The lake they were walking to was not very far away and still belonged to the Grand Duke's estate. Two large weeping willows grew around it, their branches reaching into the water. The sun made the water shimmer silver and a light wind blew, which made this weather perfect.
A small rowboat was attached to a jetty and Celia breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that it was too small to take their guards.
Everything is perfect up to this point.
Alek instructed the guards to wait for her at the dock and then helped her into the boat.
It was a bit wobbly, but Celia was still joyfully excited. Not only because everything was going according to plan so far, but because she had never been on a boat before. She hadn't wanted to admit that in front of her maids, lest she seem even more naive than she already was. But now she was beaming all over, which Alek seemed to notice as well. "You seem to really like boat rides."
Celia hesitated briefly, then decided to tell him about it, since he knew, after all, what her living conditions were like back then. "To be honest, it's my first ride," she confessed, playing with her parasol.
Across Alek's face again stretched that strange dark shadow that she didn't know how to interpret. But she didn't dare ask about it either. Besides, she was afraid that it would only drag the mood down even more.
So Celia quickly began to talk about something else and raved about the beautiful flower meadow around the lake.
Her fiancé smiled slightly as he rowed her farther and farther out onto the lake. As he did so, she found it extremely difficult to concentrate. He must have put on that shirt on purpose!
With each powerful rowing motion, the muscles in his arms tightened so much that she had to keep looking at them. The shirt was wide cut, but unfortunately it was also quite transparent when the sun shone on it.
She was beginning to fear that it would cost her more willpower to leave it at a harmless kiss.
The wind picked up a bit and Celia decided to put her plan into action.
Alek smiled kindly and she shifted back and forth a little nervously. "Would it be all right if I sat with you for a bit?"
Her fiancé looked puzzled. "Well... sure. But please be careful so you don't..." The rest kept stuck in his throat. For as Celia stood up, a strong gust of wind came, snatching the parasol from her hand. She wanted to grab it quickly before it landed in the water. However, the boat wobbled so much that she lost her balance and fell sideways into the lake.
She had never learned how to swim and so she didn't know what to do to get back to the surface. On top of that, the wet fabric of her dress was pulling her down. Panicked, she opened her mouth to scream, swallowing water as she did so.
The next thing she remembered was a warm sensation on her lips and her spitting out water. Someone turned her to the side and gently patted her back. "Are you all right?" she heard a concerned voice and looked up.
The Grand Duke was bent over her, his shirt clinging to his body and his hair dripping wet.
Oh, never better. Then it came to her that he must have been giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation...until she spit seawater all over him. The blood drained from her face and immediately Alek ordered a bodyguard to take off his jacket and then put it around Celia's shoulders. "You must be terribly cold, I'll take you back to the estate."
Before she could object, he had lifted her up and hurried back the way they had come from. As he did so, he held Celia so close to his body that her head rested against his chest, with no way to avoid it unobtrusively. I must have died earlier and am now either in hell or heaven.
Arriving at the estate, he immediately instructed her maids to draw her a warm bath and then went to his own chambers.
Lying in the warm bath, she slowly realized that she was alive after all.
"How could this have happened?" asked Jannah in dismay, handing her a hot cup of herbal tea. Meanwhile, Elin washed her hair and Dina massaged her limbs.
"The wind blew my parasol away. I thought I could still catch it, but the boat swayed so much that I fell into the water."
"So there was no kiss again," Dina said disappointedly, and Celia smiled bitterly. "Well. Not quite. After the Grand Duke pulled me out of the water, he gave me mouth-to-mouth."
Elin squealed in surprise and smiled joyfully. "That's pretty close to a real kiss after all."
"Then I spit the water I had swallowed in his face," she added to her narrative and Elin paused for a moment. "Well... actually it's not that similar to a real kiss."
Sighing, she slid deeper into the tub. If only I had drowned, I would have been spared this ignominy.
There was a knock on the door in the room beside and Jannah went to answer it. When she re-entered the bathroom a moment later, she was holding an envelope in her hands. Her expression looked tense. "Lady Celia, this appears to be a royal invitation."
She looked at the envelope with interest. It was dark blue, with a golden wax seal depicting the coat of arms of the royal house. "Please open it for me, my hands are still wet."
So her maid opened the letter and held it out so she could read it.
"Oh! It's an invitation from the princess to tea. She invites all noble ladies once a month and wishes for me to appear as well."
Her maids looked at each other anxiously. "What is it?"
"Well, you have only recently begun your lessons as a future grand duchess. The princess should be aware of this. To invite you to such an important event now can only have a certain reason. Either she thinks very highly of you, or ...", Jannah broke off.
Now Celia was getting nervous, "Or?"
"Or she wants to make it difficult for you to join the society there."
For a moment she thought about it. The princess didn't strike her as calculating. Possibly she was just a little curious and impatient to get to know her cousin's fiancée better. "I will clear the whole thing with Duchess Starag. If she says I can accept, then I will go. Besides, it's the perfect opportunity to look at this angel for a longer time.