Chapter 719 - Mulciber Matchmaking Ⅳ (2/2)
”Incidentally, I came to live with a distant squib cousin of my mother. I was raised in the muggle realm and was even schooled there. I thought I would never return to the wizarding realm until the Gringotts proposal was announced. By sheer coincidence or even fate one might call it, I had recently graduated with an accounting degree from a muggle university by the name of Oxford. To my surprise and great honor, I was granted a position at Gringotts. By my own merits, I have since been promoted and earn a rather good living for myself, if I do say so,” Peregrine confidently declared.
”I have no desire for any of my father's fortune nor all that which my lineage can offer except for the redemption of my mother from my father's hands. I would never have accepted my father's bargain to marry if not for the death of my younger brother, and the devil's bargain that he offered in exchange for my mother's freedom,” Peregrine's face twisted with bitterness. ”However, I cannot abandon my family again, and I will accept the devil's bargain if it will grant my mother a semblance of freedom as much as can be given under the circ.u.mstances.
There is a moment of hushed silence as Ethel further eyes the male before her and her talons retract. Gazing at her talons for a moment, she sighs in understanding. ”Instincts are never wrong,” she grumbled to herself, before raising her hypnotic gaze. ”I can sense your words are sincerely spoken, eldest son of the Mulciber's. However, if I grant your petition, can you truthfully vow that you will do all in your power to protect the descendant of my flesh? Can you uphold such a vow even above that of your own life?”
”I will freely vow it now with no conditions attached,” Peregrine sincerely answered as he took a sharp butter knife and dug it into the flesh of his thumb. ”I, Peregrine Mucliber, will pledge my life in turn and vow to be true, and all I request is that I least be heard and considered. So, mote be.” Despite being a squib, such a vow is true as a dark droplet of blood falls to the ground and seemingly evaporates. And though squibs did not possess magic, that did not mean that their vows were not any less binding.
Wincing, Peregrine sets the butter knife and takes the offered handkerchief from Benedict to tie around his thumb and staunch the bleeding. He should have just slicked the skin instead, he cut the fleshiest part of his thumb. He would have to take a healing potion later otherwise he'd not be able to hold a quill when he reported for work.
Pensively, Ethel studies the wizard for a moment, before turning her gaze to one of her dearest great-granddaughters, Rosie. ”Mm, what do you have to say on the subject, my sweet one?” She gravely asked her great-granddaughter.
Rosie blinks with some apprehension as all eyes turn and focus on her. Still, she does not wilt under the combined gazes and instead tilts her head high to gaze steadfastly back at them. ”Great-grandmother has always said to trust in our instincts, and I feel that he speaks true,” she decisively replied as her Aunt Constance squeezes her held hand as if to give her more courage. ”I do not mind being wedded into such a house even if there lay some danger ahead. I believe it is a worthy gamble on my part and it will tie our two families as allies in these tumulus times.”
”Well said, Rosie!” Mordecai exclaimed only to quickly clamp up at a single glance from his grandmother. Prudently, he decides to remain silent and pretend that he is a piece of furniture blending into the background.
”I see,” Benedict said with a sad smile, ”I never thought to hear those words spoken again.” He turned his gaze to Peregrine with mixed feelings. ”I once heard a similar phrase from a girl, I once knew, your mother,” he explained as he produced a golden betrothal contract produced by Gringotts.
”Mother?” Peregrine blankly asked.
”A kind and intelligent girl, Marlene Bell always was,” Benedict explained. ”However, she was trapped by the love for her father, and well, you know her story no doubt rest better than most.”
”A friend?” Peregrine further asked.
”A friend of one of my cousins,” Benedict genuinely answered as he had been older than the girl, but he had always looked after his many female cousins, who came to visit. And she had happened to be friends with one if his younger female cousins, who studied at Beauxbatons.
They had been so youth then youths full of dreams and emotions. Many had married, others had left for distant lands, and some long-dead for one reason or another. Time is rather fleeting, and we fail to see that which is precious until it is long gone and out of our grasp.