Cyril had nearly forgotten about Adelaide entirely.
The crown prince’s days left no room to breathe, and while his encounter with the Berthier lady had been striking, it wasn’t the kind of thing that surfaced unbidden in the middle of a schedule that left him short on sleep.
“I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Empress.”
“Ah, the crown prince.”
The Empress received Cyril with a cool demeanor. Beside her sat Albert, Cyril’s young half-brother.
“There’s no need to come every day. I know well how busy the crown prince is.”
“No matter how busy I am, I must never neglect to pay my respects to Your Majesty.”
Albert scrunched his face into a ridiculous expression, winking and raising his eyebrows. The younger boy’s antics eased some of the tension in Cyril’s shoulders. Whatever else was true, the Empress was fond of Albert, and when he was present she treated Cyril with slightly less frost.
“I shouldn’t keep such a busy crown prince too long. You may go.”
“……I take my leave, Your Majesty.”
He had carved out time from his schedule to come, and he was being sent away without even a cup of tea. The heavy doors closed, and Cyril massaged the stiffness from his face.
“Your Highness…….”
“It’s not as though my mother disliking me is anything new.”
He waved off his guard’s concern and returned to the crown prince’s palace. It was only then that Adelaide came to mind.
‘Even if I don’t particularly like the Duke, I imagine it would still weigh on me if his head were separated from his shoulders.’
Cyril was a child who had never known his parents’ love. From an early age he had done everything he could to satisfy them, but their affection had always flowed only toward Albert.
“Dager.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I had meant to invite the Berthier lady and let it slip my mind. I happen to have a brief opening in my schedule today, so it would be convenient if she could come then. Send an invitation.”
The chamberlain who managed the crown prince’s palace consulted the noble almanac he kept stored in his head and located the entry for the Berthier lady. He then reported respectfully.
“I am told that the Berthier lady burns every invitation she receives, Your Highness. I will relay the message to Duke Berthier directly.”
“Ah.”
Cyril recalled Adelaide, who had made no effort to conceal her sharp edges, and let out a quiet laugh.
“Yes, do as you suggest.”
He thought that if he met with Adelaide, who had spoken so freely about not liking Duke Berthier, he might be able to let his guard down a little himself.
***
Consumed by work, Duke Berthier made a point of eating a hearty breakfast, but consumed by work as he was, breakfast was the only meal he ever gave proper attention to, and he had long been careless about the rest. Then, without warning, he became seized by the conviction that nothing mattered more than the family sitting down together at the same table.
Thanks to this, Adelaide found herself having to rise before dawn.
“This body has never once woken up early in its life.”
The habits she had forced herself to build just to survive had come to nothing after the return. She had spent ten years waking before daybreak, but at seventeen, her body could barely pull itself together even when the sun was high in the sky.
“Our poor lady, losing sleep like this. The Duke really is too much. Other ladies of her station would still be fast asleep at this hour. Does he not realize how hard it is for my lady to eat at the time he leaves for work?”
“When have you ever seen the old man think about me? Obviously he’s pushing this nonsense because of Lionel.”
“The Viscount?”
“That’s right. Why would an old man who has never once shared a morning meal with me, let alone dinner, suddenly insist that family must sit together at the same table?”
Amy hesitated and held her tongue. She had not been at the Berthier estate long, and she hadn’t picked up on any sense that Duke Berthier was particularly indifferent to Adelaide.
If anything, she thought of him as an unusually devoted father who ran himself ragged trying to help his daughter make friends. She had assumed Adelaide’s refusal to call him father was simply because she disliked anything that felt sentimental.
“Surely not. My lady will be getting engaged and married before long, so he probably wants to spend some harmonious time together as a family before then.”
Amy, who was in the middle of dressing Adelaide, pricked her finger on a pin she had been holding in place before tying the ribbon.
She had been lucky enough to catch Adelaide’s eye and earn a promotion to dedicated maid, but Amy had mostly handled odd jobs before, and she still wasn’t quite accustomed to the careful work of attending to someone.
“Ow, that stings.”
“What is it?”
“It’s nothing. I pricked my finger on a pin. I’m just glad no blood got on the fabric.”
Adelaide, who still carried the memories of working as a laundry maid, knew exactly how complicated it was to get bloodstains out.
She had instinctively felt a moment of relief that the fabric was safe, and then snapped around and snatched Amy’s hand.
“My lady!”
“Hold still. How is it that you can’t get through a single day without hurting yourself? The head maid said she was worried about you, and no wonder. I’ll have to swap you out for someone else before long.”
Amy found it remarkable that Adelaide, for all her harsh words, was applying ointment to her bleeding finger. Everyone had layers, they said, but her lady’s layers were finer than most.
