Reincarnated As The Duke`s Fiancée

Rain was the last thing I heard.

It beat against the window with a patience that felt almost cruel, each drop tapping the glass as if it had all the time in the world. English rain never rushed. It lingered, soaked into brick and bone, seeped into everything until there was no clear line between the cold outside and the cold already living in your chest. From three stories below came the hiss of tires slicing through wet asphalt, distant and indifferent.

I lay on a mattress shoved against the wall of my bedsit, staring at a ceiling light that flickered with a tired, uneven hum. It buzzed, dimmed, brightened again, like it might give out before I did. I found myself watching it with mild curiosity, the way one watches a stranger on the train. Detached. Already halfway gone.

The room smelled like the sum total of my existence. Damp laundry that never quite dried. Cheap instant noodles. The faint metallic tang of an electric heater that rattled and groaned while giving off more noise than warmth. Everything in the room had been acquired second-hand or not at all. A wobbly table rescued from a charity shop. A kettle that clicked and shuddered violently when it boiled, as though protesting its continued service. A clock on the wall that ticked too loudly, counting out hours I could never quite afford.

Rooms like this had followed me my entire life, temporary spaces that somehow became permanent by accident. Places meant for passing through, never settling. And yet here I was, settled in the most final way imaginable.

I had started working young. Not because anyone praised ambition or drive, but because hunger is persuasive and landlords are patient only until they are not. By my early teens I understood time in shifts and pay cycles, in how many hours it took to earn a meal. Warehouse jobs under fluorescent lights that leached colour from the world and left my thoughts feeling bleached and thin. Delivery routes that ruined my knees long before they had any right to complain. Night security shifts where the silence pressed so hard against my chest it felt like something might crack inside me.

Zero-hour contracts. Temporary solutions. Always the next shift, the next bill, the next quiet panic waiting just around the corner.

People liked to talk about dignity in labour. About honest work and simple lives. They'd never lived one. There was no poetry in trading hours of your life for the bare minimum needed to keep breathing. No romance in knowing that if you vanished, the only person who might notice would be your landlord, and even then, only when the payment failed to arrive.

There was no one to call. No one waiting on the other end of the line. No hand to hold, no voice to tell me it would be all right.

When the pain came, it was almost a relief.

It didn't explode through my chest like in the films. There was no dramatic clutching, no sharp intake of breath. Instead, it crept in quietly, starting as a numb, creeping cold along my left arm before blooming into a heavy, crushing pressure behind my sternum. As though someone had laid a slab of stone across my chest and decided to see how long I could carry it.

I reached for my phone out of habit more than hope, but my fingers refused to cooperate. They felt distant. Heavy. My vision fractured, the ceiling light splitting into two, then three, then dissolving into a bright, shapeless smear.

So, this is it, I thought distantly.

Dying in a six-hundred-pound-a-month coffin while the rain keeps going like nothing's changed.

There was no tunnel. No great revelation. No montage of moments worth reliving. Mostly, there was just cold. A deep, swallowing cold that pulled the sound of the rain away, drowned out the hum of the heater, and left me suspended in a dark so complete it felt almost peaceful.

Then...

Heat.

It pressed in from all sides, heavy and suffocating. Not the dry warmth of a radiator, but something humid and cloying, thick with scent. Lavender, old roses, expensive beeswax. The kind of smell that clung to fabrics and skin alike, announcing wealth before a word was spoken.

My eyes flew open.

The ceiling above me was not concrete or peeling paint. It was a work of art, intricate plaster vines curling outward from a central medallion, their edges traced with goldleaf. A massive chandelier hung overhead, teardrop crystals catching the morning light and scattering it across the room in fractured rainbows.

For a moment, I simply stared.

Then I tried to sit up.

My body responded sluggishly, wrong in ways I couldn't immediately name. It felt lighter, strangely unanchored, as though my limbs belonged to someone else and were only loosely attached. When I pressed my hands against the mattress, I didn't feel the scratch of cheap polyester. My fingers sank into silk.

I lifted my hands into view.

They were not mine.

The thick, scarred knuckles I knew so well were gone. In their place were slender, pale fingers, nails shaped neatly and buffed to a soft sheen. The skin was smooth, almost translucent, delicate veins branching beneath the surface, hands that had never hauled boxes or gripped cold metal in the dark.

A sound tore itself from my throat, high and sharp. Wrong.

"What..."

The voice that came out was light, melodic, edged with panic. It belonged to a young woman.

