Liam watched his wife with quiet admiration. He loved this side of her... the way she turned every setback into opportunity.

"Andreas owes me quite a few favors," he said casually, picking up his tea again.

"A few well-placed words in the right ears, a little pressure here and there... and suddenly the King finds himself with an urgent matter that requires the Left Guardian’s personal attention. Nothing too obvious. Just enough to create a believable delay."

Louisa leaned forward slightly. The earlier panic had completely faded, replaced by a sharp attention in her eyes. This was a problem that required proper thinking.

"And do you have a plan for what comes next," she asked. "The delay is a temporary solution. We both know that. One week, two weeks, a month... it does not change the fundamental problem sitting three corridors away from us."

She let that land for a moment.

"The display in the training ground is all over the castle. The soldiers who witnessed it are talking. The servants who heard it from the soldiers are talking. By tonight there will not be a single person inside these walls who does not know that Kraven is a Arch Mage and fought Aldric head to head."

She sat back and continued,

"People who were cautious about taking sides have already begun drifting. And moreover, Marcus cannot reach Arch Mage in ten days. He cannot reach it in ten months. We are delaying the inevitable and we both know it."

"..."

At that, Liam said nothing.

He held his cup and looked at the window, with no visible change in his expression.

However, Louisa knew him too well.

She had learned to read her husband’s silences the way other people read faces. There was the silence that meant he was already three moves ahead and choosing which one to reveal. There was the silence that meant he was processing something unexpected and needed time.

And there was this silence, the one she had seen perhaps four times in fifteen years of marriage, the one that meant he had looked at the problem from every angle available to him and had not found the answer he needed.

Her fist tightened on the armrest.

More than anything, she had hoped they would never reach this conclusion. She had been watching his face since she raised the question, looking for the small signal that told her he had something in his mind.

Yet, she found nothing.

This was the most disheartening thing she had experienced since Kraven returned from Ezakael.

She could deal with the duke’s son turning out to be someone powerful, him dismantling the carefully planned act for Marcus’s succession.

But this...?

This was different.

Although Liam might not have been the strongest person she had ever known, he was undoubtedly the most cunning.

Throughout their marriage, she had lost count of how many times this man had caught her off guard with his insight and calculations. Time and time again, he had seen through things others completely missed, finding answers where no one else could.

That was precisely why she trusted his judgment so much.

But now, the same man sat across from her in complete silence.

If even Liam had no answer, the situation was exactly as serious as she had been trying not to believe it was.

And Kraven? He was that dangerous.

She looked at the window.

Just then, Cathy’s words came back to her without invitation.

The only ones who can maybe move Lord Kraven are either Duchess Olivia, Lady Vanessa, or someone of importance. Someone he cannot easily dismiss.

Louisa had shut that suggestion down the same night it was made. She was certain it was unnecessary and that Liam would find the alternative sooner than later.

Well that was no longer possible anymore.

She looked at her husband across the table. He was still staring out the window, his expression calm but distant. Liam knew he was being observed but yet was not ready to speak about what was on his mind.

"..."

Louisa remained silent for a long moment. She could feel the weight of the decision pressing down on her.

Using herself as a tool was not something she took lightly. She had always operated from a position of control, pulling strings rather than becoming one. But Kraven had proven to be an anomaly.

If he truly still carried that lingering obsession toward Olivia and Vanessa... then perhaps someone of equal or higher status, someone with real power and beauty, could reach him where others had failed.

She was the wife of his uncle.

She was one of the most politically significant women in this duchy.

She was, by any honest accounting, someone he would have to consciously engage with rather than dismiss on instinct. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Louisa looked at her own hands in her lap.

She thought about what she was considering and examined it without flinching, the way she examined everything. The cost. The risk. What it would require from her. What it would produce if it worked. What it would cost if it failed.

She had always operated from behind her husband. She had always been the hand that was not seen and the mind behind the move that carried his name. That was how she preferred it and it had served them well for fifteen years.

But her husband had no answer.

And someone needed one.

She looked up at Liam.

He had turned from the window and was watching her now with those quiet, sharp eyes that had always seen more than they admitted to.

"You are thinking about something," he said.

"I am always thinking about something," she replied.

A silence.

"Louisa," he said.

"..."

She picked up her tea cup.

It had gone cold.

Liam watched her for a moment before asking, "What do you have in mind?"

Louisa set the cup down with a soft clink. A small, tired smile touched her lips.

"Tons of things," she replied. "But nothing useful."

Liam chuckled. He turned back toward the window, gazing out over the duchy as if the answer might be written somewhere in the morning light.