Only yesterday, he had learned from a hand-scrawled note that Lord Ashworth had arranged a match for him in a certain Miss Eliza Winfield, the daughter of a baron from an established family and no doubt a step in the upward direction when it came to status. The man hadn't even had the courage to tell Edgar face to face. For good reason, perhaps. There was not a doubt in Edgar's mind that, had he been able to, he would have lunged to tear Lord Ashworth's face off his head.
He had met the lady, and she had seemed a gentle soul, if a little timid. Somehow that all seemed irrelevant though, and certainly much less pressing a concern than the fact that he was engaged at all. "You. Sir. Are. A. Particular. Kind. Of. b*****d," he growled past gritted teeth, slashing at the dummy with every word, as if Lord Ashworth's face was painted on its wooden trunk. The physicality of it all was particularly good for him, a positive outlet for all the negative rage and energy built up inside him. Part of him wanted nothing more than to tackle the man he had once called father and throw him into the dirt and pin him there until he learned what it was to be trapped without a way out.
By the time Edgar had exhausted his excess energy, steam was rising off him into the crisp winter air and his breathing was coming hard and fast. He stepped away from the dummy, regarding the countless new scratches he had wrought into the wood, and stowed the blade he had been practicing with. Behind him, he heard Dardanos' warm breath and felt the buck nose at his shoulder, as if to say he ought to feel less bad about it all.
It is not personal. Miss Winfield is a perfectly well-manner lady. It is the principle behind it all, Edgar replied. But he knew on some level that his Guardian was right. But it wasn't easy.
"Come along, then," he said finally, and the two of them left the courtyard. The road to and from the Swan had become familiar to the both of them in recent months. It was a part of the city that he had to real reason to visit, but that perhaps was why he did, time and time again.
~Lady Kanna~
