand, took me by surprise as well. An amused grin spread across his face.
“What can I say? It was impactful, to be sure, but I took her by surprise in much the same way. Interpreting her proposal today as an act of revenge helped to dampen the blow.”
“You did?” Lord Wilfried asked, cocking his head to one side.
I glared at Lord Ortwin. “Revenge” had not been my intention; this had merely been my only opportunity to act.
“Furthermore,” he said, “I now see potential for success in my future.”
I wondered what he meant. The sudden glint in his light-brown eyes was a little bit intimidating.
“I came here expressly to support Lady Hannelore,” Kenntrips said.
“Really...?” Lord Wilfried asked. “Should you not have been stopping her?”
“My reasons are my own. Rather, I am surprised you do not know about Dunkelfelger proposals.”
Lord Ortwin raised an eyebrow at me. “Were you not too quick to act? It stands to reason that if Wilfried was ignorant of bride-stealing ditter, he would also be unaware of your duchy’s proposals.”
“Perhaps, but I lacked the time to investigate,” I said with a glance at Kenntrips, who had urged me to make my move sooner rather than later.
The apprentice scholar crossed his arms and examined Lord Wilfried closely. “Clarissa’s union with Lady Rozemyne’s retainer was the product of engagement tasks. As you were engaged to Lady Rozemyne at the time, I was certain you would have been informed.”
“A woman of Dunkelfelger employed such means to join Lady Rozemyne’s retinue?” Lord Ortwin mused aloud, nodding in response to the explanation. “That assumption is entirely reasonable, then.”
Lord Wilfried said nothing. He looked as confused as ever.
Again, Lord Ortwin raised an eyebrow. “Someone from another duchy entered your fiancée’s retinue. That should have prompted you to investigate, especially when you would most likely have shared retainers once you were wed.”
“I didn’t know...” Lord Wilfried muttered, grimacing out of regret.
“Clarissa’s actions were deemed so serious that when she went to greet Lady Rozemyne during the Interduchy Tournament, Lady Rozemyne’s guardians and Aub Ehrenfest began looking into her,” Kenntrips explained. “We saw no reason to believe you would not have been aware.”
Lord Wilfried frowned and said, “Rozemyne didn’t tell me.” I could hear the pain in his voice.
How could he not have known? He was the next aub and Lady Rozemyne’s fiancé.
The entire situation seemed so curious to me. In the Dunkelfelger Dormitory, Clarissa had spoken openly and with pride about how Lady Rozemyne had asked about the manner of her proposal. We had never considered that the fact she had obtained engagement tasks would be largely unknown in Ehrenfest.
“Well, if he didn’t know, he didn’t know,” Lord Ortwin said. “The important part is what comes next. Wilfried, are you going to accept Lady Hannelore’s proposal?”
“Is what they said true?” Lord Wilfried asked me, still clearly uncomfortable.
I was racked with embarrassment, having leapt on someone who had not even understood my reason for doing so. I would have liked to dismiss the whole thing as some kind of mistake, but I suspected this was the only opportunity I would ever have.
“Yes, it is,” I said. “I ask to be given engagement tasks.”