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Chapter Text

Penelope felt cold, a chill creeping into her hollow bones; her heartbeat a slow, muffled thrum in her ears. A sticky warmth spread across her skin, her blood soaking into the delicate fabric of her dress; but more than the cold or the pain, she felt a deep and profound exhaustion. peaceful kind of weariness though, as if at last, she could let go of the ceaseless burdens that had weighed upon her: those accursed Eckharts, the scrutiny of every step, every breath.  

Her eyelids fluttered, heavy with the promise of release. The end was near, and she welcomed it with quiet resignation. 

Oddly enough, a warmth began to bloom within her, spreading gently throughout her limbs. It was not the sting of life slipping away, but something softer, something comforting. 

With great effort, Penelope opened her eyes. The world swarmed before her, a haze of color and light; until her gaze focused on what -or rather, who- held her. 

She laid cradled on a lap, the lap of a woman she had long lost: her mother. 

The sight of that familiar face, framed by soft shadows, brought a laugh to Penelope's lips.

It was cruel, wasn’t it? A trick of a dying mind; and yet, the touch of her mother's hand as it threaded through her magenta locks felt too real to be mere illusion.  

“Rest now, my Penny,” her mother murmured, her voice like the whisper of wind through summer leaves. 

Penelope’s chest tightened, a flood of emotion rising unbidden. How many years had passed since she had last heard that soothing voice? Since when had she felt such tender care? She wanted to nod, to tell her mother she would, but her body betrayed her.  

“We'll soon meet my sweet baby.” She heard her mother whisper, and there was nothing she desired more at that moment than reuniting with her mother.

Penelope could no longer keep her eyes open. Her chest slowly rose and descended. Then there were soft lips, pecking her forehead. Her chest rose again once before never descending again. She had met her end gracefully despite dying so horrendously at the hands of that bastard of a crown prince.

"...ady."

“...My lady.”

“...Wake up, my lady.”

The voice was persistent, pulling her from the haze. Penelope’s eyelids fluttered, heavy as if weighted with lead. Her vision adjusted to the brightness.

 “My lady.” Was that voice referring to her?

She shot up, panic flashing through her, only for a sharp, searing pain to shoot through her arm; trailing up to her cubital fossa like a bolt of lightning. 

A painful groan escaped her lips as she clutched at her arm. She winced, her breath hitching as realization dawned.  

Her eyes fell to her skin: familiar marks dotted her arms, a constellation of purples, deep reds, and browns scattered like stars. 

“You're up.” The voice spoke again. Penelope quickly turned to face the direction in which the sound came from. It was that pesky maid. The sight of her sent a flare of irritation through her. 

She stayed silent though, her mind racing to process something more attention worthy: she was alive, but she remembered dying. It wasn't a nightmare. The feeling of metal slashing her, it felt too vivid. Somehow, she had have to regressed; she wasn't mental? Was this another dream? But pain isn't felt in dreams, it?

Just as her chest began to rise with the start of an outburst, the maid interrupted, a smirk playing on her lips. “I’ve prepared you a bath, please wash yourself, my Lady.”  

Her expression darkened, anger swelling within her. “Get the hell out of here before I grab you by the hair and bash your head against the wall! I want to be alone!!”

The maid’s smirk vanished in an instant, replaced with wide-eyed fear. She scurried from the room in a flurry of skirts, her steps clumsy like a frightened mouse.  

Penelope groaned, allowing herself to fall back onto the soft embrace of her bed. 

The realization struck her fully now: she had gone back. Back to this wretched life she had struggled so desperately to escape.

As the weight of it all settled on top of her, she curled into herself, trembling as despair crept in. Everything: the misery, the pain, the suffocating expectations; she would have to endure it all over again. 

Tears burned at her eyes, and despite her efforts to keep them at bay, they spilled over, tracing silent paths down her cheeks.  

Penelope cried softly, alone in her room. She had been so close to resting.

A knock interrupted the sorrow. She scrambled to wipe away the remnants of her tears, her composure slipping into place just as a voice called from the other side.  

“Breakfast.” The voice was unfamiliar, neither that of the pesky maid from earlier nor anyone Penelope recognized off of the top of her head. 

The door creaked open without permission, though Penelope made no move to stop it. She remained seated on her bed, watching as a new maid entered, balancing a tray covered with polished silver

The maid set the tray down with a courteous bow, her movements practiced but brisk. “You look famished, m’lady. I hope you enjoy your meal.” Without awaiting a response, she turned on her heel and left, the door clicking shut behind her.  

Penelope didn’t move. She eyed the tray with disinterest, knowing full well what was beneath the meal cover: spoiled food, as always. A waste of time, of her little energy, and of emotion. She had grown accustomed to skipping breakfast, and today would be no different.  

Leaning back against the headboard, she let her eyes drift closed.

The peace shattered abruptly as her door swung open with a crash.  

“What’s the problem here?”  

The familiar voice grated against her nerves. Penelope’s eyes snapped open, settling on the figure now standing in her doorway. Reynold. He was louder than necessary, his tone already tinged with irritation.

Then he froze, standing there frozen for a moment. Clearly, he had barged in expecting chaos; perhaps another skirmish with the staff.

Penelope scowled at him, her voice sharp. “Don’t you know how to knock? What if I had been changing?”

As always, in his usual sense, Reynold dismissed her entirely, stepping further into the room as if her words were no more than background noise. “I asked what the problem was.”  

“There is no problem. I want to be alone, get out.” The glare she sent him was cold.  

Reynold scoffed, ignoring her command as he scanned the room for evidence of trouble. “Like hell I will,” he retorted. His sharp blue eyes darted to the tray on her table, where her untouched breakfast sat beneath its cover.  

Penelope watched with thinly veiled amusement as he reached the tray and lifted the lid, his gaze flicking to hers with a smirk. 

He grabbed the first thing he could to antagonize her: a piece of bread.  

“Why are you smiling at me like a Cheshire cat?” he snapped before taking a large bite; too distracted to notice the gray-green blotches of mold until it was too late.

The moment the taste hit him, Reynold paused, his expression contorting with horror. He spat the bite out immediately, his disgust palpable.  

Penelope’s laughter burst forth, the sound light and genuine, startling even herself. Reynold shot her a murderous glare, but it only made her laugh harder.  

“Did you do this?” He growled, pointing to the moldy bread, his voice trembling with fury.  

Penelope, still laughing, wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye, showing no sign of stopping.  

Reynold’s grip on the bread tightened as he raised it threateningly. “Do you find this funny?”  

“I find it funny that you think I would waste my breakfast on someone like you.” Penelope managed to reply between fits of laughter, her tone laced with mocking amusement.  

“Your breakfast?” Reynold repeated, his anger faltering as confusion began to sweep in.  

Penelope exhaled deeply, finally stopping her laughter. “Obviously. Did you not catch the maid on her way out? She just left it here before you barged in. I hadn’t even unsheathed it yet.”  

His expression shifted to one of contemplation. “A maid would not dare to pull such a thing. She served me breakfast earlier, and it was perfectly fine.”  

Penelope deadpanned, her tone flat. “Of course, she would not do that to you. You are the young master; I am just the fake daughter, remember?”  

Her words hung heavy in the air. Reynold’s jaw clenched, anger bubbling once again. “How could she do that? A mere maid! You are her master; a Eckhart, for crying out loud!” His voice rose, ignoring her pointed reminder of her status.  

Penelope rolled her eyes, her exhaustion returning in full force. “Spare my ears, Reynold,” she muttered, her tone dismissive.  

Ignoring her, Reynold crossed the room in two long strides, now by her bedside. His anger had been replaced by an urgency she had never seen before

“How long has thi-” His words abruptly died on his tongue.  

Penelope turned to look at him, confused by his sudden silence. His face had softened, his brows furrowing as he stared at her.

“H-Have you been crying?” he asked, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.  

“Why do you care?” Penelope quipped, quickly turning her face away from him. 

“Why do I care?” he muttered, exasperated, more to himself than to her. Then, “Have you eaten yet?”: A change of topic.“

Have you eaten yet?” she mocked him, her tone dripping with sass. “No, you moron! I have been awake for less than an hour! Have you forgotten what they served me?” Her sharp words struck like a whip. “'Have you eaten yet?’” she repeated, her voice laced with mockery. 

Usually, Reynold would have snapped back, a retort on the tip of his tongue, but today was different. He hesitated, caught off guard by the rawness in her voice, the hurt that still lingered there. Perhaps it was because he noticed the remnants of tears on her face. Or perhaps it was something else. He couldn't bring himself to argue.  

“Whatever then,” he muttered, his anger dissipating as quickly as it had appeared. He turned and left, leaving Penelope to her thoughts.

Penelope rolled her eyes, the familiar bitterness creeping back. “What an imbecile,” she muttered as she watched him disappear.  

She laid back in her bed, staring at the canopy fabric above her, feeling both weary and restless. Her mind raced; unconsciously, her fingers traced the area where the crown prince had sliced at her throat. The memory was vivid, almost too much to bear.  

Her hand fell from her neck, and she wiped away a tear that threatened to spill. 

Then, harsh reality hit her like a wave. If she had really regressed, then she was heading down the same path as before. She would die at the hands of the crown prince, just like in her past life. And Yvonne... Yvonne would return.  

The thought sent a chill down her spine. She had to change things this time, there was no other choice. She couldn't die like that again. She wouldn’t.  

Suddenly, two knocks on the door startled her.

“My lady,” the door opened, “The duke is looking for you.” revealing the head butler. The same butler who she held a years long grudge against for not defending her from the accusations all those years ago when she was framed. The same butler who she hated for not showing her respect as a noble, but more importantly as a woman. He enters a lady's room without even awaiting her answer.

Penelope glared at the old bastard, “I'll be down soon. Can you not see I'm still in my sleepwear still? Get out so I can change you perv!” The butler quickly left the room before just as quickly informing her that he would be waiting to direct her to the duke's office.

Penelope stepped out her room wearing a dark colored dress with red, cream colored ruffles, and bows. No words were shared between the two of them. The butler began to walk in front of her. She was already beginning to receive stares from the maids. Some of them had even stopped working to turn to their nearest coworker to gossip.

“You know what?” Penelope stopped in the middle of the hallway. The old butler turned to face her, a perplexed expression painted on his face. “I've visited the duke's office more times than I can count. I won't get lost, so I'll take myself there.” The butler went slack. “Go on and do whatever butler duties you usually do.” She began to walk ignoring the stares and leaving him behind with the surprised maids.

“The lady seems different somehow.” The butler spoke to himself. Despite being a fiery spitball, Penelope was an obedient girl. She complained and whined yes, but she still did as she was told without protest. Her defending herself without shouting was certainly something peculiar to witness.

She made her way to the duke’s office quickly yet gracefully. Penelope gave the door a simple single knock. “You're here.” He spoke as soon as she entered his office; he failed to look her in the eye.

“I was getting dressed.” Penelope did not apologize for her tardiness. Usually, as soon as the duke called for her, she would drop everything to keep him from waiting. “...” The Duke found this odd.

“Why did you ask for me?” She questioned approaching his desk.

The duke cleared his throat, “There was a commotion this morning.” He had not looked her in the eyes yet, it seemed like papers were more interesting than her at the moment.

Penelope stayed quiet for a moment, not sure what to say. The duke slammed his fountain pen on his desk before looking at her in the eyes with a serious expression. “...”

She clenched the side of dress skirt. The fabric felt smooth and expensive in her manicured hands. “It's nothing your grace should worry about.” She finally spoke.

“Penelope.” The sound of his voice made her flinch. “It has already been six years since you've joined this family. I don't know if you know this, but it's not easy to set foot into this mansion. Only those who have proved their worth through strict testing may enter through our gates.”

Penelope held herself back from rolling her eyes, she did not want to hear this speech. She had already heard something similar before, but things were going to change this time around. So, she stayed quiet and let him yap.

“After adopting you, I did not once hesitate to fund you as the lady of the family. I even allowed you to spend your money lavishly.”

“...” It took everything from within Penelope not to grab the Duke from the collar and shout at him at that very moment. She wanted to shout that she never wanted the money; that she wanted a family; all she ever wanted was to be loved. He was the one who never taught her how to properly emotionally express herself. He was the one who told her to buy things when all she wanted was him. Penelope used to be kind. She used to be kind.. she could feel tears burning her eyes.

Penelope had failed to realize that the Duke had finished with his speech a few moments ago. “Penelope,.. are you alright.”

She snapped out of her thoughts. On the brink of tears, “Yes, I'm alright. No need to worry duke.” He did not seem confused. “I promise I will become a daughter worthy of your last name, a daughter you will have pride in.” The Duke’s eyes widened, taken aback. “I know I have acted immaturely until now. Give me one more chance and I'll do my best to prove myself a worthy Eckhart.”

The Duke regained his stoic composure as quickly as he could. “An Eckhart's words carry great weight, Penelope. Do not let this chance I have given you go to waste.”

“Of course. Thank you, Duke.” Penelope let herself out now that the conversation was done and dealt with. She leaned against the door letting out a sigh, ‘that was certainly stressful..’

“I'm sure I told you to live as silently as possible, as though you were dead.” Penelope quickly straightened herself. The young master was standing a few, maybe two feet, across from her.

“Young master.” She greeted him ignoring what he had just said.

“Emily, has worked in the ducal estate for nearly ten years.” Derrick leaned into her personal space trying to intimidate her. Penelope did not look bothered at all, it upset him that he could not get any emotion out of her. “No matter how much money we offered, no one was willing to be your personal maid. She was the only one who volunteered to serve you, but today you really had to end that. Are you satisfied, always creating a ruckus?”

Penelope could begin to feel her anger boil, “I wasn't the one responsible for that ruckus.”

Derick scoffed. “To put it simply, I don't care what you do with that maid. You're over here defending her honor, you two must be very close.” He gave her an offended look at what she was implying. “Keep that maid around if you want, I don't want her serving me. It's not like she did a good job anyways.”

She began to walk away, only to stop around five steps away from her so-called brother. “You know what young master? Don't go through the trouble of finding me a new maid, I'll manage just fine with them.” She gave him a smile before she began to walk away.

He suddenly grabbed her by the arm, “I heard you were given rotten food. Shouldn't you call for a doctor?”

Penelope yanked her arm away enraged, ‘He knew what happened and he still chose to blame me?’ “I'll be fine, I didn't consume any. Go and worry about Reynold, he ate some moldy bread.” She walked away quickly, not sparing him a glance.

Penelope gently closed her door. It barely made a sound, but she just wanted to open the door again to slam it closed.

In frustration, she groaned; she had underestimated everything. For a moment, she believed that changing her fate would be easy, but in reality it was not. A part of herself really believed that changing herself would be easy, she was such an idiot for thinking that.

She sat at the foot of her bed and brought her legs up to her chest. Change, that's what she needed or else she would die again. Penelope thought she was doing a good job; she's refrained from snapping at others to the best of her ability. It's just that everyone in this household had their mind set on making her a mad dog.

Her head leaned against her mattresses before closing her eyes. A thought of her younger self came into mind: one of when her mother was still alive, one of when she was kind. Tears formed in Penelope's eyes, as she thought about her late mother; the sound of her voice still fresh from before.

“That's it, I want to become a woman my mother would be proud of.” Penelope found herself whispering in realization. She decided to change for her mother and not the Eckharts. That would make it easier for her.

Up off of the floor she lifted herself. Penelope crawled into her bed when she noticed something on her bedside table: a sandwich with a small greens salad, horribly cut fruit, and a cup of cold lemon tea. A look of disbelief dawned on her face before disappearing into a small smile. Penelope took a bite that helped soothe her hunger. She let out a pleased sound, ‘This is definitely the best meal that I've had in a while.’

Outside the window, the sky was a miscellaneous of colors. The bright sky blue had now been replaced by warm colors and they had already begun to blend into dark blues and blacks. The sound of silverware meeting porcelain plates was occasionally heard, other than that it was silent between the three of them.

Their father cleared his throat, “How are you two doing these days.” He asked, attempting to spark up a conversation between themselves. It was usually his daughter's responsibility, even though she was the only one who talked, or rather complained. The duke was not in a mood for a silent dinner, he had already been surrounded by silence the whole day up until this point. He swore he would go insane if there was not a sound.

Derrick, much to his displeasure, seemed to ignore him. Reynold, luckily for him, responded, “My day was alright, I spent most of it training though.”

“That's nice.” His father responded before it was back to quiet.

The duke eyed Penelope's empty chair. She was running late, which was odd. Penelope would always be the first one in the dining room waiting for them to show to their shared dinners. “Penelope is acting odd.”

Reynold and Derrick looked to face their father. “I don't get what you mean father, Penelope is acting as she usually does, snappy.” Derrick responded before Reynold could say something.

“She's late, she's still acting the same..” Reynold said as he stabbed into his filet mignon. He ignored what had happened this morning; Penelope had cried, she never cried, she totally was not acting weird, he tried to gaslight himself.

The duke frowned, “You two are right. I might be thinking this because she's been grounded and I haven't seen her in a while.” He looked at his meal, missing the way Reynold clenched his fork tightly and the way his expression strained.

Several minutes passed before they heard the sound footsteps approaching the dining room. The large wooden double doors opened. Reynold was quick to turn to the door followed shortly by the Duke. Their expressions fell as quickly as Reynold had turned; it was a maid here to collect their dishes, not Penelope.

Penelope, who did not miss any family dinners, had not shown up to dinner that day.

Instead, she laid in bed already in her nightwear thinking things over. If she would benefit more from changing herself or from running away from the Dutchy. Would she even be able to give up this extravagant but miserable lifestyle? Would she even be able to manage all alone amongst the commoners? Penelope was not stupid, she knew she had no work ethics. There would be no way for her to survive as a commoner. Her best chance was marrying someone who would be able to maintain her.

She closed her eyes tightly. Why were things so difficult? Penelope turned to her side after she tucked herself into her bed, and closed her eyes yearning for sleep.

Two knocks were heard on the door. “Penelope..” A voice called out quietly, it was the duke. Her eyes opened wide. Was he here to check on her? “Are you sleeping?” She did not answer. A sigh was heard, “I am going to assume you are, have pleasant dreams.”

The footsteps faded away, but Penelope's shock did not follow. ‘What could he have wanted?’ she could not help but to think that this behavior was odd coming from the Duke.

That night, the duke laid in bed alone like all of the nights since his wife had passed. He stared up at the ceiling pondering if he should lift his daughter's punishment. She was acting odd. Maybe, the punishment left would help her go back to normal. Content with that thought he closed his eyes to wait for sleep to take him.