Heart pounding, I stumbled out of the bed, legs tangling in a nightgown made of so much fine fabric it felt absurd. The hem brushed my calves as my bare feet met a plush, handwoven rug that swallowed the sound of my steps. I staggered toward a vanity crowded with silver-backed brushes and crystal bottles that caught the light like jewels.

The mirror was tall and oval, its frame polished to a dull gleam. When I looked into it, a stranger looked back.

She was beautiful in a fragile, unsettling way. Hair as black as a crow's wing spilled down narrow shoulders. Her face was fine-boned, almost delicate to the point of brittleness, as though a harsh word might shatter her. But it was the eyes that held me captive.

Honey-brown. Warm. Wide with terror.

They stared back at me, reflecting a fear sharp enough to hurt.

"Lady Elowen?"

The voice came from the doorway.

I spun around as a woman stepped into the room carrying a porcelain basin. She wore a stiff black dress and a white apron, her hair pulled back so tightly it drew her features into permanent lines of restraint. Her gaze stayed lowered, posture rigid with practiced obedience, yet there was irritation there too, in the set of her jaw, the tightness around her mouth.

"The Count is asking for you," she said flatly. "He says if you are not downstairs for the Duke's arrival in twenty minutes, he will personally drag you to the carriage by that black hair of yours."

Lady Elowen.

The Count.

The Duke.

The words slid into place like a key turning in a lock.

Memories rose, faint, disjointed, like mist clinging to the edges of consciousness. Long corridors that echoed with footsteps. A childhood spent being corrected rather than comforted. A tutor's ruler rapping sharply against knuckles. Whispered arguments behind closed doors about debts and obligations. About Ashford accounts and the Duke of Ravenshollow.

This body had a history. This life had rules.

Before the basin ever touched the vanity, the door creaked open again.

A different maid slipped inside, young, freckled, with chestnut hair tucked hastily beneath a linen coif. She carried nothing in her hands, as though she had forgotten why she'd come at all. When her eyes landed on me, they widened with open concern.

"Lady Elowen," she breathed, crossing the room in quick, quiet steps. "By the Saints, you're awake. I heard you fell in the garden."

I blinked. "The... garden?"

She nodded fervently. "Yesterday evening. Near the old yew. You slipped on the wet stones; everyone heard you cry out. We thought..." Her voice caught. "We thought you'd broken something. Or worse."

Something inside me settled, a piece of the puzzle sliding into place. A fall. A blow. A body left behind long enough for something else to step in.

"I'm all right," I said gently, surprised to find the words came easily. "Truly."

Relief softened her features. "Thank the Saints." She hesitated, then dipped into a curtsey that was more heartfelt than polished. "I'm Maribel, my lady. I help in the east wing. I shouldn't be here, but when I heard you were awake..."

"Thank you for coming," I said. And I meant it.

Maribel's shoulders relaxed. She glanced toward the door, lowering her voice. "They're saying the carriage is almost at the estate. That the Duke's men arrived at dawn."

Her eyes searched mine. "Are you... are you happy, my lady?"

The question landed heavier than any insult.

Happy.

I thought of rain on glass. Of rooms that never warmed. Of a life spent measuring survival in hours and coins. I thought of this fragile girl in front of me, hope and worry tangled together in her gaze.

So, I smiled.

"Yes," I said softly. "It's a good match. I'll be safe."

Maribel's breath left her in a shaky rush. "I'm glad. I prayed it would be so." She reached out before she could stop herself, fingers brushing my sleeve. "You deserve kindness, Lady Elowen."

Before I could answer, sharp footsteps approached.

The door opened again, this time without hesitation.

The older maid entered first, followed by two others. Their expressions were cold, appraising. Displeased.

"What is this?" the first demanded. Her gaze snapped to Maribel. "You were told to keep to your duties."

"I was only..." Maribel began.

"Out. Now." The sharpness of the order made Maribel stumble backward.

"I, my lady..." Maribel looked at me, eyes wide.

"Go," I said calmly. "Thank you for your kindness. That is enough."

Maribel hesitated, glancing at the other maids who were watching, expectant, ready to strike at any sign of disobedience. Then, reluctantly, she bowed her head and slipped out.

The room felt colder without her.

The older maid's eyes narrowed. "Do you think you are clever, speaking to her so?"

I levelled my gaze. "I am not clever. I am prepared. That is different."

Her lips pressed into a thin line. "You will learn quickly who commands here."

"Then I will observe," I said. "And remember. That is all anyone can do."

A tense pause, the kind that stretches seconds into eternities, filled the room. They had expected fear, tears, submission. Instead, I had given them calm and steel.

