That said, she didn’t look down on high society the way hollow-headed men did, strutting around as though being born male were their greatest achievement. It was simply that Adelaide’s nature didn’t suit sitting in circles, chattering about things that didn’t matter.
The light tea parties and flower-viewing gatherings that girls not yet of age held were meant, at their core, for mutual sympathy and shared enjoyment. But Adelaide’s capacity for empathy was so scarce that even scraping the bottom would yield less than the grime under a fingernail, making her a nuisance to everyone involved.
“Don’t you get lonely, my lady?”
“Not at all.”
“Having a friend would change your mind. Friends you can open your heart to and share any secret with don’t come along easily. It only gets harder as you get older.”
“Anyone listening would think you were an old woman of eighty.”
“I’m nineteen too, you know. At my age, you start hiding your true feelings because you’re afraid that sharing secrets will give others something to use against you.”
Adelaide found it amusing that Amy was going on about her age with that smooth, unwrinkled face.
In body, Adelaide may have been seventeen, but in mind, she was twenty-seven. She understood what Amy meant. But her conclusion was that if you never made friends in the first place, there would be nothing to be hurt over and no one to betray you.
“How is it that our lady’s skin is so soft…….”
Amy seemed to regard Adelaide as a younger sister. Adelaide lamented that she was neither respected nor feared as a mistress.
“Viscount Lavota is training at the practice grounds this afternoon. Shall we bring some snacks and go cheer him on?”
“Amy.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“……. Never mind. If you want to go, go yourself. Whether Lionel uses the practice grounds or drops dead there, it’s no concern of mine.”
The warmth in Amy’s eyes made Adelaide uncomfortable. In the past, she would have snapped back that she could say whatever she pleased with her own mouth and no one could stop her. But when she met that gaze that seemed to say, whatever you say, my lady, I’m happy with it, her mouth simply closed.
“Come with me, my lady. Viscount Lavota will be pleased too.”
“If it’s something that would please him, that’s all the more reason not to go. I’m going riding. You can take Lionel his snacks.”
“Riding?”
Adelaide loved riding. She was good at it too. Duke Berthier would half-jokingly lament that if she had been born a boy, he would have raised her to be a polo player.
“What? Are you afraid of horses?”
“I’ve never ridden one before……. But you’re going, my lady, and I can’t very well not follow as your dedicated maid!”
“If you’re scared, just go to Lionel. Don’t get in my way.”
“No! I don’t even know yet whether I’ll be scared or not. I have to face it head-on and overcome it.”
That was, unexpectedly, exactly the kind of answer Adelaide liked. The only way to deal with fear was to charge straight through it. In better spirits now, Adelaide held out the riding clothes she had worn the year before and then shoved to the back of the wardrobe.
“Right. Any maid of mine should at least know how to ride. There should be a riding outfit from last year in the wardrobe. Go change into it and come back.”
“Your riding outfit, my lady? I’m fine as I am!”
“Talking back again. When someone gives you something, the proper thing to do is say thank you and accept it. If you don’t change, I’ll leave without you.”
“My lady…….”
“Don’t cry! Don’t cry! Crying in front of me is forbidden!”
“Hic, yes! I’ll go change right away!”
It was a fine day for riding. On the way to the stables, Adelaide helped a maid carrying laundry and received a cubic zirconia ring in return.
“What would I do with this? You keep it.”
“I know! But it’s my way of saying thank you, so please accept it, my lady!”
“No, why would I take something I won’t use.”
“You don’t have to wear it! Just let me say you accepted it and I’ll be on my way!”
Amy pouted, and coaxing her out of it slowed their pace again. The Berthier estate was vast, but they weren’t even leaving the grounds, just walking to the stables, and it was taking an age. Adelaide cursed the wretched curse under her breath and quickened her steps.
“It’s been a while, my lady!”
The stable hand recognized Adelaide and bowed.
“Cherry has been waiting so long for you that she’s worked herself into a temper.”
“Now even the horses are getting angry at me.”
“Horses are clever animals. They sulk when their owner doesn’t come.”
The stable hand brought out Adelaide’s horse, Cherry. True to his word, Cherry clearly recognized Adelaide but snorted and turned her head away.
“Cherry. Do you have any idea how much the hay you eat costs? You should be grateful you get to eat without even having to run.”
Cherry scraped the ground a few times with her front hoof, then licked Adelaide’s palm. She was sulking, but she was glad to see her owner after so long.
