One night, following the start of the social season, I put on an elegant dress and made my way to the palace. Tonight, there was a large ball held in the palace’s event hall, and both Phil and I had received invitations. Despite that, the second prince, who was the host of the party, immediately called for Phil after the party started so we went our separate ways.
“Oh, Viola. You’re here too?”
As I stood in the crowd, a sweet voice reminiscent of a tinkling bell reached my ears. I turned around to see my best friend, Lady Jamie Preston. She was wearing a cute pink dress and next to her was Lord Hugo, her lover. Seeing how close they were made me happy.
“I’m going to go spend some time with my friends, so take your time catching up,” Lord Hugo said as he dipped his head at me.
“We will, thanks,” Jamie replied.
Lord Hugo turned and disappeared into the crowd mingling about the hall. Jamie often boasted about him under the guise of telling me about Lord Hugo, and he was certainly a kind and lovely person.
I’m glad that the both of us found such wonderful partners, I thought as I accepted a glass from one of the waiters. Jamie and I clinked our glasses together as cheers. Apparently, Jamie drank too much the other day and made a fool of herself, so she was holding herself back.
“Viola, you’ve been really pushing yourself lately, haven’t you? You’ve always been a bit of a shut-in and only participated in the bare minimum of social gatherings. But I’ve been seeing you a lot more lately. You looked lovely during the Founder’s Festival too.”
“Thank you. Now that I’ve decided to marry Phil of my own will, I have to make sure I’m a suitable wife for him.”
When I marry Phil, I will eventually become Duchess Lawrenson. In the past, I had been reluctant to marry Phil and attain that title. I kept running away from my future responsibilities, pretending that they didn’t exist. However, now that I’d decided to spend the rest of my life at Phil’s side, I wanted to change the way I viewed my future and work hard to better myself.
“That’s amazing. I’m sure Lord Phillip’s happy about that.”
“Maybe. I’m not sure.”
“He must be. Looking at you now, it’s hard to imagine that you came up with such a crazy lie,” Jamie giggled, sounding like she was having fun teasing me.
After I resolved my various misunderstandings with Phil, I confessed to Jamie that I’d lied to her about my amnesia and apologized. But she didn’t seem angry or surprised. She’d simply smiled and said, “To tell you the truth, I had a feeling that was the case.” Apparently, she’d had her suspicions ever since the class reunion, which we went to in order to meet Lord Hugo. I’d accidentally told her that I found him, and she’d thought it strange. I didn’t even realize I’d made that mistake.
“If...and this is a big ‘if’... If there’s anything that you’re troubled with or if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know any time. I’ll do anything I can to help you. I’m always going to be on your side.”
It made sense now why Jamie suddenly made a serious expression and said that to me that day. She must’ve been worried about me, since I was living a ridiculous lie. I was grateful to my kind friend, and swore that I would never deceive the people around me like that ever again.
“It’s about time for you to start preparing for the wedding, right? I’m looking forward to it,” Jamie said.
“Yes, thank you.”
There were still six months left until my wedding with Phil. Not only did our parents arrange our marriage the second we were born, but they’d also decided on a date as well. So there weren’t a lot of things I had to arrange or prepare at the last minute.
Besides, neither Phil nor I had any particular hang-ups about our wedding so we left it up to our parents. I planned on getting a wedding dress fitted from Madam Rico’s, the most popular dress shop in the kingdom, soon. I heard that we still had quite a bit of time before we’d get seriously busy with wedding preparations.
“I’d thought that I would burst into tears upon seeing you on your big day, but I think Lord Phillip would cry harder than I ever could,” Jamie laughed.
“I-I can definitely see that...”
In the past, simply gifting him a necklace that matched mine made him cry. It was more than plausible that Phil would start sobbing loudly during the ceremony.
“Lord Phillip is so earnest and cute! I’m so excited!” Jamie continued, clasping her hands together and giving me a bright smile. Ever since we were in school, she’d held Phil in high regard.
“Lady Viola, Lady Jamie, good evening.”
“Oh, my! Lady Patrice, it’s been too long.”
After that, we chatted with some friends from our school days and then we decided to go around greeting people again. I’d been actively participating in social gatherings so my circle of acquaintances was a lot larger than it used to be. I could recognize even more faces now compared to before.
Eventually, after we finished greeting the majority of the other guests, we decided to take a short break. As we moved to the edge of the hall, we noticed a particularly rowdy corner. I was a little curious as to what was going on. The ruckus was caused by a group of girls squealing excitedly. As I walked past them, I heard someone call my name.
“Oh? If it isn’t Vivi!”
“Rex?”
I turned to look at the crowd and, to my surprise, Rex was standing right in the middle of it. As soon as our eyes met, he gave me a blinding smile and then, waving his arm, walked through the crowd toward me. He was as popular as ever, it seemed. I even felt some measure of respect at that.
“I figured you’d come. Hmm? Where’s Phillip?”
“He’s with Prince Lucas.”
“I see. Since you’ve got no friends, I’ll do you a favor and stay by your side.”
“How rude. I’ve got friends.”
“Yeah, it’s true that you’ve been working hard lately. Good job!” Rex smiled after he said that and placed his right hand on top of my head. Even though we were only five years apart, he never stopped treating me like I was just a little girl. At least, that was how it felt to me.
“How’re you and Phillip lately?”
“We’re the same as always.”
“Boooring. I wanna see you two get up to more interesting things.”
“Excuse me?”