Dance Practice and White Dresses
“Oh, honestly. The 28th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations with Glintland began with Her Highness Queen Mildred’s marriage to the Former King, didn’t it?”
Which was, in fact, part of why Chloe had chosen it. She did not say so, and merely blinked.
“Her Highness the Queen is rather… well, how should I put it. Ah! Wouldn’t white inevitably remind people of death?”
Laura answered in a tone that suggested she was offering this advice with the greatest reluctance imaginable.
Ah. Chloe’s lips parted slightly.
Queen Mildred had followed the Former King into death not long after his passing. It had been a fire. Though it had not happened in Ibanes, all manner of conspiracy theories had swirled around the incident regardless.
“I’m not sure. When people hear white and Glintland, I think Her Highness the Queen’s wedding dress would be the first thing that comes to mind.”
Still, Chloe found it difficult to agree with Laura. After all, Queen Mildred’s white wedding gown remained vividly etched in people’s memories even now.
Then Theodora spoke quietly.
“His Majesty the King is unlikely to be fond of white either.”
“Ah.”
Was that so?
Laura smiled brightly, as if to say, See?
“What about blue? Since Your Highness the Grand Duchess comes from the Navy, we could use this opportunity to heighten the presence of the Ibanes Navy!”
“Perfect, if you want to be laughed at.”
This time, it was Agathe.
By now, Chloe could tell. Everyone had come here with some sort of purpose.
Agathe had come to pick a fight with Chloe, and Laura… well. Her goal was ordinary enough. She likely wanted to build a friendship with Chloe, who had been absorbed into the ranks of the great nobility, while also expanding the standing of the Gauthier viscount house.
The fact that her behavior was rather peculiar was another matter entirely….
But there was someone stranger still.
Chloe glanced toward Theodora.
Why was that? Theodora did seem to be helping her, but not in any particularly kind way. Nor did she look like someone who had simply stepped back because she wanted no part in this complicated battle of wits.
Perhaps that meant….
“Your Highness the Grand Duchess. It is Brun.”
The voice cut off her speculation, and Chloe turned her eyes.
Madame Brun stood before the doors of the Hall of Radiance with her usual stern expression.
Was it already time?
“His Highness the Grand Duke is waiting for you.”
“…Why is he?”
Chloe, who had just been about to rise, nearly stumbled.
Madame Brun lifted her chin with eyes that plainly asked why Chloe would ask her such a thing.
“He has come all this way to escort Your Highness the Grand Duchess himself. However, he said he would greet the ladies gathered here at a later time….”
As she spoke, the old lady stepped lightly aside.
Only then did the people inside see the handsome man standing just beyond the open door.
The beautiful man gave a slight glance in their direction and, as if asking for their understanding, dipped his head ever so faintly in lieu of a greeting.
Oh my….
The women who had, until a moment ago, been indifferent to one another or quietly bristling with hostility, let out small gasps.
“…So that’s how it is. Theodora. The remaining discussion….”
“We will decide among ourselves and report to Your Highness the Grand Duchess.”
Chloe nodded awkwardly, rose, and walked out the door.
Gazes filled with admiration and envy followed after her.
Until the two of them disappeared beyond the far side of the Hall of Radiance.
The place they arrived at was the Officer Private Practice Hall.
Unlike the Fitness Training Room, this one could be requested for private use during a scheduled period of time.
And today, that private practice hall had been reserved for the entire day under Brigadier General Berk’s name.
“Aren’t you grateful? Busy as I am, I personally came all this way to escort the Grand Duchess and even help with her practice.”
Having monopolized one of the officers’ few welfare benefits, Curtis stood in the middle of the practice hall, smugly declaring that he would personally serve as Chloe’s dance partner.
“Do people usually make this much of escorting their wives? I don’t mind practicing with someone else.”
Goodness. I’m so grateful I could weep.
She managed to swallow that last remark, but apparently her expression gave her away.
“We’re still newlyweds, and yet it seems my Grand Duchess wants to dance with some other man.”
“That is hardly something a man who escorted another woman should say.”
“I did?”
Curtis tilted his head for a moment, then his smile deepened.
“Jealous?”
“Pardon?”
She had been about to ask, Were you perhaps planning to romance Sarah de Tornier? but the man seemed to have divined Chloe’s thoughts with uncanny precision.
Still smiling, Curtis held out his hand to her.
“At least not Sergeant Tornier. Being accused of seducing women in the Royal Guard twice would be a little much.”
For some reason, those words brought Theodora de Tornier’s severe face to mind.
Was it fine as long as the woman wasn’t in the Royal Guard?
