Magic of the Marriage Market

Derbie knew he loved Ban long before the Polumenta Opera Event; he'd joked to himself about starting to fall in love with her their Debut night, he'd enjoyed the friendship their letters provided, and he'd begun to cherish every outing and opportunity to be with her. By the end of the Opera Event, Derbie knew he loved her wholly; his heart quickened for her. She was who he thought of first thing in the morning, the last person on his mind at night, and he was gladly tormented by dreams of the life they might one day live together, all night while he slept.

She had a quiet sense of humour; he loved to catch little references to the books they'd shared with each other. Ban didn't discuss her family much, Derbie wondered if the five year age difference between her and Aoki Ruma made it harder to bond. Alaric was only a year younger than Aoki, but she was already married and producing her own Heirs while Derbie's brother seemed to have forgotten that he was supposed to be finding someone to Court for himself. It probably wasn't fair to compare siblings, but given that he had seven, Derbie felt it was almost inevitable.

Alaric cared about all of the Briggs siblings, and he showed that care with equal parts stress and patience. Blair pretended she didn't care about reputations and social posturing, but then she'd show up for you anyways. Calvin acted like he was invisible but then he'd appear with exactly the bit of news or gossip you needed to hear. All of his adult siblings showed their love by being actively present in his life and that of the younger Briggs' too. Aoki Ruma had been enduring a difficult pregnancy, and couldn't come out to any of the Events, her parents were on the Queen's Expedition to the Cador Kingdom and hadn't returned from that yet. Ban's brother-in-law had been acting as her chaperone until his injury, and then Alaric stepped in to help alleviate the issue, since Derbie was determined to Court, betroth, and marry Ban the right way.

And still it was terribly hard for Derbie to not blurt out a hasty, ill prepared but heartfelt proposal to her during the Polumenta Opera. They'd been able to coordinate couples' attire; her gown a beautiful mix of Ruma indigo and Briggs scarlet, and she'd worn ruby jewellery to add to the statement. As she was the daughter of a Marquisate she out ranked his family, so Derbie had donned the Ruma indigo as the main colour of his jacket, the scarlet of his vest under it a bright contrast flashing at all. He had indigo embroidery copying the roses on Ban's gown, and together they were a clearly matched set. It felt so right to be enjoying the Even with her beside him, and he knew he wanted to share every Event with her for the rest of his life. But that also meant he wanted to propose the right way. After a formal Letter of Proposal was written to a family and accepted, it was customary for a face to face proposal to occur from Suitor to betrothed. Some wanted publicly displayed proposals, staged events where the Suitor 'surprises' the partner with as spectacle of a proposal. There could be flowers, music, or jewellery involved, and they all seemed to include family members watching from the collected witnesses.

Derbie knew Ban didn't want one of those type of proposals; she disliked being singled out and having all the attention on her. For those who wanted less public proposals, it was a private matter between the couple. And for some arranged marriages, it was left at a Letter of Proposal being accepted with a Letter of Betrothal and then their marriage.

Since their friendship and eventual Courtship had started with letters, he liked the full circle of writing Ban a personal Letter of Proposal because she'd have that memento to look back on for the entirety of their married lives. And he planned to cherish the letter she'd send back after accepting. He had kept all her letters to him, safe in a box like treasured jewels, and just as precious to him. On days he missed her smiles he pulled them out to reread them, finding lovely depths to her words and the delicate calligraphy of her writing. And with each letter she'd sent to him, she'd included a pressed, dried flower.

Derbie hadn't memorized the language of flowers, but unsurprisingly Farran had recognized them. A purple platycodon for friendship. A branch of yellow desert candle for endurance. Petals from hyacinth for playfulness. Although yellow prickly pear sounded ominous, Farran had told him it meant Hope and so he'd had it, and when she'd sent him the sweetly purple vervain for romance he'd actually shouted in joy.

But the reason he'd had such a hard time resisting the spontaneous verbal proposal to Ban during the Opera Event was wholly due to her obvious care and concern for his little sister after what she'd endured. Ban had heard about the Lazzarini boy's attack and never believed their attempt to spin the 온라인카지노게임 so Hida appeared to be the aggressor and provoker, instead sending Derbie an immediate letter expressing her support and concern for Hida's likely trauma and injury. And today, she'd given Derbie a Knight's Blossom, a rare flower that even he knew was given only to the strongest and bravest warriors; she'd brought him a pressing to give to Hida. They'd only ever met briefly, but she still seemed to cherish his siblings as her own.

