The Duke's Bed Warmer-Chapter 34: List Of Suitors

After breakfast the next day, Alina caught Marguerite just as she was about to leave.

"I promised to show you the gold thread technique," Alina said. "The east garden has good light at this hour. Come with me."

"I’d like that," Marguerite smiled.

They sat on the bench by the fountain. Marguerite took out a small floral pattern she had been working on since her arrival at Ravenmoor.

Alina demonstrated the technique to her. Marguerite watched her hands, asked questions, and tried it herself. Her first stitches were too tight, then too loose. Alina guided her again. Marguerite tried once more and succeeded.

"That’s it," Alina said. "You’ve got it."

Alina then showed her how to finish the stitch when Lady Talbot appeared in the garden. She slowed down when she saw them. Her eyes moved from Alina’s hands to Marguerite’s embroidery to the gold thread glittering in the morning light.

Without asking, she sat down next to Marguerite and pulled out her own needlework from the bag she carried everywhere. She was mending her husband’s shirt. Her stitches were neat and precise, almost invisible from the outside.

No one said anything. All three of them just sat together, sewing in the garden as if it were the most normal thing ever.

A little while later, a young woman appeared at the garden gate, looking unsure. She was Lady Brennan who had been at Ravenmoor for months. Alina had seen her before at dinners, at teas, standing alone in corners while other women talked around her. She was a widow, sent here after her husband’s death six months ago by his family who did not want her in their house.

Alina waved her over.

"Do you sew?"

Lady Brennan took a step forward.

"A little."

"Sit."

She sat on the grass near the bench and watched them sew. Alina handed her a scrap of fabric and a needle.

"Start with this."

Lady Brennan’s hands trembled at first. The stitches were clumsy. She looked at Alina, but Alina only smiled. She smiled back and kept sewing.

By the end of the afternoon, there were five of them in the garden. A woman Alina didn’t know had appeared from somewhere and had joined them without being invited.

Alina hadn’t planned this. She had invited only one person, and the garden had invited the rest. But what she had built accidentally was her space. It was a place where no one asked questions about rank or purpose, where women brought their needlework along with their loneliness, and both were welcome.

By dinner, word of the small sewing circle had reached Audrey. She was surprised but more than that intrigued. She was the castle’s social planner. Events, teas, and gatherings were all part of her domain and yet Alina had created her own independent social circle without her permission...and people had joined her.

At dinner, Audrey caught Alina’s eye across the hall and smiled warmly. Alina smiled back, unsure what else to do.

Austin had heard about the sewing circle as well from his steward, who had reported it as a "minor social gathering in the garden."

He had ignored the information then pretended he had more important things to focus on.

But at dinner, he watched her. Something about her had changed. She looked relaxed and genuinely happy. He had not seen her that happy before. The happiness had changed her face. It had softened her jaw, which she had kept clenched, made her green eyes wider and...more beautiful.

At night, she asked him about his day again. He mentioned a harbour dispute, garrison rotations and a few other things she couldn’t understand properly.

She sat up and looked at him.

"So you have a lot of problems," she said.

He huffed a quiet laugh.

"Yes. I have. Though I doubt you understood anything. "

"Well...I don’t know much about politics," she replied. "But I’m trying to."

She again lay down.

"But you understand people," he said. "That’s more important than understanding politics. Politics is just people with titles."

She did not answer. He thought she might have fallen asleep. He was about to close his eyes when she spoke.

"Will you...." She trailed off.

"What?"

"If I learn about politics...if I understand what you do...about the council and the kingdom...will it matter?"

He frowned.

"Say it clearly."

She turned her head towards him.

"I’m asking...will it make me harder to ship to the eastern territories if I become useful here?"

He stared at her in amusement. She had just told him her strategy openly. Because she was Alina and she did not do subtlety. Honesty was both her greatest weapon and her greatest weakness.

"You really think I wouldn’t see through that?"

He let out a small laugh.

"You think you can become indispensable in a few weeks when you don’t even know a single thing about politics. Even if you can, it won’t matter."

She was startled.

"A few weeks?" She repeated. "Are you getting married in a few weeks?"

Austin turned away, realizing he shouldn’t have said that.

"Are you getting married in a few weeks?" She asked again.

"Yes. The king wrote to me...he thinks it’s the right time.

"And you...what do you think about it? Do you also think it’s the right time?"

Austin didn’t reply immediately.

"Yes. It has already been three years. I can’t make Audrey wait any longer."

Alina snickered. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Oh! So I’ve only a few weeks left before you send me to Lord Calder?"

His head snapped towards her.

"How do you know his name?"

"Your fiancée told me," she replied. "Apparently, you two think alike. She even has a list of all my suitable matches, but she also finds Lord Calder the best, just like you do."

"Audrey?? Are you sure? I don’t think..."

"It looks like you don’t know your fiancée’ that well," she said. "I suggest you spend more time together before the marriage because, clearly, you don’t know each other at all despite being friends since childhood."

She turned away and closed her eyes. The conversation ended there.

But Austin remained sitting there, looking at her lying figure, not knowing what to say or do. For the first time, he realized things were happening in his own castle, and decisions were being made in his name that he had no idea about.