SGC 31

CHAPTER 31

Translator: Rae

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Setting down the quill in his hand, Edmund rose to his feet. Behind him, as he came nearer, she could see the desk piled high with documents. A look of discomfort flickered across Rozella’s face.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you when you’re busy. It’s just… there’s something I wished to say.”

“I was just about to take a break anyway. Sit comfortably.”

Crossing the spacious study in no time at all, Edmund gestured toward the leather sofa set to one side. Then he lightly rang the bell resting on the table.

A short while later, a maid arrived and knocked at the door. Edmund gave a quiet instruction to the maid as she entered.

“Would you prepare some tea?”

"Yes, Your Grace.”

 

Only after the maid had bowed and withdrawn did Rozella take her seat on the sofa. Before long, the maid returned carrying a silver tray and set two cups of black tea upon the table.

Only after the maid had left again did Rozella carefully begin to speak.

“It’s about the rumors the press has been spreading about me lately.”

After getting that far, Rozella hesitated. Edmund, holding his teacup, did not press her and simply waited.

Lowering her gaze with a shamefaced expression, Rozella gathered her courage and offered her apology.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry. It seems as though you’ve been made to suffer needless misunderstandings because of me, Ed.”

“Rose, that is not something you need to apologize for.”

Edmund answered at once, firm and decisive, and even gave her a small, gentle smile.

“Have you forgotten? I was the one who proposed this marriage to you in the first place.”

“But… that was also to help me… and because of this marriage, you’re the only one bearing needless losses, Ed.”

“Why would you think that?”

As though he were sincerely curious, Edmund leaned back against the leather sofa and tilted his head languidly. His lips, faintly slanted, parted, and a cool, unhurried voice flowed from them.

“Do you truly think I proposed to you without anything to gain?”

Unable to answer, Rozella simply looked at him, her confusion laid bare in her eyes.

Of course, he had said before that the reason for this marriage was to avoid an unwanted political marriage. But by any reasonable standard, that alone did not explain why he had chosen her of all people.

If that had truly been all, it would have made more sense to choose someone more suitable, someone who would bring no trouble in her wake…

“I’m grateful that you worry about me, but there’s no need.”

Lifting his teacup to his lips, Edmund paused as though savoring the fragrance of the tea, then murmured in a languid voice,

“Because through this marriage, I’ll gain the one thing I have desired most.”

Rozella’s expression clouded with confusion for a moment. The thing he had desired most… what could that possibly be?

While she slowly pondered over his words in her head, Edmund took a sip of tea and added matter-of-factly,

“The opinion of the public won’t last long, so don’t trouble yourself over it.”

"But..." 

“It was a process that would have had to be endured at some point anyway. Given time, it will fade from everyone’s memory.”

Would it really? She could not fully understand what he meant, but in the end, Rozella gave a quiet nod.

“Even so, I’m sure there must be something I can do.”

Rozella drew the letter she had kept tucked against herself and placed it upon the table.

“Not long ago, a formal invitation arrived from Princess Vanessa. She said she wished to invite me as a member of her regular gathering.”

There was no sign of surprise in Edmund’s eyes as he looked down at the letter. Rozella continued speaking.

“The press is speaking as though all those dreadful rumors surrounding the ducal house must be true simply because I haven’t shown myself in society.”

"...” 

“If I appear in public, then at the very least some of the rumors will quiet down.”

An unreadable glimmer surfaced in Edmund’s once tranquil gaze, then vanished. Tilting his head slightly, he dissuaded her just as she had expected.

“I understand how you feel, but there’s no need for you to force yourself into something like that.”

His gentle voice soothed her softly.

“I told you, didn’t I? I won’t place obligations on you that you do not want.”

Rosella shook her head immediately. 

“It’s all right.”

Then, intending to reassure him, she hurriedly unfolded the words she had prepared.

“The truth is, there are things I learned while attending the academy. As you know, it was little different from a small society of its own.”

Feeling oddly like an applicant trying to persuade an interviewer, Rozella went on in an earnest tone.

“I’m quite familiar with the way they speak, and I know at least a little about how to deal with them. If you’re worried I might be hurt… ah, of course, if that isn’t the reason then this is rather embarrassing, but I wanted to say that you needn’t worry.”

Of course, she was not claiming she could handle noblewomen perfectly. Even so, it had to be a hundred times better than going in with no preparation at all.

She wanted, in whatever small way she could, to be of help to him. Considering how much she had already received from him, such resolve felt woefully insufficient, but still…

Tapping his fingers lightly against the armrest as though lost in thought, Edmund only nodded his agreement after a long silence.

"Okay, then I'll leave the social work to you." 

A faint brightness touched Rozella’s pale face. But before she could even thank him, he added a firm condition.

“But if you find you do not wish to continue, you may stop at any time. There’s no need to force yourself to endure it.”

The expression of the man meeting her gaze softened gently.

"Will you promise me?" 

Grateful for his consideration, Rosella nodded quickly. 

"Yes, I promise!" 

The simple fact that Edmund believed in her filled her with joy. If only to live up to that faith, a fierce determination rose within her to devote herself wholly to this great role.

*** 

The first weekend of the new month arrived in the blink of an eye.

Rozella stared blankly out the window at the palace, where gold and pure white were arranged in splendid harmony. The carriage was passing between the endlessly stretching royal gardens.

