While Amy waged war against Draco, Adelaide had chased Lionel down to the first floor. All the effort put into feeding and exercising him had apparently paid off, because Lionel was unreasonably fast.
“Lionel! How dare you run from me when I’m calling your name!”
Adelaide was gasping for breath. She ate well enough, but her only exercise was the occasional ride and a walk here and there, and she ended up bracing herself against the wall to catch her breath. Her lungs burned.
A maid whose face Adelaide had come to know in passing approached. She wasn’t quite as clumsy as Amy, but clumsy enough that she had benefited plenty from the effects of Adelaide’s curse.
“My lady, are you all right? Someone with your delicate constitution shouldn’t be running like this.”
At some point, the number of people nagging Adelaide had grown. Adelaide, who had prided herself on her stamina before the return, felt irritated by her own condition. She missed the days when she had held her own against men on a fishing boat.
“Ann. Mind your tongue.”
Ann felt a surge of emotion at the realization that Adelaide had remembered her name. She had worried a great deal about coming to work at the notorious Berthier estate. But the unruly young lady she had come to know in person was rough in speech alone, and endlessly warm at heart.
“I must be picking up Amy’s habits.”
“Stop spending so much time with her. If your tongue gets any longer here, I’ll cut it off.”
Ann felt a warmth in her chest at the glance Adelaide kept stealing at the heavy water bucket she was carrying, even while still catching her breath.
“This house has far too many windows.”
“Thanks to them, the sunlight comes in beautifully. You should get plenty of sun, my lady. It’s good for your health.”
“Never mind that. Have you seen Lionel?”
Unable to resist the pull of the curse, Adelaide snatched the water bucket out of Ann’s hands. It was far heavier than expected, and Adelaide staggered.
Ann quickly steadied Adelaide and reached out to take the bucket back.
“I saw the Viscount heading toward the garden just a moment ago.”
Adelaide ignored Ann’s outstretched hand and wobbled her way to the windowsill with the bucket. Ann followed anxiously at her heels.
“My lady, you shouldn’t be doing this.”
“What is there I’m not allowed to do in my own house?”
Ann accepted the bucket Adelaide had carried over with grateful hands, flustered and apologetic. Before Ann could even get a word of thanks out, Adelaide had already bolted for the garden.
Finding Lionel was urgent, but the bigger reason was that she couldn’t stand anything as cringe-worthy as a thank-you.
“Oh, my lady!”
“What!”
“The Viscount was crying! I don’t know what happened, but I hope the two of you make up!”
“Why would you tell me he was crying!”
The unwanted information forced Adelaide to pick up her pace against her will.
The curse activated in situations involving struggle and distress, but above all, the sight of someone in tears brought it surging out with the ferocity of a starving stray lunging at a piece of meat.
The garden at the Berthier estate was perfectly suited for hide-and-seek. Which is to say, it was large, sprawling, and complicated.
“Lionel, Lionel! Get out here right now!”
The gardener saw Adelaide searching for Lionel, and so did the workers brought in from outside to repair the fence. Every one of them smiled with warm satisfaction.
It hadn’t taken long to see through the rumors about the Berthier lady.
Adelaide came out for a garden walk every day in an effort to rebuild the stamina she’d had before the return. She didn’t offer the kind words that self-important noble ladies typically did, but she showed her sincerity through her actions instead.
One of the workers, whose face had swollen up after a bee sting, owed his life to Adelaide.
Adelaide had spotted him and started shouting at the top of her lungs. Everyone assumed she was furious at the sight of him, but the Berthier lady had been shouting for someone to call a physician.
She had even laid the worker down and tended to him herself until the physician arrived. The worker whose life she had saved called out to her in a friendly greeting.
“The Viscount went further in, my lady!”
“I didn’t ask! Get back to work!”
“It just breaks my heart to see the two of you quarreling when you get along so well together!”
The man’s words set his colleagues off in a roar of laughter. Adelaide snapped at them furiously.
“Don’t laugh!”
It had no effect whatsoever.
“Yes, ma’am, not laughing! Our lady is such a kind soul, the Viscount must have done something wrong! We’re on your side, my lady!”
“Nobody asked for your support! I don’t need it! Mind your own business and do your work!”
Even under Adelaide’s scolding, the workers showed no sign of fear. They looked at her the way you’d look at a charming little sister. When her temper got her nowhere, Adelaide deflated and decided to move on.
She stepped into the maze at the center of the garden and pressed forward without hesitation.
She knew the way to the exit, but finding Lionel, who was probably wandering lost somewhere inside, was the problem.
“Lionel!”
Lionel, his cheeks soaked through, was sitting by the fountain at the heart of the maze garden. He sat with his legs neatly together, like the tragic heroine of a novel, wiping at his tears over and over with his palms.
“My lady…….”
