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.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Charles wanted to know, as they started their walk towards the park. He was quite curious to find out what was bothering his friend this time. He had seen the minute of his arrival, that it was not something all too pleasant they would be talking about. It had been written all over Philip's face.
"It's about the arranged marriage." Philip stated shortly, knowing full well that Charles knew exactly what he was referring to.
"Let me guess, you finally decided to tell your sister about it and she didn't take it too well." Charles assumed, throwing a reprehensive look at his friend. He had said from the very beginning that it would have been best to tell her right away but his dear best friend wouldn't have listened to him.
"No it's not that..." Philip trailed off, feeling guilty for still not having mentioned a word about it to his sister.
"So you still haven't told her?" Charles questioned, raising his eyebrows in honest surprise. He had actually been rather sure that that would have been the reason why Philip came to visit him. Charles had heard that Marcus was back in town and had assumed that that had been the occasion for Philip to finally tell his sister about the arranged marriage. But obviously he was still procrastinating that conversation. "If you came because you wanted my opinion on whether you should tell her now that her husband to be is back here and might come by yours to claim his bride any minute, the answer is yes."
"I know your opinion on that matter, thank you very much." Philip replied huffily, focusing his gaze on the road in front of them.
"Oh hush now!" Charles exclaimed. "Don't go all touchy on me. You know as well as I do that she has every right to know, especially now."
"I know!" Philip was getting annoyed and that came out a little louder than it should have. "I'm sorry." He apologized instantly. "But that is not what I came here to discuss with you anyways. So if we could please get to the matter at hand?"
"Of course." Charles didn't mind switching the topic as it was absolutely useless to argue about this topic with Philip. He had tried it numerous times and it had led nowhere.
"So." Philip started, taking a deep breath before actually telling Charles about the problem at hand. "As you have already heard Marcus has returned and has already paid me a visit yesterday. We talked about the whole thing and he didn't seem too eager to accept his father's wishes and marry Willow. Therefore I suggested for us to try and find another solution out of this that everyone is happy with."
"That doesn't sound too bad. I don't see no problem there." Charles replied, trying to figure out why his opinion was needed on the matter at all.
"Well yes, it wouldn't be a problem, if there were another solution." Philip explained, gazing at his best friend. They had now reached the park and slowed down to a steady strolling pace.
"But there isn't?" Charles questioned and Philip only shook his head at that. Clearly this had been worrying him for quite some time and he seemed somewhat defeated, which Charles could understand.
"I can't find one at least." Philip sighed. "Even with the business going as well as it currently is, it would take me another two years or so to save up enough money to pay the Grand Duke back."
"Hmm..." Charles tried to think of a solution as they continued their strolling through the park. For some time they just walked next to each other, both searching their heads for a way out of this. But the only safe option really seemed to be for the marriage to happen.
"Well, why don't you suggest that Marcus and Willow meet. Maybe they will get along together quite well, who knows? And if they happen to like each other it is quite likely that Marcus will agree to the marriage." Charles finally spoke up again.
"That's not a bad idea, but..." Philip trailed off, not wanting to bring up the topic from before again. If Willow and Marcus were to meet, he would have to tell her about the arranged marriage. And he really was anything but eager to have that conversation with her. She would freak out on him, he just knew it. And she might just refuse to even meet him. And then what?
"Yes, my friend, that would mean you would finally have to man up and tell your sister about all this." Charles replied, not even needing Philip to word out his thoughts.
"What if she refuses to even meet him? You know how my sister is." Philip argued back. There had to be another way. This couldn't be the only option.
"Then you will just have to convince her. I'm sure she will understand if you actually explain the whole thing to her and apologize." Charles could see why Philip would be worried about his sister's reaction. She had always had a quite bubbly character and she was as stubborn as her brother when it came to defending herself.
"Apologize?" Philip exclaimed loudly. "Whatever would I have to apologize for?" This was ridiculous. All he ever did was take care of things for her and now he should be apologizing? Surely not.
Here we go again with the stubbornness, Charles thought, sighing at his best friend's comment.
"I never said that what you did was wrong." He defended himself. "But I do think that you should have had this conversation with her years ago. You should apologize to her for not including her in the decision making in the first place." Charles tried to make things clear.
"She had been merely a little girl when that decision had been made. Why would anyone let a child make a decision as important as this one?" Philip argued back, still seeing no reason for him to apologize to his sister.
