Determinedly Duke Wynkin made a beeline for Violant while thanking the congratulators left and right. The red-haired girl had readied herself to congratulate him, truly being happy about this turn of events so much in the ex-prince’s favor. She had known him for one and a half years now and had known for nearly as long that the berserk had aimed for the position of duke rather than for the throne. What than happened though was definitely out of her expectations.

Before Violant was even able to open her mouth to congratulate the newly inaugurated duke, Wynkin sank down on one knee, gently took one of Violants battle-hardened and calloused hands in his own similarly battle-hardened giant paws, and spoke:

“Lady Violant, I beseech you to grant me your hand in marriage.”

The keshalyis had divined that the young lady would soon meet with a big surprise, but as she so suddenly saw herself confronted with the very surprise, it was of a distinctly different nature than everything she would have expected. The sudden proposal left her completely speechless, the more so as she had told herself just moments before that any prospects of marriage were a matter of the far future when she would have gotten over Gervase’s betrayal at last. But now she was confronted directly with a proposal, and it even came from the man she had considered the least as possible husband material.

“I understand your confusion.” the prince turned duke continued “I have heard from Lady Sybil that you currently do not think of marriage. That my proposal must come as a complete surprise for you, I fully understand. You also do not have to worry about keeping the neutrality of the house of Avallach that you so often mentioned to me before. Both Margrave Orderic and the royal advocate have acknowledged that a possible marital bond between us would not result in a breach of said neutrality for the margravial house as long as I am no longer recognized as a royal prince. The margrave already gave me his consent to our marriage as long as you yourself are willing to, Lady Violant. You also do not need to give me your answer right away and are free to take your time to think about this.”

“How long?” asked Violant, still a somewhat dumbfounded expression on her face.

“Pardon?” the duke of Ealdon inquired.

“How long did you plan this already?” the redhead further clarified her question.

“Ah, about this engagement. The agreements with your family took place during my stay in Avallach back in August. They all have given me their blessing for my intention. If you are talking about me thinking of marrying you instead, then this is already much longer the case. It should not make one wonder if I was initially fascinated by the lady I owe my life to, does it? This feeling of fascination soon turned into something more but I still needed some more time to realize this. For me there is not the slightest doubt that you are very lovable, Lady Violant, and I cannot help but feel attracted to your indomitable spirit, your figure equally elegant and beautiful both on the stage of noble society and on the cruel battlefield, and last but not least your charming silver eyes that have never left my mind since I saw them for the first time.”

So much frankness left Violant speechless again. At the same time she became aware of the fact that this gaudy proposal happened before the eyes of all of Yteland, causing her cheeks to redden with a maidenly blush, something rarely seen on the tomboy’s face.

At the same time Prince Gervase edged himself through the murmuring crowd that was eagerly watching the spectacle.

“Hold on, hold on, little brother. How can you steal the march on me like that?” the third prince complained “I also considered proposing to Lady Violant, did you not know that?”

Both Wynkin and Violant made surprised expressions. They never would’ve thought that Gervase was interested in the margravial young lady in that way. Although, looking back, it also had been him proposing to her during her last lifetime.

“Many apologies, brother Gervase. Or am I now required to say Your Royal Highness instead? I truly did not know.” the berserk replied “Your relationship with Lady Violant also appears to be quite disharmonious, does it not? Besides, you surely know the saying that all is fair in love and war, so please do not hold it against me. And should you not rather ask Lady Violant for her hand instead of complaining to me?”

Gervase gnashed his teeth in humiliation but continued nonetheless with a benign smile on his lips. “Your words ring true, dearest brother, but do you not know that the quarrel of lovers is the renewal of love. Despite the fact that I would not dare to call myself and Lady Violant lovers yet, I nonetheless believe in the mutual affection we are harboring deep inside. Regarding the misunderstandings we might have had, time can surely solve those.”

“Please excuse me, Your Highness, and allow me to interrupt your fervent speech.” finally the very girl at the center of the conflict piped up “I am afraid that Your Highness might be misunderstanding something. In fact I do not keep any deeply hidden special affections for you as you seem to believe. More importantly, though, a marriage between Your Royal Highness and me would amount to a direct breach of the neutrality the members of the house of Avallach are expected to uphold when it comes to supporting any individual prince in the succession for the throne. His Grace Duke Wynkin has, so it seems, renounced his rank of a royal prince to be able to propose to me. Truthfully, I believe there were still other, more important reasons for him to do so. The question is if Your Highness would be willing to do the same, although I would never dare to recklessly encourage such a life-changing decision.”

Prince Gervase grimaced before declaring: “Giving up my rank as a royal prince and my right to succeed the throne, this is the only thing I cannot do.”

Violant showed her brightest smile and said to the traitorous husband of her previous lifetime: “Then this means that we never were meant to be, Your Highness. Both of us have to live according to our duties, nothing to say of the voices of our hearts.”

Seeing Prince Gervase utterly devastated was an indescribable delight for Violant. Never again she would allow herself to fall in the two-faced prince’s hands again, just to be used as a pawn and discarded as soon as she would have outlived her usefulness.

To top her revenge off, the young lady then turned around to Wynkin who still poised on the floor in his proposal pose, and said: “Your Grace, I am more than willing to become your wife.”

If Violant was honest with herself, she was far from being in love with Wynkin although she held goodwill for him in her heart. The berserk three years younger than her was far from being her ideal man, both regarding the converse age gap (Gervase had been four years older than her instead) and his physique.

She had to admit though that Wynkin’s very handsome face – which was quite similar to those of the other princes including Gervase, by the way – was very much to her liking if it wasn’t for it appearing completely out of place on top of this mountain of muscles the duke called his body. But Violant knew that her future husband’s build was nothing he had wished for.

Additionally, it didn’t change the fact that she had to marry someone sooner or later during her marriageable age. She didn’t want to live her live as some miserable spinster just because she couldn’t fall in love again. Furthermore, marriages for the sake of convenience or political interest were the norm in aristocracy rather than love marriages, and Wynkin just so happened to propose to her conveniently. Regarding the matter of love, when or if Violant would be able to love her husband back, only time would be able to tell.