“You know,” Sylvain said, “for two people who solved Antoinette and Remi’s scheme, you both seem fairly put out about the truth.”

Sylvain pointedly pushed the ladle I was holding with the handle of his own, so I’d remember to mix the potion we were brewing. Etienne snapped out of his thoughts with all the grace of being shaken awake. We were in the greenhouse, all bundled in sweaters from the freezing cold outside, being kept after class to work like kids in detention. Now that it was finally winter, Sylvain was excited to get on to our next steps with the Intelligence potion, which involved more cold-weather plants.

Etienne subtly angled his cutting board to himself when Sylvain tried to take it away. “I’m only thinking.”

“About it.”

“Well, admittedly, yes–”

“Doesn’t our monarchy have better things to worry about than a lab partner’s dating life? It’s been three days. I don’t understand why you care.”

Etienne wasn’t doing anything close to bitching and moaning about it, so I had a sense that the last comment was targeted at me. To my credit, I hadn’t been spacey for just that reason. I’d recently opened a time rift of something, Sylvain, so I’d earned the freedom to worry about it a little bit!

Nothing seemed…broken. So far. I did not walk in on anyone T-posing. The journal had no trace of that night at Louis’ mansion at all. I’d broached the topic of Lou’s studio, and he didn’t burst into a cloud of glitchy static (he still had it, which I guess was a silver lining of me erasing that night). The stain of paint on my ear was finally gone and so I didn’t have to worry anymore about lead paint poisoning. Etienne didn’t seem as relaxed with me anymore, like the film between us that had been punctured with our painting shenanigans was back up (earlier in our work here, he’d knocked elbows with me and apologized like he’d set my hair on fire).

I’d also learned that everything between returning from Lou’s estate and going to Remi’s show had remained intact. Altolia and all. I really wouldn’t have minded if those freaky incidents disappeared. Thanks a lot, Marie.

Sylvain checked Etienne’s notes, peered over them into the cauldron, and held up a hand to stop Etienne from adding his ingredients. “Concentrate. For another hour, at least. For my sake.”

“I’ve never done anything for your sake,” I pouted.

“You’re right. I was a fool to ask.”

“If you say please, I’ll try!”

Etienne stepped in with, “Remi told me M. Delphine has arranged to meet him.”

I gasped. “M. Delphine is coming here?”

“Of course not. He never does,” Sylvain said. “He’d attract about as much unwanted attention as the prince, but with much more begging for internships and for Antoinette’s hand. They’ll meet at the Delphine estate. Keep stirring.”

I did so. “I asked Antoinette if she told him about asking Remi out. And she said no! So I wonder if he’s mad at Antoinette for going behind his back.”

I hoped Remi and Antoinette’s dad got along okay. If they did, then that was one obstacle out of my way in my mission to keep them together until the final arc of the game. Remi was friendly–I’d seen for myself at the Samhain Formal how cordial he was to important people. But maybe his tendency to act like they were already friends would put Georges off? I had to make sure he behaved…

Sylvain put down his hand; Etienne brushed the greenery off his cutting board into the cauldron. Streaks of bright violet appeared in the path of my ladle. Etienne said, “That’s been on my mind as well. As much as I hate to say it like this, Antoinette is more than just herself–she comes parceled with the family reputation, the business, and an exorbitant amount of money. M. Delphine is bound to be protective of her.” I’d never heard him talk this much at once; he really had been thinking about it. “There’s never been any public tension between the Delphines and the Fontaines, but the families joining would mean a lot of assets and responsibilities joining, as well.”

“Why do you make it sound like all of Aconitum is gonna fall on Antoinette?”

“It is. A good few years before you, uhm, came here, some members of the extended Delphine family published a book about how they were removed systematically from the business and Gabrielle made everyone sign contracts regarding Antoinette inheriting everything. I believe it was the Gagnons who got the book out there, actually…”

I thought of how Antoinette and I had learned that Georges and Marie’s mom had done some business together. Now that sounded like Georges trying to fix what his relatives broke.

Also, could that family stop burning bridges? Seemed like Antoinette inherited her tendency to blow up friendships.

Etienne continued, “So the company will stay in the immediate family. Gabrielle has passed, however, and Antoinette is an only child.”

Sylvain added, “And a woman.”

“What does that matter?” I asked.

“Can’t you talk and stir at the same time?”

“Nope.” I passed the ladle to Sylvain and scooted next to Etienne at the table. “So?”

“It’s not at all common for women to take on as much power as Antoinette is about to. And if she marries into the Fontaines, she’ll be expected to hand over the bulk of it to Remi or his father.”

“Oh, you guys are doing the ‘woman and all her assets belong to her husband’s family when they’re married’ kind of thing? Still?”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“...That’s one way to phrase it. You see the trouble there, though?”

I put my chin on my hands. “Georges is gonna be looking at Remi like his successor.”

“While Remi has his own company to inherit.”

“Remi can’t handle all that! I love him, but really!” I shook my head. Anyways, in the few conversations I’d had with people about Marie’s mother’s publishing business, they didn’t seem too pissed off that a woman owned it. That was a good sign. I said, “Okay, it’s odd for a woman to run a company that big, but it’s not impossible.”

“No. It’s the marriage to a man that makes it precarious.”

When it came to Antoinette’s future, I’d sort of been relying on the game’s politics and legal system being as wishy-washy now as it was through the DS screen. I had a sinking feeling that I might not be so lucky.

