A few days later...
“Your Ladyship, what are you doing?” demanded the unfriendly lady’s maid with a shocked look on her face. Ariel had asked around, and apparently her name was Beth.
“Huh? Are you talking to me?” Ariel inquired, surveying the room with wide eyes.
“Do you see anyone else around here?” Beth snapped, sounding fed up.
“Right, sorry. It’s just that this is the first time you’ve started a conversation with me.”
Half a month had passed since Ariel had first arrived at the mansion. Today, she had been cutting up one of the dresses she’d brought with a pair of scissors when the shocked Beth had addressed her.
“Indeed, I am. Why are you cutting up your dress? Have you lost your mind? Or maybe you’re pretending to have gone crazy to disgrace House Balladur’s name?” Beth taunted.
Ariel shrugged. “No. I brought this dress with me to wear at parties, but I won’t be attending any, will I? So I decided to repurpose the material into clothes for everyday use. Tabitha taught me how to.”
“Tabitha?” Beth echoed with a frown.
Ever since Ariel had given Tabitha the clothespin hanger, the woman, for all her huffing and puffing, had treated her kindly. She was a caring person at her core, and on top of doing Ariel’s laundry and preparing her baths, she also taught her various things about life at the manor.
Beth continued to stand there with an intense look on her face. “I don’t know what ideas you put in the laundry girls’ heads, but we know that you’re a wicked woman. Trying to butter us up won’t work.”
“Yes, yes. I know. Now do you mind if I continue?” Ariel replied. By now, she had gotten completely used to the maids’ contempt.
Tabitha taught me about this too. According to the woman, all the maids at the main residence loved the new marquis dearly, and to them, his word was law. As such, since the marquis despised Ariel, the maids were hostile toward her too. Well, not that I care.
Her husband was as cold to her as ever. Or rather, he acted as if she didn’t exist. Ariel had caught sight of him a few times in the mansion, but they hadn’t spoken a single time since her arrival. But thanks to that, I can take it easy, so I don’t mind.
Once Ariel was done fixing her clothes, she was going to take a walk in House Balladur’s rose garden, which Tabitha and the laundry girls had told her about. It was famous even among other nobles, so Ariel was looking forward to seeing it. I wonder if I’ll be able to take a rose back with me so I could give it to the others as a gift? Then again, I bet Tabitha would rather I give her soap made by Jeanette!
While thinking such things, Ariel finished her work and headed to the rose garden near the manor.
As soon as she stepped toward the entrance, the soft fragrance of roses enveloped her. “Wow... What a lovely scent!” The garden was built like a maze, and it seemed to be waiting for her to enter. Ariel inhaled the scent of the roses, feeling a lump in her throat. She’d brought a small basket with her, and she exultantly stepped into the garden with it in hand.
The garden was filled with colorful roses and pleasant aromas. White, pink, yellow, red—each area had blooming roses of a different color and type. Ariel felt as if she’d stepped into the world of a fairytale. “How wonderful! It might’ve been worth marrying into this family just to be able to come here every day!” she exclaimed cheerfully, overcome with adoration for the flowers.
Right as she turned to walk to the next section, she heard a sound. “Gyaaah!” And just like that, a small boy suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Huh...?” Ariel froze in place, staring ahead with disbelief. “Is... Is that a child?!”
The boy, whose height only reached to Ariel’s waist, wandered around the rose garden on unsteady feet. Based on his babyish features, he must’ve been about two or three years old. His outfit wasn’t extravagant or flattering either—if anything, it looked peasantly.
“There’s no way this is the marquis’s son, right? Did this boy wander in here from somewhere and get lost?” Ariel mused out loud to herself, watching with wide eyes as the toddler waddled over toward a rose bush.
“Flower! Flower!” he exclaimed.
“Ah, wait! That’s dangerous!” Ariel shouted. After all, roses had thorns. The little boy flinched in surprise at her voice, and then—
“WAAAH!!!”
