Staying alert to make sure she wasn’t being followed, Margaret hummed a cheery tune as she ran across the pleasure quarter to the house where her mother was waiting.
Ten years later, Margaret would be a noble, if only barely, and the man she’d relied on as her boss would run errands for her rival in love. However, seeing as she was not an omniscient god, Margaret never could have imagined that at the time.
“I’m home!” Margaret called.
Their humble abode was a room on the fourth floor of a ramshackle apartment building. Many others in her mother’s trade lived there as well for safety and mutual support.
Though it was the middle of the night, Margaret cheerfully greeted the residents as she headed up to the top floor. Her mother opened the door before she could even knock.
“Welcome home, Margaret. How were sales today?” her mother asked. She was wearing a simple dress and a shawl, and she welcomed her daughter with a smile.
“Amazing!” Margaret replied merrily.
A finger flick to the head sent Margaret flying. Now on the ground, she looked up with tears in her eyes and rubbed her forehead.
“Mom, that hurt...”
“That’s no good, Margaret,” her mother said in a hushed voice. “What do you do when I ask you how sales were?”
Realizing her mistake, Margaret lowered her voice as well. “I say they were okay and show you the number with my fingers.”
“That’s right. We can trust the neighbors, but we can’t trust them. We can count on them if a burglar or a crackdown comes, but when it comes to money, most of these women would disappear in the night if you trusted them with a single copper.”
Margaret sighed. “This is hard...” she replied as a sad look crossed her elegant face.
“It’s good that you’re so honest, but you’re honest to a fault, and that worries me...”
“Don’t worry, mom! They tell me dumb girls are cute!”
“See, that there. That’s what I’m worried about.”
Margaret gave her earnings to her mother, and her mother gave back three silver coins—still a hefty sum. If others were to see this amount, they would think that she’d made a good amount that day.
Margaret would use this money for her living expenses. Her mother would hide the rest so that the other residents couldn’t steal it. Margaret was still pure, in a way. She didn’t know about the unspoken rule that said if you left a large amount of money with your mother, you wouldn’t get it back, not even once you were grown.
As Margaret sipped the plum juice her mother had given her to celebrate her big catch today, she decided to ask about something that’d been bothering her.
“Hey, mom. People are always saying, ‘Your mom is so pretty that she could be making a lot more money.’ So, why is it you don’t take many customers?”
Her mother, who was savoring some distilled liquor, blushed ever so slightly as a smile came to her delicate features.
“You want to know? Mommy’s aiming for a better life, so she doesn’t want to sell herself cheap.”
“Is having customers selling yourself cheap?”
Margaret didn’t really understand, so her mother tried to explain it in a way that she could.
“Mommy’s job can make her a lot of money now, but only while she’s still young and pretty.”
“Hmm?”
“So, rather than making money only now, mommy wants a lifestyle she can keep forever. That’s why she’s working hard to catch a man with some status and income who’ll marry her.”
“I get it!” Margaret exclaimed.
“Do you?” her mother asked.
“I sort of get it...I think. But it still doesn’t make sense, so could you give me another hint?”
“That means that you don’t get it.”
Margaret’s mother was aiming to leverage her rare beauty to become the proper wife of a minor noble. She would probably have a better lifestyle if she aimed for a wealthy merchant, but to a man like that, she’d never be anything more than an easily replaced mistress. She wanted to go from a day laborer to a full-time employee, not a temporary contract worker.
She didn’t want a merchant who was rich enough to play around or a high noble who would have problems with her origins. Instead, she wanted a lesser noble. If she looked good and acted cultured, even a commoner like her could become his lawful wife.
Obviously, a noble in name only wouldn’t suffice because she’d still have to live in poverty, so she needed a noble with a proper income. She didn’t want a tyrant who’d treat her like property either, so he needed to be a mild-mannered man of character. In addition, she had no intention of abandoning Margaret, so he’d have to be so indulgent that he could love a stepchild too. It wouldn’t do to have servants around who’d look down their nose at a former prostitute, so his household had to be small. She needed a man who met all of these conditions and would swear to take her as his lawfully wedded wife—and who was enough of a playboy that he came to the pleasure quarter.
