Page 11 of Love Me Forever

Sébastien kneaded the muscles of his shoulders. “I can definitely do that.”

***

Sébastien slept better that night than he had in a while. He didn’t have any petitioners the next morning. Or they didn’t. He’d have to get used to thinking in terms of “they” since he wouldn’t be living alone anymore.

They looked over the statements they’d written the evening before and decided to make a few changes before neatly copying them onto a large piece of vellum. The announcement was at the top.

Sébastien didn’t care to have a large party or anything too fancy. It’d be a lot of stress and annoyance, and he didn’t care to invite lords, some of whom he didn’t give a shit about. They could watch and deal with their own accommodations in the city if they wanted. A nice wedding in Sébastien’s mind would be dinner in private, or mostly private, and relaxing in their homeafterward. And maybe Remus holding and railing him again like yesterday.

Thankfully, Remus didn’t care to have a big party either.

“Maxime could come to dinner,” said Sébastien. “I think he’s proven himself trustworthy enough, and he lives a few streets over, so he could simply walk home afterward. He can also cut our palms and heal us afterward.”

“And Lord Rochefort?”

“He can watch and come to dinner if he doesn’t mind traveling here. I’ll write to him directly and ask.”

“What about the citizens? They’d probably like it if we paid for alcohol to be distributed so they can party in the streets and get sloshed.”

“We can do that. Even if we didn’t, they’d figure it out and party anyway. People love any excuse to drink. We could set the date for the end of June.”

“That sounds good.”

Sébastien inked the date with his best handwriting. “The cook downstairs isn’t planning on staying for much longer.”

“Why?”

“She’s getting up there in years and wants to retire. We’ll have to find a new one in a week or start learning how to cook.”

Their statements were basic and spoke about how they wished for the transition of merging Soleil with Rowland and Midland to be smooth and easy since they’d be marrying and putting past issues to rest. It was time for peace and a new age. Since people like making money, they added that they hoped to increase the prosperity of their citizens by creating more trade.

Most would get that. One side of a Kingdom isn’t going to heavily tax the goods from another side when they’re all the same people. Business would grow better with the three lands united as one. Midland might even start to properly grow with more mixing.

“Midland might not like that we’re merging,” said Sébastien.

“I think some know since I said I was marrying you. You proved yourself decent as Duke last time. As long as they can still call themselves Middies, and we’re willing to fairly deal with any problems or issues, they’ll likely be fine with things in general.”

Once the notice was finished, Sébastien took it outside to one of the guards by the door. He’d take it to the printing press shop in the west end ofBelle Âme. Copies would be spread out from there so the nation could learn of the coming marriage. If any lords wanted to come and watch the marriage and coronation, they could start making travel plans.

“There’s another issue we need to discuss, and I didn’t want to talk about it by letter,”Sébastien said once he settled behind the desk next to Remus.

“What?” Remus was sanding the parchment they’d originally used to write on so they could reuse it later.

“You know how I feel about people who have forced others to go through what I’ve been through in a sense.”

“Yeah.”

“Quite a few lords and relatives died in the collapse, and Vemer killed many. Several rapists or apologists have been permanently dealt with. Some widows took over their holds since their husbands died in the Palace collapse, and I had to sack a few. I’d only spoken to them a few times at court, but I knew they’d been abusive to slaves. Also, two were reported as trying to keep their slaves because they thought they should be exempt from the law.”

“If slavery had been normalized in Rowland years ago, I cringe to think that someone I consider decent might have been okay with those kinds of actions. Or they’d be asking to keep their slaves like they have a special entitlement. What about the new people you’ve assigned?”

“I’ve picked a few Knights from the north, and Lord Rochefort wrote to suggest a few of his favored men. They aided us in the group and never showed any desire to own a slave. What worries me is that I have lords who released their slaves without issue. They don’t appear to be absolute monsters, but I don't truly know them. I have nothing against them, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened.”

“You might have rapists in positions of power,” Remus stated bluntly.

“Exactly. I’d prefer to execute rapists. I don’t know who is who, and not everyone who owned a slave was like that. Court turned into a midden, but it’s not the same everywhere.”

Remus set down the sanding stone and leaned back in his chair. “If you go on a hunt, that’ll make you look bad. Is that what you’re worried about?”

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