WBWB | Chapter 26

“I like that room.”

“Wouldn’t you change your mind after moving to the new room? Try it out, and if you find it uncomfortable, tell me. I’ll have you moved back.”

“I will.”

With even the Duke insisting, I had no choice. I nodded, and only then could I leave the library.

‘But was he… always this talkative?’

The next morning, as soon as I finished breakfast, Madame Pauline came and said she would show me my new room.

I followed Madame Pauline to the new room assigned to me. It was indeed spacious. Unlike my previous room with its exposed ceiling, this room had proper wallpaper on the walls and ceiling. A large window let in plenty of light, offering a panoramic view of the garden.

‘My old room must have been drafty. It’s much warmer here, even with such a large window.’

A carpet covered the entire floor, preventing the cold from seeping through. A wardrobe stood on one side of the room, a round table and chairs were placed in the center, and a sofa with a footrest next to a much larger and more ornate fireplace than the one in my previous room. There was even a glass cabinet filled with teacups, a teapot, teaspoons, and everything needed for making tea.

“Would you like to see the bathroom, Miss Jeanne?”

The most surprising feature was the attached bathroom. It had a spacious porcelain bathtub with cat feet. The bathtub I had been using was a small, half-sized one, only big enough to sit and soak my lower body. But this bathtub was large enough for two people to lie down comfortably with their legs fully extended.

‘Is it really alright for me to have this room?’

As I thought it would be suitable even for guests, Madame Pauline spoke, 

“This was originally a guest room, but it’s been unused for several years, just covered in dust sheets. A room deteriorates if it’s not used, becoming damp and musty, so would you mind staying here, Miss Jeanne?”

I couldn’t refuse after she put it that way.

I moved to the new room before lunch. Indeed, once I had moved, the new room was so much better that I couldn’t even remember the old one.

Lady Ana also visited after lunch.

“Teacher! Your room is so pretty! Almost as pretty as mine!”

“Isn’t it?”

Lady Ana said she had gotten lost for a moment, not knowing I had changed rooms.

We sat on the bed and played card games for two until dinner. I had drawn and made the cards myself to teach her the game.

Engrossed in the game, we didn’t notice the time until the sun began to set.

“Teacher, I want to have dinner with you tonight.”

Lady Ana’s words reminded me of my dinner appointment with the Duke. And that I had to tell him what I wanted during that dinner.

I told Lady Ana that I was invited to dinner with His Grace.

“Shall I ask him if you can join us?”

“…No.”

Just those words seemed to make Lady Ana slightly timid, and she quietly returned to her own room.

‘But what should I ask for?’

Left alone, I took out dresses from the trunk I hadn’t yet unpacked, pondering.

‘What should I request?’

As I contemplated, surrounded by beautiful dresses spread out on the bed, a thought suddenly struck me. Something I had been longing for. And there was only one person who could grant it; the Duke.

That evening, I chose a cream-colored silk dress. As I entered the dining hall and sat down, the Duke stared at me intently. But the moment I looked at him, he abruptly turned away, as if embarrassed.

‘Is something wrong?’

I self-consciously touched my cheek and smoothed down my dress.

“Thank you for inviting me to dinner, Your Grace.”

“Hmm.”

Dinner began shortly after. When the appetizer was served, I thanked him for the new room. He nodded curtly and offered me an aperitif.

“Drink.”

Thirsty, I unthinkingly drank the clear liquid in the glass. Aperitifs were usually light and refreshing alcohol. But as soon as I tasted the seemingly water-like liquid, I almost spat it out. I clenched my teeth and forced it down, unwilling to make a scene.

‘Oh my!’

My mouth burned, and my stomach felt like it was on fire. The alcohol was so strong that my eyes watered. I picked up the glass and stared at its contents.

‘Is this… the right drink?’

I had heard that alcohol in colder regions tended to be stronger. But the drinks at the previous dinners hadn’t been this strong. Wondering if something was wrong, I sipped the drink cautiously and glanced at him. He was emptying his glass without any reaction.

‘I see, this is normal then?’

I carefully sipped the drink, trying not to drink any large gulps. But the single glass I had already consumed had already set my mouth and stomach ablaze. Soon, my whole body felt warm and flushed. The dining hall felt hot, and my head spun. I tried to cool my cheeks with the back of my hand.

‘I need to pull myself together.’

But the single sip had already lit a fire in my body. My eyes felt hot, and my pupils dilated.

The alcohol had a powerful effect that evening. Intoxicated, it made me fearless.

“Where did you get that dress?”

The Duke asked.

“Did you buy it?”

“No. Madame Pauline gave it to me. She said it belonged to the former mistress and had been stored away…”

The Duke shrugged.

“Then it must have been my mother’s dress. I thought it looked familiar.”

His words made me realize something obvious.

‘Madame Pauline’s mistress, of course!’

The mistress Madame Pauline served was his mother. How had I not connected those two facts before? I self-consciously smoothed the wrinkles on my dress.

“Do you know anything about my mother?”

“Very little.”

Just a small fragment, a footnote in history.

“I know she was Duchess Marie Adelaide, His Majesty’s aunt…”

How did the previous kings exert their influence over the chieftains of the barbarian tribes after granting them land? The barbarians, though a vassal, shared the same ancestry as the invaders who attacked the south every summer. Wouldn’t they be more likely to collude with them and usurp the throne, rather than act as a shield against them?

There was a tried and effective method employed in such situations; marriage.

The previous kings had married the heads of the Skadi family to their daughters, or to their nieces if their daughters were unavailable. As far as I knew, the previous Duke’s wife was the third of the previous King’s six daughters. That meant the current King and the Duke were cousins.

“That’s right. My mother was the current King’s third aunt. She lived in the warmth of Franc until she was sixteen and then came here, where she spent the rest of her life. As the Duchess of Skadi. So, what did you think of the dress when you tried it on?”

“…”

“How did it feel wearing it?”

How did it feel wearing the dress? 

An answer immediately came to mind, but I hesitated.

Normally, I would have showered it with compliments. That it was beautiful and didn’t look outdated at all, despite being from a previous generation. But the alcohol gave me courage. The courage to tell the truth.

“This dress is… too thin. For this climate. So, when I had it altered, I had a thicker lining added. It’s beautiful, but here, this dress…”

“Is unwearable. The dress is beautiful, but completely impractical.”

The Duke shrugged again, as if he had already known my answer.

“As you can see from the dress, my mother never forgot her homeland. Even after marrying my father and bearing him two sons, she never adapted to Skadi, until the day she died. Even though it wasn’t a foreign country, just a different region within the same kingdom. My mother longed for Franc and the court life all her life. And she diligently ordered and wore dresses that were in fashion there. Even though she could never return, she didn’t want to fall behind the trends there. But you can’t wear such clothes here, not even in summer. That dress eventually made her ill. Consumption. Or perhaps it was homesickness.”

“…”

“My father loved my mother. I consider that a curse upon him. To love a woman who hated his land and himself. Wouldn’t it have been better for him to have taken mistresses?”

He stopped there.

“I’ve misspoken. Please forget what I said.”