“Poppy! Come here, sweetheart — Mama’s right here!”
The kitten hesitated, then gave a little leap, then hesitated again, caught between two impulses.
“I think that person must be the cat’s owner!”
Emily and I stepped out from the undergrowth. There, coming toward us, was a young woman dressed in magnificent, exquisitely tasteful finery. She was moving in every direction at once, clearly searching for something — and the expression on her face was one of unmistakable desperation.
“Excuse me!”
I held the kitten close so it wouldn’t be startled, and called out to the young woman I suspected was its owner. She stopped when she caught sight of us from a distance.
“Oh — Poppy!”
The resonance of that voice snapped Emily and me both to attention. There was a kind of presence to it that felt strangely, inexplicably familiar.
“Why does she look so familiar?”
“I was thinking the same thing. Have we met her somewhere?”
I carried the cat and walked quickly toward the unknown young woman.
“Excuse me — are you looking for this cat?”
“My goodness. Poppy.”
In an instant, I was abandoned by Poppy without ceremony. The moment her owner appeared, the cat transferred itself directly into her arms.
“Where on earth did you go? Mama has been looking everywhere for you. I thought I’d lost you — my heart nearly stopped.”
‘Goodness, she’s beautiful. Truly, breathtakingly beautiful.’
‘Beautiful’ was far too small a word. She was radiant in a way that transcended ordinary description. She looked as though she had descended directly from somewhere above the clouds.
Her golden hair shone as though it might release sparks of light at any moment, each strand gleaming with a deep, liquid luster. Her eyes were the color of blood — vivid, translucent, achingly clear. Dangerous-looking, yet profoundly captivating. A refined, unconventional hue that was impossible to look away from.
Her bearing was sharp and cold enough to send a chill down one’s spine. And yet one could not look away.
I found myself staring as though drawn by gravity.
Emily, who appeared to be thinking the same thing, gazed at the woman with wide, unblinking eyes.
The beautiful woman with the crimson eyes pressed the cat close and let out a long, deep breath of relief. Emily and I quietly withdrew to give her a moment.
* * *
“Come now — I should ask whose household this young lady belongs to— Oh?”
By the time Katherine came back to herself, Ivelina and Emily had already gone.
“Good heavens, what was I thinking. I’ve lost the very person who saved our Poppy.”
Still holding Poppy against her chest with one arm, Katherine pressed her other hand to her temple.
She should have expressed her gratitude then and there. But finding Poppy again — Poppy, whom she had feared was lost forever — had swept every other thought clean out of her head.
“Linzy.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Where did those two go? They can’t have gotten far.”
“They were walking quite quickly, my lady. They seemed to be in something of a hurry.”
Katherine let out a slow, heavy sigh at the words of Linzy — who served as both her lady’s maid and her personal escort knight.
“Tch. I’ve missed my rescuer.”
“I’m sorry, my lady.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? It isn’t your fault. Never mind — if we’re meant to meet again, we will.”
She said it plainly, but inwardly, Katherine felt the loss more than she let on.
By the accident of her nature, she was exceptionally poor at expressing herself. That she had conveyed even this much regret was, for her, something quite remarkable.
“Let’s go to the almshouse. We’ll be late for our appointment with the sister.”
“Yes, my lady.”
* * *
“May the divine bless you always. Thank you for coming, as ever, my lady.”
“I’m afraid I’m a little late. Forgive me, Sister.”
“Not at all. Your visits alone are more than I could ever ask for.”
Katherine Hardeion.
She was something of an eccentric. Once celebrated as the queen of high society, she harbored a genuine, unvarnished contempt for the social world she had presided over.
What Katherine despised more than anything in the world was people who behaved one way to a person’s face and entirely another behind their back — and in high society, that was simply considered good form.
What had allowed an eccentric like her to become its queen was, if one were being frank about it, entirely a matter of her face and her family name.
She came from one of the empire’s most distinguished marquessate families, and possessed the kind of beauty that silenced a room by simply entering it. In society, the true measure of grace was not manners — it was a face.
