Once again, I found myself dressed up like a porcelain doll, climbing into yet another carriage. At least this time, I wasn’t alone. Olivia had chosen this particular tea party invitation from the mountain of others, insisting it was the one worth attending. The hostess, Hildegard Lunae, wife of the eastern duke and sea lord Siegfried Lunae, was someone no woman in the Kingdom could ignore—not even the queen herself. So, naturally, every woman of age from the Yuwen estate had accepted the invitation. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to face it all by myself, though the relief was bittersweet, knowing that even Anna would be there. Sigh.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before Anna started getting invited to these things too, even if most people can barely tolerate her. Somehow, she floats through it all, blissfully unaware, boasting to anyone who’ll listen that the duchess herself had sent her an invitation. I kept quiet about the fact that I’d received more than twice as many invitations as she had, even though hardly anyone here actually knows who I am. Sometimes, keeping the peace means swallowing your pride and letting others have their moment.
Olivia had already briefed me on who to watch out for and what to expect. Hildegard might call it a tea party, but there was always something more—this time, a poetry contest. She would personally sift through every poem to make sure nothing scandalous slipped through. When I first heard about it, I panicked a little, imagining myself forced to stand up and recite something in front of everyone. Thankfully, it was all voluntary, and even the men could join in. The winner, chosen by the guests, would get to ask a single wish of the duchess. The thought made my stomach twist.
I could already see a future where some slimy old guy would wish for something horrid like a kiss or worse, if my letters were anything to go by.
*shudder*
But this future is still in the stars… I hope.
*Sigh*
My only plan for today was to stick close to Olivia and try not to embarrass myself. According to her, as long as Hildegard gave me her blessing, most people would think twice before mocking me or trying to push me aside. The word most felt like it was doing a lot of work there, but maybe that was just my own pessimism whispering in my ear. Still, who wouldn’t want the favor of a duchess who everyone adored?
With my plan settled in mind, we finally arrived at the Lunae estate, which made even the Yuwen estate look modest. The villa and its endless gardens seemed to stretch on forever, taking up a whole slice of the noble island—only the Solaris estate could hope to compete. Everywhere I looked, noble ladies were stepping out of their carriages, their dresses shimmering in silk and brocade, each one a carefully guarded treasure.
As soon as my feet touched the perfectly arranged cobblestones, I felt the weight of a hundred eyes on me. Some were familiar and kind, faces I remembered from the chaos after the dragon’s arrival. Others watched with open curiosity, and more than a few made my skin prickle, as if I were walking barefoot over thorns. But then, as if on cue, their attention slid away from me and landed on Olivia. The welcoming ceremony had been such a blur, so full of strangers and spectacle, that hardly anyone could have met everyone. After the dragon, no one had the time or energy to notice much at all. Nobles came and went from exile all the time, but a dragon crashing through the main gate was the kind of story that would be whispered for generations. Most people here had never even seen Olivia Yuwen, let alone heard the truth about her recovery.
Our carriage rolled away, swallowed up by the steady stream of arrivals, and then Hildegard herself emerged from the crowd. She was a woman who clearly adored sweets a bit too much, her face soft and round, framed by pitch-black hair and marked by a big stubborn mole beneath her lower lip. Her smile was so warm and inviting that I almost slipped and called her mother. But what truly caught my breath was the familiar face standing quietly behind her.
“Olivia, is that really you?”
Olivia did a proper curtsy, which I quickly followed before she answered,
“Yes, it really is me, Hilda; it has been too long.”
A murmur went through the crowd as young ladies asked their mothers and grandmothers who Olivia was. It had been so long that some had never even met her, which made her sudden return all the more noticeable. Olivia had truly changed since I first met her. Gone was the frail old lady who had withered away in her own bed; now she was truly Olivia Yuwen once again.
“Oh, and that beautiful lady with you must be your daughter-in-law, Ruby, right?”
It still felt strange—maybe even a little unearned—to be called Olivia’s daughter. But the way her smile grew at the word made my chest ache in melancholy. I could already feel my plan to hide quietly in her shadow slipping through my fingers like sand, grain by grain, and sure enough, Olivia was already preparing to show me off.
“Yes, the very one. Ruby, why don’t you introduce yourself to Lady Lunae?”
Inside, I was screaming, but on the outside, I managed to keep my composure. I dipped into an even deeper curtsy than before and introduced myself, just as Olivia wanted.
“Ruby Yuwen greets the lady of the sea, Duchess Hildegard Lunae. It is an honor to meet you.”
“Ah, lady of the sea, this brings back memories. It has been years since I last went to sea; just call me Hilda, dear.”
With just that gentle change in tone, I felt the stares grow sharper, curiosity thickening in the air. I searched the crowd for a lifeline, but Olivia was still busy singing my praises. Maria, meanwhile, was off with her daughters, Emilia and Martha, chatting with Martha’s friends. Well, Emilia and Martha were chatting—Maria was, as always, buried in a book. There was another woman next to her, a little older with the same facial features, just as absorbed in her reading. Maybe her mother? I wondered if that gene would someday catch up with Emilia or Martha too.
I forced myself to set those wandering thoughts aside before I said something foolish, and tried to focus on Hildegard, who was busy peppering Olivia with questions about me. Olivia’s bragging was so relentless I wanted to melt into the ground and disappear. At least she stuck to the truth—probably because Anna was lurking nearby, eyes sharp and hungry for any mistake. Things got so out of hand that even Viola, Olivia’s mother, joined in, and with every compliment, I felt the crowd’s gaze grow heavier, as if they were trying to see straight through me.
She told them that I was a healer, that I had never lost a single patient, that I was the one who healed her illness, etc.
Thankfully, the attention shifted when Hildegard finally mentioned her own daughter, Gertrude Lunae—the same sixteen-year-old girl who had tried to pick a fight with me at the welcoming party. She was dressed once again head to toe in pink, her black hair a mirror of her mother’s. Even her smile was a near copy, but her eyes held a sharpness, a glint of malice she barely bothered to hide.
“Trudy, why don’t you show Ruby around a bit? We are probably just boring you young folk with our talk.”
I could see Gertrude teetering on the edge of an outburst, but instead, she bit back her anger and motioned for me to follow her.
Gertrude was probably the last person I wanted to be alone with, but if I had to listen to one more word about how wonderful and selfless I was, I really might have run all the way home and hidden under a blanket. So I gave in and trailed after her, doing my best to keep up as she practically sprinted ahead. I wasn’t really following because I wanted to, but because the thought of getting lost in the endless Lunae gardens was too embarrassing. We wound our way through the maze of hedges in silence, Gertrude darting around corners until we were finally out of sight and she stopped, breathless, to confront me.
“Why are you following me? Don’t you get that I don’t want you here?”
I answered calmly, not even out of breath,
“Because your mother asked me to.”
“*gnash* go already and leave my Janus alone or I’m…”
I had planned to go easy on her—she was just a girl, after all—but the moment she brought up Janus, something sharp twisted inside me, and my patience thinned.
“Oh? Have you forgotten that, as part of the host family, it’s your job to look after your guests? Or is even that too much for you? Maybe you’d rather keep embarrassing your mother and family, just like you did before.”