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The clopping of horses’ hooves rang clear through the silence of the library. Two gazes met across the room.
“Don’t you dare…!” Christophe hissed.
But Cassandra’s smile got so wide he could see it over the edge of the book she was pretending to read. She closed it in a hurry, got up from the sofa and approached him with a mocking look.
“Don’t you have something important to tell your father?” She asked with a voice so openly teasing he wished he could make her physically eat her words.
He settled on a dissatisfied growl which was immediately followed by her own hearty laugh. Unable to win in a way that mattered, he decided to be the bigger person and ignored her. It was not the easiest thing to do as, even after he was done gathering his authorization-related paperwork and she had put the book back on the shelves, she still had that nasty grin.
And to think he was going to…
“Come, oh my lady. It’s appropriate for me to call you that now, right?” He announced in his most unctuous voice, stepping aside from the doorway to let her go through with an exaggerated bow. “We have someone important to see.”
She immediately staggered, experiencing a whole body shudder, as he noticed her face getting slightly pinker.
“W-whatever you say… I don’t care. You’re the one telling him.”
Christophe snickered and Cassandra barely cared to muffle her insult. He couldn’t believe he had thought of giving up so quickly. His best friend was by all means stronger than him when it came to pure strength but he had always had the advantage in speech, manners and eloquence. In addition, something about this situation seemed to make her even more flustered than him.
They were nearing the manor’s front doors when they swung open. Christophe’s father entered, removing his fur coat as he discussed with the squire who was accompanying him. He laid his eyes on the two young nobles. A bright light instantly filled his irises.
“Lord Lonato.” Cassandra bowed before he could even speak.
“Cassandra Charon.” The man answered with a courteous smile, his arms opened. “It is always a pleasure to have you on our domain. Tell me, what matters brought you here today? Is there anything I can help you with?”
“Actually, Father, I was the one who asked her to come today.” Christophe spoke up. “There was a subject we needed to discuss together… And now, we would like to hear your opinion about it.”
The man’s expression, hidden behind a carefully crafted layer of composure, filled with something indescribable as a light flashed through his eyes again. Christophe wasn’t exactly sure of what to make of this.
Lonato addressed his squire.
“You must be starving after our trip. Go get something from the kitchens.”
And as the boy sprang into action, he turned back toward the two others.
“Let’s go to my office. We’ll be more comfortable there.”
He smiled and they nodded. Christophe understood what was hiding in his countenance.
He also hadn’t missed the smirk plastered on Cassandra’s face every second she wasn’t in view of Lonato. She had made it very apparent. Unable to say anything while within earshot of his father, he once again decided to be the bigger person and refrained from childishly sticking his tongue out at her.
This was going to be so embarrassing.
Lonato’s office was furnished very similarly to his son’s. Sitting next to each other on the adorned settee, Cassandra and Christophe found themselves inhabited by a strong sense of déjà-vu. The unease was almost indistinguishable to the one they had felt a couple of hours ago, when they had sat down in Christophe’s office to try and refute this matter. The one they now wanted to discuss with his father.
The only exception was that, this time, Christophe would be the one doing the talking and that the restlessness of a hopeless situation had given place to embarrassment from their decision.
“So you’ve let the little ones roam free in the kitchens all afternoon?” Lonato sounded amused as he entered the room, carrying a tray with a full tea set and a few loaves of bread.
The two young nobles huffed, recognizing a very similar set-up to what Christophe had brought earlier for their own talk.
“Are they still baking bread?” He answered, barely hiding a smile. “I know they’re proud of their skills but we’ve got enough for weeks at this point! There’s no way we’ll be able to eat it all before it goes stale…”
“I’m sure the town’s church would enjoy a few loaves with their soup. And, if anything, it would be rude to let Cassandra leave without taking a couple home to her house.”
“I sure won’t say no to that.” She agreed with a smile before grabbing the cup she was handed. “Thank you.”
Silence settled in the room as they each got their cups. Christophe refrained from taking a sip just yet, afraid that the hot tea would burn his tongue. He could tell that it was different from the mint leaves he had served to his friend earlier from the scent alone. One of Lonato’s special blends without a doubt. He couldn’t recognize what had been used for it but the aroma was delightful. His father was undeniably talented at herbalism, even if he had never managed to make him interested in it.
Christophe was right to have decided to be patient. He hid his small smile behind his cup as Cassandra made a funny face trying not to show she had just burnt her tongue.
“So, what did you want to tell me?” The older man asked after taking his first sip.
Their situation was reversed in a second. An uncomfortable warmth pooled in Christophe’s stomach and he wished he could fight the blood he felt rush to his face which was without a doubt making his embarrassment flagrant. If she had not been trying to discreetly fan her tongue out, Cassandra would have been grinning brightly.
