After an evening of trading barbs with the other guests, Leonardo returns to the estate carrying his irritation with him. Waiting to receive him is his mother — the Duchess of Linden — with her anger visibly held in check.
[Welcome home, Leonardo.] (Duchess)
[Ah…… Mother, I’ve returned……] (L)
[There’s something I wish to discuss. Come with me.] (D)
Her tone allows no argument, and Leonardo nods without a word. He follows her back, and the sheer force of the fury coming off her sends cold sweat down his spine. He doesn’t need to be told. She is very angry indeed.
She shows him into a room and gestures for him to sit. The moment he does, the questioning begins.
[Leonardo. Do you know what rumour is going around society at the moment?] (D)
Her voice is cold as ice, and there’s a fire of rage burning in her eyes. Cowed by it, the most Leonardo can manage is a barely audible [I don’t……].
[Hah…… No, of course you don’t. The rumour that you have never given Lady Chloe so much as a single gown……] (D)
Her expression doesn’t shift from the smile pasted on her face, and she lets out a refined little laugh.
[Mother! That’s nonsense! As if I would ever do such a thing……?] (L)
Leonardo denies it with a strained smile, and the duchess fixes him with a hard, level stare. As though she can see straight through to the truth.
[……Truly? I hear Lady Chloe has always arranged her own gowns for soirées……] (D)
[There’s no possibility of that! I prepare one and send it every single time!] (L)
[Hmm…… Who does?] (D)
[What? Who — I do, obviously.] (L)
[No. I’m asking who delivered the gowns to Lady Chloe. Do you mean to tell me you personally carried a box with a full ensemble in it to her door? That sort of thing is left to the servants. So who has been delivering them to the Calendula estate each time? I’ve asked every servant in this house, and not one of them recalls doing it.] (D)
[What— ah…… th-that is……] (L)
At her son’s obvious floundering, the duchess puts a hand to her head.
[So it was a lie after all. You haven’t sent her anything! What in the world were you thinking……!!] (D)
Her voice rises to a shout and she slams a fist down on the table beside her. The sound rings through the room, and the sheer menace in her face freezes Leonardo where he sits.
[M-Mother…… please, calm yourself.] (L)
[How am I supposed to be calm! I have no memory of raising you to be a fool without an ounce of common sense, a man who won’t send his own fiancée a gown!] (D)
[It’s a misunderstanding! It’s, that is…… yes, it’s because Chloe said she didn’t like the gowns I sent! How could I feel any inclination to keep sending them after being told that?] (L)
[Don’t pile one lie on another! Did I not just tell you? There’s no trace of any gown ever being carried to Lady Chloe. If you never sent her a single one, how could she possibly have said she “didn’t like” them?!] (D)
His clumsy lie is seen through immediately. He breaks out in a greasy sweat, and she presses on.
[What do you think you’re doing, treating the daughter of House Calendula so lightly? You have no idea how badly your behaviour endangers this family’s position!] (D)
[No…… I haven’t treated her lightly at all——] (L)
[Say that after you’ve shown her the bare minimum of courtesy! What do you imagine becomes of this house if the engagement to Lady Chloe is dissolved?! Even now we stand on uncertain ground; invitations to tea are rare enough as it is. That’s precisely why news reaches us so late!] (D)
At last tears spill from the duchess’s eyes. Her anger isn’t spent even then, and she strikes Leonardo across the cheek.
[And all of it — all of it is that man’s fault! Because he let a concubine turn his head and did whatever she told him, we are the ones left to suffer for it!] (D)
Hearing the bitterness in her words, Leonardo thinks, ‘Here we go again,’ and inwardly sighs. Years ago his father backed the second prince, who lost the succession dispute, and his mother resents him for it to this day, spitting curses about it at every opportunity.
[This family lost its standing in society and has lived in the shade ever since. If we are ever to stand in the light again, a connection to House Calendula is absolutely essential. Do you have any idea how many people I bowed my head to in order to secure your engagement to Lady Chloe?] (D)
Even through his mother’s tears, it sounds to Leonardo like a favour being held over his head. Betrothed to a woman he doesn’t even like, and required to court her moods on top of it — he can’t help wishing someone would spare a thought for his position.
‘And all of it is because Father let himself be seduced by that brazen concubine……’
Years ago a struggle broke out over which of the two princes would be named crown prince. At that time, Leonardo’s father — the Duke of Linden — was appealed to by one of the King’s concubines, and ended up backing the second prince, who was on the losing side. The duchess opposed it, naturally. But her husband, thoroughly under the concubine’s spell, could not go against her, and threw himself into the second prince’s camp. And, entirely as expected, they lost. He earned the displeasure of the first prince, now crown prince, and the ducal house forfeited its place in society.
In lineage and in personal ability alike, the first prince was overwhelmingly the better man. And the Duke of Calendula himself stood with his faction. It was a fight with no chance of being won from the outset. Even so, the concubine burned with ambition and could not give up the dream of setting her son on the throne, so she picked out men who looked easily swayed by a pretty face, charmed them skilfully, and drew them into her son’s camp.
In the end, the defeated concubine was confined to a detached palace by order of the Queen, and never appeared in public again. The second prince was sent abroad to marry into another house, and the families that had sided with him lost their footing in society and declined rapidly. Only then, as though waking from a dream, did they come to regret their choice — far too late.
The duchess has never forgiven her husband for ruining the family over his infatuation. She left him the title of head of the house and nothing else, transferred every real power to her eldest son, and shut her husband away in a small house in a corner of the estate with a watch kept on him and token work to occupy him. He is never permitted to appear in public, and she has no intention of ever permitting it.
It was then that the duchess followed her old connections to the Duke of Calendula and proposed a match with her son. Refused again and again, she refused to give up and kept pleading, until at last the engagement between Leonardo and the ducal heiress, Chloe, was settled.
That engagement pulled House Linden back from the brink of collapse. Society still makes them a target of ridicule at times, but once Leonardo marries in and an heir is born, the duchess expects even that will die down in time.
Leonardo understands that this engagement is the key to House Linden’s restoration. But from where he stands, being betrothed to a woman he feels nothing for and made to court her moods besides is something he simply cannot accept.
[I will not permit you to look down on Lady Chloe. It isn’t too late, even now. Send her a piece of jewellery, at the very least, and apologise properly for your discourtesy so far.] (D)
With no idea that everything is already far too late, the duchess delivers her order, and Leonardo’s face stiffens. [What……?]
Simplyrical 