The Things Left Unasked
Judging by how he kept asking, something must have happened today with that woman’s sister, Theodora. Chloe gave a thoughtful hmm and stepped down again.
“I thought you didn’t think at all, but apparently you do, against all odds?”
“If you’re unhappy with my dancing, just say I can’t dance.”
Pink eyes turned toward him.
“I hear Madame Dubois has taken to her bed.”
Madame Dubois had collapsed ill after hearing that Sir Amboise, the woman her son supposedly liked, had become the Grand Duchess. In society, Warrant Officer Dubois was currently known as the fool whose beloved had been stolen by Grand Duke Berk.
Chloe’s face went a little blank. Then she sighed.
“So that’s why he...”
That’s why he, what?
Curtis wanted to ask, but Chloe said nothing more. He realized that no matter how long he waited, she was not going to tell him anything else about the matter.
“Have you ever been swindled?”
“Why would you ask that out of nowhere?”
“Do you truly not know?”
Her gaze sharpened. Curtis wanted to clutch his stomach and cackle. But Madame Brun’s eyes were still fixed on the two of them.
After observing Chloe in his office for roughly three days, he had discovered, to his astonishment, that she seemed to have won at least a little of that dreadful old woman’s favor.
Still, he could not forget that Madame Brun was a person of the royal household.
The reason Curtis had cleared his schedule and come all the way here was to provide the excuse that he wished to be his beloved Grand Duchess’s dance partner for practice.
All of this was proof.
The woman before him was proving she had the right to stand beside him, and he was proving that he loved this woman.
Was there truly nothing between you and Warrant Officer Ezra Dubois?
That, in truth, was what he wanted to ask.
Over the past few days, Curtis had been many times busier than Chloe, who was already frantic. He had preparations for the parade review, of course, and he also had to deal with the aftermath of the wedding.
He had always been busy since taking charge of the Royal Guard. That in itself could hardly bother him now.
What bothered him was that the 2nd Squad Leader, famous for being amiable, had begun looking at him with a distinctly ominous expression every time they met.
The Royal Guard’s problem had always been that it was stupid and utterly devoid of discipline, not that it rebelled against superiors.
The hothouse flowers raised delicately under the name of nobility behaved as if bowing their heads before the name Grand Duke Berk were only natural.
Warrant Officer Dubois was the most broadly liked man among them.
In other words, he had never once stood out among those flowers.
But lately, throughout the parade review training, he had been grating on Curtis’s nerves.
How many times now had Curtis thundered at the 2nd Squad for moving with such unusual distraction?
So he found himself wanting to ask.
Was that exchange of a few boxes of sweets truly nothing more than that?
Even if it was for you, it might not have been for him.
And yet he also wondered whether there was any need to ask such a thing at all.
“Curtis.”
With perfect timing, Chloe leapt up again and called his name briefly before landing in his arms.
By the name Curtis.
What an utterly perfect employee.
A ridiculous yet diligent employee who still spoke in stiff military formality, as if fixing only the form of address would solve everything.
And so Curtis steadied himself.
What did an employee’s past matter anyway?
“If I’d been capable of thinking, I wouldn’t have gone through with this marriage.”
Consider yourself lucky I’m an idiot.
At the brief whisper in his ear as she settled in his arms, Curtis finally burst into loud laughter.
To anyone watching, they were a couple who had married out of the deepest love.
“Second Lieutenant Tornier, you belong to the Royal Army 8th Regiment, don’t you? Then are you stationed in Celty now?”
“If I were in Celty, it would be difficult for me to be here. I’m temporarily assigned to close protection for key personnel.”
“Ah.” Laura Le Gauthier nodded without much interest and began rummaging through the curtains.
Only three days remained until the banquet.
It was said to be a banquet held under the Grand Duchess’s responsibility, but she could not be everywhere at once, so more often than not, the Eleonora Society members were left among themselves.
Today was the final day to hang the banquet curtains and carpets brought by the palace servants in the banquet hall and see how they looked.
“These blue dishes would suit this spot.”
Theodora looked back at Laura.
It was a blue so tasteless it made her want to sigh.
If they had chosen it “to emphasize that the Grand Duchess came from the navy,” then they had failed; naval dress uniforms were a blue-green closer to malachite. The tone was completely different from the blue Laura was holding.
Was Viscount Gauthier part of the Royalist Faction?
He probably was.
If so, she could understand why that blue had been selected. It was the King’s taste.
“It looks too heavy.”
“Oh, Second Lieutenant Tornier. Aren’t soldiers supposed to be quick on the uptake?”
“...A soldier’s virtue is obeying orders.”
“Exactly.”
A smile lingered at the corners of Laura’s pink lips.
As if she were not openly demonstrating that she was someone touched by the King’s hand.
Theodora exhaled through her nose and had the blue dishes removed.
“Please clear away everything in the blue palette.”
The palace servant bowed and removed the dishes.
Laura Le Gauthier showed no particular disappointment. She opened the clutch she had brought, took out lip rouge, and applied it.