With all the things she wanted, it was no wonder there weren’t any candidates remaining. She’d yet to meet a man who was up to her standards. But Margaret’s mother wasn’t going to give up. She was still in her early twenties. She’d be able to keep looking for another decade still.
“That kind of man doesn’t want a woman who’s used to fooling around. That’s why I’m a daughter of a fallen noble, reluctantly living as a prostitute...” her mother explained.
“Huh? But weren’t your family potato farmers?” Margaret innocently asked.
“It’s a story, dear. That’s why I’m selective about my customers.”
“A story?”
As her daughter stared at her in awe, she said, “Margaret, remember this, okay? To catch a man, it’s important to have a good backstory.”
Here was a mother putting worthless knowledge into the head of her six-year-old daughter.
“It’s important!” Margaret replied.
Here was a silly daughter with a worrying future just absorbing whatever she was told.
Margaret’s mother patted her on the head. “Mommy promises she’s going to get you a wonderful daddy, okay? And then you’ll be a baron’s daughter.”
“I’m gonna be a noble?!”
Margaret would someday be the lowest sort of noble, but right now, she was the lowest sort of commoner. The only image she had of nobles was that they were important people. And Margaret was going to be one of them.
“If I catch a noble, you’ll be able to go to the palace, you know?” Margaret’s mother added. “That will make you a young lady, and you can catch a higher noble. No, you can even catch yourself a real prince.”
“A prince?!” Margaret replied excitedly.
“That’s right. There aren’t many girls out there as cute as you, Margaret. It’ll be easy.”
“Oooh... Okay! I’ll do my best, mom!”
“Yes, of course you will.”
“Lay the foundation for my shining success story!”
“Who taught you that infuriating way of talking?”
“The old guy from the knights who came and bought Auntie Meg on the second floor was saying it.”
“Knights are just the worst. They have muscles for brains. If I’m going for someone, they need to be a bureaucratic type. Anyway, Margaret, don’t go calling anyone in this apartment ‘auntie.’ And I don’t just mean Meg, okay? If they hear you, you won’t be around to see the next day.”
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s ridiculously bad. They’re all at the age where they’re sensitive about that kind of thing.”
“It’s been ten years...”
Margaret, who’d grown into a fine young lady—at least in her own estimation—looked down from the palace terrace at the lower town where she used to live.
Her mother had lived up to her word, and four years later, she’d landed her a daddy who met all her conditions. He was so far down the aristocratic pecking order that people barely noticed him, but compared to where they lived in the slums, Margaret’s current lifestyle would have seemed forever out of reach.
Now that Margaret had come to the baronial house with her mother, she was a genuine daughter of nobility. She lived in a little house with servants and spent her days traveling to and from the palace by carriage. When she thought back to her life on the margins of society, working in the pleasure district and worrying about thieves and kidnappers, this was practically heaven. However...
“Heh heh heh. I’m almost there. Just a little further and I’ll have fully stolen Prince Elliott from that awful Rachel. I’ll be the one to sit in the crown princess’s seat!”
Margaret had no intention of stopping here. Her mother had made her a baron’s daughter, just like she’d promised.
“It all went just like mom said it would. Now that I’m a noble, I’m going to land me a real prince!”
Margaret still hadn’t forgotten the promise she’d made that day, and now she was one last push from reaching her dream.
Looking out over the town, her arms crossed and her expression displaying her indomitable spirit, Margaret began to chuckle. It gradually built from her throat until it escaped her lips, and eventually she was laughing out loud beneath the open sky.
“Heh heh heh... Hee hee, ha ha ha... Ah ha ha ha! I can do anything I set my mind to! Just you watch, Rachel! I’ll steal Prince Elliott and everything that was going to be yours away from you! Ah ha ha ha! Haaah! Ha ha ha— Haagh! Haaack! Hack! Gugh!”
At some point, Margaret laughed too hard and began coughing. Then she crouched down, hacking and retching.
At the same time, two guards were talking on the terrace.
“I thought I heard strange shouting, and yep, it’s her again.”
“What does the prince even see in her?”
“He only sees what he wants to see. I guess that’s what they mean when they say love is blind?”
“Can’t she do that stuff at home instead? Every time there’s a weird noise, we have to go investigate. I wish she’d put herself in our shoes.”