Chapter 1

My mother was known as the most virtuous stepmother in all the royal capital.

When my brother, running wild as he pleased, cracked open the head of the prime minister's little granddaughter, Father wanted to discipline him.

Mother stopped him.

"An elder brother stands in a father's place. If Howard Dickerson did wrong, it's because his older brother set a poor example."

She had the servants strip off my outer robe and forced me to go and beg forgiveness.

I knelt outside the prime minister's gate for three full days before they agreed to let the matter with my brother drop.

Mother remembered every wrong my brother and sister ever committed, yet she only ever punished me.

"On the tenth day of the second month, the twenty-third year of the Grand Reign, Howard talked back to his tutor at the schoolhouse. His elder brother Cecil Dickerson failed in his duty to discipline him. Fifty strikes to the mouth."

"On the first day of the fifth month, Howard fought with the vice minister's son over a painting and disgraced the marquess's house. Cecil is to kneel in the family shrine for one night."

"On the thirteenth day of the eighth month, Peggy Dickerson and Howard slipped away to the pleasure barge and behaved shamelessly. Cecil failed in his duty as elder brother. Sixty lashes to the shins."

Every time I was punished, my brother and sister were sure to stand by and watch.

She could discipline her stepchildren without taking a single blow herself, and so her name for virtue spread far and wide.

Until the day my brother accidentally provoked the notoriously cruel Princess Rowena.

Mother handed down her verdict, cold and even.

"Howard chased after a woman he shouldn't have. As his elder brother, Cecil, you failed to raise him right, so you'll go to the princess's manor in his place."

To make sure I'd shoulder the blame without a fight, Mother slipped me a drugged aphrodisiac potion.

My body was already weak, and I breathed my last inside the bridal sedan.

What Mother didn't know was that I had long since struck a bargain with the most exalted man under heaven.

The imperial decree sending me back to my home region was already on its way.

...

The betrothal gifts the princess had sent sat there in the front courtyard, brazen and impossible to miss.

Not one person could bring themselves to smile.

My brother, worst of all, had gone bloodless in the face and looked ready to collapse.

The reason was simple. Everyone knew of the princess's cruelty. She had taken three husbands into her household, and none had lasted a month before dying.

The concubines who had died were beyond counting.

She was the daughter of the Grand Princess. No one but the emperor could ever bring a charge against her.

A declining marquess's house had no power to refuse.

Father was furious and heartsick both, and for once he lost his temper at my brother.

"Do you not know what kind of woman the princess is? You're the heir of this house, and now you can only marry into hers as a live-in husband! Once you're there, it won't be long before the princess's manor is holding a funeral!"

At Father's words, my brother could hold himself up no longer and dropped to the floor, tears streaming down without stop.

"I... I only thought she was beautiful, so I showed off in front of her. I truly didn't know she was the princess!"

His voice was thick with regret.

Father's face went ashen, and he turned his anger on Mother.

"Look at the fine son you raised! Just as I thought, a stepmother doesn't put her heart into it. Sneaking off to court a woman on his own. What son of a noble house would ever do something so shameless!"

Father tore Mother's dignity down without mercy. The marquess's house might be in decline, but it was still far above the family Mother had come from.

Mother could barely hold her composed, gracious bearing, but she soon thought of a way out.

She looked at me.

"Kneel!"

I dropped to my knees on reflex.

My knees struck the cold floor, the hard ground biting into them, but I was used to it.

After all, whenever my brother or sister did wrong, Mother made me kneel and take the punishment.

Mother rose and took the disciplinary rod a servant handed her.

First she stood before my brother, looking down at him as she scolded.

"Do you understand what you did wrong?"

My brother only sobbed, unable to get a word out.

Mother swung the rod backhanded across my back.

The force was such that you could hear it cut the air.

Where the rod landed, the pain burned like fire.

"Ah!"

The cry tore out of me, but under Mother's warning glare I swallowed the rest of it back down.

My brother was too frightened to speak.

"First. Marriage is a matter for one's parents to decide. Who gave you leave to seek out another woman on your own?"

As she spoke, she struck my back again.

I bit down hard on my hand and tasted blood.

I couldn't make a sound while Mother was teaching my brother his lesson, or the punishment would only get worse.

"The princess is not a woman who listens to reason. She's sent the betrothal gifts, and if we don't obediently deliver our son to her, this house is in mortal danger."

"And that is your second wrong."

Crack, crack. She brought the rod down twice more.

Cold sweat poured off me, and the pain sent the world blacking out in waves.

Mother's face stayed empty of expression, and each blow fell heavier than the last.

Father turned his head away and said nothing.

At last, my brother admitted his fault.

"I was wrong!"

He stared, trembling, at the rod in Mother's hand.

She set it down and gathered him gently into her arms.

"My son, to know your fault and mend it is the greatest good of all."

"Mother has had a solution all along."

My brother looked up at her, overjoyed.

But a bad feeling was already spreading through me.

Then Mother spoke, one word at a time:

"An elder brother stands in a father's place. Since Cecil couldn't keep his brother in line, let him be the one to marry into her household."