Lionel spotted Adelaide and quickly scrubbed at his cheeks with his sleeve. Red scrape marks appeared on his tender skin. Adelaide thought he was something else entirely as she grabbed his wrist.
“M, my lady?”
It was the sort of pose an arrogant male lead in a romance novel might strike. Lionel felt certain his heart might burst and k*ll him. Up close, Adelaide was unbearably beautiful. And the unmistakable look of concern on her face was the worst thing of all for his heart.
Needless to say, Adelaide was not concerned. She was annoyed. She wanted to pinch those nicely filled-out cheeks of his, and here she was stroking them gently instead, her fingernails itching with the effort.
“Don’t cry in front of me.”
“My lady……!”
Adelaide dipped the handkerchief into the water rising from the fountain. Lionel held his face still and thought he wished time would stop right here.
“Feeling better?”
The boy wanted to lie and hold Adelaide’s attention a little longer, but he pushed the urge aside and nodded. Adelaide’s hand pulled away without hesitation. Lionel watched her hand with a reluctant gaze.
“My lady. Do you like Draco more, or me?”
“You call that a question?”
“If Draco and I both fell into the water, who would you save first?”
The question gave Adelaide a headache she hadn’t had before. Lionel was relentless. He looked ready to start crying again if she didn’t answer.
“Draco.”
“…….”
“I’d save my precious Draco, and whether you lived or died wouldn’t concern me in the slightest.”
Even at that heartless answer, Lionel broke into a loose, easy smile. His feelings for Adelaide were powerful.
“I just told you I wouldn’t care, so what are you smiling about?”
“Just because.”
“Don’t smile for no reason. It makes you look simple.”
“You said you’d save Draco if we fell in the water, but right now it’s not Draco you came for. You came all this way to comfort me.”
Lionel whispered shyly. Adelaide was no fool. Lionel was plainly fond of her.
‘It’s the curse, that’s all.’
Adelaide dismissed Lionel’s feelings with cold cynicism.
Before the return, Lionel had despised Adelaide with every fiber of his being. He hadn’t hesitated to go running to Duke Berthier like a fox, tattling on every last wrongdoing Adelaide had committed.
Same person, same way of speaking, and yet Adelaide hadn’t anticipated that a change in behavior alone could shift a relationship this far.
In noble society, words carried great weight. A single well-placed remark held more power than a hundred good deeds.
Adelaide had ended up with a rather inconvenient curse, but she hadn’t thought it would bring about any particular change.
And yet, starting with Amy, the maids and servants working at the estate, the workers brought in from outside, and even Lionel had all turned toward Adelaide completely, like a hand flipping over.
“I like the Adelaide who is kind to me.”
“I’m not a kind person.”
Adelaide couldn’t push Lionel away as he leaned against her shoulder.
Lionel smiled his loose, contented smile, with no idea that Adelaide was wearing a thoroughly sour expression, and fretted anxiously over whether she could hear his pounding heart.
‘This wretched curse has ruined my life.’
Adelaide grumbled to herself about how long she was going to have to serve as Lionel’s armrest.
Even if her actions were under the curse’s influence, her tongue at least rolled along just as she intended, so she gave her feelings free rein, but her actions were far too tender to do any damage to Lionel’s happiness, and the effect was negligible.
The tender moment at the fountain restored Lionel completely to his usual self. Which meant he was back to pressing himself on Adelaide without end.
Lionel never lost heart no matter how much Adelaide recoiled. She began to wonder whether the dog Violet had described, the one that couldn’t help showering its owner with endless affection, had been reincarnated as Lionel.
“My lady! Seeing you the moment I open my eyes makes me so happy.”
“There was certainly a servant bringing your washing water when you opened your eyes, so saying you saw me the very moment you woke up is a lie.”
“I’ve been keeping my eyes shut until after I wash my face lately! So I can see you first.”
Adelaide almost thought she could see a tail wagging furiously behind the boy.
“My lady hasn’t even washed her face yet. You can’t just come to a lady’s room uninvited!”
Amy planted her hands on her hips and scolded him with exaggerated severity.
Lionel was wary of Amy, Adelaide’s dedicated maid. Getting on Amy’s bad side meant losing access to Adelaide.
“I’m sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on, Amy.”
“Amy?”
“I keep telling him he can call me by my name, but he just won’t change.”
Adelaide frowned at Lionel’s manner of speaking, which was unbecoming of a noble. Whatever else he was, he was a viscount vouched for by Duke Berthier.
If he embarrassed himself in society, it wouldn’t be Lionel alone who ended up covered in mud. The Berthier ducal house would be dragged down with him.
“I heard the old man, I mean, the Duke, assigned you a tutor?”
“Well, I am trying my best to learn, but habits that have settled into the bones don’t go away easily.”
Adelaide noticed that Lionel didn’t seem particularly ashamed of his own behavior. Having not been born and raised as a noble, Lionel appeared to have some resistance to conducting himself like one.
