Even though Olivia was now treated as an eccentric noble lady, there was a time when she was called the finest lady in the kingdom. It was only about five years ago, when Olivia had been a lady-in-waiting to the princess for just over a month.
“Olivia.”
This place, fragrant with flowers, was the rear garden of the castle where Princess Nancy resided in the royal palace. Seeing Olivia unable to focus on the conversation, Nancy spoke.
“Olivia?”
Olivia suddenly came to her senses and reflected on where she was and what she was doing. It felt as if she had briefly dreamed a short dream.
“Ah, I’m sorry, Princess.”
“What are you thinking about that has you so distracted?”
“It’s nothing.”
Olivia lightly shook her head and looked at the table. The table and chairs Nancy had prepared for a tea party with her ladies-in-waiting were luxury items carved from marble, and the refreshments and tea set upon them were said to have been sent by the prince of the Seon Kingdom of the Eastern Continent, who was soon to wed her.
“It’s obvious. A young lady at this time would be thinking of her betrothed, wouldn’t she?”
Lady Randolph’s laughter, mixed with a nasal sound, echoed through the rear garden. Olivia took a sip of the bitter tea, set down the teacup, and with both hands clasped, quietly listened to their conversation.
“We may have passed the time when the world looked like a flower garden, but the Young Lady of the Russell family still has a pure soul.”
“How is the Young Duke Brown? Do you meet often?”
“Indeed, I’m curious. You don’t talk much about yourself.”
Olivia slowly raised her head. She could let the other ladies’ words go in one ear and out the other, but not Nancy’s. Resting her chin on the table, Olivia spoke to Nancy, whose eyes were sparkling.
“If you had asked, I would have answered.”
“Then answer. I’m curious about your love life.”
Since Nancy had brought it up, Olivia had no choice but to continue. Olivia mechanically brought out the answer she always had prepared.
“The previous generation’s promise……”
“Everyone knows well enough that the marriage talks came about through the previous generation’s promise.”
Lady Randolph, who had cut off Olivia mid-sentence, spoke with a smile in her eyes.
“Miss Russell, that’s not what we’re curious about.”
Lady Randolph’s sticky gaze, Lady Gilmore’s agreeing look beside her, Nancy’s brow slightly furrowed in a way only she knew. From those combined expressions, Olivia could easily tell what answer the ladies wanted.
“Ah.”
Olivia inadvertently let out a small laugh. At that laugh, Lady Randolph’s face crumpled.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can give you the answer you want.”
“Look at this. She’s still young.”
“The Young Duke must have a lot of worries too.”
It was around the time she thought that perhaps what they wanted was a flushed face and flustered behavior. Lady Randolph, tireless, strove to humble Olivia.
“It must have already been two years since he waited for you to come of age. He’s been patient for a long time.”
“Has he really been patient? From what I hear lately……”
“Men who run around in packs are all the same. Would the Young Duke be any different?”
Hohoho. At the light laughter that followed, Nancy finally stepped in.
“Marianne, Viera.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“I’d like to talk with Olivia alone. Could you give us some space?”
Her face was certainly smiling, but Nancy’s voice had a reproach mixed in. The two ladies were not so young as to miss that. By the time they thought they might have gone too far, the princess’s sharp gaze was already upon them.
“……Yes, Princess.”
Nancy, having dismissed them from the rear garden at once, let out a small sigh and gently took Olivia’s hand.
“Olivia.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Let their words go in one ear and out the other.”
Olivia lifted her drooping eyelids wide open. Her transparent blue eyes were fully revealed. Seeing those eyes without a trace of agitation, Nancy let out a sigh of relief.
“I’ve been doing that all along.”
“Indeed, this is how Olivia should be.”
Nancy laughed heartily and then subtly shifted her gaze to the only entrance of the rear garden. To be in a position where even laughing required watching others’ eyes. Olivia sent a look that seemed to ask if this side was really alright. Nancy did not notice, however.
“Don’t let talk of Young Duke Brown bother you either.”
“No. It was very useful information.”
“Hmm?”
“If I keep it well, it will be a good card to use at the right time.”
“Oh my.”
Nancy let out a small exclamation, as if she had not expected to hear such words from Olivia, who was seven years younger than her. It had been only a month since she had taken her as her lady-in-waiting. Thinking that she might soon lose a friend far more compatible than the other ladies-in-waiting she had known for a long time, a sense of regret welled up.
“I wanted to hear a love story, but there was nothing to tell from the start?”