The royal palace, which she was setting foot in for the first time in her life, was truly magnificent in appearance. The long history of the Kingdom of Elmyre seemed to cling to every corner of it. She could not help but marvel at the grand sight she had known only from books.

Before long, the carriage came to a halt in the front court of the princess’s palace. As the door opened and Rozella stepped down, a court attendant who had been waiting bowed with a hand laid over his chest.

“Duchess of Hayden, welcome to the palace. It is a great honor to attend upon you today.”

At those warm words of welcome, the stiffness in her spine eased a little. When Rozella responded with proper courtesy, the attendant straightened with equal politeness.

“Her Highness Princess Vanessa has given strict orders that the Duchess be attended to with particular care. If you please, I shall escort you at once to the conservatory of the princess’s palace.”

Following the attendant who led the way, Rozella forced herself to walk with calm composure. Yet with each step she took, tension crept upward from her feet. To drive away the unease circling within her heart, she drew a quiet breath.

Soon, a beautiful glass greenhouse came into view, like something out of a fairy tale. The attendant opened the great glass doors and ushered Rozella inside.

As she stepped carefully through the doorway, a splendid garden opened before her beneath a soaring domed ceiling.

The first thing to greet Rozella, who was surveying the interior with studied calm so as not to appear provincial, was a bright, high pitched voice.

"Ah, finally!" 

In the very center of the garden, where round tables had been arranged with delicate care, every gaze turned immediately toward Rozella.

Among them, one striking woman came gliding forward and clasped Rozella’s hand warmly. Her hair was blonde with the sheen of honey, her eyes gleaming as though set with amethysts. The woman, whose long lashes curled beautifully, smiled with charming sweetness.

Rozella immediately remembered where she had seen the woman before.

“It is a pleasure to meet you. This is the first time we have properly exchanged greetings, is it not?”

She was the very woman who had stood out so vividly among the guests at the wedding.

The woman had left a strong impression upon her, so pure and graceful a beauty that one could not help but look twice, and of such obvious nobility that it had been clear even from the seat of honor she occupied.

More than anything, on that day her eyes had laid bare the malice she bore toward Rozella.

“Your Highness Princess Vanessa, it is my first time greeting you properly. I am Rozella Hayden.”

Having identified the woman before her, Rozella did not hesitate to offer her formal greeting. The elegant lady standing before her was none other than Princess Vanessa Glister.

“It is a great honor to have been invited here today.”

“Honor has nothing to do with it. It is only natural. We shall soon be as good as family.”

Vanessa answered lovingly like a fresh white blossom blooming in the greenhouse and gave a playful wink.

Though slightly taken aback by such friendly approach, Rozella could not help weighing those words in her mind. As good as family. Certainly, it was not a lie.

She had read of it in the newspaper not long ago. It was the very report that had silenced the press, which had previously been raising talk of discord between the royal family and the ducal house.

It was the news that the only princess of Elmyre Kingdom had entered into a marriage alliance with a collateral branch of Hayden. The groom was Delroy Gautier, the eldest son of the Marquis of Gautier, and a cousin of Edmund’s.

“I heard this is your first time at such a gathering, Duchess. Do not be nervous. Everyone here will gladly help you, will they not?”

Chirping on in lively fashion, Vanessa turned toward the others and called out brightly.

“Ladies, my apologies for the delayed introduction. This is the very Duchess Hayden whom you have all been so eager to meet.”

Was it merely her imagination, or did those words sound like a keeper tossing prey before a pack of animals?

Swallowing against her dry throat, Rozella turned her gaze toward the women seated in easy elegance around the tables.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Ladies.”

“We have heard much about you. I do hope we shall see you often in society from now on.”

Though each offered a cordial greeting, hidden beneath their smiles were furtive glances that measured and weighed her.

There was curiosity in them, but it was the kind that observed from behind a clear boundary, tinged with the same anxiety one might feel while looking upon something foul and strange.

Rozella was all too familiar with such looks. Familiar to the point of weariness, in truth.

“Now then, do not stand there. Please, have a seat. Since everyone is here, shall we begin our conversation at ease?”

Returning to her seat of honor, Vanessa smiled brightly and lifted her teacup. Above its tilted rim, her violet eyes narrowed once, then returned to their former sweetness.

Rozella let her gaze travel to the only empty seat. It was the one farthest from Vanessa’s place of honor, nearest to the door.

That, clearly, was the place assigned to Rozella.

"..." 

Feeling the guarded stares of those around her, Rozella sat down in the place given to her without protest.

Soon they began cheerfully exchanging unfamiliar anecdotes from their own little world of society.

As though the moment of her introduction had evaporated entirely, not one of them made any attempt to include Rozella in the conversation.

Perhaps that was for the best. After all, her greatest purpose today was simply to show her face here.

Wrapping her fingers around the teacup set before her, Rozella quietly breathed in its fragrance. The dazrine tea had gone so cold it might as well have been poured over ice. A small sigh slipped from her at such a childish trick.

She had at least expected them to torment her with more sophistication than the children at the academy.

“It must be somewhat awkward, not being able to join in the conversation.”

At that moment, a woman who appeared to be about Rozella’s age addressed her with kind politeness, wearing a smile so innocent in appearance that Rozella almost relaxed at once.

“I am Natalie, the eldest daughter of House Green. So the rumors were not exaggerated? To think you would be this beautiful.”

Yet the words that followed that polite greeting proved thoroughly that she was no different from the others.

“I look forward to your company from now on, Miss Everett.”

***

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