What did she come here to do?
Ophelia stole a covert glance at Stella’s face in profile. Just as on the night of the ball, it was stunningly beautiful.
The entourage of ladies snickered as they followed behind, and the guard looked down at Ophelia with an intimidating aura emanating from him.
But Stella was different. She hadn’t come here to threaten Ophelia. She knew that because the entire time Stella was speaking in the reception room, Ophelia’s hands hadn’t stopped shaking. She didn’t care at all that Ophelia had dared to touch Claudio.
But Stella was the daughter of a marquis, which meant that the lower-ranked Ophelia couldn’t address her without first being spoken to. All she could do was keep pace with Stella, who walked along in silence.
When they reached the staircase, Stella suddenly turned to look at her.
“Hey, I was wondering…”
Just as Stella began to speak, Ophelia’s whole body swayed. Then, all at once, her knees buckled, and she lost her balance.
“Wh— Hey, you…!”
Stella reached out her hand, but Ophelia instinctively curled into a ball as she fell headfirst down the stairs.
The entourage of ladies shrieked, and the guard’s feet pounded on the ground as he ran.
Ophelia tumbled halfway down the staircase before she suddenly felt her body being lifted into the air.
“Phew, we made it just in… or, well, almost in time…”
“Ohhh… Oh, oh, oh…”
Ophelia didn’t understand why her entire body was quaking like this, but she recognized that she was being held in someone’s arms. And that voice just now had sounded awfully familiar…
“…Duke Vigatto?!”
At Stella’s surprised cry, Ophelia snapped her head up and saw that she was cradled in the arms of an unfamiliar, strongly built man. Beside him stood Gian, his blue eyes narrowed, gazing tenderly at Ophelia’s face. She couldn’t understand what his expression meant, and she was so flustered that she couldn’t find anything to say, her mouth merely flapping uselessly in her attempts to speak.
“That’s Duke Vigatto…?”
“He’s so beautiful!”
It seemed that Stella knew Gian, but the other ladies who’d gathered around her were seeing him for the first time. They’d completely forgotten about Ophelia falling down the stairs and were all staring at Gian rapturously.
“Lady Meucci, even if she is your love rival, shoving Lady Narve down the stairs is too cruel.” Gian smiled faintly as he said that. It was only his words that strongly rebuked Stella.
“…G-Goodness, I did nothing of the sort. That clumsy girl slipped and fell all on her own.” Stella’s eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly schooled her features and snapped open her fan, using it to conceal the lower half of her face.
“That’s right! Lady Stella didn’t do anything! I fell on my own!” Ophelia insisted.
You are the reason I suddenly started shaking so hard that I fell down the stairs! Ophelia wanted to scream, but she just wrapped her arms around her shaking body and looked up at Gian.
“I suppose if you say so, then it must be so…”
“What a scene. Let’s go.”
As she flounced past, Stella glared at Ophelia and continued down the stairs, holding up the hem of her skirt so she wouldn’t trip. The entourage and bodyguard filed down the stairs next, following her.
“Anyways, let’s get to the infirmary,” Gian said.
“Oh! Oh… I-I’m fine! I can walk!” Ophelia insisted.
“No, you can’t. You need to be seen by a doctor. This guy is my bodyguard, so don’t worry.”
With this, Gian set off walking with determined strides, leading the way to the infirmary himself. There was no way Ophelia could fight her way out of the bodyguard’s beefy arms, and her shaking had lessened a bit, so she gave in and let them take her to the infirmary. Once they arrived, the bodyguard deposited Ophelia on the exam bed then took up a position outside the door to give them privacy.
The palace doctor examined her head and arms, where she’d banged into the stairs during her tumble, and instructed her to rest for a while in the infirmary. Once the examination was complete, for some reason, Gian chased the doctor out of the room, leaving just the two of them alone.
“Um, I… I’m used to falling down the stairs,” Ophelia said. “It happens quite often, so I’m fine, really. So, um, I should really…”
“You did seem quite used to it, based on the way you instinctively protected your head and didn’t tense up or attempt to fight it.”
Gian cut off Ophelia’s attempt to talk her way out of staying and cracked his back, as if settling in for a long wait. Seeing no other option, Ophelia reluctantly sat on the corner of the bed and snuck a furtive glance at Gian.
With a sigh, Gian plopped down on the doctor’s chair. His characteristic intense gaze was gone, and he folded his legs in a relaxed, natural manner.
Ophelia’s eyes dropped to her hands. She turned them over, quizzically examining the palms, and then flipped them back over to look at the backs of her hands, but for some reason, they weren’t shaking. Following the distinct change in his demeanor, all of her shaking had stopped.
“Why is an earl’s daughter so accustomed to falling down stairs? In the first place, it seems like every time I run into you, you end up falling over somehow or other,” Gian asked, cocking his head to the side charmingly. His voice was higher in pitch than usual, thready and uncertain. It was always a bit on the higher side, but normally, he seemed to speak from his belly, in a cold and authoritative tone.
Maybe he’s just playing the part of a duke and actually has a more passive, people-pleasing type of personality? Is that why my body shakes when he’s around? But that wouldn’t explain why I shake so hard that I can’t even stand…
Still feeling that something was off, Ophelia took advantage of the first opportunity she’d had thus far to examine Gian while she was in full command of her senses.
“Um, what are you doing here, Your Grace?”
“Gian is fine.”
“No, I couldn’t possibly…”
“Call me Gian. We’re friends, right?”
“…I wouldn’t dare be so presumptuous as to make such a claim…” While she looked at Gian’s cheerful, smiling blue eyes, a tangle of nerves bloomed in her chest, and sweat broke out on her back.
“I came here today to get to know you better,” Gian said.
“I’m not of a suitable rank for friendship with a person of your status.”
“You were sincerely worried about me. That made me happier than you could possibly understand.”
Something tells me this person doesn’t have many friends.
Ophelia looked away from Gian, who was clearly not listening to her protests. His expression on the staircase, and then his words just now… The sudden change in his behavior… Suddenly, Ophelia felt certain she understood.
Ophelia’s head snapped up, and her eyes met Gian’s.
“Claudio told you my secret, didn’t he?”
“The director told you my secret, didn’t he?”
They both spoke at the same moment, their words echoing in the small room.