The dresses she wore set fashions. The invitations to the salons she (reluctantly) hosted were met with frenzied demand. When Katherine attended a gathering, there was a great deal of weeping — because every man in attendance could think of no one but her, and most of them had no hope.
Even the emperor himself, who had been a confirmed bachelor at the time, had lost his head and made his suit to her. That should give some indication of the scale of her renown.
She, of course, had not the slightest interest in a man a full ten years her senior.
There was a reason for that. Her heart had already been taken by someone else.
As a child, Katherine had visited an almshouse with her parents — and there she had met a boy.
He was always trailing a runny nose behind him, which was why Katherine called him ‘the snotty one.’
As it turned out, the snotty one was the only son of a ducal family.
Yes — the very same boy who was now the former duke, and Kael Hardeion’s father: Carson Hardeion.
When Carson first laid eyes on Katherine, he was flustered. No girl had ever spoken to him that way before, rank and all. Their mutual, consuming curiosity became the foundation on which something like fate was built.
Katherine, who had no particular interest in marriage, put it off for five years. Carson Hardeion grew into an aging bachelor, and waited for her without a word of complaint.
Eventually, by one means or another, they married — and became, in their own particular way, a remarkably fond and rather unusual pair.
“I had a small adventure on the way here. I nearly lost Poppy entirely.”
“Oh my, how frightening that must have been.”
Poppy was a stray cat who had been wandering near the almshouse. Katherine’s hobbies included charitable work — she was fiercely unforgiving toward those she considered powerful, yet had a deeply tender weakness for the vulnerable.
Of course, because of her temperament and her reputation for confronting the powerful without restraint, the rumors that circulated about her in society ran exactly contrary to the truth: that she was ruthless, volatile, and difficult.
But what did it matter? Katherine was a woman entirely indifferent to what others thought of her.
“Oh, by the way, my lady — something quite unusual happened today. A young lady who said she had come from the House of Hardeion stopped in and made a donation of goods.”
“Mm?”
“She even left all of the cheques she had on her. The amount was rather substantial — I was quite surprised.”
“Was she definitely a member of the Hardeion household?”
“Yes, indeed. I’ve known you for so many years, my lady, and I knew you had no daughters of your own…”
Sister Hendel’s memory was precise. Katherine and Carson had two sons, and no daughters.
Katherine furrowed her brows in puzzlement.
“And yet?”
Sister Hendel continued.
“Even so, she seemed to want to come and go quietly, so I didn’t press her. She did seem to be in rather a hurry to leave.”
“Wait.”
In that moment, the image of a young woman flashed through Katherine’s mind. The appearance of the person who had returned Poppy to her just a short while ago rose before her eyes.
“Wait — what did she look like? Can you describe her?”
“Let me think. She had shining golden hair and green eyes. Her gaze was very clear and bright.”
“Oh! It was her.”
Something sharp and alert kindled in Katherine’s crimson eyes.
But that girl was a member of the Hardeion household?
Was there someone in her own family she didn’t know about?
“Was there anything else you noticed about her? I’m quite certain I’ve never seen that face before — tell me more.”
“She was enormously thoughtful and considerate. She brought a great quantity of things the children would enjoy — sweets and teas — and donated them all. She had even written out notes on the properties of each tea to give to me.”
“What a genuinely kind-hearted girl.”
“And she was so observant as well. There’s been a bout of colds going around among the children lately. Somehow she had noticed, and made a special point of asking us to look after the children’s bedding.”
“My goodness. That sort of young woman is truly rare. But now I wonder — what is her connection to my son?”
The Hardeions were a peculiar family. They tended not to pay a great deal of attention to one another.
Katherine had not yet heard anything about her son’s engagement.
* * *
“Oh no — I’m going to be late! I promised Kael we would eat together at least once a day!”
I hurried down to the dining room.
I had completely forgotten the promise I had made to share at least one meal a day with him. I had missed both breakfast and lunch, which meant this evening’s dinner was the meal I couldn’t miss — and it was already well past eight o’clock.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry I’m late!”
* * *
