Secrets of the Night

Chapter 17

Meanwhile Philip had spent the morning pacing around in his study. He was still trying to find a way for them to be able to pay back the Grand Duke and stop the arranged marriage from happening.

The business was doing quite well at the moment and he had always made sure to save up as much money as possible, but it was still far from enough to pay back the Grand Duke.

Maybe if Marcus refused to marry Willow the Grand Duke would be generous enough to not have him pay back all the money at once, or maybe not even at all. Philip wished he would have discussed that with the Grand Duke when they had settled the deal. It surely wouldn't be his fault if Marcus decided to run away from the deal and he didn't feel like this should be his responsibility at all. But on the other side he would be the one losing it all if the Grand Duke decided to have him pay back the money all at once.

When the offer had been made to him, Philip had actually thought it quite generous of the Grand Duke but now that he looked back at the deal he saw quite clearly that the Grand Duke had gotten enough out of the deal himself.

If the marriage for whatever reason were to not take place, he could always ask for all his money back as the deal on Philip's part would not have been fulfilled. Philip would not have the money to pay him back and would have to hand the Cornwall Estate over to him instead. So the Grand Duke would end up owning the Cornwall Estate either way. And Philip didn't know how much more time they had till the Grand Duke would demand a final answer from his son.

Surely he wouldn't be kept waiting for another two years or so. Which was how long it would take Philip to save up the money needed. This was awful!

After taking a small break of his pacing and thinking at lunch time, Philip knew that he needed a second opinion on the matter at hand and therefore decided to make a trip to visit his friend Charles. He didn't know if he was even home, but it was worth a shot.

He grabbed his coat from the rack in the foyer and made his way to the stables to get his horse. Arthur had already been informed and had saddled the grey horse for him, when Philip arrived in the stables. After a short nod to his stable boy he was off. Philip enjoyed the ride to his friend's Estate. The weather was quite pleasant and the fresh air calmed his mind a little. He should definitely go out riding more often. Philip had nearly forgotten how freeing it felt to gallop through the fields. In the past years he had hardly made any time for what he actually enjoyed doing. There had been so many things that had needed to be taken care of and he had felt he needed to get the work done before he was allowed to go and have fun. Well it turns out that work never really ends if you have to take care of an entire Estate by yourself.

About 20 minutes later Philip had reached his destination and found Charles out in front of the house, obviously just having arrived back from a little riding trip himself.

"Well hello, my friend!" Philip was greeted by an suprised Charles. "Whatever do I owe the pleasure of your visit to?"

"It's nice to see you, Charles. I was hoping you would happen to be at home and have some time for your best friend. I could really use someone to talk to." Philip explained as he got off of his horse and made his way over to Charles.

"Of course!" Charles smiled, glad to see his best friend and always willing to talk and offer advice if it happened to be needed. "Let's bring the horses in the stables and then we can head to the park down the road for a stroll. The weather is so nice today it would be a shame to spend it inside, don't you think?"

"That sounds perfect." Philip replied gratefully and followed Charles to the stables. He knew that he could count on his best friend no matter what and right now he was in desperate need for a second opinion. And as Charles already knew about the matter at hand he was probably the best person to ask for advice.