Chapter 7 - A Bad Match (1/2)

The closer we got to my debut, the more of a slave driver the countess was. She made me spend hours with my dance master every single day and I danced so hard my feet ached constantly. It didn't help that the shoes here had zero arch support.

I wondered if I could contact a cobbler about making me some more comfortable shoes. What I wouldn't give for some gel inserts about now.

”Percy, I'm going to die long before I debut,” I said dramatically as we dismounted our horses after one of our daily rides.

He smiled. ”Is it really that bad?”

”Worse,” I confirmed. ”Mother won't stop nagging me about how it will be shameful if I don't find a husband within the first year of my debut. Apparently Lady Iris's daughter didn't get married until her third year out in society and they still gossip about that at tea.”

”I don't think you'll have a problem with that, Catherine.”

Percival was the only one of my siblings who refused to use nicknames at all. It was nice that Edmund and Adele called me Katie.

My birth name was Katrina, though no one ever called me that. It's kind of funny that my name here still worked for the name I've been called all my life.

”Because I'm the daughter of an earl? Daughters of marquises and dukes are far more in demand,” I reasoned.

I didn't want to get married anyway. What 21st century woman wanted to be a trophy wife, most likely for someone way older than her? Gross.

”That is a factor but I was referring to your beauty. You tend to captivate people, Catherine. Surely you noticed the duke's interest while he visited.”

Ugh, don't remind me. ”I have no desire to be a duchess.”

Percy frowned at me. ”Why ever not? The only titles more prestigious than a duchess are princess or queen.”

”I don't want a prestigious title,” I insisted. ”I wish to live my life peacefully with my family.”

I had no attachment to these fake parents of mine since they were much colder than the ones I lost in a natural disaster when I was little but I enjoyed the time I spent with my fake siblings, especially dear Adele.

”Catherine, if you spend your life with us everyone will look down on you as a spinster. You would always be shunned by your neighbors and anyone you meet. Do you honestly want that?” he asked with a hint of incredulity in his usually flat tone. ”Are you that afraid of a bad match?”

I'd never dated all that much after graduating high school because I was too sick to go out and meet people but I'd had crushes on guys before. And my parents loved each other.

I didn't want to settle for anything less and I had the feeling I couldn't find someone who would respect me for who I was in this medieval world.