♚♚♚
AFTER breakfast, Placido recommended Rock take a hot bath.
“There’s a particular outfit I’d love for you to wear. Feel free to wash up before getting changed.”
Just like that, Rock was led out of the room by Alice and shown to Alexis Manor’s bathroom. Alice didn’t leave the room, even after she’d finished showing her the way.
Noticing Rock’s reluctance to undress in front of her, the maid broke the awkward silence first.
“I have been ordered to assist you.”
“I-I don’t need any help! I can dress and bathe myself, thank you!” Rock frantically explained, but Alice looked like she didn’t believe a word of it.
“I’ve been told you spent most of your days living in a rural village, Young Miss. Pardon my rudeness, but I thought you might not know your way around a bar of soap…”
“I know how to do that much! I’ll be fine, thank you,” Rock refused her offer, resenting the maid’s jab.
Alice also seemed less than pleased to deal with the sudden arrival of her new “Young Miss.” She grudgingly accepted Rock’s request and quietly left the changing room.
“Make sure to not only wash your whole body but also behind your ears.”
Rock simmered with anger over the maid’s last comment that was more appropriate for a young child than a full-grown, adult woman.
The bathroom was magnificently constructed using two rooms. A smaller room equipped with an imperial-capital-style steam bath was next to the room with a claw-footed bathtub filled with hot water. Owning a private steam bath was a surefire way to show one’s wealth.
In the capital, steam baths received tremendous support and business from citizens from all walks of life, and even the slums, where most people lived day by day, had public bathhouses. Justia’s bakery’s second story served as one such place, and it was said to be a fantastic facility where you could enjoy the smell of freshly baked bread from the water heated by the ovens downstairs.
Rock and Phoebe were envious every time they saw customers enjoying a good meal after their baths. They were envious because public bathhouses were segregated by gender, and there naturally weren’t any for “Ladies Dressed as Gentlemen” or “Gentlemen Dressed as Ladies.”
This was why Phoebe lived on the inconvenient fifth floor, his apartment’s top floor, because it came equipped with its own bathroom. Meanwhile, Rock’s apartment had no bath, so she borrowed Phoebe’s or washed up using the washbasin.
How would she react now that she was granted access to a bathroom with its own private, luxury steam bath?
“What the heck?! It’s so hot!”
She tried sitting in the steam bath but lasted less than five minutes in the high humidity before fleeing the room.
Rock finished bathing in the normal bathtub without ever truly comprehending why the steam baths were so popular. She cleaned every crevice of her body using the soap the right way, of course.
Once she exited the bathroom, she saw an unfamiliar dress left out next to her clothes.
Made of dull green, shiny silk fabric, it retained an old-fashioned design with its crochet collar, puffy bell sleeves, and long, dragging hem. It was as outdated as the dress Rock had borrowed from Phoebe yesterday.
Being a tailor didn’t make the dress any easier to put on alone, so Rock asked Alice to come in from where she waited outside the room to help her.
“It suits you,” Alice said in a deadpan voice as she tied the sash in a bow.
Rock wasn’t going to dignify that with a response and instead glared at herself in the changing room mirror.
It wasn’t just the design, but the dress itself seemed just as old. While it’d been stored well, there was no hiding the deteriorating silk fabric. The green fabric should’ve originally been a more vibrant shade.
It didn’t seem like a dress that was custom-made for Rock, but then who did it belong to?
“I will wash your other clothes for you.”
Alice pointed to the clothes Rock had changed out of for her bath.
“I’ll do it myself, thank you,” Rock quickly refused.
“But—”
“It will be fine. I’m good at taking care of clothes.”
Rock managed to return to her room with her clothes after stubbornly refusing the maid. This was the dress Phoebe had lent her.
I’ll absolutely bring it home and return it with my own hands, Rock silently vowed.
✦ ✦ ✦
♚♚♚
ONCE she finished getting ready, Rock was told to go to the living room where Lord and Lady Alexis were waiting.
“May I come in?”
Lauretta jumped to her feet from the chaise lounge when Rock bowed in the doorway.
“Oh my…!”
All the blood drained from her face as she covered her mouth with both hands.
Placido immediately rose and put a supportive arm around his wife’s shoulders.
“Lauretta, get a hold of yourself, dear.”
“I’ll try, but…but I was taken by surprise. She looks just like Valencia!”
Rock didn’t know how to react when her mother’s name came into the conversation.
“The dress you are wearing was tailored by Her Ladyship’s younger sister,” Danilo helpfully added. He was also in the room waiting to serve them.
“What…?”
Rock was also rendered speechless.
I can’t believe I’ve not only come across something of Mother’s but that I also put it on without realizing it… But now that I know, the workmanship is similar to my own.
Her mother had taught her how to make pleated sleeves and how to crochet patterns.
Lauretta let out a grieved sigh while Rock was taken by the dress.
“Valencia loved to sew ever since she was a little girl. I still remember her confiding in me that she’d rather become a tailor than take over the family headship.”
Lauretta began speaking of Vale’s childhood, which Rock knew little about.
“But our father—your grandfather, he’s no longer with us—had many enemies. His brothers were after our family title, so he forced us to compete, insisting we had to excel in every way to succeed him.”
Her expression was dark as if she was sick to her stomach just talking about the past. Placido firmly held her hand.
“I thought Valencia had betrayed me when she left with that man.”
Placido shot his wife a warning look when the vitriol entered her voice. He was probably worried the topic and bitterness there would upset Rock.
Lauretta nodded, seeming to understand she was entering rocky territory.
“But I am positive that sweet girl…just didn’t want to fight anymore. That’s what I believe now.”
Rock sensed this woman, who looked like a more worn-out version of her mother, had felt the same way as Vale deep down. It must’ve been the height of misery being forced by their parents to viciously compete for approval.
“Besides, Valencia left me so many things. Dresses, memories, and you.” Lauretta raised her head. She smiled as she looked at Rock, a sort of desperation in her eyes. “Don’t you want to see the dresses Valencia left me? You can wear them as much as you want.”
Rock was too dismayed to respond.
Every detail that Lauretta shared about her mother made her time in this house feel so real, it frightened Rock.
To Rock, her mother was a poor woman who ran a tailor shop in a rural mountain village. But there was another side to her mother that only existed here. She was saddened to get a glimpse of her mother’s childhood, which seemed less than happy.
Lauretta probably felt the same way about the stories only Rock knew about Vale.
Sensing it was making Rock upset, Lauretta ceased to speak of her younger sister for the time being.
“This is your home now. Spend your time here in whatever manner pleases you.”
That wasn’t just a kindly put, empty offer—they actually allowed Rock to freely roam the mansion after that. They didn’t prevent her from entering any of the rooms.
Only leaving the house was frowned upon.
“It’s not that we don’t trust you, but could you please refrain from any outings until my wife is in a better place mentally?” Placido gently refused Rock when she asked to see the garden. “Lauretta will break down for real if she loses you.”
Is that really something a kidnapper should ask his kidnapped daughter? Rock wryly thought. But she wasn’t going to disobey his orders. Not because he’d broken her or because she’d given up hope, but to achieve her objective.
“I will behave as you’ve requested until Auntie feels better,” Rock said with a fake, daughterly smile.
“Thank you,” Placido responded, looking genuinely relieved. “But I sure hope you will call her ‘Mother’ someday.”
She’d never give in to that request, but she intended to curry as much favor with her aunt and uncle as she could without compromising herself.
Rock was a businesswoman. She’d flatter a customer as much as she had to if she knew it’d land a sale.
What she’d obtain this time was not money but the information Ebel and Phoebe desperately sought. That information should have more value than money to them all.