There had been little time for her to rest i years. It was not that she particurly he rest now, rather that she had put enough in motion. Her efforts would be wasted oic details and so she sought to collect herself.

  The where, then, was Bavaria, a quaint pce owned by the marquess and which had a certain proximity to a certain t. While she busied herself with reading and simple enjoyment of the view from the lounge’s warmth, her husba off to ride and hunt. In the evenings, they would py at newly-weds, in spite of their situation still a certain enjoyment of the other’s pany.

  At least, that leisure had been how the first week passed.

  “Lord Roth, it is a pleasure to have supany,” she said, her smile warm.

  He was at this time his father’s heir and using the barony title as a courtesy, one day would be her equal as a t. Still, that did not make him a particurly young man, nor too much older than her, fortably in his thirties.

  A different kind of man than her husband. Rather than a military academy of sorts, he had gohrough the Uy of Paris and with a certain aco less. While he would hardly take the vows, his uanding of theology went beyond what was necessary for his education, perhaps a tributor to where his focus had gone since.

  As for the man himself, he gave her something of a short look and then turo her husband. “Your Royal Highness,” he said with a bow, hand over his chest.

  For his part, Friedrich chuckled.

  For her part, she tilted her head, eyes narrowed. “Is My Lord uhe impression he is here for my husband?” she asked in a voice that, while not cold, certainly cked the warmth of her earlier smile.

  He straightened up and held his that bit higher. “Am I not?” he asked.

  So she turo her husband. “Does dear have any pns to build so much as an outhouse?” she asked lightly.

  He thought it over, eyes narrowed and mouth thin, until finally he said, “I think an outhouse would be too grand of an expense for my estate at this time.”

  While a lord would certainly not be so crass as to huff, Roth certainly did pout. “Prince or not, this is hardly how a guest should be treated,” he said.

  “Nor is this how a host should be treated. Marquess Bavaria is the one who brokered this meeting and I know well the letter he passed to My Lord is signed, not by my husband, but myself. I would thier of My Lord than for him to miss such a detail.”

  Her words, as usual, carried little emotion and a clear reasoning. The kind of remarks that both ahe hearer and made the hearer unwilling to show that anger. At least, that was how he felt.

  “Which wife does not write letters on her husband’s behalf?” he said, a forced levity in his tone.

  “This wife. If my husband wishes to dictate letters, he may hire someone else, my time rather precious,” she said, matg his levity.

  He g the prinly to see amusement. A wife speaking in such a way, it went beyond absurd. If she had a graitle, then it could be uood, yet she was inferior on this t too.

  At the same time, he felt keenly the unspoken remihat, in terms of title, the one most inferior here was him. Even if his father passed this moment, he would merely be her equal.

  Her time rather precious indeed.

  “Speaking of which,” she said, “if My Lord has no i in making my acquaintance, I suppose he should leave. It is not often I have time to rest.”

  Some pieces ing together, he put on a smile. “How could I terest? Augstadt’s cathedral is renowned for its beauty,” he said.

  Her own smile quirked. “My Lord speaks true, and it is true he has done good work ue’s cathedral.”

  “My Lady’s praise is too much. My renovations merely helped bring back the inal beauty,” he said, the warmth more natural when speaking of this topic.

  “If t back beauty is su easy task, then they would not have asked such a talented individual to oversee the work. Humility is good, but it must surely be a sin to deny the talents God has given us,” she said.

  He politely chuckled, knowier than to quibble with her. “I must fess, I have not heard of any damage—has somethi happeo the cathedral?”

  “No, our cathedral is perfectly fine.”

  His fusion grew. “Is My Lady ied in making improvements to it, then?”

  “Not particurly, no,” she said, her polite smile now with an air of amusement—mockery.

  “Then, pray tell, why would My Lady wish to be acquainted with myself?” Whatever attempt he’d made to hide his frustration from his voice did little good in keeping it out of his words.

  She did not reply right away. No, she tilted her head to the side, fixed him with a stare. “Is that all My Lord is capable of, work on cathedrals?”

  Her expressioo left him hesitant. As provocative as it sou first, the lo had to settle, the more ho it felt. A genuine question. Or perhaps it rovocation all along, an accusation of denying his God-given talent.

  She did nue like those practitioners of rhetoric at uy—whicluded himself—that much was clear.

  “What other work would My Lady have?” he asked.

  Rather than answer, she tittered, a hand over her mouth and eyes rather clear that she wore a broad smile. “So My Lord would be ied in w for This Lady?”

  No, she argued in the more casual sense. His smile strained, he said, “That would depend on the particur work. There are others ied in my… talent.”

  “Well then, I suppose My Lord has no need of my work,” she said, her tone disied. “My apologies for wasting My Lord’s time.”

  He fought the urge to rub his face, a long breath slowly let out through his nose. “Since I am here, I could hear out My Lady, perhaps something that would i me.”

  Without hurry, she brought her gaze back upon him. He found it harder to meet that gaze this time. Not humbled, humiliated, practically begging her after he had been the oo spurn her first.

  Yes, she argued in the more casual sense and she argued well.