“You probably remember… How you’ve told me, a few days ago… About your wish for me to marry Cassandra.”
His father’s eyes lit up in a way similar to earlier and he slightly leaned forward, maybe unconsciously. Christophe had a hard time keeping his composure. There was no point in stalling now that the subject had been named, yet there was no word strong enough to express how much he wanted to prattle about this situation, make rounds and rounds around what he needed to get to and somehow bore his father into not talking about this ever again.
It felt like not even the Goddess Herself could convince him that they had made the right decision.
“I do. So, what about it?” Lonato answered as the silence was beginning to last too long to be comfortable.
Christophe gave a quick glance to his left. He had expected Cassandra to be serving him one of her annoying grins but she was avoiding his gaze, and his father’s, looking slightly too much to the left.
Great. He was alone in this. Not that he had expected much from her. They had decided who would be speaking with a sparring match and it was clear she had chosen this contest wisely. The way she was so flustered was almost endearing.
“Well, we talked about it with Cassandra and…” He forced himself to talk, his eyes dropping to his teacup. “We…”
His cheeks were burning. Was he blushing that much?
“We… also thought it could be a good idea.”
With the words finally out in the open, the following moment was the first one to be devoid of unspoken implications since Lonato had arrived, a relief in its own rights. Yet it was also the most awkward silence Christophe had had to sit through.
He lifted his eyes toward his father and immediately wished he hadn’t. The man was done hiding his gigantic smile and Christophe felt compelled to once again veer his gaze away.
A gesture that he realized, one instant too late, could easily be misinterpreted.
“There’s no need to be ashamed, my boy. Love is the one of the best thing that can happen to a man.”
“Y-yeh, what are you ashamed of, Christ-.”
Cassandra’s voice was already wavering as she attempted to dismiss her own embarrassment with a tease but she was brought to silence with a squeak as Lonato leaned over the table and grabbed them by the shoulder. The young nobles found themselves squeezed against each other, both of their faces an appropriate tint of red.
“Cassandra, if your house also agrees with this then there’ll be no use in delaying the ceremony’s preparations! Seeing you both happy would make me the happiest man in the world.”
“Y-yes, o-of course, Father.” Christophe stammered, reacting for the both of them as his best friend was still stunned. “We…”
A few light knocks caught their attention. Those were immediately followed by the rattle of a doorknob being clumsily manipulated and the door swinging open.
“Fatheeeer!! It’s all doooone!!!”
“We cooked dinneeeer!!!”
The adults looked in bewilderment as two children burst into the room. Lonato let go of them and without missing a beat opened his arms to the younglings. A good call since it seemed like they would have tried to break their way to him had he not.
“What a lively bunch these two are.” Cassandra slipped into his ear, the two kids visibly not noticing them.
Christophe simply nodded, a faint smile on his lips. However, he quickly spotted a last figure standing in the doorframe, behind the heartwarming scene shown by his siblings and his father.
“I’m going to help Ashe clean the kitchen.” He announced, as it was a rule that the little cooks had to tidy up after themselves once they were done.
No one heard him. His younger siblings, as it happened when they were this excited, had completely grabbed their father’s attention. But he was too glad to be handed this occasion to step outside to be picky about the details. The thought was visibly shared by Cassandra, considering how quickly she followed him.
“So, all done?” He asked his younger brother.
Ashe eyed his best friend up and down before offering a sheepish smile and, eventually, a silent nod. He didn’t look entirely convinced in Christophe’s opinion but this was overall typical behavior coming from him. The young man gave a brief look back into the room. Both of the children were happily blabbering about their afternoon in the kitchens to their father, barely managing not to talk over one another.
“Let’s go.” He decided with a smile. “We’ll have to stay here for a while if we wait for them to join us.”
“Alright then.”
Ashe once again silently answered by leading the way. Christophe responded to Cassandra’s interrogative gaze with a shrug and a smirk. He had told her about his brother’s reserved tendencies, especially toward adults.
But something about his reaction seemed slightly off. And his smile was wider than usual. Or dared he say… bolder?
He kept these thoughts to himself. He’d see how it would go.
Cassandra, however, didn’t seem to have read the room.
“Seems like you had fun cooking all that bread, Ashe.”
The boy had the slightest of starts, something Cassandra probably missed out on. It was definitely subtle. Christophe had simply gotten good at noticing this kind of things over time.
“Y-yes.”
The child dropped his gaze to the floor, joining his hands in front of him.
“I laughed so hard when I saw your brother come back with flour hands on the back of his jacket. Thanks for the good time, little man!”