All the more reason he needed to propose properly. Despite how many times he had to fight the urge to ask Ban to marry him, Derbie was determined to wait until he had the perfect proposal written. They walked the resonating halls of Polumenta Estate, saturated in the sounds of a beautiful but tragic opera, and Derbie had declarations of love and commitment locked behind his teeth, begging to be released.

One would think that would have made it all too easy to scribe those words down for his proposal, but hours after he'd escorted Lady Ban back to her Ruma Estate, he was still sitting in front of a damningly blank page. If he had Edwina's artistic skills he could have put his heart on the page, literally, but lacking that magic meant he couldn't even draw a decent heart on the page to share. He wanted her to be able to pull this letter out and read it to find strength, comfort, and love on those days she may be missing him for any reason at all. But that left him having to draft a perfect letter, and that's where Derbie found himself bent over a blank page, agonized and uncreative.

I love you was honest, but lacked the poetry of how she truly made him feel. I cannot wait to live the rest of my life at your side could be seen as either sweet, or possibly pathetic. You are the best part of my day was too vague, but even Derbie knew not to write that he dreamt of her every night. It was a beautiful sentiment but could too easily be taken licentiously. He understood the intimate side of romance, even if he'd only ever held Ban's hand and lightly kissed her lips, but his dreams weren't lustful. He dreamt of walking along the coast of his homeland, exploring the unknown expanse of the Ruma Marquisate, or even simply walking the merchant district of the Capital. He enjoyed her company so thoroughly that any day she shared with him, be it in person or only his dreams, made for a better day.

But how could he express that in a proposal?

To Lady Ban. Too distant for a proposal.

To my Beautiful Lady Ban. True but he didn't just love her beauty.

Maybe he should take out the formalities a little. To my Beloved. That was better, personal, loving, and still polite.

To My Beloved,

I miss you even on the days I see you. I miss you when you leave the room. He'd rewrite a new version to leave the pathetic parts unseen. I cherish every moment I can share with you; as your humour and intelligence enrich every experience. There is no mundane living with you by my side, and I look forward to every tidbit of knowledge you share with me. I am no great poet or warrior, but I will confess the hardest battle I've fought was to write to you properly, instead of blurting it out without preparation.

With every fibre of my being I want to be yours, to marry you and be the husband at your side until the end of our days. I am only the fourth child of a Countship, so I can only offer you my humble, but true, love for your consideration. I know I am no great match for a Marquisate's daughter, and even my magic will only be of limited benefit, but still I dare ask.

Will you accept my proposal?

I long to tell you I love you everyday for eternity, but I do not want that love to be a burden if it is not accepted.

Yours truly, Derbie Briggs

He considered it a rough draft, hands shaking and ink stained as he stared at it.

For the first time in a while, Derbie painfully missed his parents; he'd be grateful for them to review his letter and tell him if it was worthy or not. He did plan to have Alaric review it, but although his eldest sibling was his guardian, he lacked any experience with Courtship at all, let alone a proposal. Like Derbie, Alaric could only refer to the details vaguely reminisced about when married couples waxed on about their experiences. His own parents had been honest enough about how they'd fallen in love; after being married already.

His parents had an arranged marriage, his father Braden was a year younger and not supposed to inherit the Countship; until his sister Alyssa Briggs accepted a proposal to marry Duke Hatsune. Since that elevated Braden to eventually be a Count, a marriage was quickly arranged to the only daughter of the Fidalgo Marquis, Elisabet Fidalgo. It made both the Hatsunes and Fidalgos his cousins, but hadn't ensured any particular familiarity between the families. Derbie had heard both parents admit the beginning of their marriage was strained, as they were literal strangers at the time and his father had only just Debuted, let alone established his role as Heir. But as time, and proximity, worked its magic they started to slowly fall in love. And then they went spelunking down into it; their passion for each other evident in the eight children they'd had in nine years. Derbie was fairly certain the only reason he didn't have even more siblings was only due to their desire to explore the world and not just each other.

Thinking of it that way, Derbie realized his parents wouldn't have had any great input to offer on his proposal either, despite the breadth of their love for each other now. At the very start of their 온라인카지노게임, there had been no love, that had come long after the Letter of Proposal was written and a Letter of Betrothal returned. His mother had been married at 20 and his father 19, but it took almost three years before Alaric had been born; a long time to build the foundations of a life long love 온라인카지노게임.

Maybe he was rushing his proposal to Ban, but Derbie wanted to share that experience his parents had; the gift of loving your partner more each day than you had the day before. And he was lucky enough to already be in love with Ban, so he could only imagine how rich and entwined their love 온라인카지노게임 would grow to become over a lifetime.

