Chapter 26

It was already getting dark when Willow and Marcus finally headed back towards the house. Philip was nowhere in sight so they just assumed that he had gone inside as well.

Her heart filled with joy in that moment, Willow asked Marcus to wait in the living room downstairs, while she would go find her brother.

A smile was playing around her lips as she climbed up the stairs and walked towards Philip's room first. She softly knocked on the door, hoping that he wouldn't get mad for her interrupting whatever he might be doing. After a moment in which nothing happened, Willow knocked again.

Still nothing.

Maybe he was in the study. Willow walked down the hallway towards the study. She knew that she still wasn't allowed in there, but Philip had technically not foribbed her from knocking on the door. And if he were to get mad at her Marcus would be downstairs and would surely come to her rescue if Philip started yelling at her.

Willow knocked on the door a little hesitant. "Yes?" Her brother's voice was heard from inside.

"It's me, Philip. Am I allowed to come in for a second?" Willow asked through the door. She would by no means want to start a fight with her brother right now so she'd rather be very understanding and as nice and kind as she could possibly be around him.

"Yes, you can come in." Philip's voice echoed through the door again.

Still a little hesitant, Willow opened the door as silently as possible and found her brother sitting behind the desk, reading some paper in front of him. Slowly she made her way over to him, not wanting to disturb him. She stood there, in front of him, for a moment and waited. As she looked down on him, she couldn't help but wonder what was going on in his head.

With a soft sigh Philip put down the paper and looked up at his sister. "What is it?" He wanted to know. He didn't sound mad or annoyed at all, just... tired.

"Marcus is going to leave and I thought you might want to say goodbye." Willow explained in a soft voice. All of a sudden she felt bad for her brother. He had spent the whole afternoon inside taking care of business things, while she and Marcus had had a good time. That wasn't fair at all. "But if you're busy you don't need to. I'm sure Marcus won't mind if-"

"No, no. I'm coming." Philip interrupted his sister, already getting up from his chair, running his hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it.

They headed downstairs together and both said their goodbyes to Marcus. They arranged for Marcus to stop by again the next morning and pick Willow up for a trip to the park. Willow was more than looking forward to that and could barely wait for the next day to come.

The siblings found themselves at the dining table together not too long after Marcus had left. And once again Willow couldn't help but notice just how exhausted her brother actually looked.

"Are you alright?" She asked softly, hoping that he wouldn't get mad again.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just got a lot to take care of." Philip replied and didn't seem mad in the slightest.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Willow wanted to know, hoping that she wasn't testing her luck. But for once Philip didn't seem to mind her questions and the conversation.

"No, not really. I mean you're already doing more than enough by meeting up with Marcus again tomorrow. And if you two..." Philip trailed off there, not knowing if it was a good idea to bring up marriage already.

"If you two were to marry," he finally decided to continue, "that would take a huge burden off of me."

Willow couldn't remember when they had ever had such an open, calm and honest conversation. But she liked how her brother actually talked about what was bothering him and told her what she could do to help him.

"I can't promise anything." She replied honestly, looking straight at her brother. "But if he were to ask me for my hand, I wouldn't decline." Willow really meant that. She could see herself growing old with Marcus. Maybe they could travel the world a little before they settled down together. She would enjoy that.

"Thank you, Willow. That really means a lot to me." Philip spoke up a small honest smile tugging at his lips. Was that possible? Was he really smiling?

"Could we maybe renegotiate some of those rules of yours in return?" Willow asked hesitantly, knowing full well that that was a risky thing to ask. But for some reason she and her brother seemed to get along really well right now, so maybe it was actually a good time.

Philip chuckled. "Of course there had to be a catch. There's always a catch with you."

"It's not a catch!" Willow argued back a grin on her face. "Merely a request."

"Alright." Philip gave in. "What rules are we talking about here?"

"I would very much like to be allowed out of my room again for starters." Willow began, already having a whole list of things in her head.

Philip nodded, so she continued.

"And I would like to be allowed into the study again so I can get new books to read."

Philip pulled up an eyebrow at her, looking a little skeptical.

"I promise to knock and wait for your reply. Please Philip!" Willow tried to persuade her brother.

"Alright, granted." Philip gave in. "But I swear to god Willow, if you just burst in again like you used to..." He left the sentence unfinished and a smile was playing around his lips. Willow knew that that really was an empty thread, but she would make sure to knock anyways.

Silence settled between them as they continued eating. But this time it wasn't that awkward unbearable silence. It was actually a comfortable silence.

"I'm sorry Willow." Philip spoke up after a while, looking at her. "I know that it was wrong to not ask your opinion about the arranged marriage before the deal had been settled. I just..." He trailed off for a moment, searching for the right words.

"When our father passed away, all of a sudden I was responsible for everything. The Estate, you, our servants and that enormous mountain of debts. I didn't know what to do and there seemed no way for me to ever pay back all those people. And when the Grand Duke offered me that deal..." he paused again for a moment, "I felt like it was our only way out of this mess. And I was scared that you'd talk me out of it, if I told you." He sighed and looked at his sister again, his eyes full of guilt and regret.

Willow was speechless. She would have never expected an apology like that from her brother. It was like he made a 180 degree turn this afternoon and she had no idea what had caused that.

