Chapter 4:

Eléonore sighted, she was now on a carriage that was heading towards the Vallière state, and together with her were her little sister and her fiancé, the reason for their visit… before the wedding Louise would have to go through a ritual of sorts, nothing more than a family tradition but it was a requirement in order for them to be married properly. What she didn't understand was why it was needed for her to be present? Their parents had asked her to come with Louise, maybe they just wanted to rub in her face the fact that her little sister was getting married before her.

Speaking about that, it had been nearly a month since her last meeting with Al, and she still hadn't heard anything from him… she was beginning to think that it was all a fake…that right now he was in Germania laughing about that older woman that he tricked and even gave her first kiss to him… but if all he wanted was to seduce her and then run away, why just stop with just a kiss?, if he wanted to back then she would have…

The memory of that incident made Eléonore blush madly and broke the daze she was in, she turned around to see the soon to be married couple and found they were both fast asleep, previously they had been fighting the entire trip about something (and she had to listen to the whole thing), apparently she had caught him staring at some maid's breasts rather joyfully, which caused her to get mad… nothing unusual… eventually both of them just seemed to get tired of arguing, forgave each other and fell asleep.

"Seriously, when they are not arguing they look kind of cute together"

She had decided to let go of her grudge and wish her sister happiness, just because she was unhappy with her life didn't mean that Louise had to suffer the same fate and if her familiar was the person that she had chosen to spent the rest of her life with, then so be it, she had her older sister's blessing.

Eventually the carriage reached a little house by the road, where her other sister, Cattleya joined them on their trip, it was funny, her bust was rather… massive and you could see just how hard Louise's fiancé was trying to not stare at it for too long. Anyway they exchanged greetings and continued their trip together, after some meaningless chit chat and a couple of ear tweaks for staring at the wrong place, both Louise and Saito fell asleep again. Only then Cattleya dropped her characteristic smiling face and began to whisper in order to not wake them up.

"Eléonore, I didn't want to say anything while the two of them were awake so that I would not cause them worry but…"

Cattleya's words carried an unusual serious tone around her.

"I think something big is about to happen"

"What do you mean?"

"In the past few days a messenger from the queen had been coming several times to meet our parents, but that wouldn't be unusual on its own… the thing is, I saw he was carrying an envelope with the seal of the Germanian royal family on it "

Now that was unusual, what could the Germanian royal family want with them, sure the Vallière state had borders with their country, but any complains were usually issued by the Zerbst family who owned the land at the other side… wait a minute it couldn't be that… could it.

"What's wrong sis you look weird"

Cattleya was far too perceptive and she noticed the slight change in Eléonore frown.

"It's nothing… you are right that does sound like something big is about to happen"

After that the two sister started to catch up with each other life, they were pretty close and they usually told each other everything… this time however Eléonore hid the story about his encounters with Al, even when she confronted her about the rumor (That stupid thing even reached her sister's ears) she said nothing, she was just so embarrassed about being tricked by some kid even surrendering her first kiss to him and she didn't want Cattleya to get the wrong impression of her.

After they arrived at the main house, the three sisters were welcomed by their parents on the front door, that alone was a sign that something wasn't quite right, but the thing that bothered her the most was that they were unusually nice to them the whole time… Cattleya was right something big was about to happen.

A little later, the entire family gathered together for dinner, even Saito was allowed to join them this time, it was quite a show, he was trying his best to have perfect manners but eventually would do something wrong or forget what to do next and Louise would come to his rescue as discreetly as she could, hoping that nobody else would notice, they really looked cute together when they were like that.

After the dinner was over their parents got serious all of the sudden (more than usual) and started talking about the thing Cattleya mentioned.

"We have received a marriage proposal from the Germanian royal family, apparently they want one of you to marry one of their princes and establish an alliance with our country…"

Louise was surprised enough to interrupt her father.

"What? Why would they send something like that all of the sudden?"

"Let your father finish dear"

Louise's mother (Karin) scolded her, although not too harshly as she could see where her doubts where coming from.

"Anyway, the proposal is pretty specific, even stating the date, place and every other possible detail one could think of… they're really serious about this."

After their father said that, the three sisters remained silent, it was only a few moments later that Cattleya spoke, curious about this whole matter.

"So… what do we know about this prince? Is he the one that was engaged to the queen?"

"No, the one that was to marry the queen was the youngest prince, this proposal comes from his older brother, all we know about him is that he about 20 years old, second in line for the throne and that the queen of Germania had been looking a bride for him for a while"

Louise began to worry, after all she was the one more fitting to marry a 20 year old as it was really unusual for a man to marry a woman older that he was (and both her sisters were well over that age) and because of that, her parents may think about canceling her engagement… and she would defy them if that happened, Saito was the only man for her and no Germanian, prince or otherwise could change that.

Cattleya noticed her father had forgotten something very important, or maybe he didn't care about it in the first place.

"What about his name? Does he have one?"

"Yes… if I remember correctly is Alphonse"

'Alphonse', after hearing that name Eléonore became really nervous, she already had a good idea of where this whole thing was coming from and if she was right, some uncomfortable explanations might be in order.

Cattleya noticing the subtle change in her older sister's frown, decided to press the issue, ever since their conversation on the carriage, she suspected Eléonore was hiding something from her, and she was going to find what it was.

"So which one of us does he want? I find it hard to believe that they'd go as far as picking a place and a date without even choosing the bride"

Her father tried to hide the amusement and surprise on his face, but you could see that he just couldn't believe what he was about to say

"You're right dear the letter did specify the bride… but… the thing is…"

Karin had to finish her husband sentence as he was unable to.

"It's Eléonore dear; he wants to marry your sister Eléonore"