The maid set the basin down with a deliberate clack and finally looked up at me. "Don't look at me like that, my lady," she said. "Everyone knows what this is. You're a bargaining piece. Best to make yourself presentable so the Duke doesn't realize he's been sold a dud."

Something old and familiar stirred in my chest.

Not fear.

Anger.

It had kept me standing through nights that never seemed to end, through hunger and exhaustion and being spoken to like I was less than human. It flared now, hot and steady, grounding me when everything else felt unreal.

A bargaining piece.

I looked at the maid, then back at the reflection staring out from the mirror. Elowen Ashford, the quiet daughter. The girl who learned early to make herself small. To absorb cruelty without protest.

But whoever she had been, she was not alone anymore.

I reached out and caught the maid's wrist.

It wasn't a violent movement. Barely more than a firm grip. But she gasped, eyes snapping to mine as if she'd been struck.

"Fix my hair," I said softly.

The words were gentle. The tone was not.

"And do it quickly. I would hate for the Count to be disappointed because his property was not polished to his liking."

Her mouth fell open.

She had not expected resistance. Certainly not this.

As she hurried to obey, brush dragging through my hair with trembling hands, my thoughts raced. I didn't understand this world yet. I didn't know its laws or its dangers. But I knew what it meant to be cornered. To be used. To be underestimated.

If I was being handed to a Duke like an asset on a ledger, then I would make sure he understood exactly what kind of asset he was acquiring.

Still, as I straightened and followed her toward the study, a chill crept down my spine.

If I was being sold for money, and he was buying for power, what would happen when they realized I was not the fragile girl they thought they owned?

The door creaked open.

The smell of expensive tobacco drifted out, heavy with authority and something darker.

"Ah, Elowen," my father said without turning from his ledger. "I trust you've practiced your smiles. The Duke of Ravenshollow is... particular. And he dislikes being kept waiting for his property."

I tightened my grip on the silk of my skirts, honey-brown eyes hardening.

Outside, carriage wheels crunched over gravel.

The Duke had arrived.

The house seemed to exhale.

That was the only way I could describe it. The walls, the floors, even the air itself shifted, as though the manor had been holding its breath in anticipation and was only now daring to release it. Somewhere beyond the tall windows, voices sharpened. Footsteps multiplied. Orders were given in low, urgent tones. Servants moved with a sudden, rehearsed precision that spoke of long familiarity with moments like this.

I stood frozen at the threshold of the study, my heart beating too fast, too loud. The Count, my father, closed his ledger with a decisive snap and finally turned to face me.

Up close, he looked exactly like the kind of man who would sell his daughter with a straight face.

His hair was greying at the temples, carefully styled to disguise thinning patches. His clothes were expensive but worn just enough to hint at careful budgeting. The lines on his face were not from laughter or kindness, but from calculation. From years spent weighing worth against cost.

"Elowen," he said again, this time with a practiced smile that never reached his eyes. "You will stand straight. You will speak only when spoken to. And you will remember that everything you wear, everything you eat, and everything you are is owed to the generosity of House Ravenshollow."

His gaze flicked over me, appraising, measuring. Not as a father looks at a child, but as a merchant examines goods before a sale.

"You are fortunate," he continued. "Many girls would kill for such an arrangement. Security. Status. A powerful name to shelter you."

I said nothing.

Not because I agreed, but because decades of experience had taught me that men like him mistook silence for weakness. Let him speak. Let him reveal himself.

"The Duke is not a patient man," the Count went on. "He expects obedience. Discretion. Gratitude." His mouth tightened. "Do not embarrass me today."

Something sharp flickered behind my ribs.

Embarrass him.

As though the humiliation were not already complete.

He gestured toward the door. "The carriage is waiting. We will not keep him."

The corridor beyond the study was long and narrow, its walls lined with ancestral portraits. Men and women stared down from gilded frames, their expressions stern, detached. Generations of Ashfords who had lived comfortably enough to forget what desperation tasted like.

As I walked, skirts whispering around my ankles, servants pressed themselves flatter against the walls. Some bowed their heads. Others stared openly, curiosity and pity mixing in their eyes. A few smirked.

Whispers followed me like a draft.

"That's her."

"The one being sent off."

"Poor thing."

I caught fragments, nothing complete. Enough to understand that Elowen Ashford's fate was no secret within these walls. She had been spoken of, weighed, discussed. Her life reduced to a solution for debt.

My hands curled slowly at my sides.

There was a strange dissonance in my chest, a clash between what this body remembered and what I knew instinctively. Part of me wanted to shrink, to lower my gaze, to become small and unobtrusive. That was the learned behavior of a girl raised without protection.

Another part of me, older, harder, refused.

I lifted my chin.