A Secret (pt 1)

It was a shock to everyone except Ava when Alex announced he would be joining the young men who were chosen to help in the final push to end the war. Herbert's family were lower nobles from a nearby town and they volunteered their second son to fight right away in hopes of strengthening the family's name. Alex and Herbert shared a close bond since their first meeting at Alex's 20th birthday. Ava had noticed when Alex took a fancy in him at the party, and only hoped that he may feel the same way. Their friendship bloomed to love and soon they shared more than she and Alex ever had as husband and wife.

Ava and Alex had been close since birth. She was born just nine days prior to him and his mother, Helena, had even been present to assist with the late duchess' labor despite she herself being just about ready to pop. She had even stepped in as Ava's wet nurse after the first month, a common practice to pass on their infant to someone else for those of the nobility.

Their fathers had been best friends despite their difference in social status. Her father was the late Duke of Berhllan and his father was the commander of Behrllan's military forces.

Whenever they had free time from the duties forced upon them by their parents and social position - Ava had to learn from her tutors the necessary education for a future Lady and wife of a nobleman; Alex was forced to train by his father in the skills of combat - the two would wreck havoc, getting up to silly pranks and sneaking out into the city and nearby towns. Once they had gone out to collect crickets to feed to a "pet frog" they had found, a slightly engorged frog with brown skin and little black specks around its head. Catching crickets soon turned into competition between the two as to who could catch more and in the end they ended up with 2 massive bags full of crickets. Rather than releasing them in a humane way back into the forest, they'd decided to save them to release into the laundry room of the castle - spooking the maids and causing some awful screams when some visiting noblewomen found dead bugs in their pillow cases the next morning.

At the age of 16, things began to get serious. Ava's mother and father had failed to produce a male heir, leaving her an only child when her mother passed from fever during her second pregnancy when Ava was 11 years old. While not in the laws that a daughter could not inherit the title and land of her family's estate, socially the practice was unheard of. With no close male relatives that could step in to inherit the title, her father began looking for matches for marriage with second, third, fourth sons of high ranking nobles around the kingdom.

Around that time, Ava began to notice Alex getting quieter, occasionally noticing bruises that he tried to cover or cut lips only for them to get more frequent until Alex was forced to go away to fight with a task force to deal with bandits in the nearby mountains for 8 months. By the time he returned, at this point both 17 years of age, Ava's father had sets his eyes on a match for his daughter with the second son of the wealthy Duke of Pearls. A powerful family from the Western province, who benefited from the riches of the largest port in the entire kingdom. The Duke of Pearls second son at that time was 29 years of age, a man of slightly above average height with wispy brown hair, blue eyes, and the beginning of wrinkles starting to show on his forehead.

Before having even met the man, Ava knew she did not want to marry him. In fact she did not want to marry at all. She had always found it unfair, the idea that a man would take over her family's title, despite her being the sole heir to their estate. She had put in extra effort in her studies and at public functions, in the hope that her father would recognize her talents and appoint her to be the next Duchess Berhllan without the need for a man by her side. She was confident that she could oversee the administrative duties and take on the role of representing the people of their province as a strong leader herself. In fact, the idea of being sidelined to simply being the wife of a duke, whose only tasks were to throw tea parties, minor estate management, and raise children sounded terribly dull to her.

When Ava's father notified her of the potential engagement meeting he'd set up for her with Bernard, the Duke of Pearls second son, she could not control the frustration and annoyance she felt. Her father had been stubborn on the issue of marriage, stating once she turned 18 she would be the proper age for marriage and that she needed to marry in order to secure the strength and longevity of the family as his only child and daughter.

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It was a warm and humid summer's day when Bernard arrived in the city of Grethyll to meet Ava. In fact it was to turn into the hottest day of the year, as the sun's rays beamed ever brighter towards noon time without a cloud in the sky. While it also got warm in the summers of the Western province, the cool breeze that came in off the sea always aided in keeping the climate comfortable.

Prior to their meeting, Ava had already began plotting ways to get out of her father's arrangement. She knew she had to be polite so as to represent her family's title with dignity and grace, but that was as far as she would go. She'd hoped that by presenting herself to be a boring as possible, the Duke of Pearls' son would find himself disinterested with the match - leaving the chance they could end the engagement on his end.

The inside of the castle walls had turned even stuffier than outside as no breeze was blowing to enter and clear the stagnant warm air stifling the rooms. Ava was dressed in a thin chiffon dress, light pink in color, with short sleeves that fell just off the shoulders and a bell shape at the hem of the dress which fell to her feet, the artificial breeze that could be picked up while walking helped cool her down on the hot day. Originally, the meeting was to take place within her father's study, but with the lack of air flow and raising temperature, her father instructed the maids to set up a table outside in the garden.