AN... Sorry guys, completely forgot it was Saturday
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Sophia Evergreen watched the Henderson estate through the tinted back window as the Mercedes Grand limo rolled into the courtyard. In any proper courtship, the young lord should have begun finding his spine by now. A bride could be patient with nervousness, even tenderness; society allowed boys their softness, their caution, their sheltered manners. But patience was not meant to become self-erasure. Six months had passed, three of them under the weight of an engagement, and Sophia could no longer pretend that caring for Jason made his silence any easier to bear.
That was what made the thought feel so shameful: she did care for him, perhaps more than was sensible. Jason’s quiet gentleness made her want to defend him from the harsher judgements of drawing rooms and family councils. Yet a husband was not meant to be a porcelain figure kept safely on a shelf. A good young lord was expected to meet his lady halfway—to show courage in affection and some willingness to be claimed rather than merely protected. Jason had offered politeness and safe conversations about snowboarding and bikes, then retreated again and again until Sophia began to wonder whether protecting him required her to diminish herself.
Quitting on him should have felt cruel. Instead, lately, it had begun to sound almost dignified. Stop waiting for a boy who will not step forward. Stop bending your pride around his fear. Stop offering your future to someone who still behaves as though courtship is something happening to him rather than something he must answer. Sophia hated that the voice was no longer angry. It was calm, reasoned, almost merciful. Worse, it was winning.
Across from her, Samantha Evergreen had no intention of softening her own displeasure. The Duchess sat upright, gloved hands folded with dangerous neatness, eyes fixed on the Henderson doors. “Called here with barely any notice,” she said, her voice clipped. “After an attack in the early morning, and after F-BASEE agents have been seen coming and going. Did Catherine imagine the neighbourhood had gone blind? Or that people would not ask why special agents were leaving the house of my daughter’s intended?”
Sophia said nothing, because part of her agreed. They had come because the families were joined now in all but ceremony, and because a Duchess did not ignore trouble involving the young lord promised to her daughter. Especially not when that trouble had already begun leaking beyond the walls. The morning attack would have stirred gossip by breakfast. The agents’ visit would have sharpened it by luncheon. By evening, anyone with a parlour and a tongue would be dressing the matter in scandal.
Samantha’s gaze shifted to Sophia. “And you are still defending him in your head, aren’t you?”
Sophia kept her face composed. “This is not about whether I defend him, Mother. Something has clearly happened to Jason.”
“It is about you if his lack of progress continues to cost you standing,” Samantha replied. “You are not some desperate girl hoping a husband will tolerate her. You are Sophia Evergreen. You have met every expectation placed on a lady of your rank, while Jason has hidden behind shyness as if shyness were a virtue in a man already promised.”
Sophia’s hands tightened in her lap. “He is not cruel.”
“No,” Samantha said. “And that is precisely why this is dangerous. A cruel man can be rejected cleanly. A timid one asks you to forgive him until forgiveness becomes a habit, and then a cage.” Her expression softened, but her annoyance did not leave her voice. “A husband is meant to strengthen the lady he marries. If Jason’s silence is making you smaller, then do not dress that up as loyalty.”
Sophia turned back to the window as the mansion doors came into view. The worst of it was that her mother was not wrong. Sophia wanted to believe that love, or something close to it, could be patient enough to carry them both. But a lady could not drag a man into his own marriage without becoming ridiculous, pitied, and finally diminished. The part of her that loved Jason still ached at the thought of walking away. The part of her that wished to stop waiting had become steadier. Stronger. Almost noble. And Sophia feared that, by the customs of every decent family she knew, that part of her might be the one with honour on its side.
The car pulled up, and the Châtelaine stepped forward as if she had been waiting for them. The moment the footwoman reached Sophia’s door and Martha reached Samantha’s, both doors opened together. “Greetings, Duchess Evergreen. Greetings, Young Miss Evergreen. Thank you for visiting on such short notice.” Martha offered Samantha a hand, which the Duchess accepted with composed grace.
Sophia stepped out of the vehicle, her face a mask of stoic calm despite the worry gnawing at her. Sophia had worn a casual blouse with a dark grey suit jacket over the top, while rounding out the lower half was a short pencil skirt, followed by black stockings. Leaving no skin visible. A set of comfortable slip on’s with a 2-inch low wedge heel. She didn’t know where she was taking Jason yet, so had prepared an all-comer attire.
