“You were the best out of all the performances!” Amy continued, unfazed. “I wish you could have played longer! And that dress! I’ve never seen that dress before! It’s so beautiful on you! It’s the same color as Portia! It looks really good with your hair color too, Rosalind—it’s super gorgeous!”
“Th-Thank you, Amy,” said Rosalind, who had grown red herself from all of Amy’s compliments. “I hear you, just take a deep breath.”
Pacified, Amy detached herself from Rosalind, which was when she finally realized Alexander was there, too.
“You were so good too, Alec! You didn’t have to keep it a big secret—you could have let me hear it beforehand!”
“Today wouldn’t have been half as exciting if you knew what to expect.”
“It was so surprising! Don’t you think so too, Ed?” Amy asked with a big smile, vibrating with excitement.
“Yeah. It made today even more fun than I was expecting.”
“Then it sounds like my plan worked out perfectly,” said Alexander, looking satisfied.
Amy gave him a smile, too.
“I just can’t stop thinking about it… I wish Tigger could have heard it, too…”
“Th-That wasn’t part of my plan! Well, whatever.”
Alexander was smiling uncomfortably, but he didn’t seem displeased, and for some reason, the butler was nodding along.
Suddenly, a clear and beautiful voice rang throughout the room.
“That was rather good.”
“You guys got the biggest cheers from the crowd!”
“Letty! Prince Jahal! Thank you!” exclaimed Rosalind, grabbing her dress and curtsying.
Jahal nodded politely.
With a sidelong glance at him, Letizia swiftly stepped forward.
“Now that all the congratulations have been exchanged… Rosalind, Amy—this way. Gentlemen, our time together may have been short, but we’ll be leaving now.”
“What?” all three boys asked at once, staring at her in confusion. They had only just got there, and now they were talking about leaving?
Amy and Rosalind grinned and pranced up to either side of Letizia.
“We had plans for after the recital,” said Letizia simply.
“You’re serious, Letty?” asked Jahal, looking disappointed.
“I told you before, we’re not changing our plans,” she reaffirmed, linking her arms with Amy and Rosalind’s. “So, Alec, look after Jahal for me, okay?”
“Oh, give me a break,” Alec groaned. “You guys are really going somewhere, Rosalind?”
“Yes. We’re off to Amy’s house for afternoon tea.”
The three girls nodded to each other in unison. Alec tilted his head.
“If it’s just tea, surely it wouldn’t matter if we came, too? The Northland family cook does whip up some interesting stuff.”
The food cooked at Amy’s house was strongly influenced by Isabelle’s general supervision. In her previous life, she was proud to be a Japanese housewife.
Most of the ingredients used were native to Luducia, but they often also used rare spices and newly imported seasonings from foreign kingdoms, so there were a wide variety of flavors.
Isabelle couldn’t get any miso paste, soy sauce, or bonito flakes, so she couldn’t perfectly recreate traditional Japanese food, but what used to be called “Westernized Japanese food,” like croquettes and hamburger steak, were regularly included in the rotation.
Recently they had perfected a dessert in which they took a bean often used in salads and soups in Luducia, sweetened it, boiled it, mashed it, and then sandwiched it in between two small, thin pancakes… In other words, they recreated the Japanese red-bean pancake treat, dorayaki.
Another family favorite was made by adding an improvised cherry brandy into a mixture of flours to form a smooth, soft dough.
With their adventurous cook who loved trying new things and an expansive menu of fun, exciting dishes, the Northland tea parties and dinners were always popular affairs.
Alexander argued that they could not pass up such a tempting opportunity, but with an unusually impish glint to her eye, Letizia immediately rejected the idea.
“That’s too bad, because this is a girls-only party.”
“Girls-only party?” asked Ed.
“A tea party just for girls,” Letizia spelled out. “So, I’m very sorry, but boys just aren’t allowed.”
“How fun!” Ed replied pleasantly. “So it’s different than a regular tea party or a social salon?”
“It’s much more casual, where we can just blather on among friends,” Amy answered cheerfully.
Alexander’s bottom lip jutted out.
“But your tea party sounds way more fun! Don’t you think it’s a little unfair to leave us out?”
“Fair?” Rosalind asked dangerously. “I’ve been practicing so much these past few weeks… I haven’t even been able to go to the lounge…”
The three girls had promised ages ago that they would get together after the recital had finished.
“Rosalind, I said I’m sorry!” Alexander said with his hands raised in surrender, accepting the jab. Even he knew he had made Rosalind practice more than was strictly necessary. “I’ll do something to make it up to you.”
“No, thank you. You’ve done enough.”
“I know…”
“With that look, I don’t think you know at all!”
Edward was again startled by Alexander’s unruffled composure. Even when Rosalind refused his promise to make things right, Alexander had simply shrugged his shoulders and replied back cheerfully.
Edward had been the one to recommend Alexander for the recital initially, and he knew Alec was being unexpectedly proactive in his approach to practicing.
But it was starting to dawn on Edward that being able to miss Sir Dion’s classes might not have been his only reason for being so involved.
“Guess we’re out of luck, Alec,” Edward said. “Why don’t we do a boys-only party back at the dormitory? The Department of Food Management at the Royal Palace just sent me some of their new packaged rations.”
“That doesn’t sound fun at all. What are we going to do, have a ration tasting?”
“Trying something new won’t kill you, will it?” Rosalind said coolly.
“Amy, Rosalie’s acting so cold!”
“Cold… Shaved ice might be good, too…”
Edward burst into laughter at Amy’s totally unrelated response.
“For Amy, that association doesn’t surprise me.”
“Hm? Oh!”
Amy met his gaze and suddenly turned crimson, but with a few more serene words, Letizia announced their departure.
“Well, let’s get going, shall we? Now, if you’ll excuse us… Come on, Amy, Rosalind.”
“Okay!”
“Pardon us.”
The girls exited the room, giggling amongst themselves, leaving the trio of boys standing alone.
Looking around at no one in particular, Edward asked:
“So…are we doing a boys-only party?”
“No!” Alec and Jahal said in unison.
And with that, the boys left the waiting room with a different kind of lively noise.