“I’m back,” said Sara. “Is it almost time for His Highness’s tea?”
“Oh! Welcome back, Hermine. I was going to take this to the prince soon.”
“I see. Might I bring it to him?” Sara asked, while Daniel was putting the floating books on her table one by one.
It had been nearly ten days since Sara and Richard had gotten married, and she had already developed a daily routine.
The first aspect of the routine was to tell the prince either “good morning” or “good night” every day. The second was to bring tea to his room once a day.
Sara had learned her lesson from her surprise first visit, so she always made sure Richard knew in advance (through Daniel) that she would be coming to his study so the prince wouldn’t be uncomfortable. As long as she did that, he usually let her come, although he still looked somewhat annoyed when she did.
But Daniel had told her, “At the end of the day, this is a positive influence on him!” So she hoped these visits weren’t entirely a nuisance to him…
Richard’s daily schedule was very irregular, so the times he woke up, ate, took tea, and went to bed could be different every day. Sara tried to adapt to his schedule and find the best times to give him her daily greeting or bring him his tea in an attempt to have some sort of relationship with him.
The queen mother asked me to look after His Highness, too… Little by little, I have to get closer to him.
“Of course you can!” Claire replied with a smile. “I’ve brought him butter cake filled with dried fruits to have with his tea today. “
“His Highness has a huge sweet tooth,” Daniel added. “I’m sure he’ll love it.”
“That’s great!” said Sara. “Is there marlo fruit and rico liqueur in the butter cake, perhaps?”
“Correct!” said Claire. “Your nose works really well, Princess Hermine!”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Daniel teased, but Sara’s chest swelled with pride.
“It’s one of the few skills I have! Daniel, could you go see how His Highness is doing and tell him I’ll be bringing his tea? Claire, could you cut the cake for me?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
While Daniel was out, Claire cut two slices of the cake. Richard usually only had one serving of dessert with his tea, but perhaps he would eat two today.
Daniel returned.
“I’ve told His Highness that Princess Hermine will be bringing the tea today,” he reported.
Sara readied herself mentally, nodded, and picked up the tray where Claire had laid out pretty much everything.
“Well, shall we get going? Claire, would you open the door please?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sara headed to Richard’s study with Claire and Daniel, her shoulders pushed back as straight as possible. It seemed so long ago that she had first begun “Operation Get Slightly Closer to His Highness” and stood outside his door, holding the tea tray, wildly nervous. Sara felt a little embarrassed, thinking back to that first day.
“Princess Hermine is here, Your Highness.”
“…Right,” said Richard in a quiet voice. “Come in.”
The three entered his study.
Gloomy again today…, thought Sara. Let’s see… Okay, His Highness has his mask on. All right!
She always made sure that the prince was wearing his mask, just in case. After that, she curtsied and walked over to his desk.
A fresh stack of papers sat on his desk, and beside that was an inkwell and a stamp roughly the size of Sara’s fist. He seemed to have quite a lot of documents he still had to go through.
Richard leaned back languidly in his chair and watched her through his mask. She couldn’t read his expression, of course, but she could gather from the slight droop of his head that he was tired.
“You’ve been working so hard today, Your Highness. I have your tea here,” she said.
“Right… Thank you for bringing it to me again.”
Sara felt relieved. She knew that having to put his mask on every time she visited must have been irritating, but he never told her, “You don’t have to come anymore.” He just sincerely thanked her.
She let Claire handle preparing the tea—the maid’s ability to heat up water came in handy for that—and Sara arranged the butter cake and silverware on his desk.
“This is butter cake filled with marlo.”
“I don’t…,” Richard absentmindedly said before shutting his mouth.
“Pardon?” Sara asked quickly, worried she had done something annoying.
He looked from the cake to Sara’s face before lowering his head slightly and glancing away.
“It’s nothing. Don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I…I just thought there was more food than usual today, is all.”
“Oh! So that’s what that was about.” Sara had thought the same thing earlier. “Claire cut the slices. You’ve been working so hard, I’m sure she wanted you to eat both—”
“There also seem to be two forks.”
“…That’s true…”
She examined the tray closely. Richard was right—there were two forks.
Could Claire have added an extra by mistake? Sara wondered, taking one of the forks and glancing behind her. Daniel was standing by the wall and Claire was still preparing the tea. They both just smiled back at her.
Huh…? But then, that means…
Fork still in hand, Sara looked back at Richard. He was watching her, too, and their gazes met through the mask.
“……”
“……”
“You…”
“…Yes?”
“If you…have no urgent business to attend to…,” Richard began hesitantly, “you should join me.”
Sara couldn’t take her eyes off him. Consequently, she didn’t realize that right behind her, Daniel’s and Claire’s smiles had transformed into mischievous grins, their eyes practically shouting, “Got ’em!” She didn’t realize, either, that Richard was staring at the both of them.
Sara accepted his invitation. Then he told her, “Look that way for a moment.” She obeyed, looking away from him, and when she turned back, she simply blinked, speechless.
Sara’s silence stretched on.
“…If you want to say something, just say it.”
“Your mask… So you have different kinds?”
The mask Richard now wore looked the same as the other one around the eyes, but everything below his nose was uncovered—his mouth was completely exposed. His lips were pulled into a straight line, and his jawline, which had always been covered before, was clearly visible. How on earth could it be that, though the areas around his eyes and cheekbones were still covered, the parts of his face that were visible were as beautiful as a work of art?
“I can’t drink tea with that other mask. I don’t like to wear this one because it shows my mouth, but…I suppose I have no choice.”
Richard exhaled through his nose and took the tea Claire held out to him.
“You can sit down,” he told Sara, who had been rooted on the spot.
She nervously sat on the sofa, and Daniel placed a slice of butter cake on the table in front of her. Both slices had been brought in on Richard’s plate, but Daniel dished out one of the slices onto another plate he had procured seemingly out of nowhere.