"Xutia cannot be so different from Stussica that you need to be so cold to us. Family inheritance passes to the eldest child of the House, and is this not now our home?" asked step-sister Deirdre, sharp in her beauty. Emberlee tended to dress simply, liking to have the riches and quality of fabric and design act as their accessory; her new stepsister however dressed on the leading edge of fashion. Her words matched the attire, the final indication that Emberlee was having to keep her enemies closer than her loved ones. "Emberlee, it may be hard for you to adjust to being the youngest in the family, but we are all family now." 
Their previous Stussican properties were a County, the rank of Countess given to Jimena when she married the Count. Before that, she'd been the daughter of a Baronetcy, so becoming Countess had been a significant step up. If the Emperor had left her alone, Emberlee suspected that Countess Jimena would have spent the rest of her life living off her dead husband's pension until she'd married her daughters off. But in a show of 'deepening the alliance', Stussica sent Xutia a widowed Countess and her two beautiful daughters to be a family package. It was a marriage of convince only for the Emperor and he had to legally include in their marriage contract that the March, and the position of Marchioness, were Emberlee's. She was the Heir, her father had joined the Ortega family after marriage, though he'd been born to the Mihal March. Regardless, the marriage was a step up the social staircase of nobility, so Jimena should be satisfied by simply being able to marry her daughters off well. Emberlee would even be satisfied with inflating the marriage contract to encourage potential suitors if only she didn't suspect that her life had gotten infernally complicated by these three women. 
"Now now Deirdre, that's no way to talk to your baby sister, why anyone listening in would think you're bullying the girl," Jimena gave a mild scold to her daughter, not actually telling her she was wrong and once again emphasizing Emberlee's age. "She has found herself adrift in the world, and we are here to provide guidance; after all, nothing makes you as wise as experience does." 
As her stepmother talked, Emberlee took note of what servants were within hearing; Jimena was speaking this way deliberately. So far nothing she had said was wrong, or even overtly discourteous, but Emberlee felt the ambush in it anyways, agreeing now would help lay the foundation of arguing that a child should not run the March as Marchioness, she simply lacked the experience. Jimena might not be able to legally claim the title of Marchioness just from her marriage, but if It were to become believed that she was the one making the decisions then she could argue for being called the interim Head. At least until Emberlee gained experience under her tutelage. 
"My Mother would agree with you, Countess, which was why she had me learn the March's administrative needs at her side since I was born," Mother had also taught her to wield her words as carefully as her weapons. Before this initial testing of boundaries could deteriorate any further, Emberlee decided to be kind once more and move on as if nothing had happened.
"Our Head of Household Karl can assist you with any task you may require. Due to the
War of Subjugation's conscription we are relatively short-staffed at the March. As such you may have to become accustomed to less ceremonial privileges." Not a single Noble family had escaped the endless war unscathed, though thanks to her father's direct contributions the March had lost fewer overall citizens. 
He traded his skill on the battlefield, and every victory father won earned her father as General more battles to fight. He'd received no respite from the front lines to grieve for either wife or son. No pause even when Emperor had married him to a Stussican Bride. Their windows had been shrouded in grieving until last month when Emberlee insisted it is taken down out of respect for the new arrivals. But even with Father's endless bravery and loyalty, the Ortega March had lost bodies to the War. Knights who chose the chance for glory and prestige, civilians who were hoping for plunder and pay, and eventually even those second and third born who couldn't claim defence of a bloodline as an excuse. If a bloodline had both a boy and a girl, any third child was conscripted if they were of age. Sometimes an elder child would volunteer in place of a younger one, but that didn't guarantee survival. Not against the endless rearranging of the continent's borders. After seven years of war their Kingdom had conquered Traimore, allied with Stussica via imperial Marriage, and become an Empire. Now the alliance required Xutia to support Stussica and split the Guita Provinces. Thankfully they'd been successfully carving it up, but despite all efforts momentum had slowed.