“Yes. That’s why I couldn’t bring it up in front of those ladies.”
“Why? Doesn’t the Young Duke come to see you?”
“I don’t go to see him either.”
“That’s……!”
It was only natural for a gentleman to call on a lady. Nancy held her head at Olivia’s eccentricity in overturning that natural order and interpreting it as she pleased.
“Wait, this is so different from what I imagined.”
“What did you imagine?”
“A friend of your brother whom you’ve known since childhood. The first moment you became aware of each other as man and woman while growing up, the uncontrollable feelings before the wedding……!”
“There’s no such thing.”
Olivia, who had cut off Nancy’s fantasy at once, took the teacup in her hand. Though it was said to be her first time touching tea utensils from the Seon Kingdom, she quickly learned the most beautiful form with just one demonstration from Nancy. Nancy looked at her in disbelief and asked again.
“Then why are you going to marry?”
“You know. The world of adults is a bit more complicated.”
“……Yes. That’s right.”
Nancy felt as if she had been scolded by Olivia. Olivia, still only seventeen. In a few days, when the new year came, she would become an adult, and she looked as if she had mastered the ways of the world. A loveless marriage was perhaps natural in this world.
“You’re too good at understanding the minds of merchants.”
Practical diplomacy leading to marriage. Nancy was always angry at being treated as a commodity at the center of it, but Olivia, though in a similar situation, was the type to conform to reality. The world was changing rapidly, and Olivia was young, so how could she live like this? Nancy was always curious.
“It wouldn’t be bad to freely experience love once before you leave.”
“I am a Russell to the bone.”
“With Olivia, who is the spitting image of that stiff-necked Count Russell, free love is a dream not even dreamable.”
“It’s not that I can’t dream it, it’s that I don’t.”
Olivia could not understand the Young Duke Brown, who could not resist something so easy and was talked about by the other ladies.
“So rather, the Young Duke is simply astonishing.”
“What is?”
“That he has the presence of mind to devote his body and heart to another person.”
“Good heavens, Olivia!”
Nancy was appalled at the words that burst from Olivia’s mouth. The Olivia she had come to know over the past month was not someone who used such unrefined language.
“At least I didn’t want to have something someone else had used, but he couldn’t even wait two years.”
“Olivia!”
Olivia, quietly watching Nancy laugh and then cry, took a sip of the remaining tea.
* * *
It was a distance one could walk from the royal palace to the townhouse. Using a car was not bad either, but Olivia liked to look around the shops in the city herself. As Olivia walked the streets with Masha on their way home, her brow furrowed. Far off, she saw Lady Randolph and Lady Gilmore.
“Did something unpleasant happen at the royal palace?”
“Something like that. It wasn’t very pleasant.”
“How could you win against ladies in a battle of nerves?”
“I didn’t fight. So I didn’t lose in the first place.”
“Yeees.”
Masha thought that perhaps a fight had occurred, and her young lady might have won.
“A coffee house, newly opened.”
A new shop had appeared on the street she always passed. Olivia stopped and lightly scanned the display set out by the window. Masha pointed at the cake with enraptured eyes.
“The kids say the desserts are very pretty and delicious.”
“Let’s buy some and go back. So we can all share.”
“Really?”
What Olivia meant by “all together” was the servants of the townhouse. She nodded to Masha, who asked back with surprised eyes.
“I should start getting into the habit of being extravagant now. That way the accounts will balance.”
Seeing Nancy’s two ladies-in-waiting brought back the hidden side of Young Duke Brown that she had briefly forgotten. If she hadn’t known, maybe not, but she wasn’t so soft-hearted as to just take it when she knew.
“Young Lady, I think it’s better if I go in alone.”
Olivia, who had been about to enter the coffee house with her, stopped at Masha’s words.
“Is it not a place for me to enter?”
“There’s no need for you to stand in line too.”
“Alright. Go ahead.”
As Masha said, there was no need for her to join that crowd and stand in line. When Masha went into the shop, Olivia crossed the street and moved away from the busy area. Perhaps that was the problem; for some reason, a carriage that could not slow down rushed toward the spot where Olivia stood.
“Hey, move! Everyone, get out of the way!”
The coachman shouted, but before people could even dodge, the carriage overturned. In the street that instantly became chaos, Olivia, having lost her hat, blankly looked up at the man who was holding her.
“Are you alright?”
Eyes of a subtle green. She thought she would never forget those eyes for the rest of her life.
