276 - Blindfold
When my fever went down, Valerier's presence disappeared from around me. Giselle had told me while I was bedridden that the hot milk had been different from usual because they'd run out of honey, but Valerier being gone... I wondered if that was what it meant. Unable to shake my unease, I asked Ulrika about it, and she said Valerier had been called back home because a disease had broken out in her family's territory and they needed someone to nurse the sick and arrange for medicine.
"A disease broke out... is the medicine alright?"
"It's not a difficult illness like Wards disease, so it seems fine. It's a disease that can be cured with medicine prescribed by the Sedovara Church. And needing nursing care during treatment is the same for any illness."
"It'll be absolutely fine," Ulrika said with a beautiful smile. I still couldn't tell whether she was smiling because she really believed it was fine, or whether she was just putting on a lady's mask. A vague unease clung to me that I couldn't shake, and I furrowed my brow with a frown.
"More importantly, shouldn't you let Rebecca into the room soon?"
"I recall Rebecca once said she 'didn't want to see sick children being cared for,' so I kept her away out of consideration..."
"Rebecca said something like that to you, young lady? When was that?"
"Right after we came to the detached palace. Remember, I had a fever back then from the travel fatigue?"
Perhaps they thought I was asleep, but the maids were speaking quite freely. I'd also seen Ulrika sending passionate looks toward Leonardo, but I chose not to touch on that. Since then, I hadn't seen Ulrika making any approaches to Leonardo. As long as she kept her private and public life separate, that became Leonardo's problem as my brother, not something for me, his little sister, to comment on.
...Come to think of it, back then too, Valerier had genuinely nursed me with dedication.
She had cared for me so devotedly, despite me being a mistress of unknown background who'd been suddenly thrust upon her. If a disease had spread in her territory, perhaps it couldn't be helped that they'd want to call Valerier back.
Remembering how I'd fallen ill right after arriving at the detached palace, my thoughts drifted to Valerier, who had vanished from it. As my thoughts kept veering off course, Ulrika called them back.
"Please keep it a secret from Rebecca that you know."
With that preface, she told me about Rebecca's origins. Though Rebecca was from the Loyalty Peerage family, it seemed her aunt had inherited the headship. In this world, due to mythology, women were preferred as heirs, so that in itself wasn't unusual. Unable to inherit the family, her father had apparently married a woman he'd fallen freely in love with, and Rebecca was born. He'd had quite a few children too, I heard, five including Rebecca. Then, several years ago, Rebecca's parents and siblings except for her had died in an epidemic, and Rebecca herself was taken in by her aunt. Because she had nursed her siblings until they died, seeing sick children apparently brought back painful memories of her family. If the new mistress (me) had been an adult, it wouldn't have been a problem, but for Rebecca, the fact that I was a child seemed to be the issue.
"...I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me."
I recalled how I'd been on the verge of dismissing her early on, thinking I had no need for a maid who didn't work. I still thought it was questionable to neglect a patient just because it was painful to see sick children, but someday Rebecca would marry and have children of her own. If she couldn't even care for her own child when they fell ill, that would be a problem.
"That's true. It seems she used to cover it up by pushing her work onto Stina before, but... it appears she's grown quite attached to you since summer, and she seems anxious when she can't see you."
Since I'd told her not to come into my room until I was out of bed, she couldn't enter, but apparently Rebecca had been hovering outside the door. She'd been preparing fruits and chilled lemon water and such, things I liked, keeping them ready so she could respond to anything.
...Did I do something wrong?
I'd kept her away thinking she disliked nursing the sick, but it seemed that instead, she'd become worried and couldn't leave the doorway. I felt like I might have, perhaps, taken away an opportunity for Rebecca to overcome her trauma.
Valerier usually did my hair, but Rebecca's braiding was also impressive. Of course, bobbin lace that was too delicate scared me too much to use, but today my hair was done up in a fancy half-up style with a ribbon braided in. With the ribbon woven through my otherwise jet-black hair, my reflection in the mirror looked quite fresh.
Having changed clothes and fixed my hair, I called for Aaron to hear his report. It seemed various things had happened while I was unaware, including being made to drink an antidote at Felicia's place, but I hadn't been told anything about them because I'd been bedridden.
"It seems something happened..."
"If it's about the hot milk, it's as reported earlier. The honey was just from a different region and flower type, so there was no issue with --"
"Something other than that. Don't try to dodge."
He was trying to dodge. Sensing it intuitively, I furrowed my brow and looked up at Aaron. My glare probably meant nothing to Aaron, who was surrounded by intimidating-faced knights on a daily basis, but showing that I wouldn't be fooled was important.
"Do you know why Felicia-sama gave me an antidote?"
"That was a misunderstanding on your part, young lady. The bitterness of the antidote and the bitter tea served at Felicia-sama's simply became linked in your mind. They were different things."
I stared at him carefully, but Aaron didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow. It was hard to tell whether he was lying or not.
"...Would it be alright if I confirmed with Felicia-sama?"
"By all means. You'll receive the same answer."
...In other words, they'd coordinated their stories in advance, huh.
I was deeply unsatisfied, and I pursed my lips as I looked up at Aaron. As I considered how to press him to get him to confess, I remembered that I had another knight assigned as my guard.
"Giselle, haven't you heard anything?"
"Uh, well... yes. The hot milk just used honey from a different region and flower type, and the tea served at Felicia-sama's was just bitter tea."
She was a bit flustered at being suddenly addressed, but her answer was almost the same as Aaron's. Yes, almost identical. Even when talking about the same matter, different speakers usually emphasized slightly different points. Yet Aaron and Giselle had said almost the exact same thing.
...It was totally obvious they'd prepared the answers in advance!
Now, how should I get the real story out of them? The target was clearly Giselle. Compared to Aaron, Giselle seemed more likely to let something slip.
...Sorry, Giselle. I'm going to shake you up a little.
I felt bad about deliberately provoking someone, so I apologized in my head first. I figured that because I was a child, they weren't telling me the real story, but if it was important, I wanted to hear it properly too.
"Giselle, is that really true? Or are you just not being told the truth because you're not considered part of the inner circle?"
"That's --"
She faltered, so Aaron's explanation must have been a lie after all. If it were the truth, she could have just said "it's true," and if she had something to feel guilty about, she might have risen to the provocation and told me the truth. It was just a shallow child's provocation, but Giselle endured it admirably. Though her lips trembled like she wanted to retort, she didn't breathe a word of what the two of them were hiding.
"...And Valerier?"
"As Ulrika reported, she was called back to her family's territory."
Something had apparently happened around me, and Valerier had disappeared from my surroundings as if in concert with it. I wasn't such a simple child as to think there was no connection.
I stared stubbornly into Aaron's eyes, but they were infuriatingly calm. Whether Aaron's story was true or false, this was apparently all he was going to tell me.
"Will I be able to see Valerier again?"
I asked, thinking at least I wanted to know that much. With information being so thoroughly concealed, and being told they knew nothing and that she'd returned to her territory, it seemed Valerier had been near the center of whatever happened, or was suspected of having been there. That was why she'd been kept away from me.
As I stubbornly stared into Aaron's eyes, for just a moment, his black eyes wavered. His face remained expressionless as always, but after a long silence, Aaron muttered just one thing in his own language.
"When the suspicion clears..."
Time is up.
Will fix typos and errors at a later date.