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I chose a black one-piece dress from the clothes I’d brought from home. After putting it on, I checked myself in the mirror for anything unusual.
“I wonder if this is too plain,” I muttered to myself. “Still, I can’t dress up any more than this…”
While the skirt was long and simple, the collar had a touch of flower-patterned embroidery that I’d sewn in my spare time. After searching up and down for something to wear on special occasions, I finally found this dress. Later, I added the embroidery to spruce it up a little. That was a good idea on my part.
Albert would come to get me soon, and we’d be heading to the McClain region today. During the ceremony, Rosemary’s remains would be returned to her childhood home and placed in a new grave. I’d chosen a black dress out of respect for the occasion. Since this wasn’t a funeral, we didn’t need to wear mourning clothes. But we couldn’t wear anything too gaudy either. Not that I had any such clothes to begin with.
I attempted to put together a mature outfit but was restless, wondering if I’d made the right choice. Feeling like a bundle of nerves, I finished preparing for the trip way too early. Now I only had to wait for Albert.
While I paced around the room, agitated, I heard a knock at the door. I forgot propriety and flung the door open without a word, thinking Albert had arrived early. I let out a yelp when I saw their face. This sort of blunder was bound to happen when you didn’t confirm the identity of a visitor.
“Liella,” I greeted her. “Sorry to startle you. What’s going on?”
Me throwing the door open surprised Liella as well. I apologized to her when she backed away a little. I hadn’t expected a colleague to visit me so early in the morning. Starting today, I would be taking a break from the chivalric order until the ceremony ended. That would be a few days, at least.
“Honestly, though, this isn’t any different from your official duties,” Sir Eva had said graciously. “You’ll be accompanying the high commander, after all.”
Liella knew I was leaving today. I’d told the knights and other handmaids about my trip. Why visit me now, of all times?
“Sorry to bother you so early,” Liella apologized. “I wanted to confirm something related to our job before you left. Can you spare a few minutes right now, Mary?”
“Yes, if it’s only a few minutes…”
During the fiancée selection, I’d worked alongside Liella a few times. Palace handmaids did our best to ignore status and position, never addressing each other with titles when speaking. But, while Liella and I were on a first-name basis, we weren’t close friends.
Liella was a palace handmaid before the uproarious fiancée selection. Back then, she taught me about the job, but she always treated me harshly as well. Perhaps she coveted the position as Prince Rizel’s fiancée. Or perhaps she had feelings for Albert or Reynaldo. Recently, she’d even been shooting me dirty looks in Reynaldo’s office. Regardless, her visiting me like this was well within the realm of possibility, as she was serious about her job.
After giving my assent, I followed Liella down a palace corridor.
“You’re heading to the McClain region soon, right?” Liella asked. “I’ve heard there’s going to be a ceremony honoring the construction of Lady Rosemary’s memorial.”
“That’s right,” I confirmed.
“Then it’s true that you’re distantly related to Lady Rosemary?”
I smiled and dodged the question.
As Liella hastened through corridors and down staircases, she explained why she’d asked for my help.
“I found chivalric order uniforms in the basement storage room. When I checked them, they looked brand new, as if they’d just been tailored. From what I can guess, the person who received the packages must have been confused about where to send them, so they mistakenly wound up in the storage room. Originally, I wanted Sir McClain or Sir Eva to look at the packages, but in the chivalric order, delivering uniforms is a handmaid’s job, right? So anyway, I’d like you to look at the packages and report back to Sir McClain.”
“I did request a few new uniforms, but they wound up in the storage room?” I asked. “What on earth happened?”
The palace storage room contained emergency supplies, but I’d only visited the place a few times for work. It was a vast space, and I’d never set foot within its depths. Hardly anyone else used it, either. The basement was an inconvenient location. It was an altogether strange place for packages to have wound up.
Before long, we reached a door in the deserted basement. Liella took out the key to the storage room, unlocked the door, and went inside first. At her urging, I picked up a candlestick and match that had been placed near the door, lighting a flame to help us see in the dark.
