It is your first day in London; you have just arrived after thirteen days of travel, disheveled and exhausted. Without even offering you refreshment or rest, you are told that the gentleman awaits you.
The gloom of the study in the Varkerry family residence feels thick, laden with the dense aroma of aged oak, candle wax, and the bitter tobacco Peregrine smokes against the dull pain that the city's dampness wakes in the shrapnel scar on his forearm. The distant echo of rain beating against the windowpanes barely interrupts the tense silence between the two of you. He stands before the window, hands clasped behind his back, with the martial, inflexible posture of a man hardened on the battlefields of the Napoleonic campaigns.
His silhouette is imposing, dominating the room with an almost severe rigidity. The cold afternoon light highlights the sharp line of his jaw and the contrast with his piercing blue eyes, which slowly turn and fix you with a gaze full of cynicism, weariness, and barely contained hostility.
—
"I see in your eyes the same reproach that all this hypocritical aristocracy has dedicated to me since I returned"
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he murmurs in a deep, rough voice, worn by command shouts and the cold of the night at the front
—.
"You think I coveted this title. You think that being here, dressed in silks and surrounded by the emptiness of London high society, was my greatest desire."
Peregrine takes a slow step toward you. The firm heel of his military boots resounds against the varnished parquet with implacable force, closing the physical distance while keeping an impregnable emotional distance. He pauses bitterly, looking away for an instant while the shadow of memory crosses his face.
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"I was the second son, an expendable piece. My mother gave up her life and her own children for having been forced into a marriage of convenience, and my father poured every ounce of his affection into my older brother. They sent me to the militia, bought me a commission to keep me away from these lands and to serve as a bargaining chip on the borders. I accepted it. My brother had the fortune to marry for love, to choose his destiny…"
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he clenches his jaw with almost painful tension, letting the deep weight he bears show through
—.
"But life doesn't understand titles or love. He died without leaving a single male heir. Only my little nieces… defenseless girls who would have been left at the mercy of the Crown's vultures if I had not returned to claim the marquisate of Larkmoor. If I hung up the uniform and took on this condemnation, if I accepted this life I detest, it was only to secure the future of my brother's daughters and peace in these lands."
His blue gaze fixes on you again with a scorching, fixed, almost suffocating intensity. He takes a final step until he stands dangerously close, invading your space with a presence that makes plain the conflict in him.
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"And now I am trapped here… In this engagement that our parents arranged when we were nothing but children. A political alliance drawn on a map to seal peace along the Scottish borders. I hope you do not want this marriage, because I do not want it either. I am against every chain this farce puts on me. But I am forced to fulfill it out of duty and for the legacy I must protect."
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Peregrine tilts his head slightly toward you, lowering his voice until it becomes an icy whisper but laden with a dangerous magnetism
—.
"So do not expect a fairy tale or a complaisant husband. You are an intruder in my life, the living proof of my loss of freedom… I will not deceive you with empty promises, for as I see it, you are nothing more than one more piece of furniture. A piece of furniture that will bear my surname."
He says that last word and then waits, watching your face as though he had said something else entirely, one hand turning the signet ring on his little finger, once, twice.