Suzette took her regularly scheduled walk in the afternoon, it was one of the only leisure's she had left. Even after being grounded for a month, her parents did not relent with their punishments. She continued with her studies--not that she had many left at this age, and worst of all, her piano class.

            Even her tutor was bewildered at how all the keys sounded like a requiem no matter what song they played, a hopeful part of them died that day. The tutor even played it themselves to make sure that the piano was still in tune, and reported this to her parents.

            The worst part of her punishment was the fact all the letters addressed to her were confiscated, they're in a locked drawer in her father's office. She frowned, she figured half of them had to be from Margaret while the rest were from Theodore. After going back up into her room, she fell on her back against the bed and sighed as she looked up straight at her canopy.

            "How much longer will my punishment continue...?" She whispered to herself, she missed her books--she missed eating sweets, and most of all--she missed socializing! For a young near-adult woman, that was the cruelest of all punishments that her parents agreed upon. Eventually she closed her eyes.

Unknowingly, her punishment ended effective that day, so when breakfast came and she was handed a danish she was confused. She had only been allowed to eat more of the savory dishes. She looked over at her parents, and her father who had caught her eye wiped his lips.

            "Due to your behavior, your punishments are lifted--however, continue to be on your best behavior or I won't think twice about you being punished again. Next, you are to continue your lessons, including piano. I know you don't like it, but it's a good skill to have when it comes to the social jungle."

            She thought she was dreaming--she was so happy she almost cried as she began digging into her raspberry filled danish, "Father, will I be receiving the letters addressed to me then?"

            His vein popped on his forehead but she thought she was imaging things, her mother than placed her hands on his to stop a future outburst. He wanted to tell her that he had burned the letters to stop her from asking about them, but it would be troublesome because not only would she stop trusting him, it'd become even worse once she learned he didn't actually burn them. With a sigh, "Come to my office after dinner, I'll hand them to you then."

            She was satisfied with that answer, he would be going to his office to work until dinner, her going there now would disrupt his work flow, she happily continued to eat her danish when the second course of breakfast arrived, which was a plate of sausages and poached eggs with freshly baked bread on the side.  

Things were finally back to normal, her bookshelf had been restocked with the novels she lovingly missed, and the maids also returned her paper, quill pen and ink. She decided to wait until she received her letters in bulk to send any out, and instead grabbed her novel that she had been reading before it was taken away--it had nothing to do with the fact her novel was taken as she was about to read a spicy scene, nope, not the reason at all. At least, not the reason she wanted to admit out loud, but most things were back in place, she was at her table in the garden with a tray of sweets. 

            Her father was in the office and sighed, he unlocked the drawer and all the letters came flying out, he looked at it fearful, "How am I supposed to tell her...that practically all of these letters are from Duke Chelvion...?"

            She had received two letters from Margaret, but all thirty-six of the other letters were from her potential fiancé. He grasped onto his head, his hair tangling in his fingers, "Should I be happy he seems enamored with her...?"  

            He kept wondering what he could've possibly wrote about, but he knew his daughter would not be happy if he opened them without her knowledge or approval. He pressed the pool of letters back down in the drawer and forced it shut again, not even bothering to lock it since there were only a few more hours left until dinner time. He felt his body stiffen once he heard a knock on the door with more letters addressed to her.

            He laughed humorlessly, and wondered if he should let his daughter marry someone so inherently obsessive. He kept his wariness as he placed the letters with the others and focused on work again.

            By dinner time, he could see his daughter's face beaming, and he felt like he was going to get indigestion, She's looking forward to the letters that much...? He wanted to take back what he had said. She had happily eaten everything--even the foods she was a bit particular about, by the time that dessert was served, she looked like she was about to ascend into the heavens. Everyone looked at her a bit worried. Once dinner was over--before she could unleash her barely contained excitement, her father stopped her.

            "I know, I know, let's go..." He responded with no energy left, he felt a pounding headache coming on. By the time they returned to his office, he decided to warn her a bit first, "Before I open this drawer, you might want to have a maid grab a letter tray, there's quite a lot of them."

            At first, she thought he was just jesting until she saw how many there were, he was glad that at least he wasn't the only one shocked over the forty letters that he managed to cram in this drawer. After calling a maid with a letter tray, they had begun collecting them onto it. Once the drawer was empty, the letter tray looked like a mountain, before leaving, Suzette smiled at her father and hugged him, "Thank you, dad."

            He returned her hug, happy to be called 'dad' once more. He was going to say something else, but then closed his mouth before the words could come out, he didn't want to spoil her excitement. He looked at the door with a hurting heart, he knew she was almost an adult--her eighteenth birthday only a few months away, but a part of him didn't want to give her away. He reminisced to the times she was a small child, where her father was her whole world. He really wished he could go back to those times, but then he closed his eyes, I'm starting to become a fool in my old age...

            By the time Suzette returned to her room, she near ran to her desk, the maid--with a light thud, set down the letter tray on the desk delighted that her arms were now free from the weight of them. Excitedly, Suzette grabbed her letter knife and began opening them. She searched for Margaret's first, as she found her friend more important in this instance.

            Margaret went on in her first letter by wondering how Suzette was and asked if Cynthia was doing well, as she had heard about the kidnapping. By the second letter, she was asking Suzette if she, once again, was alright considering that she had yet to receive a response from her and had wondered if she had done anything to offend her.

            "Oh, Margaret, I'm so sorry...!" Suzette whined to herself and began writing a response right away, explaining that she was grounded for, reasons, and only just now received her letters. She apologized for not being able to inform her earlier.

            Once it was written out, she called for a maid, to send the letter for her, she then returned to the rest in her letter pile, looking for the earliest date. It began with Duke Theodore asking her how she was handling her period of punishment and how he was. Most of his letters were like this, by the time she got the last one, she ended up laughing.

            "'Did I annoy your father enough yet, so he lifts your correspondence ban? Or need I send more...?'" She said the last line of his letter aloud, she was wondering why there were so many letters from him. Re-energized, she began writing a letter back, explaining that her father had a near heart attack from the sheer amount of them, but it had made her laugh. She then went on to mention that they should discuss what day they should plan their outing on.  

            She sprayed some of her perfume on it, and kissed it once again, and called for the maid again--who was quite happy that her lady didn't respond to each letter, as it would've been more difficult to deliver.

            She recollected her letters and placed them in a drawer after binding them with a letter rope. She leaned her body towards her desk and wondered how Duke Theodore would respond to her letter, she could imagine his reaction, but she wished that she could see it in person.