(A/N: I tried to update yesterday, but I think my account was glitching and wouldn't let me. It looks like it might be fixed now. I hope you all will enjoy this Saturday update instead!)

My smile faltered and I looked from my mother's tears to Katya's glare. "What's the matter?" I asked, chest tightening. "Why is everyone acting this way?"

"Ferdinand, we can talk about it in private, but I don't think now is the appropriate time," Father said. He was a man who mostly kept silent, but he with the authority of someone who knew the weight of each one of his sparse words.

"I think now is a perfectly appropriate time. There's no one here who shouldn't hear this. Nadia is invested in this as much as anyone else, and the LeClaires can't understand a single word we're saying, whether it's in front of them or through the walls."

"Dinny!" Mother sniffled.

Father's cheeks hollowed and he rubbed a hand over his beard.

"Very well, if you want her to hear our objections, then I'll state them. We barely know this girl, and we think a marriage at this time would be hasty."

I snorted. "You barely knew Mother's name when you married her. I survived hell with Nadia."

Mother's eyes went wide, and Father clenched his jaw.

"Yes. I barely knew your mother before our marriage. But our families had known each other for nearly a century. My parents had watched her grow up, and they knew it was a prudent match."

I wanted to ask about all the arguments they had over Mother's foolishness and Father's coldness. All the times they stormed out of the house to spend a week or two with friends, leaving Katya and myself to weather the storm with the one parent remaining. Had they been so glad of their loveless marriage then? Had their parents truly made a good match of personalities, when Mother and Father were so vastly different from each other? Perhaps it had been a good match for money and title, but I doubted my grandparents knew what they were actually doing when they paired these two together.

I wanted to ask all that, but I knew I couldn't. It was one of their biggest secrets. It was one they wouldn't even admit to themselves. If I brought it up, it would derail the conversation and take it to a broken place it couldn't return from. So I bit my tongue and glared at Father, wishing he could just confess how miserable his parents made him with their match.

Mother, bolstered by Mrs. LeClaire, held up a hand as if she wished to speak. "Dinny, there were so many girls you were interested in before you joined the National. Any one of them would be perfectly suited to fitting in seamlessly in the kind of life that a baron will be living. Nadia is a ballet dancer from the poorer end of the city. Is she really capable of matching your lifestyle? Does she even want to?"

I drew in a short breath. Was she really saying these things? Was she really saying Nadia wasn't worthy of me, when it was Nadia that I was not worthy of? My hands clenched into fists, and I barely controlled my voice.

"Mother. If anything, Nadia should be refusing my offer. She's a countess, remember? She outranks me by a large gap, and, should she want to, she'd be eligible to marry dukes or princes."

Mother shifted in her chair. "Yes. Well. But, she's a countess only a few days. She has no idea of the lifestyle. She's used to living her life a certain way, which is not at all how we live ours. Do you really want to uproot her and force her to attend parties she feels uncomfortable at?"

Though all these questions should have been asked of Nadia, Mother did her best to pretend that she wasn't there. She only looked at me, like I was the one deciding what Nadia wanted or did. I shook my head, my cheeks growing hot.

"Nadia isn't a child. She can decide what she wants and what she comfortable with. If she accepted me, she's obviously willing to attend parties if that's required, Mother."

Nadia stepped forward, reaching her arm out as if she wanted to comfort my mother. I didn't think Mother deserved the gesture, but that was Nadia. Always willing to see another side. Always willing to see the good in people.

"Mrs. Popov, I know you're worried that I will take your son away from you, but I have no intentions of turning him against his title or his duties. If you want us to attend parties and court functions, then I will gladly do that for Ferdinand. His friends will become mine, just as my friends will become his. I'm sure he doesn't relish spending hours shopping with me and Hannabella, but he does it because he loves me. So, I will do the same for him."

Mother's nostrils flared. "I'm sure you're a darling girl. But we had so many plans for Dinny. He'd marry a girl whose parents we knew, and we'd spend holidays and travel together. Our families would become well known to all, combined through the love of our children." She gasped shakily, placing her hand over her eyes as she slumped back in her chair.

Of course, this old story yet again. Since our birth, my mother had this image of my sister and I creating a bond between her and other nobles. We'd become a large family, so tightly bound everyone would talk how well Mother got on with her in-laws. I think she had some vision of a mini-court, like the queens and kings of countries, coming together for the common good, uniting causes and houses. So, though Nadia now had a title well beyond anything Mother could hope for, she lacked both 'correct' breeding and a family. Neither of which bothered me in the slightest.

"Mother, we shouldn't let her stay here. She's been seducing Ferdinand, and this is the result," Katya piped up, glaring at us. "Just a few minutes ago, I walked upstairs and they were practically undressing each other in Ferdinand's bedroom."

"Katya!" I yelled, stalking toward her. "That's disgusting, and you know that's a lie!"

"Ferdinand!" Nadia called after me, running up to stop me from jabbing a finger in my sister's face. "Calm down." She looked around at my parents, now pale and drawn at the shock of Katya's words, and shook her head. "It's not true. We weren't doing anything that would require you to be ashamed of us. We were merely talking, and we made sure the door was wide open."

