Chapter Text
Marguerite’s children grew up to not marry well but for love. Shortly after Leonie and Lorenz’s wedding, she and children departed for the Empire, where they were well-fixed in the ancient traditions and customs of Adrestia. Though she grew to dislike her husband, she did not bear him for long and left him with the support of her brother and sister. Her long letters home to Edgaria often remarked that she was quite happily engaged with a local baroness in the closest of companionships.
Priscilla’s storied political career turned a corner when she spoke to her brother about the possibility of deputy work in Derdriu. The idea was well-received by the newly-ascended Margravine Edmund and her husband, Margrave Hevring, and was proposed before the Alliance Roundtable. It was quickly adopted and Priscilla acted as the first deputy count and soon became the full-time speaker for Gloucester County on behalf of her brother, Lorenz. She never married, instead whole-heartedly in love with bickering with other Alliance nobles. It was rumoured that she lived in the Derdriu administrative building, and the way to find her was to listen for inappropriate giggling.
Valentin and Radia lived out the rest of their lives in Sauin, watching as it became a prosperous village once more. Radia saw her granddaughter married, and peacefully passed not long after their union, as if finally content to see her granddaughter finally settled. Though Radia had accepted Lorenz as her grandson-in-law long before that. Valentin taught his hunting skills to children all around the county until he passed and was renowned as one of Sauin’s best hunters.
Ignatz went down in history as an acclaimed painter. Supported by Lorenz and Leonie, he travelled all of Leicester and even out into the Empire and Kingdom. He painted portrait and landscape alike, and quickly became patronized by many other nobles, including the Gautiers who had been a great lovers of the arts and the Queen of Brigid who had met him through Mrs Kirsten. With newly-graduated art collegiate Maya Kirsten, he opened the Victor Gallery of Arts, the very first art museum in Leicester. His incredibly industrious career made him a well-known figure in both the artistic world and in society. It was rumoured that Ignatz had enough funds to build a private vacation home off the isles of Brigid, where he retired to during the coldest months of the year.
Bernadetta and Raphael were married, with her uncle’s hearty blessing, under the newborn Verdant Rain Moon, at ages 25 and 26. With Bernadetta’s financial knowledge and Raphael’s eagerness to provide the best for his guests, the Kirsten Cottage Inn chain took off and, like it’s proprietors, flourished. They quickly repaid their loans to Count Gloucester and reentered Alliance society as the most giving of people.
With such an advantageous marriage and desperate for cash, Bernadetta’s father, Gregoire, welcomed her back into the family. Bernadetta, who was no longer frightened of her controlling father declined each letter with the hearty support of her very muscular husband. Together, they raised a daughter and two sons, who took over the business once their parents happily retired to Raphael’s hometown of Verona.
Sauin became a prosperous village. With additional funding, they were even able to open a school for mercenary work so the villagers could protect themselves against poachers and bandits. And Edgaria, where many nobles and residents had been annoyed by the rerouting of funds outside the city, learnt to be gracious for what it received, especially after the new Countess Gloucester paid a visit.
The wedding of Leonie Pinelli to Lorenz Gloucester, held at Victor Parsonage, held under the late Harpstring Moon, was cited as the beginning of a new era in Gloucester. Leonie insisted on playing an active role in the political affairs of Gloucester. Many villagers and commoners were still hesitant to trust Count Gloucester and often were more open to speaking to his wife, who arrived on horseback and was always ready to find solutions to problems.
As Count Gloucester, Lorenz dedicated his rule to bettering the conditions for the common folk. The work was never ending and hard, but with Leonie’s support, the two managed to improve conditions in Gloucester immeasurably. With the help of Priscilla’s voice and influence at the Roundtable, their reforms spread across the width and breadth of the Alliance and benefitted all.
They had a large family, comprised of foundling children Leonie had crossed paths with during her work—affectionately entitled her “apprentices”—and children achieved through the act of passionate love. They received their educations not at private academies, but instead in the newly-formed education system, where no loans were necessary to attend. It had been the brainchild of Leonie, affectionately conceived after recovering Lorenz’s first letter to her grandmother.
The couple went down as an extraordinary lord and lady. And while their names were taught of in history books and dramatized in plays and film, they were most well-known for the Wild Rose Festival: a patriotic celebration in honour of the first Gloucester. It is a tradition for one to plant roses—though many these days plant whatever flower they please—for their love with the intention of giving them under the Garland Moon, as Lorenz did each year for Leonie.
Miss F’s Society Papers
31st of the Harpstring Moon, Imperial Year 1188
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Rosedale Estate has a mistress at last it seems. His excellency, Count Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, aged 26, of esteemed Gloucester County has wedded Miss Leonie Pinelli, aged 27 on Sunday, the 28th day of the Harpstring Moon. The wedding was conducted at the former Victor Parsonage, with dear family and close friends in attendance.