"Thank you, Châtelaine Martha. I came the moment Duchess Catherine had request of me." Sophia glanced toward the upper windows of the house, thinking of Jason. "I heard about the attack in the neighbourhood. And only recently learned of two agents leaving your house. Are they connected? Is the young lord ok?"
“Milady. It would be rude of me to jump ahead on this matter. Duchess Catherine has expressed I take you to her study immediately for answers.” The chatelaine answered with a bow. With a nod from Samantha, she began Leading the two into the house. It didn’t take long to walk through the house and be ushered inside immediately after Martha knocked.
Catherine stood. Offering Samantha and then Sophia a handshake over the polished oak desk. “It’s good to see you, Samantha, Sophia. Thank you for the sudden request of you. I do apologies for the inconveniences I caused.”
“Of course I would come, Duchess Catherine.” Duchess Samantha’s tone was clipped. “We had heard of the attack on your house in the early hours and had been expecting a phone call by now. However, it is now past noon, and agents from F-BASEE and MAIDS have been coming and going all morning to your house. I do not appreciate the late call especially when it is my daughter’s fiancé involved. But now that we are here, I would appreciate it if you informed us of young lord Jason’s wellbeing?” Get faster updates on g.com.
Catherine hesitated for a moment. “Let’s sit down, shall we.” She said, resting herself, down, almost sinking back into the chair. it seems as if the day’s exhaustion was suddenly catching up with her. Samantha wasn’t too pleased but sat down anyway. Sophia followed suit but unlike her frustrated mother, she was just full of nerves. “… I would like to apologize for not informing you sooner. Believe it or not, this has been the earliest chance I had of contacting you while trying to keep my house in order…
“Lady Catherine, the attack happened early this morning.”
“Yes, but the attack didn’t happen in my house. Or on my grounds. We weren’t even the targets. Jason’s room, or him specifically, was hit with a stray ‘bullet’ as knights showed up to confront the criminals. We weren’t aware of such happenings until the agents arrived and explained it to us.”
“Lady Catherine, Jason was hit with a bullet? Please tell me if he’s ok?” Sophia spoke up, she knew it was out of turn, but it clearly involved her fiancé.
Samantha wasn’t buying it. “Catherine, you are a guardian of the state, do you expect me to believe a stray bullet penetrated your houses security?”
Catherine leaned to one side, rubbing her chin. “I use the term bullet for a lack of a better explanation. This bullet… was a beam of Tachyon radiation, I don’t have any way of sensing or defending against that. F-BASEE doesn’t come out for simple lead shrapnel. Samantha. But even they had no solutions on this one.” Catherine looked Samantha in the eye. Then turned to Sophia. “Honestly, our Jason, I’m not quite sure. I don’t know if I had long enough to process the events. Yet.”
“What do you mean, our Jason?” Sophia pressed.
Catherine hesitated, taking a bit longer to work out what to say. “Within the attack in the morning, a stray shot of tachyon particles had hit Jason’s room, or more specifically, Jason himself.”
“And what does that mean for Jason? I’m not understanding what you are getting at.” Sophia gripped the armrests.
“I’ll rip the band aid off, Sophia. Our Jason was switched with a parallel version of himself.” Catherine sighed, looking like she had aged 10 years in a mere minute. “F-BASEE has no idea where they would even start in fixing this. and quite frankly with the data they received from the new Jason, they might not even want to try or anyone to try for that matter.”
For a moment, neither Evergreen woman spoke. Sophia’s fingers tightened around the chair arms, while Samantha stared at Catherine as if waiting for the sentence to rearrange itself into something less absurd.
“A parallel version,” Samantha repeated, each word controlled to the point of danger. “Catherine, if this is your attempt to explain away six months of failure, choose another one.”
Catherine’s expression tightened. “I would not joke about my son being replaced.”
“No,” Samantha said, leaning forward. “But you are still asking me to pretend the engagement can simply continue because the face is familiar. The previous Jason had six months with my daughter. Six months, Catherine. Three of them engaged. We saw no courage, no growth, no attempt to meet Sophia in the duties expected of a young lord preparing for marriage.”
Sophia lowered her eyes. Hearing it said in Catherine’s study made the humiliation feel official.