"It's alright, Philip. I forgive you. But you're lucky I actually quite like Marcus." A cheeky smile appeared on her face for a moment, that made Philip smile as well. "You know, you might have been right. I might have tried to talk you out of it. But if you had explained it to me like you did just now and would have given me some time to actually consider it... I think I would have agreed."

"I see that now." Philip replied. "For some reason, back then I just felt like I had to figure things out by myself. I told myself that you were just a child and that I had to take care of you and do what's best for both of us. But I realize now that I never even gave you the chance to prove that you were in fact not a child anymore."

Willow nodded her head, thinking back at those times.

"I really tried to behave myself, Philip. I tried to be the person you wanted me to be. But it was hard. You came up with all those rules, but never explained them to me. I just felt imprisoned here and no matter what I did or didn't do you would always get mad at me." Willow lowered her gaze. She didn't want her brother to feel even more guilty than he obviously already did, but those things needed to be said. "That's why I started sneaking out at night."

"I'm so sorry Willow. I really am." Philip apologized again, placing his hand on Willow's on the table and looking right at her.

He really meant it. Willow could feel it.

"Do you remember the time when we ran off, when we were only kids?" Willow asked, a small smile on her lips again, when she thought of that memory.

"You mean when we climbed over the wall in the very back and found that nice lake in the woods?" Philip asked, a smile on his face now too.

"And then it started raining really badly and we got into a whole lot of trouble when we got back home." Willow confirmed by completing the story.

"Yes of course I remember that." Philip smiled at the memory, not really understanding why Willow would bring that up now, though. "Why?"

"That's the place I'd run off to when I sneaked out." Willow explained. "It's my favorite place. And my favorite memory with you."

Philip nodded his head, a faint smile still on his lips.

"And one night" Willow spoke up again, suddenly feeling the need to tell her brother the whole story about how her and Marcus really met, "Marcus caught me climbing over the wall. He assumed I had to be a thief and started questioning me. I implied that I was working in the stables and he assumed I was the stable boy. And he believed me when I said that I was sneaking off the grounds and not breaking in. That's how we met." A soft smile was showing on Willow's lips as she was still caught in the memory of that night.

"I remember Marcus asking about our stable boy when he first came here and we talked about the arranged marriage. He left in a hurry after he met Arthur in the stables. I guess that explains why." Philip laughed.

"Well yes." Willow replied, chuckling a little."We had arranged to meet that very night and boy was he mad." Willow shook her head a little. "He accused me of lying to him and was very convinced that I was in fact a thief and not our stable boy. It was quite tricky to reassure him that I wasn't a thief and at the same time not reveal my identity."

"But you somehow managed it." Philip replied amused. Her sister seemed to be quite the rascal.

"Yeah I did." Willow smiled a victorious smile. "And we had a really nice night after that. We actually even planned to meet up again the night after the following night, but..." Willow trailed off unsure if she should really continue to tell that story.

"But what?" Philip was curious now.

"That was that day when you caught me in the study and locked me in my room." Willow replied sheepishly, looking down at the empty plate in front of her.

"So that's why you tried to fight me and argue with me that night." Things were slowly starting to make sense now. He had wondered why she had been so feisty that night as normally she would hardly resist when he locked her in her room.

"Yeah..." Willow replied, half a smile on her face as she glanced up at her brother. It had been really stupid to sneak into the study that day and she still regretted it.

"And the night I caught you, you had also met up with Marcus?" Philip wanted to know.

"Yes I did. We actually even talked about the arranged marriage that night. He kind of asked for my approval to go and meet his betrothed that turned out to be me." Willow let a short laugh escape her lips.

"Why didn't you tell me who you met with? That would have resolved the whole situation earlier on." Philip just couldn't keep himself from asking.

"You were crazy mad." Willow reminded her brother. "At that point I was scared you'd go after him and shoot him. And, I don't know..." trailing off again, Willow was searching for the right words. "I felt like I needed to stand up for myself and Marcus in that moment."

"I guess that makes sense." Philip was the one to reply sheepishly now, scratching the back of his neck.

Once again silence settled between them, but even though they were both done with dinner by now, none of them made an effort to get up from the table.

"Philip?" Willow questioned after a while, one question still burning on her mind.

"Hm?" He turned his gaze and attention towards her again.

"I feel like you made a 180 degree change in the way you are around me this afternoon. Would you mind telling me what caused that?" Willow wasn't scared about asking sensible questions like that anymore now. She knew that her brother wouldn't mind it. He wouldn't snap on her like he used to anymore. For once she felt comfortable and safe around him.

"I... It was just..." Philip was searching for the right words. "When I saw how you acted around Marcus... You were so happy. And I noticed that you never were like that when I was around. I was trying to remember the last time I saw you smiling the way you were when you saw Marcus and I couldn't remember. That made me realize how badly I have treated you these past years and I really want to do everything I can to make it up to you, Willow."

"You already have." Willow smiled at her brother. This had to be the absolute best day of her life.

Philip finally got up from his chair and excused himself, mentioning that he had some more work to do. He was nearly out the door, when Willow called after him.

The second he had turned around he was already caught in a tight embrace from his sister. He was caught off guard at first, but then a smile spread on his lips and he put his arms around her, hugging her back. And in that moment he felt truly happy.

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