The bride, formerly of Sauin Village, was dressed in rather plainly in a white muslin gown. She wore little jewelry, excusing a rustic-looking necklace. However, her hair was lavishly braided into a top knot and adorned with a single red rose. She radiated a beauty despite her obviousness plainness, and, as this author presumes, will be the envy of noblewoman and common girl alike. The groom was adorned with fine silks and satins, befitting of his style and class. As his bride did, he wore a single red rose pinned to his breast.
The wedding breakfast was held in a happy occasion, where the bride rose a tankard and made a rowdy toast to her husband to all (including his) blushing surprise. Before the wedding carriage pulled away, the Gloucesters were spotted throwing silver and gold onto the wedding guests and passerbys in the street. Upon settling in their carriage and setting out for Rosedale, one attendant with his hands full of silver remarked that he had not seen a couple more blessed with beauty, graciousness and love than they.
“Are you almost finished editing that?”
Lorenz glanced up as Leonie came through the door of his study. He rested a finger to mark his spot and smiled at the arrival of his wife.
“Almost.” He replied.
“What did Bernie call it again?”
“‘First Impressions.’” Lorenz replied as she crossed the study with a tankard of ale and a glass of wine in her hand. “Though, I think it needs a new title.”
“That’s a problem for her.” She proclaimed. “I’m sure I’ll get many anguished letters of Bernie trying to come up with an appropriate title.”
“I do not doubt that she will be writing often to you.” Lorenz said as he took the glass from her. He inclined his head in gratitude before he sipped his wine. “Has Piper been put to bed? They refused to leave the stables this evening, I almost had to carry them away.
Leonie nodded and a heaved sigh. “After like ten bedtime stories. I’m telling you, Bernie needs to pause this book,” she jutted a finger at the offending manuscript, “and make another storybook. That kid will read through them all by the spring. The thing’s as thick as your ego!”
He chuckled softly beneath his breath.“If only she could put down the quill for this piece.” He gestured to another two stacks. “This is the third, and I pray, the last of the volumes. I do not know where that woman gets the energy to write with being a proprietress of inn houses.”
“And the three rug-rats. Though, last time I was out there, she was calling the shots and Raphael was out with them.” Leonie shrugged. “I don’t know how she does it.” She said with a smile, then quickly added, “Oh, and the others are out like lights. Nothing like ol’ Pipes.”
“A good day at the stables will do that to them.”
“Nothing quite like good fresh air.” Leonie agreed and sipped her ale. “After all, what are men compared to rocks and mountains?”
Lorenz smiled as he continued down the page, his eyes growing glassy. He had recently become in touch with his emotions, as a noble upbringing had starved him of touch and a regal job deprived him of expression.
That, and the protagonist’s sister had run off and been supposedly lost to the family. Lorenz thought of such a fate befalling Piper or his other children and it chilled him.
“Wow, it really turns on the water works, huh?” Leonie joked as she took a swig of her ale. She sat up on the desk and nudged his glass of wine closer to him. “Go on, drink up, lover boy.”
“I’d wish you’d choose more pertinent pet-names to describe me.” Lorenz sniffed with false disdain.
Leonie leaned close. “Oh come on, it’s one of the reasons why you love me.” She smirked before coyly adding, “Mr Pinelli.”
Taking the opportunity, he closed the book and brought his lips to hers. “You’re right, Mrs Gloucester.” He laughed as she looked dazed from such a kiss. “It is one of the many reasons. I fear I could not count them all, or else I would be occupied for the better part of a year.”
Leonie sat back on the desk and with her head tilted to the side. A smile crept across her face as she grazed the page with her eyes. “Wow, Lizzy’s sorta hasty, huh?” Lower she added, “I don’t like her all that much.”
“I doubt Bernadetta would like that comment upon her character.” But quietly, Lorenz murmured, “Though her Darcy is a smear upon the gentry. What a pompous fool. Thank the Goddess that Bernadetta did not write about the nobility.” And even lower he commented on the ridiculousness of his name, Fitzwilliam.
“I do like Jane.” Said Leonie. “She’s hot, nice, minds her business.” Quickly and sheepishly, she added, “From what I’ve read in between work and the little ones.”
“And Bingley is just ought a nobleman should be. Sensible, good-humoured, lively, handsome and…” Lorenz smirked. “conveniently rich.”
Leonie slipped off the desk, moved behind him and rested her head in the crook of his shoulder and read. After a moment, Lorenz heaved a sigh. “Do you wish to read it?” He asked with feigned annoyance.
She smirked and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “No. Buuuut, I might listen if you read it to me.”
Lorenz smiled and the two got up, collecting their beverages and the volumes. They settled on the chaise longue in the middle of the room by the fireplace, where the flames licked at their legs. Leonie stretched out and staring at the ceiling and Lorenz sat, with her feet in his lap and the first volume of the manuscript in his hands. He flipped all the way back to the first page, took a heady sip of wine and cleared his throat. Smiling at his wife, he read the first words of the manuscript:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
FINIS.