Herald of Steel

'Marry my uncle in law?'

As Alexander made the incredulous statement, a sudden bout of silence descended over the large study as Miss Linda struggled to process what she just heard.

This was not something she had even dared to contemplate.

Marrying her brothers in law…. sure!

But now that she was forced to think of this alternative option…. a sudden surge of anger filled her heart!

This was because she recalled the few interactions he had with her, where Lord Castell spared none of his angry or nasty looks.

Due to Lord Kite's efforts, the man blamed her for all the troubles, so he bore no goodwill towards this rebellious niece in law.

Vice versa, given Lord Castell's recent actions, Miss Linda also saw the man in a very negative light.

"What nonsense are you spewing? Lord Castell cannot even stand me!" The lady hence spat at Alexander with a glare.

The man however was not discouraged by the lady's outburst.

On the contrary, he was quite pleased, chuckling to himself, 'Hehe, so you would be okay if he could stand you?'

Nitpicking at Miss Linda's words like this, Alexander then reinforced his point,

"And why not marry Lord Castell, my lady? After all, you are still very young. And from what I heard, he is single. Given your current position, it is already written you have to re-marry. The elders of your family will never let such a fine… 'political pawn' go unused."

"So rather than wait like an obedient lamb on a chopping block, why not take the initiative yourself? At least that way you will have some say in whom you are forced to spend the night with every day."

Alexander keenly noticed Miss Linda's mood go from anger to bitterness and then at last helplessness as he said his piece.

She clearly loathed the term 'political pawn' but was also unable to deny the fact she was exactly that, with no hope in sight of being anything otherwise.

"Is this your condition for loaning the 3 million? That I marry that old fart?" Then as Miss Linda came to grips with her state, she suddenly opened her mouth to pose this, her tone flat yet acrid.

"Hahaha, of course not. I am not 'that' generous. That is that this is this." Alexander very candidly proved her assumptions wrong, the humorous chuckle cutting through the heavy atmosphere of the room like a mellow breeze, "I remember what happened last time I gave you money. How could I repeat the same mistake twice?"

Alexander's eyes turned sharp and unyielding as recalled how he was swindled.

"That was all my husband. I had nothing to do with it!" Miss Linda however was very quick in her defense, dumping all responsibility on the poor, missing man, even though in reality it was actually her grand design.

After all, dead men tell no tales.

And then, in an effort to swing the subject elsewhere sharply added without giving Alexander to interject, "But if you are going to bring up that excuse then why are you bothering to stretch these talks? Stop wasting my time and just say no. I will be on my way!"

'This woman…..' Alexander once again found himself surprised by the cockiness of the lady in front of him.

Even though she was drowning in trouble, even though she was trying to pretend to be polite to him to save herself from mortal peril, there were times when her innate pride could not help but burst outward.

She was like a proud peacock, unable to hide her true colors no matter how much she tried.

And Alexander hated to admit it, but he did find this mercurial, moody woman very attractive.

'She is like a wild, untamed tempest! Any man would love to challenge her! To bring her under control.' Alexander thought while gazing at that immaculate face, feeling a sudden surge of desire to conquer her and bring her to his hill.

But Alexander was not conversing with Miss Linda just because he found her struggles fun to watch.

There were potentially many political advantages to what he was suggesting, the main one being to cause a fracture between Duke Heeat and his younger brother using trouble over succession.

And in order to incite such a thing, Alexander chose to pretend as if he did not hear Miss Linda's acrid remark, and he gently chimed,

"Of course, I know my lady nothing to do with the theft. That is why I did not bother to bring up the past."

Now the main reason was because he had already retrieved most of the lost money when he raided Lord Parker's camp, thus dampening some of the fire in his heart.

But Miss Linda did not need to know that as Alexander continued,

"I am only proposing this marriage because I think that is the best way for you to pay me back the loan. I believe any husband will pay back the debts his wife owes."

"......." Miss Linda found the reasoning hard to counter and an air of stillness enveloped the room as the gears in her head worked overtime to process the information.

It was a while later when she opened her mouth,

"But what makes you think Lord Castell will want to marry me? Or that I even want to marry? And what is stopping me from marrying one of my brothers in law? That makes much more sense. They are clearly the far better options. One of them is even the one next in the line of succession."

At this logical question, Alxx silently mused to himself, 'If you do that, then how can I cause trouble?' before quickly rebuffing these apparently greedy thoughts,

"Hehe, and what makes you think they will want to marry you?"

And then before the prideful woman could reply, he answered his own question, Enjoy exclusive content from empire

"Lord Castell will want to marry you for the same reason you think Duke Heeat's sons will want to marry you- to obtain your family's lands. And before you go off day dreaming there, I suggest you take your eyes off your forehead and bring it back to reality."

"Your brothers in law are not here. No one knows when… if ever they will be here. In fact, you two have barely even heard of each other. So to hope that you will catch their eye… and the correct one at that… is nothing but pure folly."

"......." Miss Linda's eyes once again lost a bit of their luster as she heard Alexander's analysis, who was claiming that her hopes were a long shot among long shots.

There was no guarantee that that would ever happen.

And even if it did,

"That is not to mention how any marriage with them will take a long, long time to finalize. There will be too many things to work out. The very first of which would be determining the successor. Remember… the Heeat family has not even officially declared your husband dead. So your two brothers in laws should have their hands quite full already, fighting each other! Where will be have the time to look for a wife?"

Now, Alexander did not have any intelligence regarding this and really made up the whole thing on the spot using his logic and imagination.

But the fortunate thing was Miss Linda was in the boat as him and had no real idea of the ducal family's succession troubles.

Thus as Alexander cleverly pointed out many of the hurdles, Miss Linda thought that she really could not afford to stick to her own plans.

"So your wish is that I take the bird I already have in my hand?" She spookily spoke, at last, her teeth clenched in unwillingness.

"Yes. Lord Castell is here in Caira. He told me he will remain here until things fully stabilized. That should take a long time. Long enough for him to change his thoughts about you." Alexander spoke not so euphemistically about Miss Linda flirting to seduce the man during his stay here.

However it seemed that Miss Linda was still very reticent about taking Lord Castell as her spouse, and thus sought more excuses,

"Then… what if I were to throw my support for one of my brothers in law? With my status and family…. I am sure I will be more than welcome! And then…"

'*Tsk*, there is really no going around you is there?'

Looking at the lady's dreamy, longing look, Alexander lampooned a bit inside a bit, finding it problematic that the lady kept finding ways to dodge his proposal.

So to push her once and for all, the pasha spoke hurriedly as a way to dismiss her idea,

"I am afraid the decision to support Duke Heeat's sons will be made by your family's elders… not you. This is too big a decision to leave to a weak widow like you. And who do you think controls the elders now?"

"......" Miss Linda grimaced at the answer, the name coming up being the same name as her to be husband.

"Like I said… the only way for you to get even some token semblance of independence is to marry Lord Castell. And I suggest you start doing it as soon as you can. Because your people cannot wait too long"

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