Dragon Duke of the North
THE BEAR-SEALED LETTER
[Cover Image: A close-up of a letter on a sunlit garden table. A green wax seal bears the shape of a standing bear. Soil-stained gardening gloves rest beside it.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(to herself):
Another quiet morning in the southern gardens.
Rosemary scent, warm sun, soft breeze.
Perfect. Predictable.
Almost… too quiet.
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
(bursting onto the terrace):
SIS.
DUKE.
PROPOSAL.
NORTH.
[Image: Theo waving a thick cream envelope, grinning wildly.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
Theo, stop shouting.
What duke?
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
Northhaven!
Alistair Grey!
Bear seal—see?
He wants to marry you!
[Image: Close-up of the bear in dark green wax. It looks solemn, protective.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
Marry me?
We’ve never met.
Elara mum(ivy ashbourne )
(entering, wiping floury hands):
It’s a good match, dear.
Secure. Respectful.
His steward wrote to your father last month.
They need an heir. We need… stability.
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
Northhaven is all ice and stories, Mother.
They say dragons still haunt those peaks.
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
EVEN BETTER.
SCANDAL-FREE AND MYTHICAL.
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
[Image: Elara’s hands, trembling slightly, breaking the seal.]
Episode 2
[Image: Elara’s hands, trembling slightly, breaking the seal.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(reading silently):
To Lady Elara… marriage of mutual benefit… respect and comfort…
He doesn’t mention love.
Just honor. Protection. A home.
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(inner thought):
A home far from everything I know.
Cold walls, colder people?
Or… a new beginning?
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
WELL?
DO I GET TO SAY I HAVE A DRAGON FOR A BROTHER-IN-LAW?
Elara mum(ivy ashbourne )
(softly):
You don’t have to say yes, my heart.
But it would help your father.
And you’d be a duchess.
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(looking at the garden, then the letter):
What’s he like?
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
RICH.
AND QUIET.
AND PROBABLY COLD AS HIS MOUNTAINS.
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
Or maybe just… alone.
[Image: Elara picking up a pen, resolve in her eyes.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(typing reply in her mind):
Your Grace,
I accept.
Please tell me about the North.
And the sheep.
My brother insists about the sheep
Elara mum(ivy ashbourne )
(to her family):
Tell him yes.
[Image: The bear seal, now cracked in two, beside a fresh sprig of rosemary.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(final inner thought):
Let’s see if dragons really do guard treasures…
Or if they’re just waiting for someone to see the man behind the myth.
The Northbound Carriage – A Shadow in the Sky
[Image: A dark carriage against a fading dusk sky, one large winged shadow passing silently over the mountains.]
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
(text to her mother):
The North is all sharp edges and deep silences.
Marta says little, but her eyes say much.
Marta
(voice note, transcribed):
He knows you’re coming, my lady. The peaks have eyes.
[Image: Elara’s journal entry, handwriting slightly unsteady.]
Elara’s Diary (text thought):
Day four. Saw something in the sky tonight. Not a bird. Too large, too graceful.
Thema says the duke’s family are “keepers.” Of what, she won’t say.
But I felt it—a presence. Not threatening. Watching.
Waiting.
Theo ashbourne (Fls brother)
FROZEN YET? MET ANY ICY LORDS?
OR JUST ICY WINDS?
Elara Gray / ashbourne (FL)
Winds so far.
But something tells me the lord is the warmer of the two.
Elara’s Diary:
He’s testing me. Or… welcoming me in the only way he knows how. From a distance. In silence.
It should scare me.
It doesn’t.
[Image: The castle in the distance, lit by torches, dark and imposing against the night.]
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