The event of Penelope not showing up for dinner drifted into his mind. His eyes opened, ‘What is going on with Penelope today? She never skips out on family dinners…’ In all honesty, he was a tad bit bothered and disappointed by her lack of presence that evening. ‘Is Penelope starting to rebel? Does this happen to girls around her age? How old is she? Is she at the age where she's going to start crushing on boys? Has she already begun to sneak out of the estate?’ A bunch of thoughts started to form in the duke's mind.

That night, the duke was so overwhelmed that he did not sleep well. His butler walked in surprised to see eyebags on his face. “Sir, did you not sleep well?” He asked as he brought a tray with a cup of the duke's hot morning tea.

“I cannot say that I slept at all..” The duke responded as he stretched, his back cracked and he immediately folded in defeat. His age was beginning to catch up on him.

The butler ignored the loud sound. “Why is that? If you don't mind me asking, sir.”

The duke went quiet for a moment, “I was worried about Penelope.”

The butler tried to hide his surprise, but his poker face failed. “Why sir?”

He ignored the butler's expression. “She's been acting odd and nobody else thinks so.”

The butler cleared his throat, “Sir, could it be that you have finally acknowledged Penelope's true colors? She is certainly not the same girl you brought into the estate.”

“Pennel, I do not know how old Penelope is.” The butler's eyes went wide. “I know when her birthday is, yes of course, but I cannot recall her age. Last night I stayed up thinking.. and I came to the revelation that I don't know anything about my own daughter. I do not know her favorite color, her favorite food, if she has a favorite dress, if she ever had a crush, I know nothing about her Pennel..” Once the duke began to speak he could not hold himself back. He voiced all these thoughts.

By the time that the duke had finished speaking, the butler looked at him with a face of pity. “Sir-”

“I can't say that I've never made the effort to get to know her either, so do not try to comfort me Pennel. I want to eat breakfast with my kids, inform them for me while I get ready.”

“Yes, of course sir.”

Penelope slipped into a simple pale yellow dress with a collar and adorned with yet again, bows. She had already bathed with cold water, not it mattered though. What mattered was that she was clean. The lady sat at her vanity with an already open jewelry box. She slipped on a single necklace and a set of matching earrings to compliment her dress. Her hair was simply untangled, not in a type of hairstyle. Which was fine because she styled her hair on occasions.

A smile appeared when she looked into the mirror. Penelope felt and looked pretty. A knock on the door made her smile vanish. In came the butler, “My lady, the duke is requesting a family breakfast. It will be served in approximately twenty minutes.”

Penelope nodded her head and the butler was off to inform her other two siblings. She slipped on her shoes with ease. There was nothing to do but to wait until it was time for breakfast. So she wandered around her room, looked out the window, and laid on her fainting couch for a bit. Penelope had forgotten how much it sucked to be grounded. A mischievous smile popped onto her face, she made her way to her bed before reaching under it. Her hand patted the floor in search of a box. A box that she had hidden under her bed full of chocolates, how could she have forgotten about it?

A few more minutes of aimlessly patting passed before she gave up, ‘Past me must have not hidden it yet..’ So, she sat on the cool floor disappointed in herself.

The clock had chimed, indicating the hour change. Penelope's eyes quickly made their way to the clock. Twenty minutes had already passed eight minutes ago. She exited her room and made her way to the dining room. The maids stared at her. ‘She's walking to the dining room?’

‘The lady is late for breakfast, is she not going to run?’

‘How could she keep the duke and young masters waiting?’

‘What an ungrateful lady she is.’

She opened the doors to the dining room; a single head turned to face her, the duke looked at her, and Derrick glared. “Where have you been? We've been waiting for you for like fifteen minutes.” Reynold complained right away.

Penelope took her seat, it put distance between herself and her so called family. “Good morning to you too, Reynold. I lost track of time. It would have been okay with me if you all had started to eat before I got here.”

Reynold looked ready to begin arguing, the Duke quickly into their conversation. “Penelope, what were you doing last night? You didn't show up for our family dinner?”

The three male Eckharts watched as Penelope's eyes went wide, “There was a family dinner last night?”

The duke's eyebrows furrowed, “Yes there was.”

“I didn't know, I was never informed of this.” Penelope seemed to be genuine at the moment.

“A servant never told you we had dinner together?” Reynold asked, a bit of disbelief laced in his voice. Penelope shook her head no.

Derrick scoffed, “We have a family dinner on Friday every two weeks. She should have known already, it's been that way for years.”

“Well, let me remind you Derrick that I've been grounded for a while now, and I lost track of the day of the week.” Penelope defended herself, which was nothing new, but the way she defended herself was different. She did not shout or throw a tantrum, she spoke civilized and she remained composed.

It was something they had rarely ever seen. The duke cleared his throat, “On the topic of your punishment,” the duke turned to face Penelope. “It has been lifted. You are welcome to move freely around the estate and empire.”

Penelope tilted her head slightly, “Thank you duke.”

“What seriously?!” Derrick spoke loudly. He cleared his throat, “Father are you really going to unground her?” He asked, this time more quietly.

The duke nodded his head, “Penelope has been grounded far too long enough,” he turned to face her, “I believe she has learned her lesson. Also,” He turned to face the butler who stood near the door. “Pennel, bring what arrived this morning.”

Surprisingly, Reynold and Penelope shared a look of confusion. Derrick seemed to already have an idea as to what his father was referring to. “Right away sir.”

Pennel exited and re-entered the dining room quickly with an envelope. Instead of going to hand it to the duke, he handed it to Penelope. Once the deep red, almost purple envelope was in her hands she inspected it; it had a gold band crossing the upper left corner with a matching gold seal and ‘P.Eckhart’ written in fancy handwriting in gold. She remembered the envelope almost immediately, “An invitation to the imperial palace..”

The duke looked puzzled, “How did you recognize it so quickly?” He knew for a fact that Penelope had never received an invitation to the imperial palace before.

“A noble lady from one of my circle gatherings had received one once. She brought it with her to boast about it.” Penelope lied with ease, the Eckharts seemed to buy her false truth. She opened the letter in front of them.

“So, what's it for?” Reynold asked. It seemed like breakfast had been forgotten about for now.

Penelope's eye's didn't leave the invitation once. “It's for the second prince's birthday banquet held tomorrow.”

Reynold perked up, “Wow, they definitely gave you enough time to get ready. How ever will you commission a dress to be done in time for the banquet?” Reynold's sarcastic remarks held some truth to them.

“Aishh,” she groaned. “I need to go. I need to figure out what I'm going to wear.” Penelope began to stand up when the duke instructed for her to sit herself back in her chair. “Penelope, you'll have plenty of time to figure those things out. Have some breakfast first.” He then proceeded to inform the kitchen staff to bring out the meals.

“On the topic of the banquet,” the duke began. “Derrick will be your escort.” Penelope quickly turned to face Derrick. “I will be working tomorrow.”

“Duke, that's quite alright! I do not wish to attend the banquet!” Penelope was trying to avoid the crown prince, the man that had killed her. The second prince's banquet is the first event Penelope ever saw him in; she did not want to be anywhere near him and the royal family.

“Penelope, this is not up for discussion. You will be attending the banquet, and you will be representing our family as a lady. Do I male myself clear?” The duke spoke firmly.

Penelope was not intimidated by his tone of voice, “but duke! They gave me a late invitation! It's clear that they never wanted me there in the first place! They just gave it to me out of formality!”

Out of words, the duke was out of words. She had made a solid argument. If they really had wanted to attend they would have prioritized and sent the invitation sooner, like they did with the rest of the Eckharts. “Penelope, you will be going to the banquet. You are a social figure, no one will know that the invitation was late.”

Penelope scoffed, “I'm a hated social figure. The people are bound to talk about me regardless.”

“Maybe they talk because you give them reason to.” Derrick had cut in. Penelope wrinkled her nose at him, “Oh please!” She got up to exit the dining room. “I'm not hungry, I have more important matters than breakfast anyway.” She stormed out of the dining room.

Penelope made it to her room. She closed the door and made her way to her walk-in closet. There had to be something in here that she had not worn before and was suitable for the banquet. She began to open boxes of dress.

This one I wore to a tea party.

I wore this to the shops..

This one is nor elegant enough.

A girl can only take opening so many boxes before she starts growing frustrated of not finding what she's looking for. “God, why aren't my dresses dressing?” Frustration in girls often led to anger: “Ugh, those imperial asses invited me late so that I wouldn't have time to prepare myself. I swear they're trying to make a fool out of me.” Frustration in girls also often led to tears: “Agh, I shouldn't be getting emotional over something like this.”

“Penelope?” The closet door opened, it was Reynold. She quickly wiped her tears before he could notice them. “A-.. Are you alright?” He stuttered, his hands clung to the door, and he had definitely seen her wipe her tears away.

“What does it look like? I'm just peachy!” She snapped. ‘Change, be someone your mother would be proud of.’ she had remembered. “I'm sorry,” Reynold made a sound of surprise, he sounded like someone had scared a goose. “I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm just frustrated.” Reynold was still in a state of surprise, thee Penelope Eckhart had apologized to him first and as a bonus, has even shared her feelings.

Reynold found himself walking into the closet against his will, it was like he was being drawn in by her helplessly distressed state. He sat down next to her on the floor. “What's the problem?”

She did not face him while she spoke, the dresses that littered her floor were far more interesting than his ugly face. “I can't find a proper dress.”

“You're literally surrounded by dresses, Penelope..”

“Ugh! Those are no good! If you aren't going to be of any help, get out!” She snapped without her intention to do so.

Reynold did get up, much to her expectation. He got up, but she didn't hear the sound of the closet door open. She heard the sound of Reynold searching through her hung up dresses. Penelope quickly looked to turn to him, he was helping her; her mouth opened in shock without her consent. He ignored her staring to continue searching. She watched as he paused to take a look around her closet. His eyes went wide for a moment when they fell to a corner on her highest shelf. Penelope turned around, but she didn't see anything from where she sat. Reynold had definitely seen something, so he began to approach it.

“Damn these high ceilings.” She heard him mutter, he was too short to reach what he saw. Reynold got on the tips of his toes and stretched, reaching out for something. A few grunts and a determined expression later his fingers finally hit something. Penelope saw the moment his whole expression lit up and he began to kinda pat the thing to bring it closer to himself. Eventually the corner of a box was seen peeking out before it lost balance and smacked Reynold in the face.

“Ow!”

“Yes! You got it Reynold!”

Penelope straightened the box out on the floor, it was completely unnecessary, before opening it. A bunch of branded tissue paper covered whatever was inside. Reynold, being as impatient as he always is, ripped the paper away. “You're being too damn slow.”

Inside the box laid a black and emerald green long dress. It sparked, had lace, and multiple small beautifully beaded garlands to emphasize her figure that all simultaneously met at a light green bow; all while still being a modest dress.

It certainly wasn't the most beautiful dress she had owned but, “It's perfect..” she caressed the dress with her hand.

Reynold turned to face her with a mixture of surprise and relief, “Really?”

Penelope hummed agreeingly, “I haven't worn this before. I remember falling in love with it. I ordered it, but it never came. A maid must have hid it..” Reynold was about to exclaim about the maid when Penelope spoke. “Gosh, I threatened the designer horribly when it never arrived after I paid for it… I owe him an apology.” Penelope awkwardly smiled, but Reynold had never seen her smile, so genuinely, ‘she has a pretty smile.’

“Do you want me to escort you to the banquet?” Reynold found himself blurting out. He slapped his hands over his mouth when the question he had asked registered in his head. “Neverm-"

“Yes.” Penelope answered embarrassingly quickly before Reynold could finish that sentence.

“Seriously?” Pure astonishment in his voice

Penelope nodded. “Yes, I would like for you to escort me to the birthday banquet. The only issue would be convincing Derrick to trade with you.”

“Don't you worry about that! I'll take care of it!” Reynold said, reeking of confidence.

“You will?”

“Of course!”

Penelope looked at him in the eyes, the atmosphere went serious. “Thank you.. for not just this, for yesterday too.”

Perplexity shined on Reynold. “What?” He had said rather dumbly.

“You were the one who put the sandwich on my nightstand, were you not?” She then asked. Penelope was positive it was him, who else would have done it. Nobody was on her side in this madhouse.

“H-How did you know?!” Reynold began to sputter. So Penelope was correct; it was her brother's doing”

Penelope laughed, “The fruit was cut so horrendously. I doubt that anyone who works in this house has terrible cutting skills. I thought that you of all people would be good at cutting fruit. Seriously, you train with a sword all day; how could you possibly be so bad.” She just kept adding more to the blow, wounding a part of his ego.

“Damn! Well see if I ever do anything nice for you again!” Reynold shouted, looking a tad red.

“Ahh, no seriously! I really appreciate it!” Penelope quickly said, she looked at the dress to try to hide her expression from him. “That has to be one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.” To Reynold, it must have been something not worth acknowledgement; he had just served her food, but to Penelope it was the opposite. She had endured a lot of mistreatment in this house, and she can't say she has never mistreated anyone, but she was surrounded by fakes. Fakes who would pretend to be nice to her because they wanted something from her or to look good in others eyes. Her father was a wallet, who did not care for her well-being. Derrick was a creep. And Reynold, the one who framed her…

It went silent between the two of them so abruptly that it was uncomfortable. “Why do you-”

“How about you brainstorm a way to convince Derrick?” She interrupted. Penelope knew that Reynold was going to ask; she preferred that an argument did not break out, so she changed the topic.

He nodded, “Yeah, you're right. I'll see you around I guess.” Reynold was not that stupid, he knew that Penelope had evaded his question on purpose. Yes, it irked him, but he took it as a way to keep peace between the two of them.

Reynold was exiting her room when he heard a faint, “Bye, have fun training.” coming from the closet. It caused him to pause before he shut the door. He stood outside her door for a moment contemplating why he was suddenly getting along with Penelope so well. Has she always been this non-hateable, and he had just realized this? Reynold shook his head, he knew that wasn't it. Penelope was changing and it freaked him out a bit. It was so strange to see her act so.. so not like Penelope, but still act like her normal self at times. ‘It's almost like she's constantly trying to play a role she keeps forgetting about..’

Chapter Text

The day of the second prince's birthday banquet had arrived, and Penelope was struggling to get ready. It was moments like these that made her wish that she did have a personal maid.

She sat on her vanity chair in a light pink robe. Penelope had already bathed in a tub full of bubbles and roses; all that she needed was to begin getting ready. In front of her sat a container with a face mask product that would make her complexion glow. She picked up the application brush, a loud sudden knock started her causing it to fall towards the floor. “It's me, can I come in?” Reynold called from behind the door.

“Give me a second.” She quickly picked up the brush before making sure she was covered up properly. “Alright, come on in.” She heavily appreciated him for waiting and actually asking to be let in. Reynold walked in shortly after given permission. “Shouldn't you be a bit more ready? Where are the maids?” He looked around the room, he looked over to the closet, waiting for the maids to show up any second now.

“I'm getting ready by myself.” Penelope picked up the applicator brush and scooped some product onto it while she spoke as if what she had just said was normal coming from a noble lady.

Reynold did not press, instead, he walked over to her to snatch the brush from her hand. Penelope frowned, “You better not be trying to start a fight with me when we're finally beginning to tolerate each other.”

He rolled his eyes at her, “I'm not trying to start a fight, you moron!”

“I'm not a moron!” She shouted at him.

“Are to!”

“Am not!”

“Are to”

“Am n-” Reynold splatted some of the product on her face, causing her to shut up. “Whatever. You need to stop bickering or you're gonna be late, and Derrick is not going to let me escort you ever again.”

Penelope's eyes went wide with surprise, “You managed to convince him?!” Reynold continued to smear the product onto uncovered areas on Penelope's skin.

He nodded, “Now stop talking, I need to put it over your lips. Oh, and close your eyes! I'm pretty sure this thing is for your full face.” Penelope did as she was told. The product made her squirm, it was cold and kind of slimy; she could not see or speak, it made her feel a bit defenseless.

As soon as he was done it was quiet. Reynold cleared his throat, “I read the instructions, it needs to be on for a minimum of fifteen minutes for it to show its best results. We're running short on time, so I'm going to try to do your hair.”

Penelope frantically shook her head. There was no way she was going to let him touch her hair. She knew for a fact that this boy had never styled hair before. His attempt would only tangle her hair. “Oh, come one! I'll just do something simple. It can't be that hard!”

Reynold had overestimated his abilities.

Penelope had a lot of thick hair, which was a good thing for her, but it made Reynold struggle. “Umm.. Penelope.” He began as if Penelope could respond to him. “I can't do your hair, it's your fault because you have too much of it!” Reynold could tell that Penelope was internally screaming at him that she had tried to tell him he wouldn't have been able to.

He was someone who did not give up easily, he was both too stubborn and determined. Reynold grabbed the brush and began to untangle the hair he had tangled. Brushing out the tangles was easy though!

Nevermind, the brush got caught in a massive tangle and it slipped out of his hands. “Penelope, this might hurt a little bit.” He grabbed the brush with his two hands and yanked it down causing Penelope's head to follow along with a muffled sound of pain. “Sorry!” He was quick to apologize. After a good two, excruciating long minutes Reyhad completely detangled her hair. Ten minutes had passed and Reynold had nothing to show for it, he was back to square one. He groaned, why was doing hair so hard? He also set a mental reminder to never rush Penelope while she got ready ever again. A lot of effort was put into getting ready, way more than he had originally thought.

Reynold sighed. A brilliant thought popped into his head; he was going to recreate the hairstyle Penelope had worn the day before. It looked pretty all while still being simple enough. Reynold took two decent sized sections of hair from the sides of her head. One was slightly larger than the other, but that was okay he figured. He already had a small hair tie in his hand and was about to connect them together, when he remembered something. Lady's often twisted them a little, so he did so before he tied them together. His eyes made his way to one of Penelope's open drawers to see hair pins, clips and bows.

“Perfect!” He couldn't help but to exclaim. A small silver claw clip with emeralds was placed to strategically hide the hair tie.

Reynold stepped back to admire his work, “I made you go from a one to a ten!” Penelope had made a muffled offended sound.

“I'm never doing your hair again by the way.” He sighed from exhaustion.

Penelope peeled away the face mask from her mouth, “Whatever Reynold. Go get me a damp clean rag, I might need it.” To much of her surprise, Reynold had done as he was told without complaint.

When Reynold walked back in, he found Penelope looking at herself in the mirror. He paused in the doorway feeling nervous, did she not like it? She turned to face him, “Why are you frozen there! Get in, I need the rag.” Nothing was said about the hair style. Reynold walked in both relieved and a bit disappointed.