I opened my mouth to ask another question, then paused. It had been bugging me since the night of the kiss, but I didn’t really know how to broach it. “Okay, yeah, a man and a woman makes inheritance all weird. What about two women?”

Etienne said, “Antoinette doesn’t have a sister.”

“I don’t mean a sister.”

I stared at him. The amount of time it took for him to understand what the heck I meant was actually an answer on its own.

Sylvain helped: “She means two women marrying.”

Etienne turned a tiny bit pink. “Oh. Well, that doesn’t happen.”

I squinted. “Like, it doesn’t happen for you fancy people, or it doesn’t happen ever?”

Sylvain snorted. “It doesn’t happen for those people, and so they insist that it doesn’t happen for anyone. They’ll tie themselves in knots to keep their gold flowing in the right direction. It’s not possible.”

Okay, you backwards people, I thought, before correcting myself–back on planet Earth, gay marriage only became legal in all the ‘progressive’ and ‘forward-thinking’ countries in my lifetime. I was currently sitting on petticoats that I’d tied on backwards before Antoinette corrected me, and the prince in front of me had actual power, and I’d spent a ton of time in literal carriages. I shouldn’t be so surprised.

I said, “Imagine I told you I wanted to marry a woman. Then what?”

“You couldn’t legally.” Etienne seemed completely confused.

“Forget legally.”

“I don’t understand the relevance of the question, then.”

“Really? Okay, imagine I told you I wrote a whole romantic poetry book about girls.”

“Then what would your question be…?”

Sylvain asked, showing Etienne his notes, “What on earth were you trying to spell here?”

“I–”

I yanked the notebook away from them. “You guys! If I told you I liked girls, would you think I was weird? Or that I was kidding? Would you think it didn’t matter, like kid stuff or something? Would you take me seriously at all? I’m just trying to understand!”

For a second, the only sound was the faint simmering of the cauldron and the wail of the wind against the greenhouse walls. And my heart in my ears. I’d seen worse reactions to the topic of gay people on freakin’ Degrassi–I wasn’t at all worried that they’d be cruel to me. But all I could think of was Antoinette kissing me and treating it with less legitimacy than everything else in her life. All that time thinking about it, and for what? Was she taking it seriously at all?

Sylvain was the one to answer.

“It’s a ridiculous thing to lie about, so of course I’d believe you. But not everyone would. I’d tell you to be careful who you told, so you don’t get your heart broken.”

I said softly, “Would it get me in trouble?”

“No. But if you fell for someone too close to the politics of inheritance that these people made,” a gesture at Etienne, “you wouldn’t get the warm reception given to even a horrible match like Remi and Antoinette.” Sylvain took the notebook back with a sigh. “Let’s focus on our work, alright? And I mean focus.”

~*~

Etienne walked me back to my dorm once we had the potion brewed and bottled. Sylvain supposed that we’d be able to test it next week, once all of us (including Antoinette) had a free day.

Well, I suggested waiting until we had a free day. Sylvain sounded like he was gonna cut all of our prior plans out of our calendars with scissors so we could get to work ASAP.

Etienne said once we got in the dorm building, unwrapping ourselves from our scarves, “I’m sorry for our misunderstanding earlier.”

“It’s okay. I was being weird.”

“You confused me. Only because you wouldn’t say it outright.”

“Say what?” Honestly, I was being evasive partially because I didn’t even know if they knew the word ‘lesbian,’ and ‘homosexual’ made me feel like I was narrating on Discovery. Partially.

Etienne folded up his scarf, holding it close to himself, and finally spat out, “That your situation wasn’t a hypothetical.”

I blinked. I guess I…okay, I was being obvious. “Yeah, you’re right.”

I’d never come out. I’d never wanted to–at first out of insecurity, then a lack of convenient times, then out of protest (why did I have to make a big show when straight people didn’t?). I’d never outright looked someone in the face and said, firm to avoid any misunderstandings, “Yeah, I like women, and only women,” and frankly, not once in my fangirl life did I ever think that when I finally did, it’d be to an otome game prince.

He smiled gently at me, that real Etienne smile, not the showy princely one. “I don’t have a script for something like this,” he laughed. “But no matter what, I care about you. I’m not sure what to say.”

I held my hand out. He took it and I gave his hand a squeeze. “Just this is enough.”

Oh, Etienne, don’t be so awkward. If only you knew how many ways from Sunday people shipped you with the other guys.

“Chloe!”

I turned to see Cecile in the doorway of the dorm office. She held out a creamy envelope to me.

“Oh, thanks,” I said as I took it. “I’ll pass it on to Antoinette right away.”

“I sure hope you won’t. It’s for you.”

“Me?” I didn’t know anyone outside of the dorms. Was the queen sending me letters to bully me into leaving Etienne alone or something? Or did Lucille, the girl from Altolia, have an update for us?

When Cecile vanished back inside the office, I tore open the envelope. It was only when Etienne asked who it was from that I realized I didn’t even read the address on the front–back in my world, the only physical letters I got were bank statements and junk, so I was used to ripping them open and tossing them right after.

I got my answer when I opened the thrice-folded letter.

It was addressed to Marie Gagnon.

From ‘my’ cousin.

It was that guy who’d barely seen me in Altolia. I had a bad feeling regarding what he wanted.