The Beastkeeper's Bride

2. The Lost Duchess of Ravensfield

2. The Lost Duchess of Ravensfield

─── · 。ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Four Days Prior

The hypothetical clamp that was compressing the chambers of her heart seemed to give and crack a mere trifle, yet instead of the deep and harrowing sadness she expected to feel with the loss of such control the afternoon after she had laid her pater to rest, a hot stream of anger shot straight to the surface of Millie's face.

"You cannot be serious," she said as she forced her fist not to close on the legal and binding testament she held in her hands- the only remaining claim she had to what little remained of her beloved father's life.

"The very document that legally binds you is in your hands, dear," her second cousin, Theobald Frazer Adams and the direct cause for her troubles this wintery afternoon in London, remarked unwelcomingly.

Millie threw him a caustic look. The sight of him and his solicitor was loathsome to the extent that her skin began to crawl. Nary a word of correspondence had been uttered prior to and leading up to this moment, and her father had been ill for months before he finally succumbed to the terrible effects of consumption that wracked his body. Theo, though his presence had been scarce in the span of her life at best, was the sole remaining family that had claim to the Ravensfield title, vast holdings and wealth, other than herself.

They certainly were not close, their interactions cordially polite and aloof while each branch of the family continued with their respective lives. His sudden presence now mere moments after she had lain her father to rest was suspect. He had not even shown face at the burial that morning.

It was no secret that Millie was the only heir to the Ravensfield fortune and title, their wealth and influence stretching far across the country and wider yet. However, it was also no secret that the Ravensfield family members lived notoriously short lives and that to affiliate with them, through marriage and lineage, was rumoured to afflict that unfortunate soul with the very same fate.

A curse had befallen the Adams lineage, it was rumoured by human and fae alike, though Millie snorted derisively at such a concept. Her family had perished from perfectly explainable reasons, all except her sister but even the brief flutter of remembering Lillian made her chest constrict painfully.

Her mother had died from sepsis shortly after giving birth to Mildred Eimear Adams and then, four and twenty years later, her father had passed from a common ailment that was likely to afflict many an able-bodied man or woman.

Hardly curse-like in nature.

"I refute it," Millie snarled, shaking the will and testament about wildly before her. She glared foully at Theo, her stomach churning painfully with the ominous foreboding she began to feel seeping through her. She longed to toss him out, throw him into the streets and pray for something heinous to befall his head. "What assurances do I have that you have not tampered with the original document? This could have the markings of magic-"

Theo made a sound of disgust. "How dare you believe I would stoop-" He cut off abruptly and shook his head brusquely. "You know as well as I that such a method is illegal and the repercussions alone would hardly be worth it. Besides which, the bureaucratic tribulations of altering such a document, especially magically, would set us both back years of dispute." He tucked his hands into the pockets of his fawn-coloured trousers and rocked back on his heels. There was a steel-edged glint to his blue eyes and though Theo was advancing well into his middle years and sporting a paunch, he was not an unattractive man. He held himself with austerity, well-kempt and finely attired that befit one of his station and bearing.