**5th Day of Summer**
Tomorrow is the first day of my courting feast. Mother made sure I was cleaned, scrubbed, and pruned so that I am as pretty as possible for my suitors. I have to wake up at the break of dawn to be dressed in my gown.
It was bad enough growing up knowing that I didn’t get to choose who I would marry, and that it was going to be to a man I had never met, but now I have to be put on display like a prize to trade favors for!
There is a part of me that is guilty about Count Redell dying in the war. When I wrote that I hoped it would happen I wasn’t serious! I was just frustrated that I was supposed to marry him even though I had never met him! But I must do my duty for the family, as mother likes to remind me. I understand my duty. I just wish I had more choice as to how I did it! I’m the daughter of a Duke, I should get some say in who I spend my life with.