Penelope took the damp rag with a quiet thanks before she began to do her thing. Reynold just observed her quietly until she finished. He watched as Penelope brought her hands up to her hair. Reynold was expecting her to undo the hairstyle that he had done for her, but she didn't. She pulled out her bangs, he had forgotten to separate them.

“Do you like it?” He asked with a small voice.

Penelope did not hesitate a moment before answering, “It's not terrible.” Reynold smiled. “You better have not given me a bald spot though! Why did you yank on my hair you idiot! That hurt! I also could have done this in two minutes!”

“Couldn't you just leave it at ‘it's not terrible?!’”

Penelope laughed, “Geez, calm down.” She turned to him, “Thank you.”

Reynold was taken aback; Penelope was doing that to him a lot. “Why are you act-” He was going to ruin the mood. “You're welcome! Remember, that's the first and last time I do your hair!”

Penelope jokingly scoffed, “Whatever you say young master.” before turning to start her makeup, missing the way Reynold had twitched.

Why did Penelope refer to him as ‘young master’ and not as ‘big brother’ like she usually did? Derrick was ‘young master,’ not him, he was ‘big brother.’; Reynold couldn't help but to think that. Maybe he was just reading too much into it. “I'm going to go check on the carriage. Try to get ready in thirty minutes or less. I'll try my best to stall if you need more time.”

Penelope shook her head, “I'll be done on time. I'm almost done with my make up, I just need to get dressed.”

Reynold hummed in acknowledgement as he left her room.

True to Penelope's words she made it to the carriage in less than thirty minutes. She wore the emerald dress Reynold had found for her and accessorized it with a white, almost gray, shawl. For jewelry she chose a pair of circular emerald earrings and a necklace that matched the beaded, sparkly garland around her waist. To hide the needle marks, she had luckily managed to find a pair of black lace gloves that matched the same black lace on her dress.

Reynold was distracted talking to the coachman when Penelope cleared her throat to get her attention; instead of announcing her presence like she usually would.

Reynold turned to her, “You look nice..” He spoke, awe and genuineness laced in his voice. Penelope smiled. “You definitely won't be the prettiest girl there, but you'll be in the top ten for sure.” Reynold remarked, joking a bit. He was definitely being an annoying brother, he couldn't just compliment her; oddly enough she did not mind it.

“Thank you, you don't clean up yourself half as bad as I thought you would.” He rolled his eyes at her with a smile as he extended his hand out to assist her getting into the carriage. Penelope took it after returning his smile.

Not a single comment was made from her when Reynold climbed into the carriage, the same carriage as her. She had assumed he would be taking another one; Derrick for sure would have.

Their shared carriage ride was quiet and a bit suffocating, but luckily for the two of them they made it to the imperial palace quickly. As soon as they arrived Reynold bolted out of the carriage. Penelope followed, though slower. Outside waiting with his hand extended was Reynold; he's been acting so strange. Penelope took his hand with a thank you.

The two Eckharts made their way to the banquet hall. The doors opened announcing their arrival to the nobles and royalty inside, “The son of the Eckhart Ducal House, Reynold Eckhart, and lady Penelope Eckhart have arrived.”

Penelope and Reynold made their way inside. While they entered Reynold spoke to her, not directly looking at her. “Don't act rashly.” Penelope felt a bit hurt. “Your probation was lifted yesterday and I don't want you to end up in your room grounded again cause you caused another commotion.” Something swelled inside Penelope when Reynold told her he didn't want her locked up. “Just try to have fun with creating a scene.” He turned to her to smile.

She smiled back at him, “Alright, I'll be careful.” Penelope, for the first time in a long time, felt cared for. She felt like Reynold was attempting to understand her; it made her happy. If she stayed by his side the whole night would she be able to avoid the crown prince? It's not like the crown prince had noticed her the last time she attended the banquet, but things were different this time around.

“Young master Reynold!” A noble man called out, Penelope internally groaned. “It's been a while since we've seen you. I thought it would have been Derrick escorting the young lady.” A group of nobles started to surround Penelope and Reynold. She stayed close to him while he conversed with important people. Penelope needed to find an excuse to leave soon; the crown prince would be showing any moment.

“Her majesty the queen and his royal highness, the second prince, have arrived.” The loud booming voice of the announcer had made Penelope jump.

She watched as the queen and the prince, the birthday boy walked into the banquet hall. ‘Crap I need to get out of here fast.’ She bowed along with the rest of the invited guests. The queen took her seat on the throne, the second prince took his seat on the emperor's throne, the very throne that was meant for Kallisto. ‘Yep, everything is the same so far. Then, the crown prince is going to barge in at any moment now.’

The second prince had already given them permission to rise and was now nearing the end of his welcome speech, “Well then, let us commence with the banquet-” The double grand doors of the banquet hall slammed open. Penelope quickly turned back as nobles around her started to speak in hushed voices. She needed to calm down, it wasn't like the crown prince had any problems with her, hence he had no reason to kill her. She was just being paranoid because he was the one who had killed her. The crown prince most likely had no clue of her existence.

Kallisto walked in oozing confidence. His hair was dazzling blond as if it were made from gold itself. He was followed by a red cape that laid on his right shoulder. Also followed by shouts of “Kyaa, on the floor!”

“What is that, blood..?”

“In his hand… is that…”

“A person?!”

Nobles all around Penelope looked terrified; it truly was one of the most hilarious moments she had witnessed. It was definitely better the second time around. She was expecting this to happen, she wasn't scared; she was scared when she first experienced this though, that can't be denied. God, she must have had the same expression of these terrified nobles back then. Penelope muffled her laughter when she saw Reynold's scared face. She felt a bit bad, but it was still funny to her.

Taking advantage of the situation, Penelope snuck out of the banquet hall. She wandered around some of the luxurious halls, stopped to look at some crazy expensive paintings and statues before she made her way to the royal imperial gardens.

Penelope was surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes that stood taller than her. She walked around aimlessly till she was met with a gorgeous white pristine fountain. Penelope began to approach the said fountain. The imperial garden was truly a beautiful place, like a piece of heaven on Earth. As she walked closer to the garden a long blade appeared near her throat. Penelope immediately halted; she changed her mind just as fast, the imperial gardens were ugly, they were like a piece of hell on Earth.

“I was wondering what rat was sneaking around.” Penelope's eyes moved to look at the crown prince, her body still as a statue like the ones she had seen earlier.

“Aren't you the rabid dog of the Eckhart family?” He tapped the blade against her throat, Penelope was still. The crown prince knew who she was. “You left the banquet even though you seemed to be so amused. Everyone was terrified except you…” Kallisto looked her dead in the eyes, “You must seriously want to die.”

“Ah…I-” The words wouldn't leave Penelope's mouth; her own vocal cords betrayed her. She was terrified, she was being reminded of her last few moments.

“Spit it out. Why did you look so amused? Why did you scurry away like a little rat?” The knife pressed closer to her throat. The fabric that covered it ripped. “...” Penelope couldn't speak, she couldn't think, everything was too much.

“Seeing as you're not replying, it must be time for you to bid farewell to your family members.” Penelope's hands clenched the skirt of her dress. “I'll personally deliver your last words to the Eckharts.” Kallisto smiled like a maniac. She would not allow that. Her relationship with her family, well Reynold, was improving. She was slowly changing into becoming a person her mother would be proud of. Penelope would not allow him to take those precious things away from her.

With a sudden wave of confidence hitting her, she defended herself, “You can't kill me!”

The crown prince's smile widened. “I guess you finally feel like talking? Now tell me, why can I not kill you?”

Penelope swallows hard. “I'm the daughter of the grand Duke of Eckhart, you know that already. If you kill his only daughter, what kind of trouble do you think he'll stir up? He's the one who funds the royal family, he's the head of the nobles. My father can keep you from becoming the emperor.” Penelope hated referring to that man as her father, but she had to. She watched as the crown prince's smile dropped and he stared at her with distaste. “And you wouldn't want that would you? Your step mother is already doing everything in her power to keep you from succeeding your father.”

The crown prince stayed silent. “You really are a mad dog talking like that to the crown prince.” He removed his blade from her throat.

Penelope glared at him, “Like you're any better! Who points a blade at an innocent lady!”

He scoffs at her remark. “You never did answer my question.” The crown prince was changing the topic.

“Of why I looked so amused earlier?” Kallisto nodded his head. “Well, it was kind of funny.”

The crown prince looked unconvinced, “You truly are crazy if you think that me bringing in a dead body was ‘kind of funny.'”

“That part wasn't really funny-” She began to defend herself.

“Then what part was it?” He cut her off like an impatient child, was this really the man who had killed her? It was, she had to keep in mind how unpredictable this man was to her.

“I was getting there, geez, the faces the people were making made me laugh. Some of them looked like you had told them their money was worthless, like they had seen the house of a commoner for the first time, like they smelled manure.”

The crown prince laughed, “Like they smelled manure she says.” Lord, he was immature. “Did you see the fat bastard that fainted?” He asked in amusement.

Penelope nodded her head, “Two nobles tried to catch him, but they overestimated their strength and a bunch of them fell like dominos.” She knew what noble he was referring to, Lord Lowells; a horizontally called man who liked the women in his life to be a quarter of his age. A true, but powerful creep, who cleared his name with his fortune.

“Like dominoes? I guess that fits.” Kallisto chucked, “I thought of it more like he was a tsunami and his waves brought people down!”

Penelope giggled at the analogy, while the crown prince laughed. All of a sudden he went quiet. She stopped laughing. Turquoise eyes met ruby red ones. He was looking at her in a way that made her nervous. She broke eye contact after what felt like an eternity. “You're an awfully interesting lady. You talk to me so casually,” Penelope began to sweat. “but you failed to answer my second question.”

“Ah, what was your second question?”

The crown prince smiled, “I don't know, you tell me. Next time we meet, you better have an answer to my question. You can go now”

Penelope nodded. “Uh, I'll try. Have a good night!” Kallisto watched her dash out of the gardens with a slight smirk.

She dashed away from his sight, as she did adrenaline started to leave her body. Penelope was such an idiot, why did she think that it was okay for her to talk to him that way; hopefully they won't ever have to meet again.

As she ran, she crashed into someone. This night was totally going her way. “I-Im sorry, I didn't mean to-” she quickly began to apologize.

“My lady, are you alright?” The person, a man, spoke over her. He grabbed her by the arm. She must have looked frantic, insane even.

Penelope nodded, her heartbeat erratic. “I'm alright, just a bit startled. I'll be okay though, I just need a glass of water or something.” She took a closer look at the man; white snowy hair, purple eyes, and well aged. She figured the man was a marquess.

His hand felt warm on her arm. She began to calm herself and the marquess removed his hand from her arm. “I'm sorry for acting so, you know.. in front of you. Please pretend that never happened. That wasn't the best first impression.” Penelope gave him a wobbly smile.

The marquess gave her a reassuring smile,”Alright, I'll forget about it. Are you sure you're okay? Your complexion looks pale.”

Penelope nodded, “I am! Like I mentioned earlier, I'm just startled. A glass of water will fix me up.”

“There's a tear on the neck of your dress.” He acknowledged.

She did not want to have this conversation, “I'm sorry, I don't have time for small talk. I need to return to the banquet hall quickly. I ran out, my brother is probably worrying about me.”

“At least let me escort you. It looks as if you could faint at any moment.”

He was quickly met with rejection. “People will talk, I won't allow for that. They already talk about me enough.”

The man looked disappointed. He took off his purple bow tie and unraveled it, “They'll talk if they see how disheveled you look. Your dress is also ripped.” He tied the purple ribbon around her neck to hide the tear and fixed her hair a bit; it must have gotten messy while she ran. “There, now they won't gossip about you.”

“Thank you, I'm in your debt.” Penelope touched the bow around her neck. She felt a bit uncomfortable with how close the man was; but she tried to convince herself she was being weird, the man had just wanted to help her after all. It was all in good will.

The name closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, “There's no need to. In return, when we meet again,” He brought his hand up to cup her right cheek. Penelope's composure stilled under it. “I hope that the startelement in those beautiful eyes of yours will have disappeared.”

‘This guy is a creep,’ she needs to get out of here fast. Penelope stepped back, the marquess’s hand was in the air for a moment. “Thank you again, I need to get going.” He nodded understandingly and she walked away. Once Penelope was far away from him, she began to speed walk to the banquet hall.

Finding Reynold was easy enough; he was surrounded by a massive group of nobles who, knowing them, most likely wanted to take advantage of him because he was the easiest Eckhart. Penelope squeezed her way in. Sure enough, Reynold stood with a champagne flute in hand wearing an awkward smile. Multiple nobles all at once talked to him. Some about wanting to be business partners. Some about wanting to hire him as a trainer for their sons, and how it would be an honor.

Feeling some pity for him and extremely indebted because he had helped her prepare for the banquet, she decided to save him. “Big brother.” Penelope clung onto his arm. Reynold jumped when she had spoken, he was surprised. The nobles went silent. “I'm tired, let's go home.”

“Really? Don't you like these kinds of events?” He asked, a bit confused.

“I do.” Penelope responded with a faltering smile.

“We haven't been here for long. Are you sure you wan-” Reynold was helpless, he had no clue that Penelope was trying to save him.

“I said that I'm tired.” She glared at Reynold.

“Fine, fine, geez..” He turned to face the nobles. “I apologize for having to cut our conversations short, I need to get going.” The nobles bid their goodbyes and the two of them started to walk away, Penelope still clinging onto him.”

As soon as they were outside the banquet hall, Penelope let go of arm. “What's up with you? You're literally a tornado of emotions. I thought we were good and then you sent me a mean glare.” Reynold had started talking on their way to the carriage.

“I was trying to help you, but you weren't getting the signals.” Penelope kept her eyes forward. It was starting to get dark, they would hopefully arrive at the estate by nightfall.

From the corner of her vision, she could see Reynold tip his head to the side like a confused pink puppy. “You were trying to help me?”

Penelope could see the carriage waiting straight ahead. “Well yeah, you were being bombarded by pesky, mooching nobles. You weren't enjoying yourself.”

“...” Reynold went quiet; he was most likely deep in thought. She was not notorious for helping others, he was probably brainstorming why she had helped him. “You left the banquet early because of me?” It sounded like it was a statement, but it sounded more like a question.

“...in a way, yes.” This was the perfect opportunity to hide that she wanted to leave because she ran into the crown prince and would not be able to stand being around him for the remainder of the banquet.

Reynold went silent again. Their footsteps meeting the ground was loud, and they were approaching the carriage. “Thanks. Also, sorry for making you leave early, I definitely owe you one.” He awkwardly laughed before signaling for the coachman to sit back down, he was getting up to help them into the carriage.

“Yeah, I guess you owe me one then.”

The young master,.. her brother, opened the carriage door. He held out his hand to assist her, like he had done before, and Penelope took it with a smile. Reynold climbed into the carriage. He sat across from her with his head resting on his palm.

“How was the little time you spent at the banquet? Any new gossip, or whatever you girls talk about?” Penelope smiled. It seemed like this carriage ride would not be quiet and suffocating like the previous one. The only issue was that she, in fact, had not conversed with any of the ladies.

“We didn't gossip much, the hot topic was the crown prince and the commotion he caused. We did make fun of some of the surprised nobles though.” The lie came easily to Penelope's lips. She used her conversation with prince Kallisto as inspiration.

Reynold laughed, “God, the crown prince caught me off guard! Did you see how Lord Lowells fainted?”

Penelope giggled as the scene replayed in her head. “I did! Did you see Count Camden? The poor man was drinking when the crown prince walked in all confident. He went into a coughing fit because he choked on his drink.”

Reynold laughed, “Ah, I didn't see that! Did you see how Baron Montgomery-”

The two of them spent the carriage ride sharing and laughing about the other nobles. They even failed to notice that they had arrived at the estate till the coachman had opened the door, making them go silent immediately.

Reynold rushed out the carriage first, and now Penelope knew for sure that it was not because he wanted to get out quickly, but because he wanted to help her down. She took his hand and they walked inside together in a comfortable silence. Things between the two of them were changing positively.

The two of them walked in the direction of the stairs. Penelope had to take them since her room was on the third floor and Reynold's room was on the first floor, but his room was nearby.

“Sleep well.” Reynold called put before he closed his door, she was already halfway up. If she said something he would not have even heard it.

Penelope laid in bed thinking. Her room was dark and she felt comfortable, but she did not feel at ease. It was due to her thoughts.

In her past, if she had acted more differently, not like herself, would life have been more bearable?

Yes, it would because now that she had only changed a little, things have changed for the better. That meant that if Reynold truly had changed, he was always capable of change. Past Penelope was just not worth enough for him to change though.

She turned to her side with a grim expression. It wasn't like past Penelope was someone worth changing for though. She tightly closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would just take her away to dreamland.

Much to her dismay, sleep did not take her quickly. She fell asleep, but woke up after some time. Penelope slept on and off.

Penelope woke up in the morning, luckily for her it was not in the middle of the night. She felt like she had not rested a single bit. Without energy she laid motionless in her bed.

After who knows how long, Penelope heard a knock, but no one entered. It was definitely Reynold, he was the only one who did not burst into her room after knocking. “Come in.” She could hear the lack of energy in her room.

Somehow, Reynold walked in holding a tray with two covered meals; he brought breakfast. God, Penelope felt like an asshole. Reynold must have struggled to open the doors with both of his hands full. She couldn't even get up to open the door for him; she hadn't even made an effort to get out of bed.

Reynold placed the tray on the table. “We're having breakfast here. Hope you don't mind much, because it's not up for discussion.”

Penelope smiled weakly, “I don't mind at all.” She got out of bed and walked to sit at the table. As she did so, Reynold stole the seat of her vanity. She needed to get another chair in here soon, just in case Reynold ever felt like eating here again.

The two of them sat with their now open breakfast in front of them. “How did you sleep?” He asked, well knowing that Penelope didn't sleep well. Reynold just didn't want to eat in silence.

“Like a single mother with five kids, rent due, and bills to pay.” Penelope looked at her silverware, they weren't toys..

Her brother grimaced, “I take it you slept atrociously then..”

Penelope nodded her head sparing him the details of her night. She yawned as she cut into her pancakes. “I should have gotten you some coffee.”

Penelope shook her head, “I'm alright, I appreciate the thought though.” She sent him a small smile before she began to eat. Reynold followed after her, cutting into his waffles; he was not a fan of pancakes.

After a few moments of silence, Reynold spoke again. “Did you think of what you wanted from me?” Penelope tilted her head in confusion. “Last night, I said that I owed you one. Have you thought about it? That better have not been the reason you couldn't sleep.” He joked trying to lighten up the mood.