She nearly asked, of course, but if she did, something like Are you out of your mind? was certain to come flying back at her, so she shut her mouth.
“What are you thinking?”
“What would I be thinking?”
Hey, if not Sergeant Tornier, then what about her older sister?
The moment she asked that, something unkind was sure to be hurled at her.
Chloe desperately changed the subject.
“Well, if they ran away, I was thinking Your Grace must have bullied the maids quite badly… something like that?”
For a split second, Curtis wondered what in the world Chloe was talking about.
Then he realized she meant the maids who had disappeared from the residence.
She had been biting her lip, so he had thought perhaps she was thinking of something serious.
“You’re far more likely the cause. Nothing like this happened when I lived alone in the Berk Ducal Residence.”
“Then perhaps they liked Your Grace and were heartbroken… no, never mind.”
The woman had been about to make a sarcastic remark, only to snap her mouth shut again.
Apparently, she had realized what she was saying came rather close to complimenting Curtis.
Curtis asked leisurely, “How is it?”
“You seem to have a lot of free time.”
Curtis frowned hard.
“Not me.”
He had been asking about the Eleonora Society.
The woman holding his hand tilted her head. Her clear eyes seemed to ask, Was that not it?
But Curtis knew this woman could produce that sort of gaze as much as she pleased if it meant teasing him.
“I came all this way to help you.”
“Well… thank you?”
An impudent answer followed.
Madame Brun clapped her hands a few times.
“You two, stop chatting! Move at a quicker tempo!”
A grand ducal couple married for barely any time at all could hardly stand blankly around at a banquet.
For reference, when Chloe had been told she would have to dance as well, she had asked, “Couldn’t I simply be ill that day?”
Unfortunately, she could not.
If that were possible, they would not have come all the way here.
If there was one mercy, perhaps it was this.
Chloe was tall.
What had she eaten to grow like that? Her younger sisters looked like the little gnome figurines people placed in gardens.
Thanks to that, she matched Curtis, who was also tall, fairly well. Since their heights suited each other, even her clumsy footwork produced something that vaguely resembled dancing.
“Step into the floor, and kick!”
At Madame Brun’s command, the woman kicked off the floor without the slightest hesitation.
Madame Brun had likely wanted an elegant movement, a light step upon the floor, but what actually emerged was closer to kicking the floor outright.
Thanks to that, Curtis had to bear Chloe’s full weight with both arms.
With a soft rustle, the dress that had been dragging along the floor spread through the air like a flower.
The woman who had fearlessly entrusted her entire body to him spun away and murmured in admiration, “Oh.”
“Is this why everyone drags dresses around?”
“For someone impressed, you sound displeased.”
“If this is what they truly want to see, wouldn’t it be enough to order the servants to stand in the middle of the banquet hall and keep flapping dresses around? I was thinking it’s a rather nasty hobby.”
A laugh escaped him.
Now that her rank insignia had been stripped away, the woman whose lips had once produced nothing but Yes, sir or Loyalty, sir never seemed to run out of venom.
In that sense, Curtis again found himself thinking he had chosen his Grand Duchess rather well.
Before, the words he wanted to say had always been his alone to say. Now, if he waited a little, they came out on their own.
“If it’s too much trouble, set the banquet music as passacaglia.”
Since he was at it, he also told her that while it was a relatively slow piece in a minor key, it suited a summer-night banquet surprisingly well. The woman’s pink eyes sparkled.
“Curtis. What comes to mind when you see white?”
Seeing as she was not fussing over Your Highness anymore, perhaps she had grown fairly accustomed to addressing him.
Curtis led the dance at an unhurried pace as he answered.
“All of a sudden? Nothing in particular.”
“Nor do I. But it seems others feel differently.”
He had expected the Eleonora Society to be no easy matter, but apparently the woman had become curious about something else.
Once he heard the whole story, it was nothing much.
Naturally, his answer was concise.
“Do as you like. His Majesty the King assigned the task to you for that very reason.”
“May I? What if I’m humiliated?”
“Then you’ll go from the Grand Duchess whose reputation has gone to the dogs to the Grand Duchess who was humiliated.”
“I don’t think you needed to put it quite like that…?”
The woman grumbled.
Without answering, Curtis lifted Chloe by the waist.
A woman dancing for the first time rarely managed to entrust her body to her partner. Fear stopped her.
But Chloe, like a human being with not one ounce of fear in her, gave herself over to Curtis’s hands without hesitation.
It was probably largely due to her time in the military. After all, physical training was also a way of growing accustomed to handling one’s own body.
“What did you discuss with Sergeant Tornier?”
At the sudden mention of Sarah de Tornier’s name, Curtis feigned ignorance.
“Nothing much.”