Seeing Cynthia warmed her heart, out of all of her family members, she feels like she hasn't seen her the longest. With a cheerful tone she called out to her sister while waving. Once Cynthia noticed her, with a big smile she gleefully ran over to her, her knights not far behind.

            "Big sister!" Cynthia grinned, she was an adorable child, she had their hereditary silvery-steel hair, but unlike Suzette's blue eyes which she inherited from their father, her sister inherited her mother's golden eyes, a beauty mark underneath one of them. Her adorableness was akin to that of a fairy. Suzette's heart melted just by looking at her adoring younger sister.

            "Would you care to join me, Cynthia?" Suzette smiled down on her, and Cynthia didn't hesitate to sit down across from her, Beatrice coming over to pour Cynthia some tea, "Help yourself, Thia."

            After snacking on some cookies, Cynthia turned to her sister and asked, "What book are you reading? Is it good? May I read it afterwards?"

            Suzette's face immediately flushed, she then coughed to try and clear her throat, "It's a good novel, but it's a bit more on the...mature side, I'm afraid you're still too young to read it," She saw her sister pouting and immediately panicked and tried rectifying it, "But--I have a rather big collection, if you want you can stop by my room sometime and pick out one you'd like. I have some romance fantasy novels about fairies and such if you're interested."  

            Her childlike innocence contemplated that proposition at first, but eventually she smiled and agreed, munching on another cookie. Suzette could watch her eat all day, with the way her cheeks puffed up like a squirrel. After she realized she had been staring too long, she decided to ask, "Thia, how have you been?"

            "I've been...just, peachy." Cynthia responded somewhat listlessly, and this alarmed Suzette.

            "That doesn't sound very peachy." Suzette was worrisome, she had wondered if Cynthia had somehow overheard about the creeps trying to send her marriage proposals, if that was the case it didn't bode well, her along with her parents would prefer her to be none the wiser.

            "My new tutor--well, I guess he's not that new, but he's so mean! I feel dumb under his tutelage..." Cynthia frowned.

            "When do you have class with him next?" Suzette asked after sipping her tea.

            "Tomorrow, late morning." Her sister frowned, she was already dreading the thought. Suzette's tutors were strict but fair, and she hoped that was the case here.

            "Do you want me to come with you?" Suzette offered, and immediately Cynthia's eyes beamed again.

            As her eyes lit up, she asked, "You'd really do that?"

            "As long as it doesn't conflict with my marriage proposal meeting tomorrow I'd be more than happy to come with you, though I'd prefer to spend my time with you regardless." Suzette's honesty made Cynthia ecstatic jump down from her chair and ran over to Suzette with a hug.

            "I love you!" Cynthia proclaimed.

            Suzette felt her heart melting once again, "I love you too, little sis, do you know how your brother is doing? Should we visit him, too, tomorrow?"

            "Brother Oscar? Um, we have different tutors at the same time in different places, since he's younger. So I typically don't see him until meal times." Cynthia admitted, to be fair, Suzette felt like she hadn't seen her brother lately either, as she had been prepping for her marriage meeting and eating most meals in her room. She inwardly apologized again, and decided to visit him soon, she suspected that his tutors would probably need an extra hand at controlling him, too.

            "I see," Suzette began, "Then let's promise to see him later after your classes, okay?" Cynthia eagerly agreed and then after saying her goodbyes she walked off with her knights. Trying to think of her sister's schedule, she remembered that it was time for her piano lessons. Now that she was back to herself and her thoughts, she dreaded the appointed time tomorrow, as it wasn't that far off now. The more she tried not to think about it, the more time seemed to move faster.

            After calming herself, she tried picking up her book again and eventually she was called inside for dinner. She ended up seeing her brother, he still had some baby fat around his cheeks, he adorned the same blue eyes that she and her father had, but he inherited their mom's black hair. He also reminded her a bit of a fairy, but due to his naughty nature, more than likely a mischief one. As small chatter continued around the table, eventually it turned to night. She tried her best to sleep, but she found herself dreaming of her and her 'future' husband reenacting certain scenes from her book.

            She was startled awake, and rang her bell for some water to calm herself. Even opening her window, surely the cool night air would help cool her and calm her. She tried her best to fall back to sleep, but soon enough, morning caught up to her. Even though she just managed to fall asleep again, she was woken up--already pampered with a bath, a massage and lotion. Her nails were redone as she had been biting them again, she was dressed, had her hair and makeup done and then she stood in front of the mirror. She could barely recognize herself, Beatrice and the rest of the maids reminded her how gorgeous she looked.

            She sat at the dining room table for breakfast, receiving compliments from how lovely she looked along the way. She was wearing a purple dress with sequins and jewels sewn on, and a purple choker with a diamond in the center to match. Personally, she thought that her dress was a bit overboard, and the outfit today reminded her of his eyes, she had hoped that he wouldn't assume she dressed this way due to them. That unintentional flattery would be embarrassing. It was now 10am, the time of their appointed meeting. She knew that Cynthia's class didn't start until an hour after, so she hoped the meeting wouldn't go for a prolonged duration.

            She walked towards the meeting room, her heart beating faster than a drum, as soon as she opened the door, he was already there...as if he'd never left. He was currently sitting but he looked up at her as soon as he heard the doors opening, even though he wanted to greet her with his eyes at first he couldn't help but go agape, his face and ears turning red.

            How can she look even more beautiful? He thought to himself, swallowing the lump in his throat. He stared at her, as she was wearing a nervous expression--it reminded him of their first meeting, she was nervous but excited, it was cute.

            "Greetings, your grace." She had her eyes closed, perhaps to not make eye contact with him, she sat down on the sofa opposite of him, her eyes still not open.

            "It's nice to see you again, my lady. I pray you've been well?" Duke Theodore smiled, and even though her eyes were still closed, she could picture his exact expression.

            "I've been doing lovely, have you also been well?" She drank her tea, having excellent senses as she still refused to open them. He thought her slight resistance was adorable but he couldn't wait to peer into her eyes again.

            "I'm happier now that I've seen you." He smiled, unashamed. His confession ended up making her cough on the tea, her grabbing a handkerchief to wipe her mouth, "Surely you jest your grace, it makes it seem like you're in desperation to get married."

            "Only to you will I ever seem desperate." His voice was deep and sultry, even though there was some distance between them, she felt as if he was saying it directly into her ear. This declaration made her finally open up her eyes as she couldn't help but react with a flushed face. Once he saw her blue sparkling eyes he smiled.

            "We...are not compatible, you remember what happened in our past future, you committed suicide because I left you." She whispered, still feeling remorseful.

            "I, did not commit suicide." His serious tone took her by surprise.

            "What do you mean? It was in the newspapers--it was everywhere!" She wanted to cry.

            His face darkened, "I had hoped to keep this from you but...Suzette, my lady, my love, even if I wanted to end things--I couldn't, I was murdered before I could even try."

            Her eyes opened wide in shock, nearly dropping her cup of tea, her trembling hands trying her best to put it back down without splatter, in a voice full of pain and grief she repeated it, "You were murdered...? But...who would...who would do such a thing...?"

            He wasn't surprised by her disbelief, in fact he was in disbelief himself when he woke up as a spirit and saw his body hanging from the ceiling before him, "I was...knocked out with a drug before I could see their face...and then they hung me. They wanted to make it look like a suicide, probably to stop a full investigation."

            His face was pained and her face began to pour down hot tears as she held onto her throat--she was too stunned to speak, he came over to wipe them away, "Pardon me, but you'll ruin your makeup if you continue--you know Beatrice will be angry."