“I didn't really think about it, you don't have to do anything though.” She added a bit of salt to her crispy potato rosti as she answered.

Reynold clicked his teeth, “Don't be like that. You agreed yesterday that I owed you something.”

Penelope cursed her last night self. “Just.. continue being nice to me, stay on my side...” Reynold went still. If, well when, Ivonne showed, it would be nice to have someone on her side. It would make her feel less lonely; like she wasn't taking on the world by herself.

“That doesn't count, I'm already on your side.” Penelope felt as if she could cry. Her emotions must be all over the place because of her lack of sleep. She supposes could also blame it on her women's week paying her a visit soon. “Ask me for anything. I can call a jeweler or a dress maker.”

“No! I mean this in the nicest way possible, but if you indulge in my spendings, you'll go flat broke.”

“Hah, as if.” Reynold crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair. “But since you don't want me to, then I won't.” Penelope sighed in relief. Reynold had chosen not to be stubborn with her. “What do you want then?” He asked, giving her his full attention.

“Ah! Don't look at me like that! You're making my mind go blank!” She fake cried.

“Fine, I won't, but I expect an answer. Don't think I'll forget about this.” Penelope deflated in her seat.

It was now around noon and Penelope was feeling lonely. There was nothing to do but for her to think. So that's what she did. She tried to think about what she wanted from Reynold, but she couldn't think of anything. Her mind eventually wandered off to negative thoughts. She needed some fresh air. Her probation was lifted, yet she spent most of her time in her room. Penelope needed a change of scenery.

The weather was nice, at least it seemed nice from her window. She decided to wear a navy and white dress that reached her knees and was adorned with bows. Not in the mood to style her hair, she slipped on a navy headband.

Going outside would be boring; it would be no better than staying inside so she grabbed a book off a shelf before she ventured out.

As per usual, maids looked at her. Their latest gossip must have revolved around how much longer she could take it without a personal maid by her side. Penelope didn't need one, she knew she could manage without one because the personal maids that she did have were no help. On the topic of personal maids, her former one was named Emily, she just found that out. Anyway, she was not fired and is currently working on the cleaning staff.

She had made it outside. The sun was warm, not painfully hot, and the subtle breeze felt nice on her skin. It was a perfect day, not too much clouds either. The few clouds that were in the sky looked pristine white and resembled fluffy cotton. ‘No signs of rain.’ Penelope smiled as she took her seat in a chair under a gazebo.

The book she had brought outside with her was already open and laid on the table. She pulled out of the embedded bookmark and began to read with a smile on her lips. Before Penelope died, she had started reading the book, but never had the chance to finish it. This time around, she would get to see the end of the book; a promise was made to herself.

Penelope sat there engrossed in her book for almost three hours when a tray was placed on the table. The sound made from the tray caused her to look up from her book. She was expecting to see Reynold, a maid wouldn't do this unless they were asked to. Much to her surprise, it was not Reynold nor a maid; It was Derrick.

“You've been out here for a while.” She watched as he poured two glasses of ice cold lemonade.

“Have I? I must have lost track of the time then.” She responded honestly. Derrick placed a glass in front of her. “Thank you young master.” He hid his expression, but nodded in acknowledgement.

Derrick sat down across from her, “What are you reading?”

“It's an old tragic play named Antigone.” Penelope looked at the book, it was definitely one of her favorites. Oddly enough, she found herself relating to the main character Antigone; she was your basic kind, snappy, tragic heroine. The thing that made Penelope relate to her was that Antigone was persistent and that made her character somewhat ugly and despicable, much like her.

Derrick hummed, “By Sophocles, I've only read the two previous plays. I liked the first one, but I didn't enjoy the second one very much. Hence why I never got to read the third one. You're already on the third one, do you like it?” He took a sip of his lemonade.

Penelope nodded, “I love it, so much so that this one is definitely my favorite one out of the three.”

He smiled at her and she smiled back at him. “It's already your favorite one yet you haven't finished it yet?”

She nodded again and it went silent between the two of them. After a whole minute of silence, Derrick spoke. “Don't mind me, go ahead and read. I'm going inside soon, I just wanted to get some fresh air.”

“Same here as well.” Penelope sent him another smile, this one smaller than before, and got back to reading.

She could feel Derrick’s eyes on her at times, but she never looked up. Most of the time though, he was looking out into the gardens. True to his words, he got up and left so quietly that she hadn't even noticed.

Chapter Text

Penelope walked inside the estate. A headache was beginning to form; it was her consequence for only eating breakfast and having a glass of lemonade the whole day so far. She walked further in to be greeted with the sight of a sweaty Reynold, who had a white, obviously damp, towel around his neck. “Hi.”

“Hi.”

She assumed that they were simply exchanging greetings, so she began to walk away. “Wait!” Penelope halted at Reynold's voice. “Do you want to have lunch with me?”

Penelope turned to face him, “You stink so terribly that I can smell you all the way from here.” That was not true. She stood around no less than six feet away from him and could, in fact, not smell him.

“Rude! No need to state the obvious!” Reynold irked before he grabbed the towel around his neck and quickly launched it at her.

She shrieked when she failed to dodge it. “You're disgusting, you asshole!” Luckily for her, the towel had not come in contact with her skin. Unlucky for her, the towel hit her precious dress, leaving a damp spot behind on the fabric. “You're a freak of nature, who the hell sweats so much?” Her annoyance was advacant in her expression and disgust was heard clearly in her voice.

“Sweating this much lets me know that I had a good training session. And always after a good training session I'm hungry, so do you want to eat with me?” He asked, completely ignoring her annoyance.

Penelope continued to stare at the damp spot on her dress, mourning its cleanliness. “You better shower first.”

“I will, calm down.” Penelope sent him a glare. “So, are you going to have lunch with me or not? I need to inform the kitchen to prepare two meals if you do.”

“Awe, you had breakfast with me in the morning and now you can't live without my company!” Penelope teased him, trying to get a reaction from him.

Reynold did not react much, besides his ears burning red; that reaction would have to suffice. “Are you joining me or not?” He questioned, disregarding that she had just teased him.

She nodded, “Obviously. I wouldn't want you to feel lonely without my amazing, sisterly presence.” Penelope spoke in a joking tone, she was not boasting like she used to do and quite frankly, it was something that Reynold was not used to. Entirely, his sister has been acting in a way he is not accustomed to. He keeps deciding to turn a blind eye to it. ‘She's just maturing.’

“Thank you for deciding to bless me with your amazing, sisterly presence.” He joked back. Penelope just grinned before she left.

A knock on the door was heard, but the door did not open, it was clearly Reynold. In a new clean dress, Penelope ran over to the door. Unlike in the morning, she would open the door for Reynold this time.

She pushed the door open.

It was not Reynold. It was not Derrick nor the butler Pennel. It was the Duke.

“Hi.” Penelope spoke, surprise evident in her voice. Once her informal greeting registered in her head, she quickly scrambled to correct herself. “Good afternoon, Duke.”

The Duke's expression fell when she corrected herself. “Hello, Penelope.” He gave her a small smile. “I was wondering how the banquet went last night. You usually tell me how events go the next day.” Penelope was quiet. It was true that she used to tell the duke these kinds of things; she would ramble on to him about her day sometimes even, but he never truly listened, he just heard. Penelope just wanted a bit of his attention. When she stopped telling him about these sorts of things, he never acknowledged it. He never once asked her how the events went. Why is he bothering to ask now?

Penelope gave him a small faux smile. “It went well until the crown prince showed up. He caused quite the commotion. It's a hot topic.” She paused when she brought up the crown prince. ‘Crap, I still need to remember that question..’

“Ah, I heard of that. The maids were talking about it. Did you cause any commotion last night?” He asked and Penelope's eyebrows furrowed.

“She didn't. Penelope was on her best behavior.” A voice behind the Duke spoke. It was Reynold carrying a tray. Penelope smiled unprompted. She opened the door a bit wider to let Reynold in.

The Duke watched as Reynold set down the tray on the table; he held himself back from asking the questions in his mind. He turned to Penelope, “Your good behavior calls for a reward. Should I call a jeweler, a dressmaker perhaps?”

She went quiet. The two Eckharts went quiet as well, they felt uneasy for some reason. “There's no need for a reward, Duke. Not every good thing I do has to be rewarded.” The duke felt unpleasant, his heart was heavy, and he was feeling emotions he lacked the ability to describe. Penelope's answer set him off. She was maturing, she was acting so differently; he knew this already, it was just happening so quickly. Quicker than he could comprehend. What exactly had fueled this change? It was like he had blinked, and she had grown; he had missed everything.

The duke gave her a solemn smile, “You're right. Just let me know if you need anything. I'll be on my way now. Enjoy your meals you two.” He excused himself, he knew Penelope did not want him around, at that moment he hoped. Their food was going to get cold as well. A part of him was tempted to ask if he could join them, but as mentioned before, he knew where he was not welcomed.

The Duke felt envious of Reynold, his own son. He had grown very close to Penelope in so little time. How did he do it? Would it be too late for him to try?

Penelope and Reynold sat at the table, their meals were uncovered and luckily still warm. They ate in silence for a while till Reynold finally asked her something. “Do you have something against father?” He looked her in the eyes, she avoided his glaze and looked down at her food.

The question was one that she did not desire to answer. “I don't. What made you think that?” Penelope lied and Reynold was not buying it. She wouldn't either if she was in his shoes.

“So, you're going to start lying to me now? Okay then, go ahead and lie all you want. What are you going to lie about next?” Reynold snapped at Penelope.

Her eyebrows furrowed and her teeth clenched. “Stop acting as if you've never told a lie in your entire life.” She huffed in amusement, “Your lies have done more damage than mine. I know that you-” Penelope abruptly shut her mouth, eating the words she was about to spew out.

Reynold looked panicked. “You know what about me?” He asked, but Penelope did not answer. “What do you know?” No answer to his question, but a response.

“Just forget I said anything. I don't want to fight with you.” Penelope had yet to look at him in the eyes. She could not bring herself either. Reynold stayed quiet, making Penelope feel nervous. “We just started to get along..” She added.

“Alright, I'll drop it for now. I hope one day you'll be able to tell me.” Penelope's head lifted quickly to look at him.

Two somber expressions. “I don't think I will ever be able to tell you. It's too.. private.” She settled on the word private even though that was not how she would describe it.

“Well, a guy can hope,” was his simple reply.

Lunch went by in shared silence. Penelope had helped Reynold set the dishes in a way they would not fall. He was about to leave her room when Penelope called out to him from where she sat on the edge of her bed. He turned his head back to face her. “I want to answer your question.”

His mouth fell open a bit, “You don't have to, like you said it's personal. I was being an asshol-”

“I want to answer the first one. If I had something against the duke.” she watched as Reynold retreated from the door and placed the tray of used dishes on the table again. He sat on her bed a good two feet away from her.

Penelope swallowed hard. Reynold could tell she was building up her courage. He didn't like seeing her like that. She was supposed to be a lively spitfire, a brat to put it frankly, not this.

Reynold was about to tell her to forget about it when she spoke. “I don't have anything against him as a duke. Truth be told, he's an amazing one. I have something against him as a father. He's a horrible one” Reynold's breath hitched. “I hate him. I want to hate him, Reynold.” She turned to him with tears in her eyes.

He was tense, and he did not know what to do. Of all people, he would never have expected Penelope to hate the Duke. It was clear to everyone on the estate that she admired him. What happened now? Was this an emotional teen girl phase where she hates everyone and thinks the world is against her? Maybe she hated the Duke for not buying her something? It would not be that serious, right?

“Why do you want to hate him?” Reynold asked her. Why did Penelope want to hate the Duke? Why did she not already hate him? Questions were swarming his mind; his questions were wasps and his mind was their nest.

Penelope gripped the fabric of her dress. “I realized how much I hate myself.” His eyes blew open; self hatred coming from a person like Penelope was something surprising.

“I used to be kind.” Her voice cracked. “I was a good person before I arrived at the estate. Reynold, I turned into someone I hate, someone my mother would be disappointed in. I would act out to get the Duke's attention, because that was the only way I would be able to gain it. He promised to be my father, but he wasn't raising me. I didn't know what was wrong or right; I was a child and I needed guidance. When I was framed for stealing the necklace, nobody was on my side. Everyone saw me as a replacement for Ivonne and they hated me. The servants treated me horribly, and he turned a blind eye to it! I want to hate him for playing a key role in messing me up, for neglecting me, and making me feel alone. But, he's also the reason I have a roof over my head, clothes, and you as my brother. That makes me not resent him.” Penelope had let everything out of her system. She had gone from crying to fuming to smiling in a span of three minutes.

Reynold swallowed hard, that was a lot to unpack. He felt guilty because a part of him knew that he was responsible for some of Penelope's suffering caused by the servants.

His blood ran cold; if Penelope ever found out that he was the one who had framed her for stealing the necklace, would she hate him too? Reynold was in a short dilemma: should he tell her or not. He could continue to build their relationship and pretend that he did nothing, or he could own up to it.

“Penelope, do you hate the person who framed you?” His voice sounded shaky, he hated it.

She furrowed her eyebrows, “Why would I hate you?” Reynold twitched before going stiff. “I mean, I did hate you for a bit in all honesty,” she admitted, and something inside Reynold's chest hurt. “but I realized that you were a grieving child. Your sister had gone missing, and the duke just showed up with me to replace her. It was a big change.”

Reynold just stared at Penelope. “God, I really am a sorry excuse of a brother.” He muttered to himself, Penelope heard it. “I'm sorry.”

“I know you are, and I've already forgiven you for it.”

He had a sad smile on his face, “Y’know, you've been acting so differently recently that it both scares and worries me.” Penelope's eyes widened. “Is everything okay?”

“I.. I feel like a new person. I'm tired of being angry at everyone, plus my coming of age is nearing. I cannot act like a chimpanzee with a crossbow forever. How will I ever find myself a husband that way?” She joked with truth.

It only made Reynold frown. “You don't have to get married if you don't want to.”

Penelope groaned. Realistically speaking, if she wanted to leave this estate she would have to marry someone. She currently possesses no work ethic and does not know what she wants to become. Noble ladies did not work, they were supported by their husbands. Growing up in a society with those beliefs made it hard for her to dream of a career. She did not know what she wanted to do with her life. What she did know was that she wanted to get married and start a family of her own one day. Penelope would never be lonely, she would be loved, and she would provide her kids with the childhood she wanted. As their mother, she would defend, guide, and love them.

“I want to get married someday, Reynold.” The conversation was taking a turn. Penelope did not feel like it was an important matter to discuss. “Anyway, don't worry about me, I'm fine. I'm just growing up I guess.” She flashed him a smile. His expression was a tad glum, but he gave her a small smile regardless.

“Yeah, you're growing up..” Reynold stood up so quickly that it made her startle. “I need to get those dishes out of here.” He sped walked to get the tray and left with a “I'll see you later.” Reynold didn't even give her the chance to say bye before he had closed the door.

She let herself fall back onto her bed with a Eckhart sigh. Penelope felt better; her headache was gone, she was fed, comfortable, and it felt nice to talk about how she felt.

The Duke of Eckhart spent his day in his office reflecting. Little of his work was accomplished. A coaster was placed before a cup of tea was on his desk. “Is Lady Penelope on your mind sir?”

The Duke lifted his head, it was Pennel; he had not even noticed the head butler was present till he spoke. “How did you know?” He asked with a dry chuckle.

“The lady seems to be on your mind more often than not these days. You also have a certain expression when you think of her.”

He nodded, “You're right about the first part. The second part though, I was not aware I made an expression. What does it look like?”

“Sorrowful, almost mournful in a way.”

“... I-” The Duke staggered before closing his mouth. In a way, he was mourning his daughter's, Penelope's, old behavior. He found himself missing her in his office blabbing about things he was not sure about. He missed hearing the word “father” come out of her lips. How many years has it been since she stopped calling him that?

He wrapped his hands around the tea cup, relishing the warm comfort it washed upon him. The Duke never finished what he was going to say.

The next day had arrived, and so had Reynold with breakfast. They had a rather heavy conversation the day prior and Penelope was relieved that it was not awkward between the two of them. If anything, she felt as if they had grown even closer. Which was a good, but bad thing. A good thing because their relationship as siblings had grown and strengthened. A bad thing, because they had grown close to the point where Reynold felt comfortable, and Reynold feeling comfortable brought this:

Penelope looked at Reynold with poorly hidden disgust. Her brother, eating like a starved man with his mouth open and his hands more often than his utensils. “I washed my hands. Stop looking at me like that.” He spoke between bites. She grimaced.

“Why are you eating like.. that?”

Reynold's dirty hands reached for a napkin. “I have not eaten since yesterday. I trained too long yesterday evening and missed dinner. The chefs had already retired for the night, so I went to sleep on an empty stomach. Then this morning I skipped a pre-training meal ‘cause I needed to stick to my schedule.”

Penelope deadpanned, “I didn't ask for your life's story.”

“Whatever.” He began to eat again.

She pushed him her napkin. He was going to need it more than her. “I know what I want you to do for me.”

Reynold looked up from his food, he swallowed what he had in his mouth. Much to her luck, he did not start speaking with his mouth full of food again. “If you ask me to eat more civilized then I won't do it, and it won't count.”

“That's not what I wanted.” His eyebrow perked up. “I want you to go to the festival with me.”

He seemed confused for a moment, then it clicked. “Oh! You mean that commoner week-long festival.” Penelope nodded. “I mean we can go, but I have to help train the new knights. I'm free in two days.”

“No.” Reynold looked at her.

“No?” He parroted her, sounding confused.

She nodded, “You're going with me today, you owe me, remember?”

“Yeah, but I just told you I'm busy.”

She hummed, “You did, and I told you that you owe me.”

“Fine.” He huffed out pretending to sound displeased. Inside, he was happy that Penelope was being stubborn; it suited her nicely. “Why do you even want to go to an event like that?”

“I've never been to one before. I thought it would be nice to spend my first festival with you.” She smiled and Reynold smiled back harder.

To put it in simple words, Penelope did not know how it happened, but the Duke and Derrick ended up accompanying her and Reynold to the festival. All of them had even ridden the same carriage: Derrick next to the Duke and across from them Penelope and Reynold. The ride would have been quiet and awkward if it wasn't for Reynold sparking up conversations every so often.

As they approached the village's festival, Penelope could hear music and laughter. With excitement, she quickly opened the curtains of the carriage's window.

She could see stalls of food she was not familiar with and trinkets galore. There were even some booths with games. The sight of everyone at the festival looking happy brought a smile to her face.

“Excited?” Reynold asked. Penelope nodded, still looking out the window.

