“…Well, in any case, there’s no shortage of bachelors.”

Having heard her out to that point, Cassian gave a single nod. Then he raised this point.

“Then instead of finding an obedient husband when the time comes, what is your reason for seeking me out now?”

“My family, Your Highness.”

Wilhelmina answered without hesitation.

“As I mentioned, I have siblings who are a bit of a mess but utterly dear to me. A few nieces and nephews as well. I have no wish to become someone who ruins their futures.”

Yes. As she said, Brighton’s social circles were well known for their conservatism.

As for Wilhelmina herself, as she explained, she would have no great difficulty going forward, and she didn’t care if all of Winstor talked about her. It would be a nuisance, but nothing more.

However, a family with a woman known for promiscuity before marriage was bound to see its reputation fall sharply. The Priestley ducal family’s honor was no exception to that. If anything, the more storied the name, the harsher the ridicule it would attract.

“Very well.”

Cassian nodded.

“I understand why you need this ‘contract,’ Miss Priestley.”

The voice that said so was languid in just the right way.

“Nothing erases a ruined reputation from people’s minds quite like a shocking marriage announcement. And besides, who would dare gossip about a woman whose husband is a member of the Brighton royal family, and none other than the Butcher of the Open Sea? Not unless they want their skull caved in.”

Hm. Judging by the way he spoke, he was well aware of the heroic and terrible reputation that circulated about him throughout society.

“There will still be things to navigate, but I don’t think those will pose much of a problem for you. Miss Priestley strikes me as more than clever enough.”

Cassian curved his lips into a smile. Then he tapped the ebony desk lightly with the tip of his index finger. Tap, tap. A crisp sound, but Wilhelmina sensed instinctively that it was a kind of ‘prompting.’

He was said to enjoy beating pirates into submission, but Cassian Winstor, Duke of Clifford, as she encountered him in actual conversation, was a man with a masterful command of nonverbal expression. He possessed an innate talent for unsettling the other person and provoking their impatience with a single glance, the degree of a smile, the movement of a finger.

If he were born a woman, he would surely have become the darling of society.

No. Beyond that, it didn’t seem entirely impossible that he could have brought all of Brighton under his sway.

“But that is how things tend to work in this world.”

The man who, by the accident of birth, could not become the darling of society and instead became a butcher on the seas smiled a radiant and beautiful smile as he offered his counsel.

“A contract that benefits only one party does not exist, Miss Priestley. Your logic makes your reason and method for restoring your reputation clear and specific, but to me, I’m afraid, it amounts to nothing more than charity.”

Was there any need to say something like that in such a gentle, instructive tone?

Well, at least it told her something about the man’s character, Wilhelmina thought.

“And I’m a sailor more accustomed to plunder than charity.”

How irritating.

“I beg your pardon, Your Highness.”

But when it came to being irritating, Miss Wilhelmina here was hardly at the bottom of the rankings across all of Winstor’s social circles.

“Did I say I was finished?”

She was fully capable of saying ‘stop interrupting me’ in a manner every bit as refined and drawn-out as his.

“…You still haven’t finished?”

It was a blatant attempt to embarrass her. Compared to the various insults this man attempted so far, how utterly feeble. Wilhelmina couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“No, I haven’t.”

Answering through the tail end of her laughter, Wilhelmina straightened her posture. Then she looked the man directly in the eyes, more squarely than at any point before, and spoke.

“As you just said, Your Highness, the honor of my beloved family hangs entirely on this wretched contract. But if that were all, would I have gone to the trouble of seeking you out at this late hour? Do I strike you as the sort of naive and romantic person who relies on the charity or goodwill of others?”

“……”

“Yes, I will say plainly: I would sooner die than watch my scandal bring shame upon my family. It is for that thoroughly selfish and personal reason that I absolutely need to marry you. And in my estimation.”

Without flinching from the silver-grey eyes that pierced through her with a searching gaze, Wilhelmina willingly met them with the most brilliant smile she could form.

“You, Your Highness, are in a position of desperate need for this marriage as well.”

Silence.

What filled the dim study was only the faint crackling of candle wicks burning down, and the taut tension stretching between the two of them. Cassian slowly unclasped his hands from the table and leaned back deep into his chair. The languid, arrogant smile that lingered on his impossibly beautiful face until moments ago was completely gone. In its place was a cold and keen gleam in his eyes, like a predator in the instant before it closes its jaws around its prey.

“Desperate need for marriage, you say…”

His voice, lower now than before, seemed to crawl across the surface of the ebony desk.

“Miss Priestley presents herself as the most principled of spinsters, yet it seems she takes quite an interest in other people’s matrimonial affairs.”

“And I am hardly alone in that. The entirety of the esteemed Brighton social circles loses sleep every night gossiping about Your Highness’s marital situation.”

Wilhelmina gave an easy shrug of her shoulders and continued.

“But what matters to Your Highness is surely far more urgent and concrete than the idle speculation of the, pardon me, ‘esteemed’ social circles.”

Just over a month ago.

The young king died. His death plunged all of Brighton into profound shock. It came, of all times, just months after the queen preceded him in death.

It was nothing short of a national catastrophe. The result was that the throne of this vast kingdom now stood with only a young queen, not yet of age, left upon it alone.

Cassian, who listened to all of this with his arms crossed and his expression unmoved, cut in flatly.

“She is fifteen. Only three years remain until she comes of age.”

“Whether it is three years or one, a regent is needed. And the late king named his youngest brother as regent in his final will.”

That was none other than the man before her now, the Duke of Clifford.

The moment the news reached him, he returned to Winstor immediately. That was on the second day of mourning, and by now the state funeral and the full mourning period were both concluded.

Yet he was still not regent. Because parliamentary approval had not come through.

“Why has parliament been putting off passing the regency bill day after day?”

“Because of my second eldest brother, no doubt. I know, Miss Priestley. Quite sufficiently.”

“No.”

Wilhelmina cut him off cleanly.

“You do not know sufficiently, Your Highness. His Highness Edward has been working his way through Westminster even as of today, yet regrettably, that is precisely the limit of what you know. If you truly knew sufficiently, you would have understood from the start why I came.”

“What has Duke Priestley heard?”

A quick mind was a welcome thing. Thinking so, Wilhelmina smiled.

“It concerns a justification Your Highness cannot escape.”

“One I cannot escape.”

“Such as the argument that ‘a young bachelor who cannot even manage a household of his own cannot be entrusted with the role of de facto ruler of a nation.‘”

“Hah.”

Cassian scoffed. He couldn’t help it. The logic used to obstruct him was excessively conservative and old-fashioned, and tedious beyond measure.

“Yet it is perfectly suited to swaying the stodgy, stone-headed people of Brighton.”

Of course, no nobleman in his right mind would dare hold a war hero who spent his career crushing pirates’ skulls at sea to a standard of ‘incompleteness,’ but if the one wielding that standard was Edward, first in line to the throne, the situation changed entirely.