She burst into one of her big hearty laugh and Christophe saw his brother physically flinch, completely losing his smile. It was clear as day but she didn’t seem to realize it. Was she that oblivious?
Unfortunately, she spoke again before he could point it out.
“And thanks for the bread too! You were the chef back there, I assume? It was delicious!”
It stemmed from a good intention but it was still too loud. Christophe could basically feel his sibling’s unease. He laid a hand on her forearm.
“Thank you, Miss… Cassandra…”
The two adults halted, surprised to hear him actually talk. That was the case for Cassandra, at least.
The shadow of a smile crept on Christophe’s face.
“Huh, that’s peculiar.” He began, sounding as aloof as he could. “I don’t remember telling you her name. How do you know she’s named Cassandra?”
Ashe froze on the spot. He was the third one to blush that much in Castle Gaspard today, in this case probably out of shame.
“Come on, Chris, it’s no big deal.” Cassandra, who had finally noticed Ashe’s unease, slid his hand off her arm. “If it wasn’t you, it was probably your father. What’s the problem with him figuring out my n-.”
“Ashe…” Christophe sighed, gesturing for her to wait and see. “Were you eavesdropping on us?”
The boy stayed put, looking down and fidgeting with his fingers. After a few seconds, he finally found the courage to face him.
“Yes. B-but it wasn’t on purpose!”
The man’s smile broke out as a tired one. He briefly looked over to his friend. It took her a second to understand the implications but her eyes suddenly grew slightly wider, her cheeks getting pinker.
So his brother knew about them, now.
“Are y-you mad at me?” Ashe asked with a tiny voice, not afraid but not proud of himself either.
“I’m not mad at you.” Christophe calmly answered, kneeling down to be at eye level with him and putting a hand on his shoulder. “Although I would appreciate if you didn’t try to listen behind closed doors…”
“We didn’t do it on purpose! We… Aidan and Nora were very excited to see Lonato, we haven’t seen him all day, they weren’t focused on baking bread anymore so we came to his office. And you were in there, both of you, and you were talking. That’s how I heard!”
“Was her name all that you heard?” He asked with a small side smile.
He dropped the hand from his shoulder, a sign he definitely wasn’t mad. Ashe took a few seconds before shaking his head no, still looking a little guilty. But, once he noticed his amused expression, his own worried pout turned into the same kind of smile their father had given them earlier.
“Are you really getting married?? With you??” He excitedly asked, his eyes going from one to the other without any more restraint.
Christophe let out a discreet tired huff. They were not going to catch a single break, were they?
“M-maybe we will, little man.” Cassandra came to his rescue, although she seemed to have finally grasped the full scope of the predicament that had just been bestowed upon them.
And the way Ashe’s eyes shone with almost literal stars only consolidated that feeling.
“When’s the wedding?? Can I come? Can Aidan and Nora come too? Who will be there? Where are you getting married? Will there be cake? And food? The fancy food for celebrations? Does that mean she will live here now? Will-.”
“Wow! Wow wow wow… How about we get to the kitchens first? I can’t tell you everything here, in the middle of the way.”
The boy broke his flurry of questions to take a look around, remembering they were, in fact, in the middle of a corridor.
“Let’s go then!”
He darted off toward the kitchens. Christophe got back up and sighed at the exact same time as Cassandra.
“Secrets never stay that way for very long with siblings around, huh?” She asked, a rhetorical question. “I know a few things about that…”
“And we’re not going to hear the end of it, not with this one.” He added with another sigh. “You’ve seen how my father is, right? Well, Ashe kind of began taking after him. And all the fairytales and legends he’s reading are not helping in the slightest.”
“The romantic type, huh?”
“Definitely. If daydreaming was a job, he’d make thousands.”
He chuckled. His brother was still cute nonetheless.
“At least we’re not like that ourselves!” He added.
“And we might be the only ones…”
Everyone was convinced they were in love… Except themselves. And they were not planning to anytime soon.
They were not going to be able to escape that, were they? It didn’t bode well for the future of their self-pride.
“Christoooophe!! Miss Cassandraaa!! I’m waiting for you!”
Ashe’s face peeked from around the corner down the corridor. He looked visibly impatient, almost bouncing from one foot to the other.
“We’re coming, Ashe! You’ll need to wait for us if you want an answer to all of your questions!”
The boy nodded with a bright smile on his face. Christophe turned back toward his friend.
“Let’s not make the little man wait longer.” Cassandra said with half a smile.
“Yes, let’s go.”
They walked toward him with sheepishness written all over their face, Ashe prompting them to, please, come faster.
This whole ordeal sure was a tricky one… But it was the best decision they could have chosen, for the both of them. And now that it was in motion, it was too late to back out of it.
They’d just have to find their way as they went.