The carriage came to a stop, and she almost bolted out of the transportation vehicle, forgetting her ‘lady’ manners; she had to restrain herself. Reynold bolted out of the carriage on her behalf. It was ironic to her that if I lady had done as he did, she would have been called immature, but if a man did it, he would have been called chivalrous.

Reynold held his hand out to help her out; she took it happily. Penelope was followed out by the Duke, who was followed out by Derrick. The four of them approached the main area of the festival. The atmosphere was joyful. How could it be that they were the only nobles here?

“So, are we just going to walk around?” Reynold asked, carrying out the ‘o’ in so.

“Well obviously, do you want to run around or something?” Reynold narrowed his eyes at her. “Geez, We-” Penelope broke out in a sprint ahead. The three Eckharts sprinted after her. They found her at a game stall.

“Reynold, I need that.” She pointed to what can be described as an ugly, light pink fur creature with tiny, jew blue buttons for eyes. It was rather big, and its face was incredibly tiny.

Reynold grimaced, “You want that?”

Penelope shook her head, “Need.” she corrected him, eyes still locked on the large hanging stuffed animal.

“Penelope, honey, are you sure? It's a bit of an eyesore.” The duke asked, his eyes trying to avoid the ugly stuffed animal. Penelope nodded, and the Duke cleared his throat. “Excuse me young man, how much for the.. um.. ugly creature?”

The young man running the stall turned around, “You mean the pink cat plush?”

“That's a cat?” Derrick muttered under his breath.

“Yes, the cat. How much?” The Duke got his wallet out, ready to pay up the prince.

The young man crossed his arms, “It's not for sale.” The duke put his wallet away, tucking it into his pocket. “You need to play to win.” The duke took his wallet back out again.

Reynold placed some money on the booth’s table; the duke put his wallet away; and the young man running the stall pushed a basket with nine balls near him. “You got nine balls, which calls for three tries. Knock down all ten bottles to win the grand prize the little Missy wants” The young man explained as he sent the said Missy, Penelope, a wink. In return, he received a smile from her.

“Seems easy enough.” Reynold interrupted their moment. He took a ball and launched it at the triangularly stacked bottles. It did not hit any of the bottles, it had hit the back wall of the booth. Penelope held back a giggle. “It was a fluke, I was distracted, I swear!”

He took a deep breath, aimed, and launched. Luckily for him, it landed near the middle, knocking down four bottles at a time; both the first and second row were now empty, and the third row was missing the bottle in the center. Unlucky for him, he only had one ball left, and six bottles still stood proud.

Reynold aimed his last ball towards the two middle bottles. If he took these two down, then the two bottles that were stacked on top would fall, and if he was in luck, the bottles on top would hit the two bottles on each side as they fell. He perfected his aim and threw the ball. Reynold made it! He knocked down the two lower middle bottles and the ones stacked on top had fallen like he had predicted. One of the bottles had knocked another as it fell. Unfortunately, the other one failed to do so, leaving behind a single bottle.

“Ah! You were so close.” Penelope cried. She had been watching him intensively.

“I'll get it next time!” Reynold claimed as the young man stacked up the bottles again.

Not so fun fact: Reynold was a liar. He had not gotten it next time, or the next, or the next three times he had to pay for.

The young man was beginning to feel pity for the family. The Missy looked disappointed, her lying pink brother laid defeated on the booths table, the serious brother looked like he was suffering from a migraine, and their father was clearly tired.

The lying pink haired one, who he had heard was named Reynold when the Missy had said, “Reynold, you are so bad at this game it physically hurts me. Stop wasting your money and give up.” She had emphasized the word 'wasting’ and Reynold had responded with an aggressive, “Never!”

Anyway, his boss, well his father, would be upset if he had just given the Missy the prize, but he would not be too upset if he did this. “Here missy.” He pushed a basket with three balls towards her. “It's on the house, consider it as a thank you for spending so much money.”

“Thank you, hopefully I will win.” Penelope sent him a smile, and he moved out of the way, giving her a clear view of the bottle targets.

She aimed for the lower middle bottles, and struck; down came pummeling eight bottles. Reynold shouted in glee even though two bottles remained standing. The Duke had clapped. Derrick looked surprised.

Penelope looked at the bottles; they were on opposite sides and separated by a gap. She had two bottles standing and two balls remaining. An adorable cat stuffed animal was on the line here. There was no room for mistakes. She aimed for the bottle on the left, and knocked it down. Much to her appreciation, her family stayed quiet, which helped her concentrate.

It was just one flimsy bottle. A single one. It's not that big of a deal, she's knocked down nine already. Penelope shot and she scored! Reynold burst out in excitement while Derrick and the Duke stood quiet though happy.

“You did it! You actually did it!” Reynold engulfed her in a hug and she froze. “I didn't think you actually had it i-” Reynold pulled away as he spoke, and it was his turn to freeze. Penelope had tears running down her cheeks.

The Duke noticed the sudden quietness and with worry looked at what Reynold was observing. “Penelope, are you alright?”

They watched her nod her head as she wiped away her tears, “They're happy tears! I'm really happy I got to take that beauty home!” The tone of her reassurance sounded genuine. The Eckhart men watched with a simper as she was handed her ugly plush. Penelope thanked the young man before leaving.

“Mr. Advice.” Penelope stated while she looked in, now branded Mr. Advice's blue eyes.

“That's a weird ass name for a weird ass cat.” Penelope snickered. “I guess it works out.”

The four Eckharts walked around the festival for a while. They tried food they had not even known existed, and they had even managed to convince Derrick of all the people to play a game.

The day was starting to come to an end; the sky was dark blue and would be turning pitch black anytime soon. The festival looked even more beautiful at night. The music playing was slower and there were so many gorgeous lanterns providing warm light. Currently, they were looking at a stall full of jewels, jewelry, and trinkets that Reynold had pulled them into. He had claimed that he still owed Penelope because he was not the one who got her the ugly cat plush.

“Here hold your nephew.” She told her brother as she shoved Mr. Advice into his chest before he had the chance to refuse.

Penelope began to look around; everything was so pretty and shiny. She spared Derrick a glance when he stood next to her and reached out for something: a two layered bracelet with a teardrop jewel that was the same color as her hair. “This one looks nice.”

Derrick's comment got the stall keeper's attention, and he came rushing over to talk to him about the bracelet, trying to convince him to buy it. Penelope decided to leave those two. She made her way over to a nearby showcase table. This is where she found what she wanted. “Reynold.” Penelope called out before Reynold came rushing over.

“Did you find something you like?” He asked while looking at the showcase.

She hovered her finger over the glass, pointing to a small, white jeweled, flower shaped hair clip. It was so lovely; she needed it. The clip would be especially useful now that she was doing her own hair too.

“Woah, it's not ugly...”

Penelope scowled at him. “Sir,” the worker who was now done with Derrick made his way over. “I want that white flower clip.” He pointed to the clip Penelope would soon call hers.

“Ah, yes, that clip. It took me almost five months to cr-”

“I said I wanted it. Respectfully, I do not wish to hear its story.” It was hard to take Reynold seriously as he held Mr. Advice in his arms. The man running the stall nodded looking a tad glum and took the clip out of the glass case. Penelope smiled, it was so much more lovely out of its enclosure.

Reynold handed some currency to the man with his free hand in exchange for the now packaged clip. Instead of handing it to Reynold, he handed it to Penelope. “Here you go, my Lady.”

“Thank you, it truly is a beautiful clip.” Penelope thanked the man and watched as he lit up.

“And it's one of a kind! You'll be the only lady in the world who will possess such a thing. A beautiful clip for a beautiful lady, ahaha! I spent almost five months crafting it and searching for the perfect jewels throughout the continent!” The man began to ramble, and Penelope listened closely to the man. He had a slight foreign accent, a nice trait for him.

“Thank you again, I'll be sure to wear it for a special event.”

“That would be such an honor.” The stall keeper bid Penelope goodbye.

“Are we going home now?” Reynold asked no one in particular. The four Eckharts walked away from the stall. A sudden loud boom, almost thunder like, made them jump.

Derrick looked into the distance, “The parade is starting soon.”

“Parade?” Penelope spoke rather loudly by accident; she had failed to keep her excitement under control.

The Duke nodded, “A parade. I heard that it has all sorts of decorated floats pulled by horses dressed in costumes and performers. There's even a spectacular firework show at the end.”

Penelope's eyes sparked, “Duke, can we stay a while longer, please?”

“I suppose staying a while longer would not hurt.” He responded thoughtfully. Her cheer was followed by another boom. She looked up at the sky, a colorful explosion of bright yellow; fireworks..

People came rushing at the sound of the firework; the second firework had indicated that it was the start of the parade. They surrounded the Eckharts individually, separating all of them. Penelope heard her name shouted once over the sea of people before she was unable to. The parade was extremely loud; there were bands playing, booming fireworks, and people cheering. It was overwhelming.

Penelope ended up in an unfamiliar, dimly lit street. The shops along it were closed and there was nobody around to ask for help. She sighed; she was lost.

There were two options for her to choose from:

A.) She could stay where she was and wait for help; in a dim, unfamiliar street as a noble lady, which could get her mugged.

Or

B.) She could go and look for them herself. The chance of her getting mugged would be lower, but she could end up even more lost.

Both of her available options had their pros and cons. Penelope decided to try and look for her family. It was better than sitting around like a duck in a street. She walked down the sidewalk trying her best to stay where the light shined from the lampposts.

The sound of her footsteps was the only thing she heard. Suddenly, she was missing the overwhelming loud sounds of the festival.

Penelope walked around for a few more minutes when her ears caught the sound of music; it was the festival's parade! By the looks of it, the sound was off in the distance straight ahead, but it was growing quiet. The parade was distancing itself from her.

She bolted down the street. The parade would help her find her way back to the festival to ask for help. As she ran, the sound of the music got louder; she was getting close.

Penelope was about to cross the street when another running figure, who was also about to cross the street, bumped into her hard. Both of them were sent tumbling onto the sidewalk.

“I'm sorry.” The two of them spoke at the same time, while still on the floor.

Penelope looked at him. A male, around her age with hair colored a mixture of gray and brown. He also had light gray eyes. A glimmering yellow marble hung on a black choker caught her eye. The said male was a bit gruffed up, but he was somehow handsome regardless.

“Are you alright? Do you need help?” She asked a rhetorical question to the young man, who clearly needed more help than her at the moment. It was as if she had asked him if the night sky was dark.

Penelope could hear the sound of the festival's parade growing silent by the second. She could either ignore the young man and chase after the parade or she could be a good person and help him.

‘Be someone your mother would be proud of.’ the thought had popped into her head.

She got off of the floor and extended her hand out to help the young man stand up. His light gray eyes were locked on her hand before making eye contact once, and looking at her hand again. His hands were bigger than hers and she could feel multiple calluses. With his rough hand in her smooth hand, she helped him up. The young man stood tall around the height of Derrick, so one or two inches above six feet.

Penelope had realized that the music of the parade had gone missing. She ran with the young man in hand. Providentially, he had followed her and kept up with her speed. The sound of the music was getting louder.

The two of them slowed down when the music was clear. The music was clear, but the parade was nowhere in sight. The young man, comprehending that Penelope was trying to get close to the parade, managed to find a way there.

They were still hand in hand when Penelope had seen the parade and had touched the festival grounds. The only thing left to do was find a service tent. “Do you by any chance know where the service tent is?”

To her disappointment, he shook his head no. “Alright. Help me find it then.” The young man nodded. The two of them were still holding hands; it was so they would not lose each other. Plus, it was not a big deal. It was not like there were nobles at the festival seeing her hold the hand of some random commoner. If there were, it would be bad, rumors would spread and bring shame to the Eckhart Duchy.

The two of them walked around following the posted announcements that pointed to the service tent. ‘Service Tent this way —→’ most of them read.

As they walked, the young man's stomach grumbled. “Are you hungry?” She asked another obvious question. The man nodded. What was up with the lack of speaking? Was he perhaps mute? Pushing her questions aside, Penelope looked around. There was a nearby food stall still open and selling grilled chicken skewers. “Come on.” She led him there.

“Hello, can I get two chicken skewers? Two without vegetables, please.”

The man nodded, “Coming right up, Miss.” He already had two chicken skewers without vegetables on the grill. “Here, two plain chicken skewers to enjoy while you wait for your third.” Penelope let go of the young man's hand as she received the skewers. The man running the stall then turned his attention to the third skewer with vegetables.

“Here you go.” Penelope handed him the skewer. She took a bite of her own. “These are so good! I ordered you another one with vegetables because I wasn't sure if you liked them or not.”

The young man stood quiet as he looked at her with an indescribable expression. Gratitude or maybe even confusion?

“Thank you..” The young man spoke before digging in.

Penelope's eyes widened, “You speak! I was beginning to think you were mute, or you didn't like me!” She joked. “Ah, wait - sorry that was rude of me.”

The young man shook his head, disagreeing, “It's fine, don't apologize.” Penelope acknowledged his words with a small smile before taking another bite of her skewer.

“A chicken and vegetable skewer for the Miss.” the man running the stall called out. Penelope received it after paying for all three of them.

She turned to the young man, “Here, you seemed really hungry.” He took it with a small, barely there, smile.

“Thank you.” He spoke again. Penelope was not yet used to the sound of his voice.

“Mhm, now let's walk while you eat. We need to go to the service tent, my brother might be there worrying about me.”

The two of them walked, this time not hand in hand, following the poster announcements.

Chapter Text

Penelope could see the service tent up ahead, yet she did not break into a sprint. She was in no rush to arrive there. Instead, she wanted to get to know the quiet young man, who she was bound to help as soon as she could. There was something about the said young man that had drawn her to him; Maybe it was his eyes? His blank expression? His mannerisms?

“What's your name?” She blurted out, he turned to look at her with his common stoic expression. Gray eyes met turquoise, which quickly averted them.

The young man thought pensively, almost as if he was creating a name for himself. Penelope felt as if that was not true though; he was most likely just trying to recall it. Which was odd, but she didn't comment on it.

Barely a minute later, he responded, “Eckles.” His voice was a bit raspy. The young man, now branded Eckles, cleared his throat.

“Eckles,” Penelope spoke, trying out how the name rolled off her tongue. “Eckles..” She said, this time quieter. The tip of her tongue touched the roof of her mouth, behind her front teeth when she pronounced the “L” in his name.

Penelope liked how the name felt. “Your name is fun to pronounce, Eckles!” She smiled, from the corner of her eyes she could see the side of his lips slightly twitch upwards. “Eckles.., Eckle.. patronymic of Eckehard? Old South German most likely, meaning ‘brave edge or point,’ kind of like a sword! And ‘hard’ meaning ‘brave or hardy!” She watched as he flinched.

“My name is Penelope Eckhart if you care.” She informed him. It seemed to her like he was not in the mood for small talk.

“Weaver.” He said, causing her to tilt her head.

Then it clicked. Eckles had analyzed her name as she had previously done for him. “Mhm, it's Greek! I'm not sure if you noticed or not, but my last name, Eckhart, partially shares meaning with your name! The ‘Eck,’ well ‘Ekke’ means ‘brave edge or point!’ It's helped me figure out what your name meant.”

“Are you interested in Etymology?” Eckles asked her; the use of a full sentence surprised her a tad.

Penelope shook her head no. “Not at all, I just wanted to talk to you.” She did not receive a response from Eckles. “I'm positively sure that your name doesn't mean what I said though,” Penelope added her afterthought.

He nodded his head once, “I think so too.”

“So, what does your man mean?” When the question aired, Eckles stayed quiet.

Truthfully speaking, he had no clue what his name meant. There was a chance that Penelope had been right about his name, but there was also a chance that his name was given to him without significance. Eckles, the illegitimate son of the former king of Delman, a now ruined country that ceased to exist on the world map. Would what his name meant even matter now?

Eckles settled on shrugging his shoulders; Penelope chose not to pry, instead she looked ahead. The service tent was still small, she had not noticed that they had slowed down.

“I know it doesn't mean much, considering it's from a stranger, but” Penelope took a pause, “I want to give your name meaning.” He looked at her with such intensity that it scared her a bit, but she didn't avert her eyes. “Eckles, meaning brave and sharp.” His eyes soften.

“Thank you..” He managed to get out before Penelope was embraced, not by him but by a stranger. She shrieked from the sudden contact and as if by instinct Eckles rushed to pull the stranger off of her.

Penelope turned to look at who had suddenly embraced her. “Reynold?” Eckles came to the conclusion that she was familiar with the pink haired man and backed off.

Reynold cupped her face, “Where the hell have you been? Are you hurt?” His voice was full of both relief and worry; his expression one of a frantic man.

“I'm not hurt.” Penelope put her hands on top of his for a moment. She let them rest there before withdrawing Reynold's hands from her face. “I ended up lost outside of the festival.” Penelope turned to face Eckles. “This young man helped me find my way back.”

Reynold turned to face Eckles. Just by laying his eyes on him for a second, he was able to determine that this man was a slave. The magic infused choker was a big giveaway too. His eyebrows furrowed as he continued to look him up and down.

Penelope elbowed him near the lower side of his ribs. “Stop staring at him like that, it's rude. Eckles helped me and he should be rewarded.”

He looked at his sister like she was not mentally sane. “Seriously?”

She nodded and Reynold signed, “Bring it up to father not me. He's at the service tent worrying out of his mind.”

The three of them walked, in a bit of a hurry, to the service tent. Reynold walked behind them frowning at his sister's proximity with the slave. They walked in an awkward silence to the service tent.

The first thing that Penelope laid eyes on in the tent was the Duke and his poorly concealed worry. He had his hands joined together almost as if he were praying, his head was down, staring at the floor, and his right leg was bouncing repeatedly. The sight made her feel weird inside and wince.

She stepped in front of him. The Duke must have recognized her shoes because when they came into his field of vision, he shot up like a bullet, startling her in the process. He let his emotions get the best of him, and he engulfed her in a hug. She froze under his touch and her hands hovered over his back.

Penelope could smell his expensive cologne: sandalwood, hemp, and something she could not recognize. His dark hair was soft and it tickled the side of her face. She could also feel as he trembled a bit.

Feeling pity towards her so called father, she decided to let her hands fall on his back; returning his hug. The grasp that the Duke had on her tightened, but it wasn't one that made her uncomfortable. He gave her a good final squeeze before he pulled away.

Once parted by less than a foot, he cupped the side of her face. “Thank the heavens you are well.” The way that the Duke looked at her made Penelope feel as if she was not herself, but Ivonne. The whole thing reminded her of when Ivonne had returned and been confirmed as the legitimate daughter of his. She was even sure that the Duke had said the same thing to Ivonne.