Emboldened by that, Derbie picked the rough draft up and quickly headed to the office where Alaric lingered over his own documents. The Opera had ended at sunset, and the time it'd taken to escort Ban home, then come agonize over his proposal meant Derbie was knocking at midnight. And yet Alaric looked energetic and glad of the interruption.

"Is that what I think it is?" Alaric's eyes flicked down to the scratched up letter in Derbie's ink stained fingers.

"My pitiful attempt to convince Ban to take me as her husband," Derbie confirmed, handing it over for Alaric to review. "It's nowhere near ready yet, but this is my first attempt."

Alaric seemed to take as much seriousness to review this scribbled letter as he did any Formal document, and somehow that helped settle Derbie's nerves. It wasn't a long proposal, but his brother took a fair bit of time to read and process without giving any kind of feedback for Derbie to overreact to. He just had to sit and wait.

"This is good," Alaric finally spoke, "once you rewrite it on a clean page, I believe it'll almost be ready to send."

"Almost? What's wrong with it?' Derbie reached for his letter, as if he could spot what Alaric meant.

Alaric gave him an deeply amused look, tinged with a constantly tested patience that needed a respite, "as I said, the letter is good. But if you're going to send a proposal, it's not only the letter you want to send that's going to be expected, is it?" and although Derbie prided himself on not being dim, he didn't understand; a fact that must be visible as Alaric started to laugh at him. "You also need to pick out an engagement ring Derbie."

That was the tradition, either the Suitor proposing would buy a new ring to suit the style of the betroth, or they would send a ring selected from their family jewels. Somehow, Derbie had forgotten all about that aspect of a proposal.

"Oh," was all he could manage to say as his brother continued to lovingly laugh at him. But now that he'd been reminded, Derbie knew exactly which option suited his needs better. "Alaric, do you think our parents would mind if I picked from the rings our family has?"

Alaric finally stopped laughing at him, a happy smile still on his handsome face, "Derbie, they'd be thrilled. In fact, mother would insist you pick from amongst her rings." That helped Derbie settle even more.

"I'm going to propose to Lady Ban Ruma, using one of mother's rings," he managed to say it out loud without sounding unsettled at all.

"Yes, you are," Alaric agreed. "I'm so proud of you Derbie, no matter what response you get. You told me you wanted to try and find love, and you have. And now you get to propose to the person you love, who will in all likelihood accept both your love and your proposal." His brother almost sounded wistful, and Derbie had to wonder if he had more romantic experience than initially believed. "You're a good man Derbie, and I know you'll make Lady Ban a good husband."

It felt strange to receive his brother's regard like that, not because Alaric ever withheld compliments but because for the first time Derbie noticed his brother almost envied him. "You'll find love too Alaric," Derbie didn't hesitate to assure him, "it's just that you've been so busy taking care of the rest of us that you've never gotten the chance to focus on finding your own person to love." Derbie had been giving his attention to his Courtship, but even he had noticed the strange dynamic between Alaric and Lady Aayina Ram. What he hadn't noticed was anything between Blair and Earl Wignell until they showed up at the Opera tonight.

"I'm not worried about that at this time," Alaric waved it off, as if an unpleasant smell. "Right now I want to focus on you all, especially keeping an eye on Hida after everything she's been through."

Derbie almost snorted at Alaric; they were all worried about Hida and Farran, but he also knew Hida had been back to training in the backyard the day after she'd been stitched up. His baby sister was tougher than all of them combined, "I heard Farran joke about shearing her hair as short as Hida's so they could set a new trend, but Hida told her not to be dramatic on her behalf."

"As if that makes me less worried about them," Alaric sighed. "Thank you for being the easy sibling right now Derbie."

"I'm the easy one?" Derbie was surprised, he always assumed that would be Edwina, or maybe Gavin.

Alaric grinned at him, looking more like his big brother again and less like the interim Count, "you are. Blair had pulled an about turn in regards to Courting, going from avoiding it at all costs to potentially being Countess Wignell at the end of the Season; all without ever discussing it with me. Calvin is easy going but I can't help but notice how he and Danilo are a bonded pair that hadn't realized its not just friendship any longer. Edwina is seeking a Master a year before she Debuts, and although I am proud of her I can't even begin to understand her talent. Farran's pen pal in Cador is a Duke with ties to his King, and I know she's tried to apply to the Exchange between our Kingdoms even though she still hasn't asked for my permission yet. Gavin and Eniola are pushing all the boundaries with their sweetheart status, and its come to light that Fabrizio climbed up the rope Gavin used to sneak out. And we all know Hida's most recent happenings."

Derbie nodded, "I am the easy one right now, and I'm trying to propose."

They laughed together, and Derbie left to rewrite his proposal while Alaric fetched mother's rings so he could pick one to send with the letter.