“Bring out another horse, a small and gentle one.”
“Pardon?”
“She’s riding too.”
“I’m riding too!”
The stable hand looked at the maid with concern, clearly a girl who had never been on a horse in her life.
She was wearing a riding outfit, but if dressing the part were enough to make someone good at something, who in the world would ever bother to practice?
“A beginner could get hurt, my lady.”
“Teach her how to get into the saddle while I take a lap.”
“Pardon?”
“Just enough so she can ride alongside my lady!”
“No, wait, my lady, my lady!”
Adelaide stamped her foot hard. Cherry let out a loud whinny and shot forward. The stable hand’s voice faded into the distance. The wind brushing her cheeks was refreshing.
The Berthier estate had a dedicated riding course. The late Duchess Berthier had also loved riding, and the course had been built for her. It was a well-designed track with everything from low fences easy enough to clear in stride to a fairly large ditch that offered a genuine thrill.
“Cherry, we’re jumping!”
Having cleared the tree stump and the fence one after another, Adelaide squeezed her thighs tight as she approached the last obstacle, the ditch. The clever Cherry sensed her rider’s tension and pulled her muscles taut.
“Go!”
“Wait, ugh!”
A gleaming head of hair appeared out of nowhere. Adelaide instinctively pulled the reins, but Cherry had already built up speed and wouldn’t stop easily. The gleaming head crossed both arms over his face in a shield.
“Move! I said move!”
“Just hit me!”
“Are you out of your mind? Turn to the side!”
“It’s fine, just hit me!”
Adelaide yanked the reins in the opposite direction, but she couldn’t avoid the man entirely.
‘I’ve never actually killed anyone before!’
She had nearly killed someone, but she hadn’t. And she hadn’t intended to k*ll anyone to begin with. Adelaide squeezed her eyes shut, thinking she was about to end her second life without ever breaking the wretched curse.
‘What?’
She heard Cherry let out a loud cry, and Adelaide was thrown into the air. The next moment, bracing for the impact of hitting the ground and writhing in pain, she instead found herself caught in a firm but steady hold.
“Are you all right?”
“Wh, what did you just do?”
“If I had moved out of the way, you would have broken your neck and died. I caught you the moment you flew off. The horse is unharmed too, fortunately.”
It was true that thanks to the gleaming-haired man, both Cherry and Adelaide had kept their lives. But Adelaide decided to consider the full sequence of events. The accident would never have happened if this gleaming-haired man hadn’t appeared on someone else’s estate’s riding course in the first place.
“Don’t act so proud of yourself! This is entirely your fault!”
The flustered gleaming-haired man, Cyril Aiden Zephinus Lichtein, Crown Prince of the Empire, watched with a sour expression as Adelaide shouted at him and rolled up her trouser leg to examine her scraped knee.
Cyril was now seated in the drawing room of the Berthier estate.
It had been only a brief encounter, but her temperament was exactly as he remembered. There was a reason he, the Crown Prince of the Empire, had slipped into the Berthier estate through the riding grounds rather than the front gate.
He had needed to conceal his identity. And the last time he had tried to enter through the front gate while avoiding people’s eyes, this same person had stopped him.
Back then, Adelaide had shown herself to be every bit as her reputation suggested. The shameless, unruly young lady who had brazenly declared she knew exactly which guests to welcome and which to turn away.
But the Adelaide he met again today had shown an unexpected side. Cyril ran his fingers over the handkerchief tied around his knee over his trousers. Just then, Duke Berthier interrupted his thoughts.
“I must apologize, Your Highness. Adelaide can be rather…….”
Duke Berthier trailed off, unable to find the right word to follow “rather…….”
Words that suited Adelaide’s personality included foul, rough, something else, and an absolute disaster, but none of them were fit to say in front of the Crown Prince.
“As the lady said, I share some responsibility for wandering through the riding grounds without permission, so the Duke need not worry.”
“Permission, Your Highness? Everything in the Empire belongs to His Majesty, so a member of the imperial family such as yourself has no need to seek permission from a mere duke like me.”
“I heard Duke Berthier was no good at flattery.”
“I have an allergy that breaks me out in hives when I flatter.”
“The hives must tend to appear somewhere out of sight.”
Duke Berthier finally relaxed at Cyril’s joke.
It had been a hastily arranged meeting, put together after word came of Adelaide’s riding plans. Duke Berthier was a known supporter of the Emperor. A private meeting with the Crown Prince could invite misunderstanding.
