I Became the Bride of a Grand Duke Who's Obsessed with His First Love novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Three Fines Before Breakfast

Mina inventories Rothgar Hall for ways to die, fines the Duke fifteen crowns for mentioning the Empress at breakfast, and opens a letter: the Empress is coming to tea on Tuesday.

On my first morning as the Grand Duchess of Rothgar, I inspected the house for ways to die.

Greta carried the lamp.

She was also carrying a heel of bread, because she believed no inspection should start hungry.

"The third stair from the top has a loose rail," I said, and wrote it down.

"It's been loose since before the old Duke," said Greta, chewing.

"Then it's had a long time to find someone."

I wrote down the east pond, the iron chandelier in the great hall and the cellar door that opened onto nothing.

By the time we reached the kitchens I had eleven hazards and a plan for each.

The pantry was the warmest room in Rothgar Hall. It smelled of apples and wax.

I put my back against the shelves and breathed out.

"Article four," I said to nobody. "The Duchess may be found here."

"Your Grace," said a dry voice from the doorway, "the Duke is at breakfast."

It was Bertram Quill, with his small black ledger under his arm.

He looked me over, then the pantry, then the bread in Greta's hand. He said nothing about any of it.

"Thank you, Bertram," I said.

"I have also been asked to attend, Your Grace," said Bertram. "As a witness to Article three."

The dining room at Rothgar Hall held a table for forty.

The Grand Duke sat at one end of it.

I sat at the other, because there was no rule about where to sit and the distance felt safer.

Between us stood six candles, a ham and about thirty feet of polished oak.

"Good morning," I called down the table.

"Good morning," called Ansel. He held up a letter. "Her Majesty writes that the roses at the palace are late this year. She used to say they bloomed for her."

Bertram opened his ledger.

"That is one, Your Grace."

"She also says," Ansel went on, a little louder, "that she misses the north."

"Two."

"The Empress," he said, with great care, "has always liked the north."

"Three," said Bertram. "Five gold."

I buttered my toast.

Ansel put down the letter. "Does a title count the same as a name?"

"Yes," I said.

"Does a pronoun?"

"If I can tell who it means, yes."

He thought about it. I watched a man who had taken a fortress in the northern wars lose a fight against a paragraph.

"The lady in the blue," he said slowly, "who gave you gloves."

"Four. Five gold."

"I was describing an outfit!"

"You were describing her, Your Grace," said Bertram, writing.

The Duke took ten gold crowns from his coat. He walked the whole length of the table to put them in my hand.

He stood over me with his grey eyes narrowed.

"Her birthday is in three weeks," he said. "I have a gift to send. Is that five more?"

"Is that a sentence about the Empress?"

"Yes."

"Then five."

He paid it, and he did not look happy about it.

Fifteen crowns, three fines, one breakfast.

I slid the coins into my purse.

"You're enjoying this," he said.

"I'm solvent," I said. "It's different."

"My wife," he said, turning away, "is a mercenary."

He said it to the ham, but I heard it, and I filed it.

I remembered my wedding night.

I had lain awake in the east wing while he walked the hall outside, and I had heard him tell Bertram: "The duchess has no duties here, and no claim."

I had not minded. I had asked for separate bedrooms.

But I had written it down anyway, on the back of my list.

A footman came in with a silver tray.

"A letter for the Duchess, Your Grace. From the palace."

The paper was pale blue and smelled of lilac.

I opened it at the table, and the Duke watched my face.

"Dear Mina," I read. "I must see how my favorite couple is settling in. I will come to Rothgar Hall on Tuesday and we shall have tea in your garden. I will bring cake. Odile."

Greta had come to the doorway with her bread.

She stopped chewing.

Scene three of the book: Tea in the Garden.

The first time the Empress poured for the Grand Duchess.

"How kind," said the Duke, and for the first time that morning he smiled.

It was Friday morning.

I had until Tuesday to be somewhere else.

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