Does he think they’re forcing me to do this?
“Th-This is something I thought up on my own,” Sara hurried to explain. “Daniel and Claire just went along with my selfish request!”
“You…?”
“I-I’m sorry… I know you told me not to get in your way, but… Well, this was all I wanted to do. I’ll leave Daniel and Claire to take care of the rest… P-Please excuse me!”
It had become too hard for Sara to explain any further, so she put the tray down on the table and quickly walked away. Fortunately, no one called out to stop her. Once she was out in the foyer, she let out a heavy sigh and slumped against the wall.
I was wrong…
She had been selfish to ask this of Daniel and Claire—it just caused them more work and spiraled into this mess…
Even though Sara had propped the portrait against her bed board last night and practiced talking to it over and over, she hadn’t been able to speak casually to the real Richard. She’d even made him suspicious of Daniel.
I should apologize to Daniel and Claire… And I’ll have to apologize to His Highness, too, for ignoring his rule to stay out of his way…
As Sara brooded to herself, she felt heat and wetness at the corners of her eyes.
She quickly rubbed at her eyes with the corner of her dress sleeve and then patted both of her cheeks bracingly.
I can’t hem and haw over this! It was my idea, so I’ll have to take full responsibility for it.
As Sara sat rubbing her cheeks with both hands, the door to the study opened.
“Oh! Princess Hermine!” Claire came out. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight of Sara sitting against the wall of the foyer. “What’s wrong?! Come on, let’s stand up…”
“Claire… I’m so sorry. I messed everything up…”
“Come on, what are you talking about? Well, let’s get you back to your room first,” Claire said encouragingly, helping Sara up and leading her to her room.
Claire sat her on the sofa and quickly started fixing a cup of tea.
“Daniel’s lecturing His Highness as we speak,” she added.
“Lecturing…?”
“Yes, Daniel’s giving him an earful. I mean, His Highness totally disregarded your kind gesture, after all. It doesn’t matter that he’s the prince, the lord of this villa, and our master—a gentleman should not raise his voice to his wife.”
Claire spoke in a frustrated huff, but her hands moved with precision as she prepared the tea. At first, Sara couldn’t keep up with her rapid speech, so she simply watched her hands at work with a blank expression.
“W-Well, I did sort of insert myself into the situation…”
“Absolutely not. It’s just like Daniel said before. Even if His Highness doesn’t like being around others, and even if your marriage was born out of political necessity, it’s obvious that a husband should be considerate of his wife and be prepared to see her at any given moment. Besides, it’s not like you came to interrupt his work—you just brought him his tea set!”
“That may be true, but— Oh!”
There was a knock at her door.
Sara allowed whoever it was to enter and, just as she suspected, Daniel walked in. He smiled gently when he saw her.
“I am incredibly sorry for His Highness, Princess Hermine. I gave him a good, thorough talking-to.”
“Um… You won’t get in trouble for that, will you?” Sara asked nervously.
They’d mentioned Daniel giving Richard a “lecture” and a “talking-to”, but Daniel was just a chamberlain—Richard was the brother of the king. Sara could understand if Daniel were much older, but he was clearly even younger than she was.
But Daniel just closed the door and tilted his head in confusion.
“What? I’ll be totally fine. In fact, His Highness always tells us to freely and frankly express our opinions.”
“…Really?”
“Indeed. I’m not fond of lecturing him, and His Highness isn’t some hot-tempered toddler. If he knows he’s in the wrong about something, he understands and listens to what I have to say. Even just now, he was totally depressed.”
Sara simply couldn’t imagine that beautiful man with his grumpy face looking depressed as Daniel reprimanded him.
She must have made a strange face when she tried picturing it. Daniel smiled and made a vague gesture toward the firmly shut white door.
“His Highness grew up in somewhat complicated circumstances. The way he tends not to go outside, the way he avoids contact with people, the way he wears a mask… These are all coping mechanisms His Highness invented for himself so he could get along in the world.”
“Coping mechanisms…”
“But at the same time, His Highness constantly dwells on what he lacks… Our primary job as servants is to help His Highness and support him with everyday activities, but one of our other crucial roles is to help him become the man he wants to be.”
Daniel’s roundabout speech boiled down to this: Richard had many shortcomings due to his difficult upbringing, so the servants were tasked with filling in these gaps and, on occasion, teaching him life lessons.
So that’s how Daniel, Richard’s servant and junior, could lecture him…
That sort of relationship and closeness probably did not exist beyond this villa, but it was incredibly different from what Sara’s experience had been in Saleilles.
Seeing her look of understanding, Daniel smiled.
“And so,” he said, “you can finish having your tea first, but afterward, could you go retrieve the tea set from His Highness’s study for me?”
“…What? Me?”
“Of course! It will be fine. His Highness may be rude at times, but he’s incredibly honest and kind. Even now as he’s drinking tea, he’s probably thinking about the right words to say to you.”
“Really?”
“That’s right. Princess Hermine… His Highness has never once hated you, resented you, or thought that he didn’t want to marry you.”
Sara’s eyes widened in disbelief. Daniel smiled softly, nodded, and put a hand to his chest.
“It would be presumptuous of me to speak for His Highness, and in any case, I wouldn’t want to be the cause of any misunderstandings, so I won’t say any more, but… Please get closer to the prince.”
“But he told me not to get in his way…”
“…I can’t really talk about that now, but I will say that His Highness does everything with you in mind. He never meant to treat you poorly or make you cry… Please believe that much.”