Mother squeaked, flopping back in her chair, tears spilling down her cheeks. Father only rubbed the bridge of his nose.

I spun back on my parents. "You know Katya lies all the time. Why are you trusting her now?"

Mother blubbered, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief, while Mrs. LeClaire muttered comforts in Flaunsian. "It doesn't matter if we believe her or not, Dinny. We just know that this girl is changing you. Where is my noble little boy? My little gentleman? You used to be so charming and darling."

Little did she know Nadia had very little to do with how little I felt like Ferdinand these days. Of course, Nadia showed me that wealth and fame were not all that I could strive for. Yet, the shard in my heart that my Mother sensed did not come from my time with Nadia. Instead, it had more to do with the bloody battlefields and what we had done there. It came from fighting for a war you did not believe in. It came from killing for a side you hated.

I cleared my throat, tossing those thoughts into the back of my mind. "I'm Ferdinand. Whether I'm your little baron anymore has nothing to do with it."

Mother sniffled, burying her face in her hands. "Oh, I wish it hadn't all fallen!" she wailed. "I only want to go back to Rumonin! I want to go back to our old lives!"

I turned away, my heart racing. They were being wholly unfair to Nadia, and that boiled my blood. But I also couldn't help but feel that twinge of pity for someone so misplaced by the modern times. Mother had grown up with lavish balls and beautiful princes and princesses. She had only known marriages of immense importance, where even the king sent a letter of congratulations. She was used to nobility being set apart and almost like a fairy tale. Now, she was facing the reality. We were the same as everyone else. And the Vigilant Men had spread up that process even more.

I swallowed, still facing away from my family. I knew what I had to say now, though it pained me. Yet, it was all we could do to keep the family from ripping itself apart. "Perhaps some distance will help us all learn how to live in this new situation," I said. "Nadia and I will be getting married anyway, so we shouldn't burden the LeClaire's anymore. I think it's time we move back with the Lephards until we are able to wed and find an apartment of our own."

Mother's sobs only got louder, and Father made a noise of shock. I wouldn't look at them. They were my only family, and I knew how much they had sacrificed for me. Father had done his best to earn us money, and they had let me take dancing lessons even though they weren't sure how gentlemanly they were. There had been much compromise on their end. Yet, I knew it would never work if we stayed and they continued to speak about Nadia as if she didn't exist. The only way I could continue to think of them in any warm manner was to put some distance between us.

"So you're going to let her tear us apart?" Katya snarled. "We thought you were dead until a few days ago! She's been hogging you all this time!"

I spun around, pointing at Katya and barely containing the flames of anger that boiled in my chest. "Don't you dare talk about Nadia like that!" I hissed. "You'll never know what she did for me, so don't act like you do!"

Katya wrinkled her nose in similar anger, staring me down. She had always known how to push my buttons, and here she continued to.

"Please," Nadia said, holding up her hands. "There's no need for all of us to fight. Perhaps Ferdinand is right. We just need time and space. All of us."

I didn't wait for my family to ruin my esteem of them anymore. I took Nadia's hand and walked with her up the stairs and to my bedroom. She couldn't sleep with Katya, and who cared anymore what the LeClaires thought of her being in my room.

I made a small nest on the floor out of blankets, leaving her the bed. We changed our clothes in the watercloset, then settled in for the night. Nadia dangled her hand out of the covers and down the side, where I could hold it. At first, we only stared at each other, hoping to support the other while feeling like falling ourselves. It had been a tough night. It should have been a joyous one.

Nadia spoke first. A soft, gentle whisper. "I don't want to split your family up, not right after you've found them."

I sighed, hating that she felt that way. I kissed the knuckles of her hand. "You're my family too," I replied. "I'm going to protect you as well as them."

She smiled at me, a literal angel with her caramel hair spilling over her pillow, her skin made glowing and soft as paintings by the lantern light. My lips longed to find hers, petal pink and velvety, always tasting of browned sugar, even if she hadn't eaten anything sweet that day.

"I can't wait until you're my husband," she said, her fingers playing across my palm as she looked down from the bed. I hated being on the floor, but I knew we'd never hear the end of it if someone glanced in and saw. So I held on tight to her hand, knowing this was as close as we'd be until we got out of this house.

"I don't know why you chose to love me," I said, my throat tightening as I realized just how true these words were. "But thank you."

Nadia's smile dimmed, but she leaned forward so that her face was hovering above mine, her hair spilling down, long enough to brush against my skin. "Never thank someone for loving you," she said. "If it's from their heart, then it's freely given. You aren't indebted to anyone, just because they love you."

I reached up, dancing my fingertips across her cheek. She smiled, kissing my palm, and then rolled back all the way onto the bed. She had to pull her hand up, then, to sleep, and I felt the coldness of the air when it had retreated.

I tried to sleep that night, but I couldn't. Nadia was going to be my wife, and it felt like a miracle. I knew what it felt like to be condemned to hang, only to be saved at the last minute. It had wrenched my soul, tearing into what made me human. I'd never forgotten that night, and how Nadia had appeared like a guardian angel from above. She'd rescued me then, and she was still rescuing me now. She said not to feel indebted, but I couldn't help it. I felt like the luckiest human in all the world, because Nadia Surikov had agreed to marry me.