Disclaimer: The universe and some of the characters belong to Squenix. The rest are mine.
Strella Annonice Lunoridas was the granddaughter of Senate Chairman Reinardt Lunoridas, patriarch of the second family of Archadia. The wealth and power of House Lunoridas was second only to that of House Solidor: under Reinardt's leadership the Senate posed a constant challenge to the power of the Emperor. Marrying his son to Reinardt's favorite granddaughter would be a blow to the Senate's power, if it could be done, for the Chairman would never consent. It would show how little House Solidor had to care for his wishes.
In Gramis's favor were two facts: first, Strella was being toasted as the most beautiful maiden in Archadia, not suitable for just anyone to wed, but she could scarcely do better than the Solidor heir; second, her father was Reinardt's third and least favorite son, who would defy his father the instant he ordered, in his usual high-handed way, that such a marriage was not to be thought of.
The Emperor knew these useful facts as well as his son, and accordingly he sent his initial proposal directly and solely to Grendil, Count of Gracht. When Reinardt heard that negotiations for dowry had been opened without consulting him, he recognized it for the deliberate snub it was and instructed Grendil to terminate the negotiations immediately. Gramis gathered through the ever-present servant grapevine that Grendil's reply had been a loud, heartfelt declaration that he was a grown man who could betroth his daughter without the consent of any interfering old man, head of the family or not. The contract was signed with unusual haste, and all high society noted that Chairman Reinardt was no longer speaking to his third son.
The other families of Senatorial rank had as good sources of information as Gramis had. When the engagement was announced, they all knew that Reinardt's power did not suffice even to control his family. By the time Gramis married Strella, Reinardt was no longer Chairman of the Senate.
Strella was four years Gramis's junior, a fair woman who seemed to have stepped from a classical painting, all golden hair, green eyes, serene smile, and curved, creamy limbs. Her passive loveliness stirred not a chord in Gramis, who found animation more attractive than mere even features. Still, he recognized that she was beautiful. Entering the finest of parties together, he took pride in the knowledge that all men envied him possession of the woman on his arm.
It was axiomatic that one could have either brains or beauty, but not both, and Strella did little to disprove the saying. She was decidedly not a clever woman; Gramis soon gave up on his dream of finding a confidante in her. Her political knowledge was as good as necessary, but no better: she could be trusted to arrange seating at dinner parties without placing mortal enemies together, she knew the rules of precedence for all Ivalice, she could recall fifty years of intermarriages for all the old Gentry and most of the new, she could make polite conversation without offending anyone, and she knew what must never be said before whom, but she had not the slightest notion of how she might go about turning her knowledge into influence.
To her credit, she never tried. For someone with such august parentage (her mother was a Bergan), she was singularly lacking in ambition. Possibly, her husband thought, unfamiliar with anyone who did not desire power, she was just intelligent enough to realize that she could get very little more by intrigue than she already had to look forward to. Unless Gramis did something spectacularly stupid ,such as lose the support of the Ministry of Law, Strella would be Empress one day. There was no higher office anywhere.
When approached, as was inevitable, by enemies of House Solidor, Strella was sensible enough to tell her husband what he already knew. Eventually, they realized that her loyalties were to her husband's faction rather than her grandfather's and her uncle's after him, and they gave up trying so obviously.
One who did not recognize her new loyalty until too late was her cousin, Rudolf Zenda Lunoridas, whose father had taken the Senate seat reserved for House Lunoridas after Reinardt's little-lamented decease. He appealed to their shared childhood and mutual affection rather than to their common blood, for he had always meant to marry his pretty cousin and refused to believe that she might be happy with Gramis. Through wishful thinking to himself and winning words to her, he managed to convince himself that she would marry him if Gramis died and left House Solidor's power in ruins.
Strella half believed it herself. She had always been mildly in love with Rudolf, as she was not in the least with Gramis, whom she regarded even after six months of marriage rather as she would a Coeurl who had taken up residence in her house: affectionate enough as long as he was well-behaved, but always very much aware that one day he might not be. She knew, or thought she knew, that Rudolf would never harm her. So she did not discourage his first flirtations as she had those who had hoped for more with less cause.
When he pressed a vial with the outward appearance of a potion into her hand along with the whispered instruction to slip it into Gramis's wine, Strella reached her sticking point. She might not be very fond of her husband, but she drew the line at killing him.
Rather than doing anything herself, she gripped the vial in one hand and her nerve in the other and asked to speak with Gramis privately after dinner. She would have to face the Coeurl in her parlor sooner or later, and she preferred to do so in her house, on her terms. Strella was not a clever woman, but no more was she a craven one.
To her surprise, Gramis did not grow angry with her. On the contrary, he thanked her for her loyalty with unusual gentleness and arranged without being asked that she relate the details only once, to Judge Magister Zargabaath who could be trusted not to reveal her indiscretion. The poison was easily traced to Rudolf; overconfident in his accomplice, he had not troubled to cover his tracks. The rest was a foregone conclusion. Gramis did call in one favor: at the execution, Rudolf was silenced to prevent him spreading to all of Archades assembled the vitriol which had poured forth when he had been presented with the unpalatable fact that Strella had loved the honor of her wedding vows more than him. The executioner's sword made her secret safe forever.
Afterward, Strella became somewhat easier with her husband. Paradoxically, having come so close to awakening his ire, she knew how much kinder he was than she had thought, and she no longer feared him.
They would never be close: Gramis was constantly busy with political machinations or absent weeks at a time on diplomatic visits, while Strella was uninterested in the administration of the realm and found her life full enough with social obligations. Still, she was nice to come home to, calm and capable of sympathy even without understanding. Their lives were largely separate, but they were happy enough so. It could have been much worse.
Strella was never suspected of infidelity by Archadian society, except in the general way that no woman of such remarkable beauty with such a frequently-absent husband could avoid. Certainly she never showed favor to any of the men who still flocked around her. Her husband never doubted her loyalty, either, which was all to the good, as Gramis had no desire to make a fool of himself by playing the cuckold. What was a greater compliment, he never doubted her discretion, either. She took great care, after her near escape from scandal or worse, to avoid even the appearance of wrongdoing. Naturally a faithful woman, the incident rid her permanently of any romantic longings her girlhood daydreams had created. She never, then or later, gave her husband cause for jealousy or distrust.
Still, it was just as well that Rudolf Lunoridas had been a year and a half in his traitor's grave before Strella bore Gramis their first child.