She sniffed it several more times.
If she had to make a guess, she would say it was some sort of medicinal herb. Claire often used medicinal herbs that were most effective when mixed with black tea, so maybe something like that had been added.
However, just to be sure, Sara carefully brought the cup to her lips and took the smallest sip… She tasted a piercing bitterness mixed into the sweetness and slammed the cup back on the table with a crashing noise.
It was such an uncharacteristically impolite thing for Sara to do that not only Richard, but also Claire and Daniel, watching from their position against the wall, jumped in surprise and looked over at her.
“Wh-What’s wrong?!”
Sara glanced up at Richard. He was watching her with concern.
She couldn’t believe it…but there was no other explanation.
Sara’s nose and tongue had unmistakably detected a strange smell and taste—a poison had been slipped into her drink.
It can’t be…
She felt panicked tremors threatening the hand around her cup.
It can’t be, it can’t be… played on repeat in her head, but her tongue was already becoming numb. Her mouth was full of bitter saliva.
But…Sara couldn’t ask him.
There was no way she could ask Richard, “Your Highness, did you put something in my tea?”
So Sara forced herself to smile and put her hand to her cheek in an attempt to gloss over what had just happened.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I was suddenly struck by memories of my hometown, and…I was just surprised.”
“R-Really? Well, that’s a relief…”
It was a terrible excuse, but Richard had accepted it without any resistance and started sipping at his cup. As he leisurely drank his tea, his face started to blur in Sara’s vision. Panicking, she looked back at the cup in her hand.
There was probably poison in it. Even just having that tiny bit of it in her mouth had made her tongue numb. If she had “swung it back,” as Richard had told her to, the poison would have probably seriously injured her throat—assuming it didn’t simply kill her.
But would the prince really have put poison in my cup? I can’t believe it…
Besides, Richard had originally gotten the tea leaves from the Saleilles envoy. If the problem lay with the tea leaves themselves, then the envoy would become the suspect…
But if I had died, the tea would have been the first thing called into question. If there’s a problem with the tea leaves, that would mean Saleilles wants me out of the picture… Not to mention, there was a serious possibility the prince might have drunk the tea, too…
Who added the poison? What kind of poison was it? Why did they poison the tea at all? Such questions ran circles around Sara’s head.
But she had no time to dwell on them.
Sara hadn’t drunk any more of the tea for quite some time. Indeed, she had been staring at the cup with fear in her eyes. Richard looked uneasy at this. The hand holding a piece of teacake froze as he looked at Sara.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you say you loved that tea? There’s still plenty of it left, so don’t be shy. Help yourself.”
“R-Right…”
“Did something get into it? I can brew another cup right away.”
For a moment, Sara almost agreed to Richard’s suggestion, but then she realized that a fresh cup of tea might not be any safer. If there were a problem with the tea leaves, it would be just as dangerous, even if they poured out the remainder of the contents of the teapot.
And…if Richard really were evil enough to poison her, he would just tamper with the new cup of tea, too.
No! He would never do something like that!
Sara’s free hand tightened into a fist. They may have only been married for a short while, but she was confident that she and Richard had built an unmistakable bond of gentle regard. He had been accompanying her outdoors and taking his mask off more recently at Sara’s request, but if he really didn’t want to do those things, he would tell her so!
Maybe he really hated all of those things and felt forced to bear with them, and now felt hopeless…?
The inside of Sara’s mouth was acrid. Her thick saliva felt like it was clogging up her throat. All her insides, from her heart to her stomach, were as cold as if they had been dunked into an ice bath. Pain radiated from her organs, which felt like they were being wrung out.
If Sara had faith in Richard, she would have to drink the tea. But if the poison in the tea had made her entire tongue numb just from the tiny taste she had, she couldn’t imagine that ending well for her. But it wasn’t like she could throw out the tea with Claire and Daniel watching, either…
And so, without the time to think about it properly or the power to consider her options calmly, she hesitated before saying—
“I’m sorry, Your Highness…”
“What?”
“I find myself so overcome with emotions…that I will just gratefully accept the spirit in which the tea was given.”
Sara had selected the “DO NOT DRINK” option.
There hadn’t been some grand calculation or reasoning behind her choice. Sara hadn’t been taught in Saleilles what the best course of action was when you were about to be poisoned by your husband.
So Sara had been totally unprepared to see Claire and Daniel bristle in displeasure, or to hear Richard catch his breath, clearly hurt by her words. Sara thought she might stop breathing altogether.
Even when you realize you’ve done something unthinkable, or made the wrong choice, there’s no undoing what’s been done.
“I… I see… I’m sorry,” Richard muttered. “It seems I’m not capable of entertaining you after all…”
Normally, Sara would have spoken in a more reserved manner, but when she heard the turmoil in Richard’s voice, she felt gutted. She would have preferred if he had actually just ripped out her heart and killed her right then and there.
“L-Listen, Your Highness, I—”
“Don’t worry about it… Daniel, clean everything up. Claire, take my wife back to her room.”
“Your Highness!”
“Don’t look so upset… I overstepped. I’m sorry,” Richard said matter-of-factly, his back turned to Sara. “I’ll send the tea leaves to your room later so you can have Claire brew them for you.”
Never had Sara wished that Richard was wearing his mask as much as she did then…
Claire silently helped Sara to her feet, but as Daniel tidied up the tea utensils, he shot her a glare for the first time since she had come to Ferrier.
Daniel was always cheerful and kind, but it was all for Richard, his master. From Daniel’s perspective, the prince was totally faultless, and Sara was just a spoiled princess who had rejected the tea Richard had so earnestly prepared. It was a totally appropriate response from a servant so devoted to his lord.
Your Highness…
As Claire pulled Sara away by the arm, Sara looked back over her shoulder, but Richard had at some point put his mask on and was simply looking out the window.
Later that day, the tin of tea leaves was delivered to Sara’s room. Sara immediately smelled them and tried to brew some for herself. There was none of the offending smell from before, however, and the only thing she could taste was the nostalgic flavor of the tea.