“Pardon me for speaking despite my low station.” Rachel’s maid Sofia, who was standing by the wall, stepped forward. “Baron Poisson and his wife have already given their permission for the young lady to apprentice with us to learn manners.”
“That can’t be right! Mom’s not so stupid she wouldn’t realize what that means!” Margaret protested.
And what about her dad?
“That is why she entrusted me with a letter as proof,” Sofia replied, pulling out an envelope. “Ahem, ‘To my dearest Margaret. His Majesty came to us with an offer for you to apprentice at the Ducal House of Ferguson where you will learn their manners. We weren’t sure what to do at first, but we decided to accept.’”
“No way?! That has to be a lie!”
“‘Because if I sign the paperwork, they’ve promised to get me platinum tickets to a premium box seat at Adam’s latest show. I couldn’t pass that up, right? So long, and work hard on your lessons.’ That is what it says.”
Once Sofia finished reading the letter, Margaret stopped rolling around and started slamming her head against the floor.
“Of course she’d say yes to that! It’s a show by the Adam! I’d gladly sell two or three of my own daughters for that chance! Wait, if she sold me to get those tickets, then they oughta belong to meeee!!! Let me go for at least one daaaaay!!!”
“You understand that you will be apprenticing with them, then?” the king asked.
“Yeah! But I don’t wannaaaa! I get why, but I don’t wanna goooo!”
Margaret suddenly stopped and glanced at Rachel. Rachel had her arms spread wide, the biggest smile on her face.
“Welcome!” she trilled.
“I really don’t wanna goooooo!!!”
Grand Duke Vivaldi breathed a sigh of relief.
“It’s all over now, isn’t it?”
The prime minister looked relieved too.
“Yes, that’s right...”
“I won’t lose Enrique again?”
“No, you won’t.”
“I won’t have a monkey eating my apples?”
“No, you won’t.”
The two men hugged each other, crying tears of joy.
“What happened to you, uncle?” the king asked.
None of that had made it into the reports.
“Hmm, I’d say it all worked out in the end,” the king remarked, satisfied. That is, until he sensed someone behind him.
“Robert.”
“Hm?” The king turned to find Duchess Somerset and Countess Marlborough waiting behind him.
“Why, aunt. I apologize for not coming to give my regards sooner.”
“That is not what is important,” Duchess Somerset replied. She was holding a teacher’s pointer. “Robert. We need to talk out back about some of the issues with your decisions, your directions, and your ability to communicate.”
“Wait, listen! There were reasons!” the king pleaded.
“We need to talk. Out back!” The duchess swung her pointer. “Or would you prefer to lower your pants here?”
The king had rendered judgment, but the audience room was still noisy, so Rachel watched from a window outside, an ephemeral smile on her face.
Is this all finally over now? If everything returns to normal after this, it will be. Beyond that, things will turn out however they turn out.
Rachel slowly took a step backward, trying to avoid the notice of the noisy people.
My role here is done. So...
Quietly leaving from the terrace, Rachel smiled as she turned to look back at the audience room once more.
I’m free...to go where I want now, right?
“Oh, enough of this. Rachel, let’s leave them to it and go home. Rachel?”
Emerging from the chaos in the hall, the duke called his daughter, intending to just go home already. It was Rachel’s first time out of jail in three months, so she had to be missing the house. Or so he thought.
“Rachel?”
There was no one where Rachel had been standing, just the lace curtains, quietly swaying in the wind that blew through the large, open window.
“Rachel!” the duke called.
“Mmngh.”
Rachel turned over in her sleep.
“Come on, Rachel! Wake up!”
“Ngh... I was sleeping so well too. What is it?”
Duke Ferguson rattled the iron bars. “No, not, ‘What is it?’! Get up, Rachel!”
Even though everyone was still making a ruckus, the girl at the center of it all had slipped away on them. The duke had hurriedly gone in search of her, only to find her back in the prison, sound asleep.
What is she thinking? he thought angrily as he looked at her sleeping face.
“Why are you back in the dungeon now that everything is sorted out?! Get out here at once!”
“I don’t want to,” Rachel replied, cutting him off.
“Wha...”
Rachel savored the smoothness of her bedding as she pulled the comforter over her head and dove deep underneath.
“I’m enjoying a romantic rendezvous with the one I love in a place where no one can come between us right now. It’s boorish of you to interfere.”
“A rendezvous?” The duke looked sideways at his daughter, who was saying some strange things.
Sofia calmly interjected, “Young mistress, would the one you love happen to be your comforter?”
“Yesss... We’re madly in love... Ngh.”
“Enough nonsense about loving your bedding! Get out here at once!” the duke demanded.
“It’s the truth!” Rachel asserted, her voice muffled by the comforter. “I was sleeping on cushions at first, but after switching to a bed, I realized something. A comforter really does feel better.”
“Well, of course it does! That’s obvious!”
“Now that I think about it, comforters have been comforting me since the day I was born.”
“That’s what they do!”
“When I was tired or sad, they gently embraced me without a word.”
“Because they can’t talk.”
Rachel rolled over in bed, ignoring her father’s listless retorts.
“So, there you have it. In these three months, I’ve become reacquainted with the value of a good comforter. I don’t have time for lessons to become queen. Please, don’t interfere in our lovey-dovey time together.”
“You just got used to slacking, didn’t you?!” the duke cried. “Sofia. Say something to this foolish daughter of mine!”
At the duke’s request, Sofia looked at the bed. “Young mistress, are you happy like this?”
“Yep,” Rachel replied.
Sofia stared into space for a while, thinking, and said, “I see. That is good to hear.” Then she stopped thinking.
“Why are you accepting it?!” the duke questioned. “Would you try to wake her up properly?!”
“The young mistress’s happiness is my happiness,” Sofia explained.
“Your maids act all talented, but they’re actually useless?! Hey, Rachel! Get up!”
“Ngh.”
The duke turned to the prison guard, who was watching from a distance.
“You, drag her out of there! Unlock the door!”
“Uh, yeah...” The prison guard scratched his head awkwardly. “About that...”
“What?”
“When the young lady returned, she said, ‘I’ll be managing the lock from inside from now on,’ and confiscated the key...”
“And you didn’t think that was strange?! What kind of prison lets the inmate manage the locks?!”
“Uh, I did think it was strange, but...” The prison guard looked away. He had the look of a man who’d come to terms with the world. “I figured arguing with the young lady was useless...”
“Why is everyone around Rachel like this?!” the duke lamented.
Something tapped on the duke’s knee. Looking down, he saw his daughter’s beloved pet monkey offering him an apple.
“I’ll give you this, so make me look good by letting this go, okay?”
“Seriously, what is going on around Rachel?!”
With the shouts of her father and those trying to mollify him as background noise, Rachel wrapped herself in the warm comforter and drifted off to sleep with a contented smile on her face.
It looked like the young lady was going to be able to keep living the slow life in prison a little while longer.