Duke Tudor sat at his desk, setting down his pen before freshly completed correspondence.
He had ultimately decided to agree to this match.
No family meeting called, no other family members consulted—for such matters, he could decide alone.
A family patriarch who needed to consult others on such things—what kind of duke would that be?
As for the parties directly involved in this arrangement—his own son Vaerik, barely twenty-two and possessed of a scholarly temperament, and Edmund's third daughter Emily, a girl of nineteen whom he had met only briefly at court functions—their personal wishes, desires, and romantic inclinations were entirely irrelevant to the proceedings. Such considerations were luxuries that nobility could ill afford.
In this ancient Empire, this society emphasizing bloodline and honor.
Children's marriages were always family bargaining chips for transactions and arrangements.
