The Princess and the Teddy Bear (2)
Just because I had accepted Adele didn't mean every problem would fall into place of its own accord.
For one thing, Adele wasn't even the child of a second wife. She was the product of an extramarital affair from before Mother had passed away — an illegitimate child, plain and simple. And bastards were not guaranteed any legal rights within a noble house. They did not receive the Reed name. They had no right of succession. She probably hadn't even been baptized.
In this world, the usual path for an illegitimate child was to hone their own abilities and enter another house as a retainer. Those who couldn't even manage that sometimes had to make a living at the kind of work nobles wouldn't dirty their hands with. Only a rare few — those on good terms with the main house — ever received a minor title of their own.
And Adele, luckily enough, was about to become one of those few.
"I was thinking we might set aside a title for Adele down the line. She'll need something of her own once she comes of age."
Besides House Reed's title of Count, our family also held a handful of lesser titles — Baron Gross, Baron Palmer, and several others like them. I fully intended to pass one of them on to Adele someday. I'd just gained an adorable little sister. That much, at least, I could do for her. And frankly, all that business about her being illegitimate didn't mean a thing to me.
"Edwin...!"
Father was so overjoyed he looked like he might actually stop breathing. Don't tell me he's about to collapse from a heart attack... That would be a problem. Adele and I were both still at an age when we needed him.
"There's something else I need to say, Father."
"Go on, then. Whatever it is, out with it."
I took a step back and dropped to my knees on the floor. Father startled at the sudden gesture, his voice rising in alarm.
"Edwin! What on earth are you doing?!"
"Father, I broke off my engagement of my own accord and even got myself suspended from the Academy. I have no excuse — nothing I could say would be enough. But going through all of this has forced me to look back on the way I've been living, and I've come to regret a great deal. I swear to you that nothing like this will ever happen again. Could you find it in yourself to trust me one more time? If I return to the Academy, I promise that this time I will graduate without causing a single problem, and I will come home."
I poured out the words I had prepared in advance. It was something I needed to do to earn his trust — but a part of it, at least, was genuine. This man had spent all those years raising a child and holding a house together with no lady of the house beside him. That couldn't have been easy.
"...Get up."
After a brief silence, Father took hold of my arm and pulled me to my feet. His voice was thick with unshed tears.
"Looking back, all I've ever felt toward you is guilt. You lost your mother so young, and you never received the care you deserved. I pushed the engagement with Robinette through on my own, telling myself it was for your sake — but I used to wonder, now and then, if that was only driving you further off course."
Father paused to catch his breath, then looked at me and went on.
"When I heard you'd broken off the engagement and been suspended from the Academy, I won't deny I was worried. But looking at you now, I can see it was all for nothing. Edwin, when you're standing here before me as the man you've become, what do those things even matter? And then you took in a sister you had every reason not to welcome, and you did it with such warmth — what more could I possibly ask of you? I can finally face your mother, who's waiting on the other side. Edwin, I could die this instant and have no regrets..."
No — you can't die. You have to live a long, long life, Father.
"Edwin. And I want you to know this. I have worried about you, but I have never once failed to believe in you. How could I not? You're Grace's child, and mine. I always knew that someday you'd finish your wandering and come back to us. And now that I'm seeing that day with my own eyes, I'm so happy I can't stop smiling!"
Hearing him say it, I felt a lump rise in my own throat. To think I had wasted myself on all that nonsense while a father like this was waiting for me. The time that had already slipped away felt painfully precious — but what had already flowed past couldn't be gathered back up. All I could do was live the time ahead of me in such a way that I wouldn't have to regret it.
"Come, that's enough for now. Perhaps it's from talking with my son at such length after so long, but I've grown terribly hungry. Adele will be waiting for us as well, so I ought to have dinner seen to at once. You go and wash up while the meal is being prepared. A warm bath should be ready for you by now."
Truth be told, I was desperate for a bath myself. I hadn't managed anything resembling proper cleanliness for the entire journey here. Magic could handle the worst of it, but it was no substitute for the real thing. When I nodded, Father pressed the bell on his desk and summoned a servant.
A moment later, Roberta, the head maid, knocked at the door.
"You called for me, my lord."
