A black carriage stops outside a bakery on a street corner, and the gold crest on its door catches the morning light without shining.
Inside it the Linden heir sits straight-backed, watching the shop through the window.
[So this is where the girl works.] (his elder brother)
Thomas gave them the address under questioning yesterday. The commoner girl who got hold of Leonardo — Sherry — is somewhere behind that door.
[Young master, I shall bring her out. Please wait here.] (Attendant)
The heir nods, and his attendant is out and across the street at a good pace. The door opens on a warm smell of baking.
[W-welcome……] (Shop woman)
There are no customers. A solidly built woman in an apron cannot hide her surprise at a man dressed as the servant of a great house. He comes towards her with a soft smile, which is a thing he is good at.
[Forgive the intrusion, madam. I wish to ask — is there a lady here by the name of Sherry?] (Attendant)
[Sherry? Yes, she works here…… Is something the matter?] (Shop woman)
[I see. There is a small matter I should like to discuss with her. Is Miss Sherry available?] (Attendant)
[Ah—— yes. She is in the back. I shall fetch her. One moment, please.] (Shop woman)
His manner is polished to the point where refusing is not one of the options available, and she hurries off. There is a commotion somewhere behind the wall. Then a girl comes out with the woman pulling her by the hand.
She takes one look at the attendant, narrows her eyes, and points at him like someone who has found a lost item.
[Hang on — that outfit! That’s the same as Thom–as‘s, isn’t it? What, are you standing in for him?] (Sherry)
[Sherry—— stop that! Have some manners!] (Shop woman)
[But it’s the same as Thomas’s! That weird stiff embroidery and the colour! It’s obviously the same!] (S)
The woman’s face changes and she pushes the girl’s pointing hand down in a hurry. Sherry goes on looking the attendant over, entirely unembarrassed.
He is not a man who is easily rattled. Something moves in him anyway, and none of it reaches his face.
[……There is a matter I should like to discuss. It will disturb the shop. Would you come outside?] (Attendant)
[Mm. Fine. It’s about Leo, right?] (S)
She says it as though he is a chore, and she calls a ducal son by a pet name, and for a moment something very cold gets out of the attendant before he shuts it in again. He did not mishear the other thing either — she used Thomas’s name bare, without the honorific, and Thomas may be low-ranking but he is a nobleman.
This is what has hold of Leonardo. There is nothing about her that stands anywhere near the daughter of House Calendula, and the fact that both his master’s brother and his master’s attendant lost their heads over her makes him want to say something unforgivable about the taste of both.
[Sir…… I am so sorry about her.] (Shop woman)
She has gone white and is bowing very low, and the sight of it is pitiable. He also cannot understand how a shop that lives on customers has managed to keep a girl this rude on the payroll.
Outside, Sherry’s eyes go straight to the carriage, and then to the crest cut into the door, and widen.
[——Wow, look at that. It’s massive. All gold!] (S)
He would rather not put a girl this rude and this coarse anywhere near his master. His master gave the order, so he opens the door.
[This way. My master is waiting inside.] (Attendant)
She climbs in without troubling to hide her curiosity, and he closes the door behind her, quietly, with a good deal underneath it.
The heir receives her without hurrying. His clothes and his bearing say what he is clearly enough for anyone. Sherry sits down as though she is getting into a friend’s cart, and stares at his face.
[So who are you? Friend of Leo’s?] (S)
He had intended to give his name properly and greet her. Faced with this, the inclination to be courteous does not arrive.
[I am Leonardo’s brother. You are his mistress, I take it.] (B)
[Hah? What’s that supposed to mean! I’m Leo’s girlfriend! Don’t be rude!] (S)
[The wording is immaterial. A woman kept for the pleasure of a man with a betrothed is a mistress. In any case it ends today. You will not be seeing my fool of a brother again.] (B)
She blinks at him, uncomprehending for a second, then puffs out her cheeks in a sulk.
[What’s that about? Being his big brother doesn’t mean you get a say in who he loves!] (S)
[A commoner would not know this, but among the nobility it is precisely how things work. We are of the same house, but a second son and the next head do not hold the same power, and the head’s word is absolute. The right to interfere is mine.] (B)
[That’s horrible! Poor Leonardo!] (S)
[Say what you like. You will not understand it, and neither of you complaining changes anything. One does not defy a duke’s order.] (B)
He is the heir today. He could take the headship off his father whenever he decided to, and given how comprehensively Leonardo’s wits have deserted him, issuing the thing as a duke’s command might be faster. He turns that over while he looks the girl up and down.
‘Passable to look at, perhaps. The inside of her ruins it thoroughly. What my brother sees in a woman who has not learned the manners a small child manages, I cannot begin to guess.’
He had expected, on the way here, a girl with charm enough to explain what she had done to Leonardo and to Thomas. What he has is coarse, crude and rude, and where the attraction is supposed to be located he cannot find at all. A more modest woman would have got courtesy from him, and an attempt at persuading her to leave his brother. With this one, any conversation beyond the necessary is wasted. Deliver the message and be rid of her——
And then Sherry starts smiling, slyly, in a way he does not like.
[Hmm…… Well, in that case. Leo’s going to be a duke, and I’m going to be a duchess, so that makes us equals, doesn’t it?] (S)
[……What?] (B)
The words arrive out of nowhere and take his own away from him. He cannot make sense of it fast enough, and he sits there with his eyes wide and the shock of it going all the way down.
Previous | Table of Contents| Next