Penelope avoided his glaze and settled on Eckles. While doing so she noticed that Reynold was not there; he must have gone to look for Derrick to inform him she was found. “It's all thanks to Eckles.”

The Duke turned to face Eckles after having removed his hand from Penelope's face. He approached him, “Thank you for bringing my daughter back to me. Is there anything you would like as a much deserved reward?”

Eckles pondered for a moment, “It would be a true honor to work under your family.” He eventually requested.

In all honesty, Eckles had no clue if it would be an honor to work for them; they could have been the most hated noble family in the entire Eorka Empire for all he knew.

The request caught the Duke off guard, “Boy, I'm stating this rather bluntly, but are you by chance a slave?”

Eckles nodded with an emotionless expression.

“You ran away from your master, and instead of putting yourself first and escaping, you decided to help my daughter?” The Duke was beginning to piece a story together.

Penelope made eye contact with Eckles; she signaled, to the best of her ability, for him to go along with the story crafted by her father.

Eckles got the notion and nodded. “..Thank you again, I don't know what time to say.” It was quiet between the three of them. “I'll allow you to work under the Eckhart family. I have to get in contact with your master though.” The Duke began to talk seriously with Eckles, and Penelope could not be bothered to pay attention.

She turned to look outside the service tent in search of something to distract herself with. Penelope was quick to notice Reynold approaching Thanks to his noticeable, light pink hair. It took her a second to acknowledge Derrick following in tow.

As they approached the tent, Penelope decided to meet them outside.

“You're alright?” Derrick asked before she could greet the two of them. She nodded. “That's good. You didn't cause any trouble?” She shook her head no.

Reynold clicked his teeth, “She befriended a runaway slave.” Derrick's eyes widened at this, clear that Reynold had not told him about Eckles.

Penelope rolled her eyes, “His name is Eckles and I didn't cause any trouble. Father is going to buy him from his master.” Both of her brother's expressions morphed into one of disbelief.

“The Eckhart's owning a slave, can you imagine what that would do to our reputation?” Derrick was the first who snapped.

“There's a ton of nobles who own slaves! They either work in their mansions or factories.” Penelope tried to defend the purchase of Eckles.

Derrick's eyes narrowed at her. “Yes, owning slaves is mostly legal, but that doesn't mean that it's not frowned upon,” he made his rebuttal.

“Then, he won't work as a slave. He'll be my personal knight or guard!” Her said statement made her brother gwak.

“Penelope, you can't be serious.” Reynold quickly commented.

Then Derrick followed with his own comment, “Giving the title of a night to a slave? That's preposterous, Penelope, you know that much.”

Penelope frowned. “Reynold, you saw him earlier; how he defended me quickly when you embraced me. He has potential! You of all people should see that in him. Quick reactions are a good thing!”

Reynold stayed quiet, neither denying her claims nor defending them.

She turned to look Derrick in the eyes. “And you of all people should also know how the knights and guards treat me. I'm the Lady of Eckhart and they neglect me. There could come a day where their negligence is the reason I am put in harm's way.”

Derrick stayed quiet, his silence only supporting her claim.

“I agree with Penelope.” The three Eckhart children turned to face their father. Had the Duke been listening in on their conversation? “Eckles seems to possess both potential and loyalty.” He turned to face Penelope. “He'll receive the standard necessary training, but he will not be awarded the title of a knight or guard due to his status. Though, he will have his own different special title as your personal protector.”

Penelope smiled, “Thank you, f-!” She quickly bit back the ‘father’ she almost ended her thanks with.

The Duke seemed to have noticed her slip-up but chose to not comment on it; he simply nodded his head with his eyebrows furrowed and a sad smile.

The festival had ended and this time the Lady of the Eckhart house had returned safe and sound to the Duchy with a new member.

The carriage pulled up to the mansion. The Duke was the first one out and greeted by Pennel.

Derrick followed after his father, and soon quickly disappeared into the mansion.

Reynold rushed out as usual to help Penelope get out of the carriage. He already extended his hand out, but she didn't follow behind him. The slave, Eckles or whatever, followed behind him causing him to take his hand back to his side.

Reynold's sister had insisted that he rode inside the carriage and not with the coachman. The Eckhart men gave in, and the slave sat next to Penelope, forcing Reynold, Derrick, and their father to sit in the other seating area. It was a bit cramped, to say the least.

With an expression of a mixture of offense and incredulity, Reynold watched as his sister was helped out of the carriage by Eckles. He watched as Penelope thanked him with a polite smile that belonged to him. Reynold clenched his fist, he should have been the one helping her out of the carriage.

He exhaled to get rid of those strong and negative emotions he had just experienced. ‘It's not a big deal’, Reynold tried to remind himself.

A bunch of people had helped Penelope out of a carriage before and he had never reacted that way. Plus, Eckles did not know better; he had not known that helping Penelope out of the carriage was Reynold's task.

He observed as Penelope bid Eckles good night and how she told him that she would check up on him tomorrow to see how he was adjusting. Reynold entered the mansion to escape their conversation, he was in no mood to hear what they were talking about.

Morning greeted the Eckharts with warm sun rays and singing birds. Penelope was already up and ready to check on Eckles. She had even skipped breakfast with Reynold to get to the training grounds quickly.

Skipping breakfast was something that had not concerned her; she spent her day yesterday at the festival lavishing in all sorts of heavy calorie foods. Penelope needed to stay in shape, she was a noble lady.

She made her way to the training grounds. Penelope wore something on the simpler side to avoid the knights from starting pesky rumors.

Reynold was the first one whom she had recognized. When his eyes laid on her, he put his sword down and jogged over to her. “Hey, I missed you at breakfast this morning.”

“I decided to skip it today.” She informed him as she looked over his shoulder in search of Eckles.

Reynold's expression morphed and his eyebrows pinched together; it could have been because she wasn't paying full attention to him or because she had skipped breakfast.

“That's not healthy. You're already as slim as a branch.” Reynold wrapped his right hand around her wrist. “See.” His hand fit like a bracelet three sizes too big on her.

Penelope did not respond. “Let's go get you some breakfast. I'll even eat a snack so you don't have to be the only one eating if you want.” Reynold began to drag her away when Penelope spotted Eckles training in the far back.

“Later.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and Reynold let her without protesting. “I'm busy at the moment,” she told him as she disappeared into the crowd of training knights

The smell of sweaty armpits and other horrible body odors assaulted Penelope's nose, making her nose burn and expression cringe. She swore to herself there and at that moment that she would never go through a crowd of sweaty knights again. These men were hard at training and it showed. When she got closer to where Eckles was training the smell had dissolved into the air and relief flooded her senses.

“Hi.” Penelope's greeting resulted in Eckles hastily turning to face her.

“Hello.” He returned her greeting as he set down his wooden sword. Eckles looked better than he did the night before.

“How are you adjusting?” She questioned him as she sat on a nearby unoccupied training bench. Penelope patted the area on the bench next to her signaling for him to take a seat.

Eckles got the memo. There were now mere inches separating the two. “Okay,” he answered her question.

“Good. I wouldn't want the knights to exclude you because of your status. You would tell me if that was the case, right?” Penelope asked with sincerity in her voice. She knew how it felt to be excluded in this Duchy, it was horrible and lonely. She also would not wish it upon anyone else.

Penelope brought Eckles into the Duchy, therefore she would look after him; unlike the Duke had done with her.

“Everything is fine.” He reassured her, but she felt as if he was lying to her.

“If that were the case, then why are you training by yourself in such a secluded area?” She asked him, challenging his claim. Penelope was not going to pretend to be naive for the sake of comfort in their forming relation.

Eckles paused for a moment before responding, “They smell.” He deadpanned.

The answer caught Penelope off guard making her giggle. “Okay, you're not wrong there, but is there really no ulterior motive?” Eckles shook his head no. “I'm going to have to take your word for it then, Eckles.”

Reynold watched as Penelope made her way to a more secluded area of the training grounds. Was she here to see some knight?

He moved around the area to get a better look at Penelope. When he caught sight of her again she was sitting next to whatever his name was with only a few inches between them.

His sister did most of the talking, the slave would get some words in at times. A scowl made its way onto Reynold's face when Penelope giggled; were they flirting?

With that thought in mind, he quickly made his way over to the two of them. “Hey, Penelope,” Reynold announced when he was only a few feet away. The two of them turned to face him simultaneously. “Let's go get you some breakfast before your head starts hurting. I don't want you to complain later that your head hurts.”

“Yeah, yeah, give me a second.” She got up to straighten out her dress skirt. “I'll come by to visit you again Eckles, I got to go.” He nodded with his expression lacking emotion.

Penelope rested her hand on his shoulder for a second as she passed him to meet up with Reynold.

Once Penelope and Reynold were a reasonable distance away from Eckles, Reynold asked her something in a low, quiet voice, “Do you like him?”

She sputtered. “What?” Her voice chastises him for having the audacity to ask her that. “No!” She quickly added in pure honesty. “He's mysterious and handsome, yes, but he's not my type.”

Reynold's eyebrows raised, “You already have a type?”

She nodded, “Of course I do! I'm a seventeen year old lady. I've already had more than one crush.” Reynold was the definition of gobsmacked. “Come on, don't act like you've never had a crush before!”

“This isn't about me! You're too young to be crushing on people!” Reynold spoke a little too loudly, she covered his mouth; she didn't want someone to overhear this embarrassing conversation.

“Stop acting like I'm a four year old child! I'm basically grown already.” Reynold rolled his eyes. “Having crushes is normal.” Penelope removed her hands from his mouth.

“Yeah, exactly normal, you're everything but that. I imagined that you were too busy fawning over money instead of guys.” Reynold’s response hurt something inside of Penelope.

“Like you're anything normal yourself.” She snarked back at him.

Reynold sensed that he said something wrong and instead of apologizing he changed the topic. “So, what kind of guys do you like, Miss. Experienced Crusher.”

Penelope glared at him. “I have a thing for nice smiles, but they also have to look ugly.” Reynold looked appalled. She shrugged, “Only a little bit ugly, I don't want them to look so ugly to the point where I can't look at them. They just can't be prettier than me, y’know?” Reynold nodded, pretending to understand what his sister meant. “I still want people to be like ‘Wow, her husband is so handsome, but she's definitely prettier.’” She added.

Reynold slowly nodded his head. “So you don't care about height or titles?”

Penelope thought pensively for a moment. “Height doesn't really matter. I'm still going to wear my heels if I want and they're short. If they love me, then they will deal with it.” She paused again to look for an answer to the second part of his question. “And as for titles, that doesn't matter. I didn't earn my title, it was given to me, and I try to live up to it. If the person I loved was a Marquess, Earl, Count, or even a Baron or commoner, I wouldn't care as long as I'm happy.”

“That's oddly mature of you,” Reynold said with straight surprise in his tone.

“I can be mature when I want,” Penelope said, sounding like a snapping child.

Reynold's smile softened, “Yeah, I know you can.”

“So, what's your type?” Penelope asked almost teasingly.

He froze, “Aye! I said this wasn't about me! Who was your first crush?” He asked, trying to dodge her question.

“That's sacred information.” She smiled cheekily.

Penelope and Reynold made the choice to eat in the dining room instead of her room today. He had requested a simple protein packed smoothie bowl and a small sized meat sandwich for himself. Penelope was not necessarily craving anything, so she let him decide what she should eat for breakfast. For her, he requested a stack of pancakes with syrup and a side of berries.

When the fluffy, sweet smelling, stack of golden brown pancakes was placed in front of her, she could feel herself salivating at the sight of them. Five whole pancakes with maple syrup and a square of yellow unsalted butter all to herself.

She whined in a light tone, “Damn you Reynold, you're going to make me gain so much weight.” Despite making it clear that she was worried about her weight, she dug into the pancakes.

“Good, you need to put on a few healthy pounds,” Reynold told her as he picked up his sandwich. It seemed like today he was not going to eat so monstrously.

Penelope took a bite of the pancakes; they were even better than she had imagined. It had hit her at that moment how hungry she was.

“If I put on some more pounds my dresses will fail to fit me.” She said once she finished chewing.

Between bites, Reynold spoke, “So? We could call a dressmaker or a tailor if you want.”

“People would gossip that I let myself go, and I would prefer it if they didn’t,” she groaned.

Reynold's eyebrows furrowed; weight certainly meant a lot to noble ladies, did it not? “Well, I would still care for you if you got fat.” He said rather bluntly causing him to receive an ‘Are you serious’ smile from Penelope.

“I don't think I'd love myself, but I would definitely care for you if you got fat.” Penelope returned his kind claim. It seemed to upset Reynold more than it made him happy though.

“Do noble ladies really care that much about their weight?” Reynold asked, nearly bewildered but nonetheless serious.

Penelope stayed quiet, but she nodded. A moment was taken before she added, “It does, more than it should. We're expected to look and act a certain way. I have it kind of easy because, you know, I lash out in public, and., yeah… Some ladies don't have it easy though. They have strict diet plans and activities they must follow to stay fit. It was popular at one point between us to eat cotton balls because it made you feel full and barely added anything to your weight. Weight can be a toxic beauty standard.” While she spoke, she stared at her pancakes, unable to gather the courage to look Reynold in the eyes.

There was silence between the two of them.

“You would tell me if you ever hated something about yourself or started feeling dysmorphic, right?” Reynold tried to get a look at her face, but her eyes remained on her pancakes: they looked good.

After a few seconds she responded, “Of course I would, I trust you.” Penelope sent him a genuine smile before she resumed eating; her pancakes had lost some heat.

“Good.” He picked his sandwich up but did not start eating immediately. “I would love you if you gained weight.” Penelope's eyes went wide, and she almost choked when she heard the word ‘love’ come out of Reynold's lips. It was not one she was expecting to hear from him. She was expecting ‘care’ or something similar. “If you hated yourself, I would love you in your stead and mine. I would even help you get to where you want to be.” Reynold looked over to her; she was wiping away a stray tear.

“Thank you.” she muttered, but he did not say “You're welcome.” He was her brother, it was his job to love her even if she could not love herself.

Penelope let herself fall onto her bed. Breakfast had been emotionally draining, but it left her feeling lighter and exhausted at the same time.

She brought a pillow up to her chest and cradled it. Penelope took a deep inhale, her nose was filled with the smell of lily-scented fabric softener.

A nap sounded really swell right about now. She just closed her eyes and she didn't pull a blanket over her because if she did, Penelope would have fallen asleep longer than she wanted.

Two knocks on the door made her eyes snap open, “My Lady, it's Pennel.”

Penelope made no effort to get out of bed, “..Come in.”

Her bedroom door opened revealing himself with his hands behind his back. “Lady Penelope, an invitation to you has been delivered from the imperial palace.”

She shot up from where she lay. “The Imperial palace?” She wanted nothing to do with them, why were they reaching out to her now?

Pennel nodded, “It seems like a small banquet will be held to mark the end of the founding day celebrations.”

‘Ah, yes the founding celebration. If it's ending, then that also means that the festival is ending..’ Penelope thought to herself, her thoughts then shifted to more pressing matters, “But, why did I get an invite?

He cleared his throat, “It is said.. that the crown prince planned this banquet himself.”

Penelope recoiled at the mention of Kallisto. “What did my father say, am I expected to attend?”

“The Duke does not know of this invitation, like I said earlier it was directed to you only.” The head butler wavered.

Penelope's mouth dropped open. This bastard wanted to get her alone! But why? A memory of the second prince's banquet, specifically in the imperial gardens played in the theater of her mind. She hadn't even taken the time out of her days to recall his question, let alone form a response; this was all an excuse to see her!

She fell back, letting her bed catch her, and yanked a nearby blanket to cover herself with, “I think I'm coming down with something. The food at the festival must have messed me up.”

Pennel’s expression switched to one of worry, “Should I call a physician, my Lady?”

“Not right now, it might pass in a few. I'll call for one myself if I feel worse.” Penelope spoke, trying to keep her tone flat.

The head butler stayed quiet. “Very well, I'll be back to check on your condition.” She thanked him as he exited.

Penelope looked out the window: the sky was darkening with massive gray clouds. It was going to rain heavily even though the sun was just shining brightly a few minutes ago. Her room darkened due to the lack of natural lighting and soft rain began to patter against a multitude of surfaces.

The sounds and atmosphere the rain created were perfect for a nap. She fixed the blanket on top of her and closed her eyes. The sounds of rain got louder, it seemed like a storm was approaching. Penelope fell asleep not minding that she was not wearing suitable clothing for a nap.

When Penelope woke up, it was still raining and dark. She was not certain on how long she had napped for. Feeling tired, disoriented, and a tad confused for some apparent reason, she stumbled out of bed. There was a glass pitcher with water that was calling out her name, begging to be drunk, on her nightstand. Hastily, she poured herself a glass of water and drank like a dehydrated horse. The water felt cool and refreshing as it went down.

By chance, Penelope caught sight of herself in a mirror. Her bangs were the opposite of neat, sticking out in random directions, and she even had the pattern of her mattresses imprinted on her cheek; she had just experienced one of the best naps in the world.

She began to get ready. The Eckhart Lady slipped on a pair of pants, it was something she did not commonly wear, but the weather did not call for a skirt or a dress. Penelope pulled over a simple blouse followed by a rain resistant coat. This was not one of her favorite looks, but it was still cute and efficient at the same time. As she left her room, Penelope grabbed an umbrella.

The servants did not fail to give her odd looks, very likely due to her choice in apparel, as she made her way through the mansion.

“My Lady?” Pennel called out for her from behind. Penelope froze. “Are you feeling any better?”

She turned to face him, “Not at all, I feel a bit hot, so I decided to go outside to cool down.” The lie came smoothly to her.

The head butler looked worried, “Should I call for a physician?”

Penelope quickly shook her head, “Please don't! Father will get worried and I don't want him to get sidetracked from his important work. Some fresh air will help me feel better.” She was lying with ease and it appeared as if Pennel was buying her act.

“If you say so, my Lady.” It was clear to her that Pennel struggled to comply with her demand. “Please, do keep in mind how long you stay outside. I don't want your condition to worsen.” Penelope nodded her head in acknowledgment and left.

“It seems like the Fake Lady is under the weather..”

“Did you see how ill she looked?”

“Who will take care of her if no one has the role of her personal maid?”

“She looked disoriented, maybe she caught a virus?”

“What a shame, the Lady let herself go..”

For once, Penelope was happy that the servants were talking about her appearance. It would spread rumors that she was unwell and could not attend the banquet. A small victory to her for once!

The wind blew at her face as she headed to the training grounds, the dorm where Eckles was staying was nearby.

She stood in front of the dorms when she caught a glimpse of something moving in the corner of the training grounds. Someone was training. Penelope walked closer to get a better view of the person.