"Oh come now. She had been 16, Philip. That could hardly be considered a child." Why wouldn't Philip just understand that it would make things easier for the people living with him if he would just communicate with them properly?
Philip didn't reply to Charles last comment. He knew just as well as Charles that they were getting nowhere with this conversation. His best friend was right about one thing though. To increase the chances of the marriage taking place, which at least at the moment, seemed to be the best solution for everyone involved, it would be necessary for those two to meet. And for that to happen it would be necessary for him to talk to his sister. How he would do that would be up to him.
"You're right. They are going to have to meet." Philip declared finally, which led a victorious smile to appear on Charle's face. He could tell that Philip preferred to be the one to be right and to state so openly that Charles had been right with his idea surely seemed like quite a win to him.
"I am going to head home and send a letter to Marcus to arrange a meeting for the two of them." Philip added, already picking up his pace back towards his friends house.
"I'm going to walk with you to my house then." Charles replied, catching up to his friends with a few quick steps.
They had reached the house in no time and after a quick goodbye Philip was off on his horse again. With a plan in head on how things could go on, his fingers were itching to send that letter off to Marcus. He hoped that he agreed to meeting Willow, but he was quite sure that he would. It would just be a meeting, no strings attached in any way. Just getting to know each other.
He was not so sure about Willow's reaction though. He would have to consider his words carefully in advance so she wouldn't freak out and do something incredibly stupid like run off. Or maybe he could just sidestep the topic, if he was smart about this. If he just told her that she was to meet a potential husband she might take it easier than declaring that she would meet the man that she was most definitely going to marry. If he were to accept of course.
He'd have to think about this further once he was at home. The thing that needed to be taken care of first was definitely the letter. The sooner Marcus got it the better.
Once Philip had reached the Cornwall Estate he handed the reins over to Arthur to take care of the horse and headed straight up to his study, throwing his coat carelessly over the hallstand in the progress.
Up in his office he grabbed a piece of paper as well as his pen and sat down to get started on the letter.
To
Marcus, third son of the Grand Duke of Yorkshire
Dear Marcus,
I hope you are doing well. I once again want to thank you for your visit yesterday. It had been a pleasure to meet you and I had a very pleasant afternoon with you.
Ever since our meeting I have been thinking about a solution to the problem that we are faced with at the moment. It had been this afternoon when I had an idea that I would like to present to you in this letter.
Well to be fair it hadn't really been Philip's idea but Charles', but Marcus didn't have to know about that now did he? As long as he would agree to the meeting, everything would be fine and no one would worry about who's idea that had been in the first place.
I have come to the conclusion that it would probably be best if you and my dear sister would have the opportunity to get introduced to one another. Of course there will be no strings attached to this meeting. It shall be an informal get together so you both have the chance to become acquainted with each other.
Please let me know if this idea would be in your sense. I would like to welcome you back to the Cornwall Estate whenever you can and want to make the time for the meeting. If you have any questions about the matter, please feel free to contact me at any given time.
In awaiting of your response,
Philip
That should do, Philip thought. He lit the red candle on the desk in order to be able to seal the letter properly and folded the piece of paper up neatly. After enough wax had melted he trickled some on the folded paper and pressed the stamp on it. Then all that was left to do was calling for Thomas to deliver the letter to Marcus and Philip was done.
Now all he could do was hope that Marcus would accept and then he would have to tell his sister, which would surely end up being the most unpleasant part of all of this. Even if he would put it as light as anyhow possible, Philip knew that Willow didn't like it when decisions were made for her. And this was a big decision.
Maybe if he told her tonight at dinner, she would have enough time to calm down until Marcus actually came to visit. But that also provided her with lots of time to do something stupid like run away. And that was something that would look quite a lot like her. As he did not want that to happen and also didn't want to have to lock her in her room till the day of the meeting, Philip decided it would be best if he waited a little longer to tell her.
It would probably be best if he told her last minute. Maybe even on the day of their meeting. He would have none of her temper tantrums and tell her that if she didn't behave herself he would just have to lock her up in her room till he found another suitor. And that he would marry her off to that man before she even had a chance of meeting him.
That should be enough to make her behave herself and be a polite young lady around Marcus too. Because if she were to mess this meeting up, she would be in a whole lot of trouble. And Philip would make sure that his sister knew exactly what the consequences were if she didn't behave herself.
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