I looked around with the help of the faint light. Not a single window graced my field of vision, and items lay on the ground in a disorganized mess. The darkness hid its depths, but this place was clearly enormous.
Liella pointed to a burlap sack lying on the ground. “That’s where the uniforms are.”
Despite my hesitation to move in the darkness, I went to check the bag. When I glanced at Liella, she was holding the door open with one hand to keep it from closing. Relaxing, I took another step forward.
“Have you heard the gossip about Duke Rose and Sir McClain doting on you?” Liella asked.
Alarm bells went off in my head. I took another step forward. “Yes, I have.”
“And is it true that other women are playing mean pranks on you?”
“Hmm. Something of the sort might be happening.”
Other women in the palace had been showing off by tripping me or splashing water on me. I never took their bait since they were acting out of jealousy. Responding to the harassment would only delight the perpetrators. Ignoring it was the smart thing to do.
While some women obviously disliked me, they were all moved to different posts after a while. Presumably, other witnesses told Albert or Reynaldo about my harassment, as I hadn’t tattled on anyone. They hadn’t mentioned anything to me either. Talking about the matter seemed likely to stir up conflict, and as a result, we all held our tongues.
Why was Liella asking me these questions? Her attitude put me on high alert, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. My wariness spiked. I looked towards the entrance again. Liella was still waiting in front of the door.
I pushed my speculations out of my mind, unable to imagine Liella harassing me. She was the daughter of a viscount, after all. Despite being a handmaid, she was a high-ranking noblewoman with a great deal of pride. She wasn’t the sort of woman who’d fallen on hard enough times to participate in such petty cruelties.
Even so, we weren’t exactly on good terms. Every so often, I felt her shooting me dirty looks, like in Reynaldo’s office. This wasn’t envy born purely from covetousness or unrequited love. Her glare implied much more complex circumstances.
I don’t fully understand the situation, but during my time as Rosemary, I received similar glares quite often.
During my past life, I’d been caught in a whirlpool of emotions more violent than a woman’s simple jealousy. Liella’s dirty looks reminded me of the glares I’d suffered back then.
Spurred by anxiety, I grabbed the bag and checked its contents. They appeared to be the uniforms I’d requested for tailoring.
“You were right,” I told her. “These look like the chivalric order’s uniforms.”
Looking up, Liella still stood in front of the distant doorway, wearing a grief-stricken yet somehow twisted expression. This wasn’t the face of an envious woman or someone taking cruel pleasure in harassment. Rather, her expression was closer to one of fear.
“I’m sorry, Mary.”
The door thudded closed. Darkness consumed me. I hurried over to the entrance, utterly confused. The door was locked.
“Liella!” I cried. “What’s going on?!”
She’d been hostile towards me, but I hadn’t thought of her as the sort of woman who would participate in such things. More pressingly, I was trapped in the basement. I had little chance of opening the door until the next visitor came.
This is way overboard for harassment!
I banged on the door, but there was no response. Through the walls, only the sound of a woman’s shoes running into the distance reached my ears. Liella was already retreating from the scene of the crime.
I tightened my grip on the candlestick in my hand. Somehow, I needed to get out. Albert would be visiting my room before long. How could I get word to him? Would he even notice that anything was amiss?
As anxiety threatened to crush me, I searched for anything in the darkness that might help me escape. Trapped in a lightless, soundless world, my entire body quivered. A similar fate had befallen me in the past. I’d been trapped in the darkness without a single spark of warmth to stave off the piercing cold and all-consuming silence.
Unbidden, I recalled Rosemary’s time in prison. Tears spilled from my eyes, and I couldn’t stop shaking.
“N-No, wait…” I mumbled.
Fear overwhelmed my instincts. I curled into a ball and hugged myself tightly, doing whatever I could to regain my sanity. At the same time, I stared intently at the candle burning in front of me.