“Eckles.” She muttered he was training in this terrible weather.

The rain was loud, concealing her footsteps, as she approached him. The tip of a wooden sword was quickly pointed at her throat; Penelope didn't startle like she did when the crown prince had done the same to her.

Recognition filled Eckles' eyes when he saw Penelope. He quickly dropped the sword as if it had burned him and fell to his knees splattering some mud. “I'm sorry I turned a weapon on you. I deserved to be punished.”

Penelope ignored him. She stepped closer to his kneeling self to shed him from the storm with her umbrella. “It's raining Eckles, you're completely drenched.” She reached out to play with a wet stand of his dark hair, her hands almost cupping the side of his face in the process. “Are you not cold?” She added, the young man was not wearing a shirt and it was pouring.

Eckles shook his head no as a response.

The Lady let go of Eckles’ hair, “Are you being forced to train in this weather by the other knights?” She then asked.

Again, Eckles shook his head no.

“Good.” She took his word with a smile. “Then, do tell me why you're training while it storms.” Penelope moved an inch closer to him to shield him from the rain more efficiently.

“I want to get stronger.” He responded. Her eyes peeled a bit but her expression remained the same. “I need to move up in the ranks so that I can quickly become your personal protector.”

Penelope smiled as she cupped the side of his face this time. “You're so obedient Eckles, I love that about you.” He leaned into her touch like a dog. “Stay by my side when everything goes to hell.” She instructed him and he simply nodded his head, not understanding the capacity of what he had agreed to. The hand of Eckles cradled over her own that cupped the side of his face. His hands felt cold, rough, and calloused. They caused her to remember the time at the festival when they walked hand in hand.

Eckles was on her side, that was a good thing. Realistically speaking, when Ivonne returned Reynold would turn to her, his real sister. His relationship with her improved by a mile, yes, but blood was thicker than water at the end of the day, it was a known fact.

“Why do you look that way?” Eckels asked her. He was still kneeling on the floor.

She removed her hand before extending it out to help him up off of the cold muddy ground. “Why do I look like what?” He took her hand to get up.

“Sad, betrayed, almost remorseful.” Penelope stopped herself from gaping at his answer.

“I just feel a bit sick.” She lied, but he could tell her false truth.

“Sick of this Dukedom or the noble life?” Penelope couldn't help but to gape this time. Eckles saw right through her and decided to confront her on it; something that no one did. People, Reynold, when or if they saw through her lies they decided to go along with it. For the sake of preventing arguments and whatnot. They, he, did not act.

Penelope felt.. scared. There was someone who could read her and was not afraid to call her out bluntly. Eckles was different from the rest. He scared her at times like this, was loyal, and had a good intuition. Penelope could not read him as well as he could read her and it made her feel naked. A sick part of her liked it though, someone who knew her for her.

Despite the mixed emotions she had towards Eckles, she wanted him around. Penelope saw potential in him, she could alter him to someone she could use to prevail and live. With him by her side, she would not feel lonely when Reynold chose to switch sides to Ivonne.

“I'm sick of everything Eckles.” She responded seriously, looking him in the eyes. “But, that's okay because there are moments that are created by this lifestyle that I cherish; like meeting you for example. The good balances out the bad. If I were to leave, I would have more freedom, but I would also be overwhelmed and unhappy with the change. It's just a phase, Eckles, so don't stress about it.” The look in his eyes told her he was taking what she had finished telling him into consideration.

“Now let's get you back to the dorms. You're trained enough for today, I'm proud of you.” Penelope had told him what she had always wanted to hear from someone, ‘I'm proud of you.’ She knew she was treating Eckles like how she would have wanted when she entered the Duchy.

The next morning, Penelope was called into the Duke's office. She could think of two reasons why she was called:

1.) Someone had seen her interaction with Eckles yesterday in the rain.

2.) He became aware of the invitation to the banquet sent by the imperial family.

Penelope knocked once and by the time she had lifted her hand to knock one more, the Duke had already spoken. “Come in.”

She entered the room greeting him, “Good morning, Duke.”

He stiffed at the title for a second but regained his composure just as quickly. “Good morning, Penelope. Are you well?”

“What?” She said without thinking, “Pardon me, I meant excuse me, I think I heard incorrectly. Did you ask how I was?” The Duke nodded, her ears had not deceived her then.

“I heard that you were feeling unwell yesterday. Are you well?” He asked again. Oh, right, the act from yesterday.

Penelope nodded, “I woke up feeling slightly better than the day before.”

The Duke's eyebrows furrowed, “Are you sure? You don't look so swell.” Why did everyone think she looked sick? Is it because she looked more unkempt than she did without the help of a maid? “You lack the energy you used to. You don't shout, you don't go out, you just stay in your room.”

“It's my uterus, it's taking revenge on me.” She blurted out a believable lie that happened to pop into her mind. God, she wanted to evaporate once the lie left her lips.

The Duke looked puzzled, “..taking revenge..?” The moment it clicked the Duke's eyes doubled in size and he choked. “Oh.” Penelope wanted to slam her head against his desk. “Alright then.” He cleared his throat. “I have good news for you, hopefully, it will brighten your day. I bought Eckles from his master, he's all your Penelope.”

She smiled, “Really?” He nodded, smiling back at her. “Thank you, father!”

His eyes widened when he heard her call him father before they softened and looked at her endearingly. “You're welcome, Penelope.” It had been a while since she had referred to him as such. It felt nice hearing it, but he felt as if he hadn't deserved it.

“I'll be on my best behavior, I swear,” Penelope added, but the Duke felt like he could care less; he missed her chaotic self.

Chapter Text

Penelope left the Duke's office with a bright smile displayed on her face. Eckles was in her possession; he was hers! She could not wait to share the news with him. Would he be just as glad as she was at the moment?

A few nearby maids, who were dusting off the paintings in the hallway, looked at her with puzzled expressions as she passed by with a smile, “Beautiful morning, isn't it?”

They looked at each other as if they were asking among themselves if she had just spoken to them. “You're right, my lady.” A brave maid spoke up for the rest of them. Penelope sent her a smile and continued to make her way, leaving behind four perplexed maids.

“I wonder why the lady is in such a good mood… She looked sick a few moments ago, and now she looks just dandy.” A maid asked her coworkers after placing her gray feather duster down.

The maids looked at each other again. “Maybe the duke bought her something she'd been wanting for a while?” One theorized.

“She was most likely never even sick to begin with.” Another theorized.

The Duchy was not buzzing around with as many people as it usually was; it was rather quiet. Penelope lightly closed the door to her bedroom. She would not be able to share the news with Eckles due to her faking being sick, but she would eventually.

Letting herself fall to her bed with a book, she sighed. Now that she was pretending to be ill, she had to stay in her room for her to not be discovered. This reminded her of when she was prohibited from leaving her room. Penelope opened the book to the first page, skipped the credit and acknowledgments pages, and began to read.

The words inked on the book's page were starting to blur together, and it was getting difficult to comprehend the text. Her brain was tired, and she was drifting in and out of sleep. Soft dark magenta lashes met, her eyes stood closed, the door slammed open, and she jolted awake.

“Penelope!” Reynold burst into her room shouting, reminding her of the times he barged into her room with fury. Her older brother went quiet immediately after seeing her lying in her bed groggy. “Sorry, I didn't know you were sleeping.” Reynold apologized in a lighter tone.

Penelope sat up, “It's fine, I was only about to get some shuteye.”

The book was placed on her nightstand as he approached her bed. “There's news going around that you're sick, are you? You don't look it.”

With closed eyes she shook her head no. “The crown prince invited me to a banquet he's hosting, but I do not wish to attend.”

Reynold's eyebrows pinched together, “Why is he, of all people, inviting you to the banquet?”

Penelope did not respond right away. Should she tell Reynold about her encounter with the crown price? What if he started a rumor by accident? “I met the crown prince at the second prince's birthday banquet.” She chose to tell him.

“..so?” Reynold asked, not really comprehending.

Penelope grit her teeth, “I think he's interested in me or something.” Her brother's expression fell into one of terror and surprise.

“What?!”

She grimaced at his loud voice, “I don't think it's a romantic interest. I think he sees me more as someone interesting that can entertain him now that he's off the battlefield.” Reynold's expression failed to cheer up, she figured she could have worded her sentences better.

“That bastard of a crown prince- Who does he think he is, seeing my little sister as a jester to entertain him?” Reynold scowled, and something warm blossomed in Penelope's heart when Reynold called her his sister with such sincerity. This was the first time he had verbally acknowledged their relationship in positive terms.

Penelope cleared her throat, “As much as he is a bastard, you mustn't call him that. He's royalty.”

Reynold rolled his eyes at her. “You're not going to that banquet, and you are prohibited from seeing him.” He smacked her bed to seem intimidating, so that she would listen to his order. Instead, Reynold looked like a child throwing a fit.

“I wasn't planning on attending. That's why I'm faking being sick, remember?” Penelope made a gesture to her fake ill glory. “Plus, I don't want to see him either.”

There must have been something in her tone of voice or her expression maybe, because from her bedside Reynold's posture straightened. “Did he do something to you?” His voice was heavy with concern.

Penelope jolted, immediately scrambling, “No! He didn't do anything to me.” Not in this life at least. “He's just intimidating. His red eyes are so calculating, and it freaks me out.”

Her brother nodded understandingly. “Okay.” A moment of silence passed. “I'll help you pull off your act. I'm going to go spread the word then.” He gave her a mischievous wink before closing her bedroom door.

She let herself fall back to the comfort of her bed. Penelope let herself close her eyes when another knock sounded. The sound of the door opening was followed along with footsteps. She didn't bother to sit up, she lifted her head to see who had entered: it was Derrick.

“Young master,” she greeted him after resting her head once more.

“Penelope,” he returned the greeting. He stopped at the foot of her bed. “Rumor has it that you're unwell.” Derrick looked her up and down. “Seems like it's true.”

Penelope hummed. “I was out when it was raining, now I'm facing the consequences.”

The young master walked closer to her with something in hand, something she failed to notice he had when he entered her room. “I brought you something to eat.” He placed a small weaved basket with a light pink napkin full of cookies on the nightstand. “Hopefully you still like these,” he added.

As Penelope sat up, a smile engulfed her face. A lot of time had passed since she had enjoyed some of those cookies. “Thank you, young master. These are some of my favorites.” She looked at the basket of assorted cookies that was now on her lap waiting to be eaten; missing the way that the corners of Derrick's mouth pulled upwards, creating a makeshift smile.

“I'm glad. I created the assortment myself,” he let her know.

Penelope looked up at him and then at the cookies, she repeated this a few more times before replying with, “Would you care for one?”

Derrick shook his head, “I'm alright.” He turned around to exit her room. “Get better soon, Penelope.” He paused, back-turned to her, and hand resting on the doorknob, “Be careful when you're with Eckles.” Her blood ran cold. “You wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea.” The door shut behind him leaving Penelope in her dismay.

He knew. Derrick saw her yesterday in the rain with Eckles. Did he have the wrong idea? Penelope's head shook, clearing her thoughts; she had no reason to be so panicked. She did nothing wrong.

Two days passed agonizingly slowly. Penelope stayed in her room in the company of her thoughts and books. There was also Mr. Advice, the stuffed cat she had won at the festival, he was great company. (Oh, and Reynold would stop by to eat with her.)

Throughout those days, the crown prince never sent a letter addressing her lack of presence at the banquet that he had personally invited her to.

Currently, Penelope was on her way to meet Eckles with a basket in hand. Knowing the young man, he was most likely in a secluded area of the training grounds. She snuck past Reynold and some knights training who ignored her presence; she was secretly thankful for that, but they did not need to know that.

The lady reached the area where she had found Eckles the first time she visited him.

He was shirtless; his back littered with vertical scars overlapping on display with a shiny gleam of sweat coating him.

Penelope reached for a towel resting on a training bench. “You should take a break!” She called out as she walked closer to him.

“My Lady,..” Eckles greeted her in a way, caught off guard by her presence. He had not been expecting her.

“Hello, Eckles.” Penelope extended her hand out with the towel. Their fingers brushed as he took it. “I see you've been training consistently.”

The young man nodded, “I have.” He dragged the towel across his face, chest, and shoulders, trying to wipe off the sweatiest surfaces of his body.

“Remember to take a break every now and then, it won't kill you.” She spoke in a light tone.

Eckles shook his head, “I can't. I need to move up in the ranks quickly.” The quicker he moved up, the quicker he would be by Penelope's side, guarding her like she deserved. He picked up his wooden sword and began to strike at the training dummy.

“Eckles…” This was not the smartest move on her part, but she came closer to the attacking Eckles and placed her hand on his slightly damp back. “Stop training, it's an order.” The wooden sword fell to the ground with a thump. Eckles turned to face her. “Now follow me.”

The Lady of Eckhart did not even give the guard in training a chance to decline; she grabbed him by the hand and started leading him away from the training grounds.

It hit Penelope right then and there that her actions had consequences. She dropped Eckles hand like it had burned her. “I appol-”

Eckles retook Penelope's hand in his. “Don't apologize.” He gave her hand a good squeeze.

The Lady was at a loss for words, and she could feel her heart flutter as a warm sensation flooded her. Penelope looked around, searching for any eyes looking at them. None. She squeezed Eckles' hand. They walked in silence.

Even when they made it to a forest, Eckles did not ask where they were going. He let himself be led blindly through the thick of the trees. The two made it to a clear opening surrounded by trees and the sounds of birds chirping.

He turned to her, expecting an explanation, a command, anything.

Penelope took a blanket out of the basket she had been carrying. She extended it out on the grass before taking a seat. The lady patted her hand on the blanket, signaling for him to sit. Moving swiftly and almost robotically, he sat.

The wind blew.

Eckles hurried to move Penelope's bangs away from her eyes.

“Thank you,” she muttered. The young man sat up straighter. “Listen to what I have to say, Eckles, you're mine.” She spoke, not thinking much about the gravity her words held.

A wide-eyed Eckles stared back at her, his lips slightly parted in surprise, and his posture straighter than an arrow.

“I'm yours.” He responded when he returned to his usual state. Penelope sent him a smile.

Her hands moved into the basket. She pulled out two glasses and a bottle of sparkling cider. “Tada!” She cheered as she handed him a glass. “This was the best I could do, since I can't drink alcohol yet..”

“That's fine.” Eckles reassured her with his short words.

Penelope peeled back the golden foil protecting the cider's opening. The white tin cap was revealed. She grabbed a spoon from the basket and used the long side of it to get under the cap. The lady pushed up and up went the cap flying; leaving behind the sizzles and pops of the cider. Penelope poured some liquid into Eckles' glass. Her share came afterward. The young man held up his glass for a toast.

“To us.” Their glasses clinked as they shared a look.

From the first sip, they were about to determine that it was sweet and bubbly in their mouths. Penelope went in for another sip to really absorb the taste. It could be described as crisp and refreshing while possessing a balance of acidity and sweetness. She had picked the perfect bottle to steal from the cellar.

Penelope placed the glass down on the flat grass. Then, she brought the basket closer to herself.

“I also brought this,” the lady held a lidded container with two frosted pastries; it was originally one, but she split it in half. The pastry was courtesy of Reynold. He gifted it to her as a way to celebrate the end of Penelope's faux illness.

And here she was, using the same pastry to celebrate having Eckles in her possession.

Carefully, Penelope slipped the lid off. It would be a hassle to get the pastry out without messing up its beautiful design, and she had forgotten to bring plates.. She handed him a fork.

“I forgot the plates, hopefully you don't mind eating out of here.”

Eckles shook his head, “Not at all.” He dug in the fork and waited for Penelope to do the same.

The lady stabbed her fork in the opposite side of the pastry. Together they took a bite.

Eckles found the pastry delicious. It had been a long time since he had consumed something so sweet. The frosting made up for the sweetness lacking in the cake, and the fresh fruit filling added bonus points.

Penelope ate the pastry with sparkles in her eyes. She would worry about the excess amount of calories later. Right now, she just wanted to enjoy this delicacy.

Words were not really shared while they ate, but they weren't needed. Their comfortable silence and the birds chirping were enough.

A quarter of the cake remained when Penelope decided to lay down. The picnic blanket was soft under her back. She could see the sun sweeping in from the branches and leaves of the trees.

She moved her face towards Eckles, he too laid beside her; the unfinished cake laid in between them.

“You know, you scare me sometimes.” Penelope found herself admitting. Eckles' expression remained nonchalant. “You read me so well, and I can barely read you.” A moment passed between them. “I.. kind of like it though.. you see the real me, not the crazy mad dog of Eckhart.”

Eckles stayed quiet.

Their eyes met; teal and brown.

“Who wouldn't fail to stay sane in this dukedom?” Penelope felt her eyes widen. There was something about those words. Something about the look in Eckles' eyes as he looked at her. “There's no respect for you, my lady. They treat you as if you were someone lower than them, a mere scum, as a temporary replacement for that long-gone girl. You act out because that was the only way you received the attention you needed and craved for as a child. It's their fault you ended up this way, not yours.”

Tears were beginning to fall out of Penelope's eyes. The warm liquid made its way down the outer corner of her eyes as she laid there motionless.

Eckles sat up. He bent over her, blocking the rays of the sun from her eyes with his shadow. His calloused hands came up to her face and ever so gently wiped the tears away.

A shivery exhalation slipped out of Penelope's lips, and she began to cry. The gentle touch on her face. The sincerity and understanding coming from Eckles. It was too much for her to take.

Large, burly, glistening tears fell down rapidly. Eckles tried his best to wipe the said tears away as Penelope hiccuped. She had never felt so seen.

“Eckles,..” she got out between cries. The young man continued to wipe the seemingly never ending tears. “Thank you.”

Eckles wasn't sure what he was being thanked for, he just nodded.

The cries calmed down after a few minutes. Somehow, Penelope ended up sitting down, her head resting on Eckles' shoulder.

She shoved down any feeling of embarrassment. She could not believe that she had done that. She had actually cried -read sobbed- in front of Eckles.

“Don't be embarrassed.” Eckles suddenly spoke.

Penelope groaned, “Am I really that easy to read?”

Eckles nodded, “You are, my lady. It's not very hard.”

She laughed dryly, “I think you and Reynold are the only ones who can read me. Congratulations.”

The young man's right eyebrow rose. “Reynold?” He asked.

“My older brother. He has pink hair and trains like crazy.” Penelope began to explain.

It was visible the moment Eckles put a name to a face. “Ah, yes, I know him.”