Her plump lips were stained a deeper pink.
Among women, touching up one’s makeup was not a serious fault. Seeing Laura, several other ladies lightly reapplied rouge to their lips as well, and the atmosphere eased as if everyone had taken a breath.
Then Laura spoke in a tone as if raising a light topic.
“I had a classmate once.”
It was obvious who she meant by “classmate.”
“You know how the navy is. Since it provides a dowry, fallen nobles from difficult households come in from time to time.”
Under the absurd pretext of the Dragon’s Bride and whatnot, female naval personnel were guaranteed a retirement benefit above a certain amount.
It was no secret that plenty of people enlisted with that in mind.
“But girls like that can hardly afford to learn conversation too, can they? Naturally, they don’t fit in. People call it frugality, but from the side, it was almost pitiful. Some classmates called it shabby, to put it bluntly.”
More than a few women were listening with interest while pretending not to.
“But when I saw her again after so long, she’d married so very well. It seems there are even rumors that she did all kinds of things to climb into a higher marriage, but so what? If she’s happy, that’s enough. I thought it had all worked out wonderfully for her.”
It was blatant gossip.
Theodora was wavering over whether she ought to speak up when someone else opened her mouth first.
“How nauseating.”
It was Agathe Montpis.
The bizarre behavior the young lady of House Montpis had committed for love was famous, but her family was still an old and influential noble house.
Yet at language so rough one could hardly call her a well-bred young lady, Laura Le Gauthier put a hand to her mouth in a gesture of surprise and said, “Oh my.”
“Madame Gauthier. If you came here to work, why don’t you work? Don’t disgrace His Highness Grand Duke Berk.”
“I... never did any such thing. I believe there must be some misunderstanding...”
Agathe knew far too well how Laura Le Gauthier spoke.
Not only Laura. It was the way society women usually behaved when gossiping about someone who was not present.
And Agathe herself had spoken that way more than once.
So she could have simply let it pass.
“Ah, I suppose there was room for you to think that. How embarrassing. But even if I had...”
Moreover.
“I didn’t expect Lady Montpis to be angry over matters concerning Her Highness Grand Duchess Berk...”
Agathe had not failed to anticipate that Laura Le Gauthier’s eyes would hold not only confusion, but mockery.
You, of all people?
You were in love with Grand Duke Berk, weren’t you?
Is there anyone here who doesn’t know that?
I thought you’d be right here with me, speaking ill of the Grand Duchess.
Yes.
Agathe herself could hardly understand why she had opened her mouth.
She still hated that woman to death, the fox who had slipped into that man’s side and suddenly married him.
On top of that, Agathe had been thoroughly humiliated by that woman at the jeweler’s.
In truth, she had not wanted to come to the Eleonora Society either.
But after hearing the story from the Marquise of Flandre and Noel, Countess Montpis had clutched her forehead and ordered Agathe to confine herself.
“Agathe! I told you to give up on the Grand Duke!”
“But that woman—!”
“Agathe! Get hold of yourself. The Grand Duke is not yours now! He was never a man who could have been yours! Not once has he ever liked you!”
She had cried and screamed, but it did no good.
Countess Montpis’s order was that Agathe should serve for a while in the Eleonora Society and sort out her feelings.
Of course, even the countess had been bewildered that the Grand Duchess in question would be preparing the banquet together with the Eleonora Society, but she soon revised her opinion and decided it was for the best.
“Go and confirm for yourself that he was a low-quality man with only that much discernment to begin with. Do you understand?”
So it would have been far easier on her heart to join in gossiping about the Grand Duchess.
Then why?
Agathe found that the Grand Duchess bothered her terribly.
“Because your tears would be wasted on him.”
Agathe still remembered how those words had sounded as if that woman regarded the Grand Duke as an exceedingly low-quality human being.
Truly, the more she chewed over those words, the stranger they became.
But there was no reason to speak of that here.
Instead, Agathe snapped sharply, “If you are a member of the Eleonora Society, shouldn’t you take the lead for the honor of the royal family?”
“Ah, yes. That’s true, of course.”
Laura answered that way, smiling brightly as she lightly pressed the corner of her mouth with her thumb.
Why did the motion of wiping away smeared lip rouge irritate her this much?
In the end, Agathe shot to her feet.
“Agathe!”
“Lady Montpis!”
The young ladies close to Agathe called out in surprise, but it was no use.
In the place where the young lady of House Montpis had vanished, the frozen Eleonora Society remained. One or two ladies followed Agathe out, and a few others pretended to choose carpets while watching the room’s mood.
“It’s quite famous that Lady Montpis was in unrequited love with Grand Duke Berk. They say when you’re in love, everything sounds like it’s about you.”
“Indeed. To my ears, it didn’t sound like a story about Her Highness the Grand Duchess at all.”
And a few others clung to Laura’s side and giggled.
Laura shrugged.
“It isn’t as though I said her youngest sibling is obviously mixed with a foreigner and yet she insists the child is her sibling, now is it?”