Catherine looked from mother to daughter, guilt crossing her face before she forced it down. “I know Jason failed to move as quickly as he should have. I am not blind to that. But this Jason is not starting from the same place.”
“He is starting from worse,” Samantha replied. “At least the previous Jason knew our customs, our expectations, and the obligations placed upon him as a man of his rank. This one has appeared in the middle of a scandal, with one month until the ceremony, and you expect Sophia to gamble her reputation on the hope that a stranger wearing Jason’s face will progress faster than the boy who had half a year.”
“Because he already has,” Catherine said.
Samantha’s eyes narrowed. “In what possible sense?” This chapter was copied from novelping.com without permission.
Catherine paused, choosing her words with visible care. “He speaks. He challenges. He looks people in the eye when he disagrees with them. Even this morning, exhausted and confused, he showed more capacity to act than Jason has shown in months. Not refinement, no. Not yet. But there is motion there, Samantha. Real motion.”
“Motion can be vulgar as easily as virtuous,” Samantha said. “A husband is not meant to embarrass the woman he marries simply because he has discovered a voice. If he is ignorant of our manners, Sophia will be the one blamed for failing to guide him. If the wedding is delayed, Sophia will be blamed for being unable to secure him. If it is cancelled, whispers will say the Evergreen house found something rotten inside the Henderson one.”
Catherine’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “And if we end the engagement today, do you think the whispers become kinder? A tachyon incident, F-BASEE agents at my door, MAIDS involved, and then the Evergreens withdraw before even meeting the boy? Society will not call that prudence. They will call it panic. They will say Sophia looked at an injured fiancé and fled.”
Sophia flinched before she could stop herself. Catherine noticed. Samantha noticed more.
“Do not use my daughter’s compassion as leverage,” Samantha warned.
“I am using society’s cruelty as evidence,” Catherine answered. “You know as well as I do that families of our standing are not allowed private disasters. If we hesitate too visibly, people will invent inner turmoil before we have decided whether any exists. Sophia suffers either way unless we move carefully.”
“Carefully?” Samantha gave a humourless laugh. “You have one month. One month to teach a replacement everything the previous Jason failed to learn in six. One month to make him acceptable as a husband, steady enough for ceremony, and competent enough not to make my daughter look like a woman dragging a frightened boy behind her.”
“This Jason is not frightened in the same way,” Catherine said quietly. “That is what I am trying to tell you without saying too much that is not mine to share. His instincts are different. His understanding of himself is different. He is not accustomed to being handled as our boys are handled, and while that will create problems, it may also solve the one problem we could never force open.”
Samantha sat back, studying Catherine with renewed suspicion. “You are asking me to trust vague assurances because the truth is inconvenient.”
“I am asking you to trust that I would not risk Sophia lightly,” Catherine said. “And I would not risk Jason either. If this engagement collapses wrongly, he becomes an object of pity at best and suspicion at worst. A young lord already marked by a public supernatural incident, rejected before he could even present himself, would not recover cleanly from that. Not socially. Not politically.”
“Jason’s recovery is not my first duty,” Samantha said.
“No,” Catherine agreed. “Sophia is. Which is why I am not asking for a promise. I am not asking you to keep the date, sign new terms, or pretend nothing has changed. I am asking for a meeting.”
Samantha’s gaze moved to Sophia, but Catherine spoke before the Duchess could answer for her.
“Sophia,” Catherine said, gentler now. “Meet him once. Not as a dutiful fiancée. Not as a girl expected to rescue a man from himself. Just meet him. Speak with him for an hour. If you see nothing there, if you believe this new Jason would cost you more than he could ever offer, I will not ask you to sacrifice yourself for my house.”
The room settled into a silence thick enough to make the ticking clock sound indecently loud. Sophia could feel both duchesses watching her: one guarding her future, the other pleading for a chance she had not earned the right to demand.
Sophia wanted to refuse. The calm, honourable part of her that had been winning in the car urged her to stand, curtsy, and leave with her dignity intact. But Catherine’s words had found the weakness she hated most: not guilt, not obligation, but curiosity. If this Jason truly was different, then walking away without seeing him would leave a question lodged under her ribs for the rest of her life.
At last, Sophia lifted her chin. “One meeting,” she said. “No promises beyond that.”
Catherine bowed her head, relief passing over her face before she could hide it. Samantha did not look pleased, but she did not contradict her daughter either.