The party was unusually quiet from then on (most of the other guests had made their excuses) barring the Coldstone's who seemed to be having the time of their lives. Lady Coldstone was more than a bit tipsy from raiding mums gin. She was currently resting her head on my shoulder and reminiscing drunkenly on her past.
"…and then I told that bitch… 'hic' …to go shove his pansy arse back to Evenshire and take his foul tasting brandy with him" she then let out a rather large belch. "God I love gin…" she muttered.
"Y-your ladyship, forgive me if it's impertinent of me…" I was quite nervous to have a married member of nobility being so informal with me.
"Ah, don't be so formal … call me Delia, and lose the title. It's not often us nobles can enjoy a day out without having to remain reserved in our emotions and actions. Now ask what you want"
"Hm, I used to know a Delia" I thought to myself. She was the most wonderful woman and I probably would have eventually asked her on a date if I'd have had the guts to. She used to call me Theo because of all my theorising. She had the most incredible eyes. Brighter than any I had ever seen, and and strangely red in colouration in great contrast to my bright green. They would always make my heart skip a beat.
"O-ok. Right. Mi-. sorry. Delia, um, don't you think it's a bit… well don't you think you're a bit close to me for a married woman" at this her disposition became quite a bit more serious and her voice lowered.
All of the guests except the Coldstones had left and mum had finally gotten comfortable enough to indulge Lord Coldstone's interest in her cooking by introducing him to the kitchen. Frank was doing his best to entertain the young Miss Coldstone with some of his old toys with which she seemed enthralled by. I was alone in the living room with Delia…
"I don't love him, you know…" Delia said "Fredrick I mean. Well I mean I do love him, just not romantically"
"But you have a daughter with him?" I asked.
"She's not mine." Delia was still leaning on my shoulder but she sounded incredibly sober now "Fredrick is my childhood friend. He married me to save us both from a loveless marriage. He is the son of the Baroness Caldaerk and I the daughter of the Viscount Coldstone. In noble society you must be married by a certain age or else you will be harassed by many of the other members of nobility. Even marrying a commoner will save you from such harassment. Even before I was the right age I had the most foul of suitors. Fredrick married me to save me, but we have never loved each other, we don't even sleep in the same room…"
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked
"Shhh. Just listen…" she put her finger on my lips to quiet me "me and Fredrick agreed that when we had both found someone who we were in love with and would love us back, we would get a divorce and he would move back to his family's domain." She sounded sad and my shoulder felt damp "I feel like I'm stopping him from living his life. He found his love 13 years ago and from it was born Natalia, yet his future wife has to play housekeep when other nobility are around because he won't let his oldest friend be hurt." She started to sob "I know that I would do the same for him, but I can't make his family pretend any longer"
"Perhaps you should have a rest your ladyship…" I was beginning to become worried for the mental state of Delia
"I told you to call me Delia, that's what you always used to call me" at this remark I began to think that she'd had a little too much gin.
"I did used to know a Delia but that was a very long time ago and she wasn't a Viscountess"
"I used to sit next to you back when we were studying at Ludtown. We used to talk about theoretical physics and ways to break the laws of the universe, remember?" She sat up and looked me straight in the eyes. She had the most piercing bright red eyes I'd ever seen. I hadn't noticed them before but I'd recognise them anywhere. She must have seen the recognition in my eyes because the next thing she said was "Hello there Theo"
For the next hour she explained exactly what had been happening for the many years that we hadn't seen each other. To sum it up, the reason that she had dropped out of university was to avoid marriage. And at the time she was still young and did not understand what she was feeling towards me (apparently the feeling I had for her was mutual, or perhaps even stronger on her end). About six years ago she found me again through my work, but couldn't work up the courage to come to one of my lectures. Then when I stopped lecturing she donated money to my work under Fredrick's name. Then after not hearing off me, despite the funding that had been provided she asked Natalia to go check on me, still too nervous to see me after all these years. When she found out that I'd never got the funding and that the day after I'd been fired, she got Fredrick to investigate, fix the issue and then to find me. When news reached her of the get together (the woman has spies everywhere it's actually kind of terrifying, and that's coming from me, the all powerful monster) she had finally plucked up the courage to see me again. Seeing me was apparently all the courage she had in her until she downed three bottles of mums gin. Then we got to where we are now in the story, with her, in a surprisingly sober manner, kissing me out of nowhere and asking me to marry her before passing out, landing her head in my lap.
What I hadn't realised was that Miss Natalia and Cousin Frank had been spying on us for the duration of this interaction. Natalia ran in with Frank following behind her and yelled into the kitchen "DAD IT WORKED!" Causing who I suppose would soon be Mr Caldaerk (in comparison to Lord Coldstone) to come in along with my mum.
Upon seeing Delia in my lap she turned pale told me to "get her ladyship out of your lap immediately" and then fainted from shock. I should probably have had our family checked by a physician as we did seem to faint an awful lot.
"Well looks like getting her drunk really did speed up the process" Fredrick chuckled "Natalia go out to the car and have Hugo come in and collect Cordelia, then we can head home and tell your mother the good news" at this Miss Natalia ran out the room.
"Um pardon me, but if I gathered everything correctly you're acting like I said yes to the marriage proposal" I was quite flabbergasted at the entire situation.
"Well didn't you?" Fredrick asked.
"Well no…" I replied
"Why not?"
"Well one, she fainted, and two she was drunk…"
"Then in a few days time when she's feeling better then you can say yes" the large bald man in the tailcoat and the red shirt came into the room and hauled Delia over his shoulder before walking out.
"But…" I tried to make an excuse but was quickly cut off by Fredrick apologising for the inconvenience, walking out with a quick goodbye and a congratulations on my work.
A few days later I received a letter from Delia asking for my presence at Castle Coldstone in The Valley of Direbrack…