The conversation died down, but Penelope did not wish to separate from Eckles. When would she have the chance to be embraced like this? Reynold was hesitant when it came to simply placing a hand on Penelope's shoulder. He could not ever think about hugging her. Derrick kept his hand to himself. The Duke, she cannot even recall the last time she had been touched by him. Penelope was starving for touch.

Eckles had given her what she had been hungry for. Now that Penelope had been indulged a little, she wanted more.

Have you ever had a small, barely noteworthy hunger? Where you decide to snack on, let's say a cookie, to fill that hunger; but you eat the cookie, and you're still hungry. You hadn't realized you were starving, so you go in for another cookie, and it's so good that you want to go for another, but there's no more. That's kinda how Penelope was with touch. She failed to notice her hunger for it, and now that she had it, she didn't want to let go.

Eckles looked up. The sun was covered by a vast, dark, gloomy cloud.

“It's about to rain.” He informed her. “We should get going,” he said, yet made no effort to move.

Penelope looked up at the rain-bearing cloud. “We should..” yet she made no effort to move either. She turned to face Eckles. “Before we leave, promise me that we'll meet here tomorrow at the same time.”

The young man nodded and she reluctantly pulled away.

Eckles resealed the cider to the best of his abilities as she folded the blanket.

First came the blanket with the cider wrapped inside it, then the quarter of cake in the container. Eckles insisted on holding the basket, reasoning that she had carried it on their way here, so it was now his turn. Penelope gave in and handed him the basket. They walked back, out of the forest, hand in hand, reminding her of the night at the festival.

Before they made it out of the forest, they needed to split ways. Penelope needed to go back inside the manor, and Eckles needed to head back to the training grounds.

They stopped in between the trees where they were sheltered from any wandering eyes.

Penelope looked at their intertwined hands before looking up at Eckles. “Don't forget about tomorrow,” she reminded him.

Eckles had a faint smile on his face, “I won't.”

The two of them shared a smile. Afterward, their eyes looked at their intertwined hands. Eckles rubbed his thumb in an upwards and downwards motion on the base of her thumb. It was loving?

Hesitantly, Penelope unwinded their hands. It felt weird just leaving like that. Should they hug goodbye? Kiss? Ew, ew, ew Penelope, stop thinking like this. You barely know him!

“I guess this is goodbye.”

Eckles nodded, “Goodbye, I'll see you tomorrow, my lady.”

“Bye, Eckles!” Penelope nervously turned around, eager to make her way back inside not because of the coming rain, but because she didn't want him to see her lighting up like a red Christmas light bulb.

Penelope ran back inside just before the rain could shower her. She hoped Eckles had not gotten caught up in the rain or worse, and decided to train in it.

The Lady of Eckhart ruffled out the wrinkles on her dress now that she was sheltered.

The sound of speedy footsteps coming close was heard before Reynold came tumbling forward, bringing them both down the carpet. He was clearly in a rush to escape the cold rain.

“Ow!” Penelope cried out. “Get off of me Reynold! Your pointy elbow is impaling me, and you weigh like a gazillion pounds!”

Her brother let out an offended squawk as he got off of her. He might have been a little petty and lodged his elbow in deeper before getting up. “It's all muscle!”

“Yeah, right!” Penelope lifted herself up, denying Reynold's helping hand.

“What were you doing outside?” He asked. The pink haired adult had seen his sister running towards the manor before the rain began.

Penelope pointed to the basket on the floor. “I went on a solitary picnic.”

“Aw, and you didn't invite me?” He whined like a left out child.

“It wouldn't have been a solitary picnic if I invited you,” she smart-mouthed him.

Reynold frowned.

She sighed. “If it makes you feel better, then you're invited to my next public picnic.”

“But it won't be a solitary picnic…”

She cringed, “Are you serious, Reynold?”

Her brother laughed, he was messing with her. Wasn't he? “I'm joking, Penny. Thanks for the invite though.” He turned around, ready to go to his room and bathe.

“Penny?” She asked with a small voice. A nickname, for her?

Reynold jolted, his complexion followed by turning a beautiful shade of pink. “Yeah, Penny as in Penelope. I can't believe I have to explain that to you.” He tried to advert the attention of the nickname with a no gravity holding, small insult.

“A nickname for me! How about I give you one too...” Penelope paused. “Reynold is such an ugly, difficult name to nickname though.” Reynold let out another offended sound as she brought up her hand to her chin. “How about Rey? Do you like that, ReyRey?” She teased him.

Reynold lit up pink for the second time that day. “Don't call me that, Penelope!” He stormed off, embarrassed, and the nickname 'Penny' long forgotten.

“Okay, ReyRey!” She received a shout of disagreement from Reynold, and she laughed to herself.

Evening was approaching when there was a knock on her door.

“Come in,” she said from her vanity.

Her bedroom door opened: it was the Duke. The Duke was in her bedroom. Well, in her door frame to be exact.

“Penelope, I heard that you're finally feeling better.” The Duke wore an expression of slight worry. She had been faking ill for two days, but she thought back about the conversation she had with the Duke in his office. The one where she told him she had been feeling sick for a few days prior.

Penelope nodded. “I made a full recovery, no need to worry.”

The duke exhaled through his mouth. “Penelope, you should have seen the physician or a doctor. Your health is beginning to become a concern of mine.”

She held in an eyeroll. When did the Duke become like this?

“Father, it was my lady days and a light cold. There was no need to pay anyone a visit.” Penelope watched as the Duke's posture softened, clearly due to being referred to as ‘father.’

He pursed his lips. “Alright, but if you feel sick again, do promise me you will see a doctor or a physician, whatever is easiest for you.”

Penelope looked him in the eyes, “I promise you I will, father.”

The Duke sent her a smile, “Alright, well, I'll leave you be.” He turned around ready to exit when he froze and quickly turned around to face her. “Oh, I just remembered, Penelope, we're having a family dinner tonight. Try to be on time, please.”

She agreed and he was on his way. The door shut with a light click.

A family dinner? They have not had one in a while. Family dinners were held every two weeks on Fridays, but as of late they had been placed on hold due to the Duke's never ending work. Penelope does recall attending a family breakfast they had before the festival and the day after she missed to attend a family dinner.

A heavy sigh intentionally left her lips. She better start preparing.

Penelope walked to the dining room. Her hair was pinned back and her dress flawless. A butler opened the door for her. She ignored him, having decided to just attend the dinner as if it were a chore.

“Penelope, right on time.” The Duke, her father, greeted her with a warm grin.

She returned his grin with a smaller one of her own. Penelope took her seat across from her brothers and on the left hand side of the Duke.

A servant rushed in, wheeling a cart with their respective meals. Their silver covered plates were placed in front of them.

The Duke lifted off the cover, and his children followed.

Penelope focused on her food and on the flimsy silverware as the Eckhart men conversed on the topic of the empire's politics. She took her fork and knife in hand, ready to tackle the delicious looking hearty steak. The knife was so dull that a butter knife would have done her a better job.

She replaced her fork and knife for a spoon to eat her mashed potatoes. Which would have been perfect if they were not cold and had some warm gravy.

The Eckhart men were nearing the end of their meals and Penelope had only finished her mashed potatoes and salad. The steak looked too good not to be eaten.

The Lady looked around, no focus on her. Quickly, as fast as she could, Penelope ripped the steak apart with her hands.

Eagerly, she dug into the pieces of steak. It was lukewarm.

“Keep your table manners in mind Penelope. You're not eating very lady like.” Derrick called out, making Penelope startle.

She was ready room apologize and defend herself when:

“Leave Penny alone, Derrick.” Reynold spoke, a tad of annoyance present in his voice.

“Penny?” The Duke muttered out her nickname.

“She's with her family, she can eat however she damn pleases.” Reynold defended her

Derrick's face was displaying a scowl of anger. Penelope could sense an argument about to erupt, so she stepped in. “Awe, ReyRey, you're defending my honor?”

Reynold lit up pink for the second time today. “I told you not to address me by that name!”

“You started it when you called me Penny!”

The next morning greeted the family of Eckharts. Penelope sat on her bed, already dressed and ready to start her day.

There was a light knock on her door before Reynold came barreling in with a shout of, “Good morning, sleepyhead! There's French toast!” and a breakfast tray balancing in his hand. He met an awakened Penelope. “You're up already?”

Penelope nodded, “I have been for a while now.”

Her brother placed the breakfast tray on the little table before making his way over to sit down next to her.

“Are you okay?” He asked with concern in his eyes.

She blushed, “Yep, all’s good with me!” She made her way to the table. Penelope didn't want her brother to look at her. She had stayed up all night replaying her day with Eckles in the forest. She had a crush, didn't she?

He watched as his sister lifted off the cover, “You look a bit tired…”

“I’m fine, I promise!” Penelope chipped as she lifted the silver meal cover up, and sure enough there was warm, cinnamony French toast. The fruit was berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and black berries. Her eyes spotted a small container of whipped cream. “Oh, this looks really delicious…”

“I’m glad you think so. I made it myself!” Reynold pointed at himself with his thumb and a proud smile.

“I take what I said back.” Penelope deadpanned.

Reynold sat down on his chair, “Don't be like that! You were practically drooling at it a few seconds ago!”

Penelope took her seat across from him. “Have you ever even cooked in your life? I don't want to have food poisoning. Father will worry and that's the last thing I need.”

He rolled his eyes. “You won't get sick, unless you're lactose intolerant?”

Her eyes narrowed, “I'm your sister.. How don't you know if your own sister is lactose intolerant?”

Reynold looked squeamish. “Hey, to be fair, I just started talking to you properly like a few weeks ago..” He did look guilty while he spoke, so Penelope showed him some mercy with her response.

“I'm not lactose intolerant, stop bringing the mood down.”

Her older brother one worded her. “Good.”

They ate their breakfast in a sort of comfortable silence. Halfway through their food, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Penelope called out after having wiped her mouth.

Pennel entered her room. There was an envelope, with a painfully noticeable seal in his hand that made Penelope blanch. “Lady Penelope, a letter from the imperial palace was sent your way.”

Reynold froze mid bite to stare.

The head butler made his way over. He placed the envelope in front of Penelope. “The letter calls for an immediate response.”

She paled, ‘why now?’ Penelope paid no attention to the envelope. “I'll respond when I want. When I do, I'll go find you.”

Pennel looked hesitant. “Yes, I'll be waiting, my Lady.” He spared her a final look before leaving.

Reynold's eyes were trained on the envelope. “Are you not going to open it?”

Penelope took a bite of her French toast. “I will. I'll just fret about it later.”

Her brother shook his head, “No, let's deal with it right now. Quickly, so we can get over it, like ripping off a bandaid.”

“I'm eating right now, Reynold.” She used her fork to point at her breakfast.

“Alright.” Reynold took his trained eyes off of the envelope.

A few minutes passed, and every so often his eyes would wander to the envelope.

“Aren't you even a bit curious?”

Penelope groaned in annoyance. “Nope, I'm not a bit curious.”

Reynold looked at the envelope. His eyes moved back to Penelope. Then they went back to the envelope.

“Don't.” Penelope warned him.

That was all it took for Reynold to go against her warning and lunge towards the envelope. It happened so fast that Penelope could not even think of moving before he ripped the envelope open.

“What did I tell you!” She shouted, Penelope was practically all over him trying to pry the letter from his hands.

“Be careful! You're going to tear it!” Reynold shouted back as he tried to get Penelope off of his back.

An idea blossomed in Penelope's beautiful mind. She dug her nails into the paper and yanked hard. The sound of paper tearing apart was loud. “Oops.” She said as she tore away from Reynold.

Her older brother looked at the torn paper in shock. “You- You ripped it..”

Penelope moved across her room in the direction of her desk to take out a paper and write. She kept the letter brief; greeting him, apologizing for not being able to respond due to the letter’s now illegible state, and bidding him goodbye.

Reynold was back at the table trying to arrange the pieces of paper like a puzzle. He tried his best to align the words. Penelope had sharp nails that did critical damage to the letter.

“Aha!” Reynold's hands launched up in the air with triumph. “I did it! It's eligible!!”

Penelope let him have the small victory and gave him permission to read the letter.

Her brother decided to read it out loud, much to her dismay.

“‘Dear Princess’,” Reynold cringed. “Who does he think he is, addressing you like that?”

She shrugged, “I mean, that is who I am? The princess of Eckhart. Would you prefer he called me by my name?”

Reynold frowned, “It just sounds romantic to me, like the beginning of a love letter.” He looked at the letter in his hand. “‘I hope all is well with you; rumor has it that you are unwell. I guess I can find it within me to forgive your absence at my banquet.’” He let out a sound of disgust. “‘Just know that there will be another one coming up soon, a private one. Between you and me. Make sure to grace me with your presence this time. -Kallisto, your crown prince.”

Her older brother stared at the letter, practically burning holes in it with his eyes. “Did he just ask you out on a date?”

Penelope let herself melt into her bed. “This is bad,” she whispered to herself, defeated.

Reynold loomed over her with a paper and ink pen in his hand. “You have to respond. Reject him, Penny.”

She sat up so quickly that she missed bumping foreheads with her brother by a hair.

“Are you insane?! If I reject him, the crown prince, he'll have my head!” Penelope practically yelled.

Reynold scoffed. “You're being dramatic!”

Easy for him to say, he was not the one who met their demise because of the crown prince. “I'm just going to send him the message I already wrote.”

“You know, if you do that you're just delaying the rejection.”

Penelope sighed. She knew that Reynold was right, but she was a little scared to reject Kallisto. Maybe she would gain the courage to reject him later.

He saw how Penelope looked a bit scared. “I'll reject him for you.”

“No!” She shouted.

Reynold turned to face her, surprised, “Wait- do you like him?”

Frantically, she shook her head no. “I don't! It's just, let's worry about this later..’

Her older brother sighed, but he complied. Reynold took the letter she wrote off her desk. “I'll give this to Pennel on my way to the kitchen.” Penelope agreed as he took the breakfast tray with him. “I'll see you later, Penny.”

“Bye bye, ReyRey!”

Reynold choked on his spit as the door managed to close behind him.

It was close to noon when Penelope started to make her way to the clearing in the forest. The same clearing where she would meet Eckles. This time, she did not have a basket in her hand, it was just herself.

As Penelope got closer to the clearing, she could see an outline belonging to Eckles. She quickened her steps.

“Eckels!” She called out, and he turned around with the corner of his lips perked upwards. “Hi.”

“Hi,” He returned her greeting softly as the two of them sat down on the grass.

“I hope you didn't have to wait long..” Penelope spoke, plucking a daisy between the grass blades.

Eckles shook his head, “I only arrived here around fifteen minutes ago.” It was sweet of him to get here earlier to reduce the possibility of getting caught together.

“How did your practice go?”

“Well. Did you get caught in the rain?”

Penelope giggled, “I just barely made it. What about you?”

“I made it back to the dorms with plenty of time to spare.”

The two of them laid side by side with intertwined hands.

“Eckles, tell me about yourself.” She felt the young man stiffen at his side. “I'm not asking for anything big. Just the small things like your favorite color or food and what you think about bunnies.”

She felt the moment Eckles softened at her side and she heard a sound resembling a laugh shortly after. “What do I think about bunnies?” Penelope nodded. “I think they're cute and fluffy. They taste delicious as well.” Penelope's smile dropped so quickly, she might have even set a world record.

“Wait- Are you joking with me?!” There was something mischievous and lighthearted in Eckles' eyes. The tone of Penelope's voice was disbelieving. “Oh my god, you are, aren't you?”

Eckles smiled, he actually smiled. “I am. In all truth, though, a pet bunny would be nice.”

She eagerly agreed. “If I end up lonely and unmarried, then I'll become a crazy bunny lady.”

“What's stopping you from becoming a crazy bunny lady if you do get married?”

Penelope looked at Eckles like he had changed her world. “You're right. I'll meet my fate anyway. So, tell me more of your likes?”

Eckles looked thoughtfully at the sky. “I like the color teal, pound cake, the sound of silence, reading, and horseback riding.”

“Oh, teal; is it because of my eyes?” Penelope fluttered her eyelashes jokingly.

“Yes.” He watched as Penelope lit up a pretty pink. “What do you like?”

“I like the color purple, melon sorbet, the sound of the harp, reading tragedies, and money.” Penelope spoke in all seriousness at the end, earning her another laugh from Eckles.

“What's your favorite literature related tragedy?” Eckles turned to his side, getting a better view of the lady of Eckhart.

Penelope turned to her side as well. They were now facing each other. “I think it's Antigone, so far.”

“Antigone? Tell me about it?”

A broad smile appeared on Penelope's face as she began introducing the characters and plot points of the play. Truth be told, Eckles had already read Antigone. Another truth be told, he thought she looked beautiful as she spoke about something she loved with a deep passion.

“Gah, I'm rambling!” Penelope covered her face up with her hands.

“No, you're not.”

“I totally am! I've done enough talking, it's your turn.” Penelope insisted.

Eckles exhaled in defeat, “but I like listening to your voice.”

“I like listening to your voice as well. Indulge me like I indulged you just now.”

His voice was small. “What shall I tell you about?”

“About anything you want.”

The young man closed his eyes, deep in thought. “Do you remember that night at the festival?”

Penelope nodded, “Yes, like it was yesterday.” There was this indescribable look in her eyes, like she was looking into that past almost.

“I find myself thinking a lot about that night..” Eckles confessed.

“You do?” She asked, just to reply so that he knew he had her full attention.

“I do,” he reassured her. “I keep thinking about what would have happened if I hadn't chosen to escape that day or if you never got lost. Do you think we would have met?”

Penelope did not hesitate to agree. Maybe it was because she met him in her past life. Maybe it was something else. “I think so. I think it was part of our fate.”

“You do?” Eckles parroted her previous short question.

“I do.”

With a warm feeling in her chest, Penelope walked inside the manor. She looked at her hand with a dazed expression.

There was a knock on the front door and a butler rushed to open. “Y-your royal highness!”

Penelope felt her blood run cold. She rushed to hide behind a wall, somewhere out of the view of the door.

“I need to speak to Lady Penelope.” Kallisto's voice filled the grand foyer.

The butler nodded. “Right away, sir. Please follow me to the drawing room.” Footsteps were heard going in the opposite direction and Penelope let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Why did that bastard of a crown prince want to talk to her? Was it because she failed to attend the banquet? She cursed. What was she going to do now?

Hiding! She could just hide and wait for Kallisto to get bored and leave, but if they can't find her, the Duke might just send out a search party.

Doesn't Reynold come back from training around this time?

Penelope snuck to the back door. Clueless maids, butlers, and servants watched her move swiftly. She opened the back door. There was no sight of Reynold.

“Princess, there you are.” A familiar voice came from behind her. Penelope turned around slowly. She was caught.