  “Perhaps, perhaps not,” she said, her hauring along with a roll of her wrist. “I would like to struct a pair of academies. One would be rger for boys, one smaller firls, and this would be for children… of good parentage. Local instru, so no dormitories as such at this time. I have a suitable and vast piece of nd that is being prepared as we speak.”

  Humiliated he may have felt before, but this made him feel the fool. That, more than anything else, truly doused his frustration. “Academies? I think there is no partieed for my talent to draw up such a thing,” he said, his disi pin to hear.

  “If My Lord would take the ission, though, he would also be the oo design the library,” she said.

  He would have ughed if he hadn’t already lost all energy for this versation; instead, a smile tugged at his mouth. “He would this library be?”

  “Let us say… over a hurides across and a hundred along. The exact dimensions would of course depend on the particur shape.”

  For a moment, his heart fot to beat, then his mind caught up and, this time, he did let out a ugh. “Does My Lady uand how vast such a distance is?” he asked lightly.

  “It would be as if your very own cathedral.”

  This time, he did not ugh.

  Silence fell as he began to prehend the scale of this proposed work. “Are there even that many books?” he asked, a rhetorical question that lingered as a smile.

  However, she answered it. “If not yet, then there eventually shall be,” she said, no hint of hesitation in her voice.

  “Still, I have to ask again, does My Lady truly uand this scale? To spend on a library of all things?” he asked quietly. Broken.

  “I assure My Lord, this is far from the first stru I have personally requested. As for the scale, I believe My Lord will find it more reasohahinks once he corresponds with Master Haartsen,” she said.

  He frow that and bluntly asked, “Master Haartsen?”

  “They are in charge of overseeing all publid rge strus in my fief.”

  His frown deepened, a sed wind ing to him. “Surely I am not being asked to serve under some… craftsman,” he said, that st word sounding like a slur out of his mouth.

  “Allow me to crify. Master Haartsen is familiar with the materials and bour avaible in my fief and has gained much experieh how to use both of these well. As such, they would oversee strus to see that we are using our funds well. You wonder if such a library is reasonable, well, Master Haartsen is your tool to make it reasohey will ehe bulk of the work is effit so that you may spend generously on the particur details.”

  He listened closely ahat left him with a particur question, his mouth curved into a wry smile. “If this master is so talented, why is he not designing this library then?” he asked, his hauring to the side as he did.

  “To be frank, it is precisely because they are a oner. One part is that it is expected for such a prestigious building to be designed by an equally prestigious person and I worry it will be diminished if others judge it for being designed by a oner. More importantly, though, Master Haartsen has grown up as a oner who detests frivolity and wastefulness, that they do not quite uand and appreciate the importance of beauty for such a prestigious stru.

  “If this was merely a buildi for oners, I would have left this in their hands. However, it is not, it is a building that I wish for many good people from all over to e visit. As such, it o be a building worth visiting and I know well that you uand what makes such a building.”

  She was not at all subtle, but he couldn’t think of a moment she had been, instead aggressive from the very start. And why shouldn’t she? Clearly, she knew well the worth of what she dangled in front of him. He knew well any of his peers would grovel at her feet for this project.

  For all his p, even if this was to simply sign his name on some oner’s work, it would be worth it. As long as the building was pleted and was as grand as she cimed, it could look like anything and still be famous and adored. After all, it wouldn’t make sense for someoo put so much effort into making something ugly: the sheer scale made it beautiful.

  A cathedral, above all else, was beautiful for how it reached out to God, desperate to be that little closer to Him. He uood that well. Whenever a church or cathedral had a wealthy patron, it was always another spire, a bigger tower.

  The only questio was how wealthy of a patrohought her.

  “If I may be frank with My Lady, I would still question if there really are the funds, even with this… master’s experience,” he said, distrust tempered with desire.

  She turned over a hand, her face showing no particur rea to his pointed question. “It is fair to ask. That is, I do believe My Lord still does not prehend the value of Master Haartsen. I know how expehedrals are. Rather, I know how expe is to employ so many people for such a length of time.

  “Nothing I could say would adequately vince My Lord. If he is willing to indulge me, then the stru of the academies would show how effit Master Haartsen is, as well as the panies I have fostered in my domain. It is also the case that, ohe academies are structed, I would then leverage their appeal into pr… tributions to the library.

  “Oher hand, I i in outside tributions for the library too. I do not io run it for profit-making like some mert, yet I believe others shall appreciate my ambition ao have their ached, no?”

  As evenly as she spoke, that st word came out like a joke. Rather, not a joke, but an aowledgement.

  This was not a project, it was a dream. And what a beautiful dream it could be.

  She did nue like those practitioners of rhetoric, why would she? It had not been her goal to vince him of any truth from the start. No, she wao blind him with lofty dreams. A beautiful dream, yet he knew now its purpose, just oep after designing her little academies. He only o do this ohing for her, then the library awaited him. A dream needed not be reasonable, needed no funding, this master almost certainly something she came up with to keep it from sounding too good to be true.

  Still, she sounded so believable. A lie with such substance as to be a truth of its own. Did she really desire his prestige this much?

  If she did, though, why did she not have the prince ask him?

  “I uand this is not an easy project to accept so suddenly. Still, if My Lord dees, I fear whoever else I find would be… g,” she said, ending in a sigh.

  How well she had known him from the very beginning.

  “I accept.”