The Duke's Masked Wife

"I'm a little bit scared by how eager you are to get me drunk. I feel like I should back out," Alessandra changed her mind now that Edgar was hustling the two of them toward their room.

"You can't take back what you already promised me," Edgar replied.

"I can consider the fact you left the wine in the carriage and it was taken to be parked," Alessandra said.

"Shit," Edgar cursed as he had forgotten to take out the wine when they stepped out of the carriage. Alfred's appearance distracted him. "Go on without me. I am going to get them and some glasses. You can not back out of this now."

"I can if I magically fall asleep," Alessandra softly muttered as Edgar walked back downstairs to find the wine. She already had three and a half cups throughout the night and did not know how much more she could handle. "Has Mario been offering me all those drinks to prepare me for this moment?"

At the mention of Mario, Alessandra started to wonder how he was fairing with the rumors. Just as it affected her, it affected him. Once again because of her, someone she cared for was brought into her mess and she had to rely on others to fix it.

It might kill Edgar to do so considering how much he hated Mario for no reason but she wanted to pay off Mario's debts so Katrina could no longer use him.

"Convincing Edgar to do this would be like trying to talk a wall into moving," Alessandra muttered.

Pushing this to the side, for now, she continued to walk down the hall and entered their bedroom. The moment she entered the room a cold breeze was felt because of an open window. Still, it wasn't as cold as Lockwood during the night. Alessandra closed the door and reached behind her back to try untying her dress to take it off.

Alessandra found herself standing in front of a large mirror with her body turned to be able to see where the string was.  For a moment, her attention left the string and went to her now crooked mask. Thanks to her fumbling around with the dress, her mask had shifted. Alessandra dropped her hands to the side and stared at the mask. There were two more days left and by the end of those days, she had to show her face to Edgar.

"Was it too early to forget about the contract before he saw my face? I asked for us to not kiss but we ended up moving forward with making everything real. That means I should hurry up," Alessandra raised her right hand to touch the side of her mask before taking it off.

It had been a while since she confidently looked at her face in the mirror without her mask. Alessandra brushed her hair back and leaned forward to get a better look. Many lines where fingernails had once dug into her skin were there but they were not as evident as years ago when the accident had happened.

Alessandra used her finger to trace the lines. Four lines would go in the same direction and be intersected by another four lines made by the special jewelry Kate had stolen from her mother to destroy her face.  Around her eye had the most marks as Kate had seemed to try clawing it out and once Alessandra had managed to toss Kate off of her body, she began to claw at her own face as she hated it.

It was by pure luck their father had arrived before Kate could throw one of the lanterns with a fire burning inside at Alessandra to seal the deal. That night, her face had been a bloody mess.

"It should have been taken care of better but I had no medicine. Who am I kidding? I didn't care to heal my face and now I have to live with these marks. I-" Alessandra paused and looked at the door as she heard footsteps. Knowing it had to be Edgar, she rushed to put back on the mask.

Tonight had been lovely and they were going to have more fun now with the wine. She did not want to tell Edgar the sad story of what happened to her face right now.

"Tomorrow," Alessandra mumbled. "Tomorrow I will show and tell him."

"Alessandra," Edgar opened their bedroom door and held the wine in the air. "Are you ready? Is there something wrong?" His excitement quickly changed to worry as he noticed something was wrong with her.

"It is nothing. I am ready," Alessandra swallowed the emotions building up and forced a smile. "You returned so quickly that there was not enough time for me to fall asleep."

"Alessandra, do not lie to me. It is clear something has upset you. If you do not want to partake in this game, I will let it go and we can go to bed. It is not that important-"

"No," Alessandra stopped him. After seeing her face she was ready to drink her insecurities away. Tomorrow would be a big day for her so she wished to enjoy a good drink tonight. "Are you just saying this because you know you will lose? Edgar, I am fine. I was just frustrated that I could not reach the string for my dress. See," she turned around to show him the knot.

Edgar did not believe her words but knew it was pointless to prob when she would eventually state what was on her mind. "I have never lost to anyone and I don't intend to do so now."

"Correction. You lost to me tonight because I did not eat your food or feed you. I should add you lost when it came to the contract too. You caught feelings for me first," she smiled and sat down on the soft rug on the floor. "I can not be happier it was you who broke that rule and not me. I would have been afraid of you tossing me out because I started to like you."

"I wouldn't have tossed you out," Edgar replied as he sat down on the floor. "I would have given you time to pack your bags before you leave."

Alessandra didn't know how to reply to what she knew was not a joke. She could not call it rude as she had promised not to fall for him and if Edgar had never formed feelings for her, it would have been bothersome for him to keep her around to play the role of his wife.

"I'm surprised you are not reprimanding me for saying that," Edgar said. He opened the wine bottle and began to pour two glasses, one for each of them.

"I can't. We had a rule and if I had broken it, I would not have expected you to keep me around. However, I would have never admitted to liking you. I would have bottled up those feelings and lived as we are now."

"Well, you are a professional at keeping your feelings at bay unless I poke around.  Let's see what I can have you admit to when you are drunk. I'm sure you heard the phrase before that a drunken mind speaks of a sober heart. I look forward to your confessions," Edgar handed her a glass with a smile. There was much to be heard tonight.

Alessandra could not wait to wipe the smile clean off Edgar's face. To have him do as she wanted for an hour tomorrow was something she could not pass up and just like him, she wanted to hear what he might tell her when he was drunk. 'We should skip the wine and go for the heavy stuff,' she thought.

Edgar brought his glass to his lips and drank the wine in one go. "Your turn my dear wife."

"Hey! There was no rule that we had to drink it so quickly. That's going to make things worse. I am going to take my time," Alessandra said then took a little sip. She was tempted to drink more because of how wonderful it tasted but she had a game to win.

"Keep in mind you can give up at any point before you are drunk. There is no need for one of us to experience alcohol poisoning because one of us does not know when to quit."

"Listen to your advice," Alessandra stated before slowly drinking more wine. It might be due to the fact she had wine when they were at the firefly because she was starting to feel relaxed already.

Edgar watched Alessandra with great amusement as she drank the last drop of the wine. There was absolutely no need for the other two bottles of wine. Alessandra was bound to be drunk by the time they finished the first bottle. So far, he was the only one to notice how she sort of swayed while she was sitting. The hardest part of this game would be to convince the stubborn woman that she had lost.

"More please," Alessandra held out the empty glass for him to fill with more wine.

"Somewhere down the line, we both have to admit that I might have married an alcoholic."

"Says the man who always needs a drink when he is annoyed," Alessandra harshly patted his leg.