In response to my request, Lord Wilfried placed a hand on his forehead and sighed, looking even more troubled than before. “Lady Hannelore, what should one do when giving tasks is out of the question? It is not possible for us to be wed.”
“Excuse me?” I asked, so taken aback that my mind went blank. “But you said moments ago that Ehrenfest seeks engagements with greater duchies.”
An amused grin pulled at the corners of Lord Ortwin’s mouth. “What reason do you have to refuse her, Wilfried? If you marry Lady Hannelore, then becoming the next Aub Ehrenfest will prove trivial. You can regain all that you lost when your engagement was undone.”
“No one wants me to become the next aub,” Lord Wilfried shot back.
“You are mistaken,” I said, pushing through my heartache. “I want you to. I wish you would desire it as well.”
Lord Wilfried’s eyes widened in disbelief, then wandered the gazebo as he searched for his next words. I could barely contain my nerves.
“Um, the thing is,” he said at last, “as surprising as it was, I am grateful you confessed. During my engagement with Rozemyne, I wished time and time again to have a fiancée like you instead.”
“Lord Wilfried...” was the most I could manage in response. It astounded me to know he had thought about me that way during his engagement. As I gazed upon him, I felt Efflorelume the Goddess of Flowers begin to dance within my chest.
“I, uh, never even considered that someone might like me. But...” Lord Wilfried paused, then cast his eyes down as if debating whether he should continue. “As I am now, I do not have the right to desire you.”
“Come again...?”
In the blink of an eye, Schneeahst the God of Ice had arrived and blown Efflorelume away. I was lost for words, and my body trembled as my heart was frozen solid.
“Because you are no longer the heir apparent?” Lord Ortwin asked. “If so, marrying Lady Hannelore would—”
“It’s worse than that,” Lord Wilfried interrupted. “Back in Ehrenfest, Melchior and Charlotte are competing to be the next aub. It’s already been decided that I will oversee the province of Gerlach and its surrounding area as giebe once I come of age. My father has instructed me to marry the daughter of an archnoble giebe, be she from Ehrenfest or another duchy.”
“This makes no sense...” Lord Ortwin muttered, his tone dubious. “I knew the cancellation of your engagement made things worse for you, but you were fully removed from consideration?”
Lord Wilfried responded with a tepid nod. I could not help but clap a hand over my mouth; how agonizing it must have been to endure such treatment from his own father.
“That cannot be...” Lord Ortwin said. “Such treatment is reserved for those who have committed a crime!”
“Indeed. I made a grave mistake when I was young. It was only through Lady Rozemyne’s aid that I emerged as I am now.”
“Then your engagement to her meant far more than we imagined.”
Lord Ortwin was correct—had the engagement been a way to make up for his sin, then it must have been more than just another political pairing. It also explained Aub Ehrenfest’s resistance when Dunkelfelger and the royal family insisted on the engagement being canceled.
“Considering my duchy’s factions, I am in the worst position of all,” Lord Wilfried said. “My engagement with Rozemyne was meant to compensate for my shortcomings, but for several reasons, it had to be undone.”
In no uncertain terms, he explained how agonizing it had been to enter an engagement made purely to cover for his faults, the pressure thrust upon him to become Ehrenfest’s next aub, and that he had ultimately lost sight of his own wishes and what it even meant to be engaged.
What a wretched situation! And to think he endured it all that time...
“The engagement was miserable to me, so I welcomed its dissolution,” Lord Wilfried explained. “Lady Rozemyne and I are better as siblings and nothing more. It was when the Zent ordered our separation, intent on adopting her, that my father instructed me to think about the future I desired. I was permitted a year to make up my mind.”
Giving up on his engagement to Lady Rozemyne would prevent Lord Wilfried from becoming the archduke, but an order from the Zent could not be refused. It must have been a time of great strife for Aub Ehrenfest—I could see that more clearly than when I had focused on Lady Rozemyne’s position.
“However, during the Archduke Conference, Lady Rozemyne became Aub Alexandria instead of being adopted,” Lord Wilfried continued. “My father approached me afterward and asked what I wanted to do, but not even an entire year of contemplation had given me a clear answer.”
And so, Aub Ehrenfest had ordered that he become a giebe.
“Gerlach, the same province into which Lady Hannelore took her knights, has long been at odds with its neighbor Leisegang. Selecting a Leisegang noble to take over would cause all sorts of trouble among the locals. Having an archduke candidate become the giebe instead was ideal, not just for repairing the estate but also for creating a window to Alexandria and keeping an eye on the south of the duchy.”
Lord Ortwin nodded, having listened closely. “I understand that an archduke candidate is the best choice, even with the details you’ve had to omit for the sake of duchy security. Still, will the province survive until your coming of age? Surely someone from the archducal family should take over to heal the land ravaged by war.”
“Ehrenfest has no adults to spare. Lord Bonifatius, maybe, but that hardly seems wise; he is retired and sees to the aub’s duties whenever Father is absent from the castle. Not to mention, his house leans Leisegang. I was chosen to become the giebe largely because, out of all the viable candidates, I am the best choice of the appropriate faction.”
So dire was the situation in Ehrenfest that Lord Wilfried was expected to become a giebe the moment he came of age. Such an issue would never have arisen in Drewanchel or Dunkelfelger; our archducal families were much too large.
“How strange...” Lord Ortwin mused aloud. “Are you truly not of the same faction as your full siblings?”