“There. It won’t scar. Not that a scar or two would k*ll you.”
“It’s only a little pin prick.”
“Exactly. Consider this a warning not to worry me over something as small as a pin prick.”
“I wouldn’t mind getting this kind of warning every day.”
What other mistress would apply ointment and wrap a bandage around such a small cut? Adelaide felt uncomfortable under Amy’s gaze and turned away.
“Tie the ribbon. Quickly.”
“Yes, my lady!”
The goodwill of others had always been foreign to Adelaide. Her own family didn’t care for her, so there was no reason for a stranger’s goodwill to be genuine.
Before she was thrown out of the house, it would have been because of her title. After she was thrown out, the only people who approached her were hollow ones drawn in by a presentable face.
‘This goodwill will disappear once the curse lifts and they get a taste of who I really am.’
Adelaide knew her own nature was not a pleasant one. She had no intention of changing it. Keeping people close with a manufactured personality never lasted. Better to show her true self from the start and weed out the ones who would leave sooner rather than later.
“My lady, all done.”
“Good. Let’s go. If we’re late, the old man’s lecture will stretch on forever.”
Duke Berthier and Lionel were already seated in the smaller dining room they used for lighter meals. Lionel leapt to his feet the moment he saw Adelaide.
“Good morning, my lady.”
“It’s the middle of the night as far as I’m concerned, Lionel.”
Lionel was the sort of person who would nod along if Adelaide pointed at the sun and called it the moon.
“Good night, my lady.”
“I hate the night. So there’s no such thing as a good night in my vocabulary either.”
Duke Berthier clicked his tongue watching Lionel puzzle over how to answer without upsetting Adelaide. Adelaide had changed a great deal, but her sharp tongue was the same as ever.
“Lionel, bear with her. Even if Adelaide says things like that…….”
Duke Berthier let the sentence trail off. He knew his daughter better than Adelaide gave him credit for. If Adelaide said something, the odds were high that she meant it too.
“I know my lady cares for me.”
“Hmm……. I know you’re a good-natured boy who takes after Andrei, but it’s better not to read too much into what people feel.”
“Too much?”
Lionel asked with an open, guileless look. Duke Berthier had been in high spirits over his relationship with Adelaide, which had only just begun to thaw. He held genuine affection for Lionel as the son of a benefactor, yet the boy’s constant attachment to Adelaide’s side was not entirely endearing.
“My daughter is not the sort of person who cares for anyone.”
“But my lady tends to my injuries when I get hurt, and when I’m upset, she comes to find me and comfort me.”
“Adelaide does?”
“Yes. Not long ago I made quite a fool of myself in a way I’m too embarrassed to describe, and my lady didn’t scold me at all. She was gentle with me.”
Duke Berthier glanced sideways at Adelaide, who neither confirmed nor denied it. Lionel turned to Adelaide with a bright smile and asked which fork he should use. The Duke found his usually hearty morning appetite had dimmed somewhat.
‘If it feels like that boy is bragging that Adelaide cares for him more than she cares for me, that must be my imagination. Andrei’s son wouldn’t stoop to something that underhanded.’
Adelaide wanted to ignore the trivial question, but as long as the curse gave her no peace, there was nothing to be done.
“The outermost fork first. How long have you had a tutor, and you still haven’t learned something this basic?”
“I can’t help wondering whether it’s really necessary to use this many forks just to eat.”
“Duke. Do you truly intend to make him a proper Viscount Lavota? I worry he’ll say something this outrageous in front of His Majesty.”
Duke Berthier felt, privately, something almost like relief at Adelaide’s sharp temper. At least it seemed Lionel had not yet secured any particularly special place in Adelaide’s heart.
“Lionel is just being playful. Children do that sort of thing. They already know the answer but ask about this and that just to get attention.”
“That’s true. My lady is so kind to me that I keep wanting to act spoiled.”
Lionel agreed pleasantly. Duke Berthier was the only one left looking foolish.
‘That boy!’
Duke Berthier glared at the insufferable Lionel and found himself crunching through a salad he would not ordinarily have touched. Benjamin, standing at attention behind them, felt his eyes sharpen.
‘If I make good use of Viscount Lavota, I might be able to cure the Duke of his picky eating.’
Duke Berthier’s picky eating had been Benjamin’s longstanding headache. He had assumed the Duke would sort it out on his own as he aged, but the man had gotten married, had a child, and still steadfastly refused vegetables as a committed carnivore.
“Duke. Did you not have something you wished to say to my lady?”
Benjamin stepped in to manage the situation before the Duke’s blood pressure could rise any further before his departure for the palace.