"Tell Errol to prepare this evening's meal as a proper banquet. Have him take more care than usual and tailor it to Edwin and Adele's tastes. And show Edwin to the baths."
"Understood."
Roberta nodded and started out the door ahead of me. I offered Father a bow and followed her out of the study.
As I stepped into the corridor, I glanced to the side and found Hudson the butler waiting there. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot, as if he had been crying. Surely not...
"...Hudson."
"...Yes... Young Master..."
Hudson sniffled once before answering.
"Did you hear all that?"
"...I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Young Master. A servant does not eavesdrop on his master's conversations, as a rule."
...He definitely heard. I hadn't counted on that little tearjerker having an audience. The thought that someone had been listening to the whole scene sent embarrassment flooding up through me. I didn't need a mirror to know my face had gone scarlet.
"Young Master... this Hudson always believed. I knew the day would come when you would come to your senses... and to witness that moment with my own eyes is so moving I can scarcely..."
"Hudson, don't you get in Young Master's way — he needs to go wash up! At your age, what's with all this fussing?"
Roberta cut him off cleanly, but for all the firmness in her tone, her face was full of the same fondness. Well... this is my karma. From their point of view, a reaction like this was only to be expected.
Leaving Hudson behind to keep babbling his nonsense, I followed Roberta's lead toward the baths.
After the bath, our family gathered in the banquet hall and sat down to a long-overdue dinner together. Father's advance instructions had clearly been taken to heart — the table was quite lavishly set — though it was a little disappointing that what I could actually eat was so limited, given that I still needed to lose weight.
I pushed the dinner rolls and other carbohydrates off to the side and filled up mainly on lightly seasoned meat and vegetables.
"So, what do you plan to do until you return to the Academy?"
"As I mentioned, I thought I'd take some time to recharge. I'd like to look around the territory a bit, too, after so long. And if you'll permit it, Father, I'd like to sit in on a family council meeting at least once. I've found myself a little curious about how things actually run."
"That's a splendid idea! Yes, it's time you knew these things. I was just about to bring that up myself, as it happens. Do so. There's a meeting scheduled for tomorrow afternoon — you can attend that one."
"Understood, Father. I won't disappoint you."
"Haha, disappoint me? Nonsense. Just sitting in will be a valuable experience in itself. Don't put any pressure on yourself — think of it as observing."
"And... Adele, dear. You mustn't be a picky eater."
Father, who had been going back and forth with me, suddenly shifted his gaze toward Adele and chided her, his voice still gentle. On the plate in front of her — which had held a stir-fry of meat and vegetables — the bell peppers and carrots sat uneaten in a heap, and Adele was staring down at them with a thoroughly miserable look on her face. Was it because she was still a child that she hated vegetables?
"Um... Faaather..."
Adele called to him in a tiny, hesitant voice, sending a look his way that was overflowing with silent pleading.
"Adele. You are a noble of the Second Estate now — a proper young lady of a Count's house, no less. How are you to face those beneath you if you turn your nose up at your food like that? Come now. If you try eating them one at a time, you'll finish them before you know it."
Even Adele's pleading couldn't bend Father's will. It sounded like gentle coaxing, but what it boiled down to was: stop fussing over your side dishes and eat. I'd thought Father was soft on his children, but he had a stubborn streak when it came to things like this. I couldn't quite figure him out.
Adele fidgeted in her seat, stamping her feet, caught between doing as she was told and not being able to. If there was ever a time for a kind older brother to step in, this was probably it.
While Father was momentarily distracted talking to the butler, I swiftly swapped my plate — which held a few pieces of meat and a single slice of bell pepper — with Adele's. The miserable look on her face lit up in an instant.
I pressed a finger to my lips in a shh and showed it to Adele, then whispered low enough that it wouldn't carry to Father's seat at the head of the table.
"Just this once, all right, Adele? I'll eat the rest of the vegetables for you, so let's try just this one piece of bell pepper today. It'll be our secret from Father, okay?"
"Yes... B-Brother! Hehe..."
To think she could get that happy just because I'd offered to eat a few vegetables for her. Watching Adele grin from ear to ear, I felt my own heart melt right then and there.
Adele tried the trick of swallowing the pepper down with water — and ended up choking on it, kicking off a whole coughing fit. It seemed this child still had a long way to go before she and vegetables could be friends.