Arranged

4

Cosette

The second time I saw William Evernorth was at the Chaplain Ball in Yorkshire. That morning the driver from the previous day came to my door and delivered a beautiful blush-coloured dress for me to wear. There was a note attached, reading:

It's customary to provide a gown for the first public outing of a new potential Evernorth. I send warm greetings your way.
-Martha

Martha--William's mother. Was she a player, too, then? In any case, by that time the message was clear. I had to play the game. The note made me spend a fleeting moment wondering if she was in fact serious about keeping the whole arrangement, and on a whim I called my mother.

People generally don't notice, but I happen to absolutely ignore my mother on the pretense that she tends to be invasive and overly theatrical about everything. She was the person who had convinced Robert to propose, after all. Following her character to a tee, she picked up on the second ring.

"Cosette, my darling girl, what a suprise! How are you? How is Robert? The wedding?"

"Mum, we're well, thanks, but I wasn't calling to chat about any of that."

"Oh? What else would there be to chat about?"

"William Evernorth, and why I've been engaged to him for the last several years. Can we chat about that?"

I could tell that I had properly shocked her by the several moments of silence that ensued.

"How- how do you know about that?"

"It was uncovered after the death of the late Countess. Mum, I've had to put off the engagement with Robert in favor of the agreement. They haven't found any loopholes to testify yet."

"Oh Cosette please don't pretend to be put off by ending things with Robert. I know you dislike him, but I did do my best to find you good suitors, you know. And loopholes, you say? Well that's because there aren't any. The agreement was a fail-safe for our families."

It deemed impossible to contain my questions any further. I was now half-shouting through my mobile.

"A fail-safe how? Why would it be released now then? It honestly seems like the Duchess is keen on keeping the agreement as well. Why is that?"

"Well we were going to make the agreement effective immediately, but when the royal pool was still young there seemed to be so much potential in the children. The Countess wanted to put it off, and promised simply that the agreement would be released upon her death if in fact she was disappointed with William's situation after all."

"But I thought that William and Danica were well off now, so I just don't understand-"

"Look, darling I must go soon, but I received a call from the Countess herself the week before she died, and in fact another one from Martha the week afterwards. They both were horrendously unhappy with William and Dancia, and after hearing a few words about Robert we all decided that the best thing to do was to release the agreement and let fate have it's way with you. I'm afraid that that's all I can tell you. Toodleoo!"

I listened to the dialtone for a solid minute before ending the call. In fact, I was so utterly shocked that I almost missed the text message that I received a few seconds afterwards.

Unknown: Cosette, a car will come to pick you up at six. Please dress formally.

Cosette: Who is this? William?