Cleo Knight & Jake Hix - What's in a Name?
Cleo Knight came from a prestigious family and she was an only child. Her parents had told her, when she was very young, that there was something about them that made it hard to make babies, although she hadn't understood at the time what that meant except that she wouldn't be getting a sibling. She knew now that it meant they'd had to work very hard just to have her. She had to make them proud. She knew what it meant to be a Knight.
Cleo was very particular about that prestigious name of hers and had decided at a very young age that if she ever got married, her spouse would have to take it on as well. Even if said spouse were a man, it wouldn't matter; if he didn't accept it, he wasn't good enough for her, simple as that.
Her parents would not have approved of the young man she found, but that didn't matter much to her. There was a certain standard she held, and it had nothing to do with money or status, both of which she had herself already. She didn't need a man that would take care of her. She needed a person who would accept her on her own terms, a man who could make her smile and feel cared for. That was where the frycook came in.
It was such a silly thing, she thought as she looked back on it, the old tale of an aristocrat and a person in the foodservice industry. Sort of romantic, but only to a person like Lemony Snicket who liked to look for the romance in things. It wasn't the story or the romance, it was the young man who smiled at her and had asked if he could call her by her first name when scarcely anybody ever thought of her as a person. She had always been Miss Knight, the name she treasured, the title everyone respected. She had never been just Cleo.
"Could I call you Cleo?" The frycook had asked. "Would that be alright with you?"
Cleo had smiled at him and given a half-nod. "Cleo is fine, if you don't mind me calling you Jake."
Jake had smiled at Cleo and they had had this sort of private moment, but then it was over and they'd had to go their separate ways. That was before Hangfire and the Inhumane Society and the fires. That was when she could concentrate on what was most important; saving Stain'd-by-the-Sea.
Jake had never impeded her work, never demanded her time. Actually, he helped her a lot by bringing her food, making sure she remembered to take care of herself. She wouldn't have, otherwise. She would have totally neglected herself in her scientific passion. That made him important to her.
There was only a little more she needed, though, before she could know for sure that he was the one. She was a scientist, and tests needed to be performed. So she rode with him in her Dilemma, and was pleased when he never tried to take the keys. And at last she asked him the question that meant so much to her, because that was the deal, the thing that would make or break their entire relationship.
"Jake," Cleo asked, "If we were to be married, what would we do about our surnames? I would like them to match."
Jake did not seem to understand the question. "Surnames? Like last names you mean? I don't know, I've never really thought about it."
"I want to keep my name," Cleo said, straightforward, fearlessly putting it out there. If she lost him now, she would have to accept that he was never right for her at all. "And if we were married, I would like for you to become Jake Knight, or perhaps Jake Hix-Knight. What would you think of that?"
Jake grinned at her, ear-to-ear like she'd just said the best thing he'd ever heard. "Jake Knight? Why, I'd be honored. Say, are you proposing to me?" He gave her a wink.
Cleo laughed. "Not exactly. The proposal will have to wait a while longer."
She didn't say that it was only just a hypothetical proposal, because it didn't really feel like it. Instead, she reached over and kissed his cheek. Jake Knight, is what he would be. It sounded rather regal, actually. It sounded like her ideal companion.