"I Am Sorry For Your Loss."

"I am sorry for your loss," You begin, "I would have come anyway, had I known of it, but would perhaps have waited a week or two more. I will not insult your wisdom or intelligence by explaining why I am here, you can surely guess, but say the word and I shall depart for a while to give you a little longer to master your grief. They say that when the one year anniversary of a **** comes about the redolence of the same scents that were about you when the loss occurred bring everything flooding back: and therefore I would understand completely if you needed more time for those scents to clear the air and take the sudden flashes of sorrow they bring with them." You begin, deciding to get the emotional barrier out of the way, one way or another.

Miss Chelsea stops smiling and her eyes grow dark, but she wipes away the threatening tears with her handkerchief and smiles again wanly.

"I thank you for your consideration your Lordship but the Lilacs are no longer in bloom and the return of the pain is already beginning to ebb. Besides, if you do not come calling some other suitor will, and I now know at least that you are a contentious and considerate man, so already that is in your favor." She says with only a trace of a tremor in her voice, and you smile a bit at the successful gambit.

"I see I was right that you would deduce my purpose here, so let me speak to that. The queen has but lately made me Count of Ambuscade County and given me and my line the right and responsibility to delve into the Labyrinth of Ambuscade. I am as yet unmet by man or woman in the lists of love, and have vowed I shall remain so till my wedding night, but find myself in sudden need of an heir, thus I must needs swiftly marry. Of the many eligible women in the capitol it is to you that I have decided to press my suit, for you compliment me in many ways so I have heard. My primary interest is in the arts arcane, where you, so it is said, are a woman of practicalities and the mundane arts, a woman of embroidery, archery, and business sense. I think that if we prove to be compatible in temperament we could be a good match, each supplying the other's lack and both able to rely on one another for the common good. What say you therefore to opening a brief yet intensive courtship, that we may see if this surmise is correct?" You ask, and Miss Chelsea looks pensive.