The Vampire & Her Witch

”I know that getting married is more involved for noblewomen than it is for commoners,” Ollie said, clearly not understanding how ’complicated’ things could become. ”Didn’t Owain have to spend years courting you before you and your parents agreed to the marriage? With trips from Lothian to Blackwell or Blackwell to Lothian, I know it isn’t easy,” he said.

”But at the same time, isn’t it just a fancy version of what common folk do?” Ollie asked. ”If a woman fancies a man, or a man fancies a woman, then they should talk, spend time together, and decide if they’re right for each other. Hopefully, their families agree to it,” he added after thinking for a moment.

”I think it would be hard if I fancied a woman that my parents despised for some reason,” Ollie mused. ”But then, I can’t imagine that I’d ever care for someone who my parents wouldn’t like.”

”What you’re talking about, the courtship between a man and a woman, that only comes later,” Ashlynn said, smiling wistfully as she remembered some of the conversations she’d had with her parents about not only her own marriage, but Jocelynn’s as well.

”For the aristocracy, a wedding is just as much about politics as it is about compatibility between two people,” Ashlynn said with a heavy sigh. ”Sometimes, it’s even more about politics than the people themselves. Especially when you’re talking about the children of counts, dukes, or the royal family.”

”For Morwen and Eira,” Ashlynn continued, bringing things back to the two women whom Ollie had formed such a negative opinion of. ”Their suitors will be limited to men of the right age and status within Lothian March, though truthfully, the pool is even smaller than that. How far would you travel, Ollie, to meet someone whom you might one day marry?”

”I, I’ve never thought of it, really,” Ollie said, blinking in surprise at the question. ”From the Vale of Mists to Lothian City,” he guessed, though he didn’t sound confident in that. ”So, a few days ride,” he ventured, though even that only seemed reasonable because there weren’t many humans in the Vale of Mists. If he thought about it from the other perspective, if he lived in a city like Lothian, he wouldn’t have any reason to travel very far just to meet someone.

”If you limit things to a few days,” Ashlynn said. ”Then you’re only looking at two or three baronies, which means twenty to thirty families of knights, plus the families of those barons. Of those, there might be five families with a daughter of similar age who is unattached and available for you to court,” she explained.

”But, for a knight’s family, successful commoners might also be worthy, adding a dozen or so people you could meet with,” Ashlynn continued. ”For the daughter of a knight, there might also be knights errant, knights without lands, who would be seeking a chance to marry into a family with lands, though they would only be accepted if the family they were marrying into had no sons,” she added.

”That already sounds too complicated,” Ollie said, holding up a hand to stop Ashlynn before she could go any further. ”It shouldn’t matter what kind of family someone comes from. If they fancy each other, and they get along well, that should be enough.”

”I know it sounds like a lot,” Ashlynn said patiently. ”But it’s important for you to understand so you can understand the pressures that Eira and Morwen are facing,” she said, giving his chest a light poke with one finger. ”Just a few months ago, Morwen’s father likely invited a dozen men to come to her Coming of Age banquet, just to see if any of them looked like a good match for her.”

”There were probably conversations about the guest list for a full year before that,” Ashlynn added. ”If they’re good people, like you say they are, then her parents probably met with twice as many people beforehand, removing men of bad temperament, poor health, or questionable morals,” she explained. ”But, what if, when her parents were finally done selecting her options, she didn’t like any of them?”

”Then she keeps looking?” Ollie said, confused as to why that would be a big deal. ”Just because people have the right sort of background doesn’t mean they’ll be a good match. That would be like my mother trying to make me marry a chambermaid just because she’s also a chambermaid. It doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

”Maybe it doesn’t from where you sit,” Ashlynn acknowledged. ”But it doesn’t have to make sense. It’s the way things are, whether they make sense or not, and it’s harder on the daughters of poor frontier barons like Morwen than it is for people like Jocey or me,” she said.

”Because of me, because of my mark, my father couldn’t send me to any of the academies for noblemen,” Ashlynn said. ”One of my cousins, Micheline, went to the Royal Academy. She had the chance to meet dozens of suitors there because my Uncle, Count Dylan DuCoumont, was willing to spend an extraordinary sum of money to give her that opportunity in the hopes that it would bring his family greater opportunities.”

”But for Morwen,” Ashlynn explained. ”Opportunities are far more rare. If she didn’t find a good match at her Coming of Age banquet, then an event like Owain’s ’grand ceremony’ is a chance to meet with knights from all across the march, men who wouldn’t normally travel all the way to the edge of Dunn Barony just to meet a potential match.”

”I’m sure that her parents were already pressuring her to make the most of this opportunity,” Ashlynn said. ”Her younger brother will already inherit her father’s title and lands, so they must be looking for someone who can care for her and give her a good life.”

”Or,” Ashlynn added, pursing her lips briefly as she waded into the less comfortable part of her explanation. ”They may be looking for her to help them form a small alliance. The Thornes aren’t wealthy, even by the standards of Lothian March, but they’re fiercely loyal, and they train capable soldiers. If they could marry her to a wealthier family, or even one with better lands that produced a more consistent harvest, then they might have someone who could help their family in lean years.”

”You make it sound like she’s being sold,” Ollie said, frowning at the way Ashlynn had phrased things. ”Like she’s a cow being taken to market, looking to fetch a good price.”

”That’s exactly how many families treat their daughters,” Ashlynn said softly. ”And mine was no exception. I hoped that I could love Owain enough to raise a family with him,” she said. ”But the wedding was about so much more than that. And when it came to Jocey,” Ashlynn added, clenching her hands into small fists.

”All Jocey ever wanted was the chance to meet her own knight in shining armor,” Ashlynn said, looking directly into Ollie’s eyes. ”Someone like you, who is strong and brave, kind and nurturing, who would do anything for the woman he loves. But... My father wanted her to marry into one of the guilds of Blackwell.”

”He saw it as an escape for her,” Ashlynn explained, speaking softly as her eyes grew unfocused, staring into the past that felt like another lifetime entirely. ”He thought that she would do better if she were free to use every bit of her talents in the world of merchants and tradesmen. My sister is so clever, and she works so hard,” Ashlynn said.

”She might have done very well among the Shipwrights, or the Wayfinders, or the Linemen,” Ashlynn said, imagining Jocelynn living with some of the men her parents had once considered a suitable match for their youngest daughter. With Jocelynn’s talents and the mercantile training their father had arranged for Jocelynn, Ashlynn had no doubt that any guild that Jocelynn married into would soon find itself rising above its peers due to her sister’s efforts.

”But she wouldn’t have been happy there,” Ashlynn said with a trace of bitterness in her voice for how things had turned out. ”Because she would have been denied a chance to find the hero she’d always dreamed of marrying.”

”That’s part of why I agreed to marry Owain,” she said, turning her gaze back to Ollie. ”My parents agreed to give Jocelynn more freedom in choosing her husband since I was taking on such a heavy burden for our family’s sake. I just... I never expected things to turn out like this.”