—loudly burst into tears.
“What?! Was that enough to make you cry?!” the flustered Ariel mumbled as she approached him. But she had no idea what to do next, and only stood there helplessly. Oh no! I’ve never interacted with a child before! What am I supposed to do?!
“WAHHH!!!”
“Um, I... I’m sorry, okay?” Ariel said nervously. If I scared him, then apologizing should help, right?
But the boy’s crying didn’t stop. “AHHH!!!”
Oh come on! What now?! Wait, I know! Ariel hurriedly held out her basket. It was filled with a bunch of colorful rose petals she’d picked up during her walk through the garden. She’d supposed that nobody would scold her for taking petals which had fallen on the ground. “Here, look! Aren’t they pretty? If you take them in your hands, like this...” As she spoke, Ariel picked up a handful of the petals and tossed them into the air. A flurry of colors whirled around them.
“W-Wow...” The boy’s cheeks were damp with tears and his nose was running, but he gazed at the petals in fascination with his mouth hanging open. It seemed Ariel’s actions were effective.
A-All right! He stopped crying! I’ll do it one more time, Ariel thought, gathering the remaining petals from the basket and throwing them toward the sky.
“Flower! Flower!” The toddler called out and chased after the fallen petals with a shine in his eyes. His plump cheeks wobbled with each step, and his small lips were pursed in concentration as he tried his hardest to collect all the petals one by one.
Ariel watched him, awash with relief. Phew! He seems to be feeling better now.
She thought she could relax for a while, but the petal throwing game seemed to have enraptured the boy. “More! More!” he begged, and made Ariel toss the petals into the air over and over. Each time she did, he screamed in joy. His face lit up with a pure and innocent smile that showed he was enjoying this little game from the bottom of his heart.
Watching him caused Ariel’s feelings to soften. “Hee hee... Children can be quite cute, can’t they?” Scattering the petals into the air, Ariel couldn’t help but smile as well. “Hey, what’s your name? Well...maybe you can’t say it yet. Do you know where your mama and papa are?”
“Mama! Papa!” the boy parroted her, staring at Ariel with a grin. He wasn’t old enough to have a conversation yet.
“What now...?” Ariel murmured, feeling at a loss as she continued playing with the boy.
Suddenly, in the distance, a masculine voice called out: “Jack! Jaaack!”
Ariel jolted. It must’ve been someone searching for the boy. “Come! We might’ve found your papa,” she said. Surmising that carrying the boy would be quicker given his age, Ariel held out her arms, and he allowed her to pick him up without complaint. “Oof! You’re small, but you’re surprisingly heavy...!” she remarked, before heading toward the voice.
Following the sound of the voice, Ariel came face-to-face with a male servant in his thirties. Based on his outfit and the shears attached to his waist, he must’ve been the gardener. “Is this your child?” she asked him.
The man’s face lit up when he saw the boy. “Jack! Yeah, that’s my son. I got a little too absorbed in my work, and before I knew it, he’d disappeared... What a relief! Thank you!”
“He was in the rose garden and almost touched some thorns. It was a close call,” Ariel admonished.
The gardener slumped, hanging his head. “I’m sorry... I do my best to keep an eye on him, but I can’t watch him all the time or I won’t be able to do my work.”
“What about his mother?”
“Well...”
The man explained that his wife had collapsed because of an illness. It took a while before anyone found her, and now she had to be on complete bed rest. It was also possible that she was infectious, so Jack couldn’t stay with her.
“Luckily, my neighbor agreed to nurse my wife, but I have no one to look after Jack... I had no choice but to ask the marquis for permission to bring him here with me.”
“He authorized it? Then he could at least have one of the maids help you out,” Ariel said with a pout. Even she knew that having to look after a child this young while working was ridiculous. Not to mention that as the gardener, the man had shears and other sharp objects around him, so it wasn’t safe.
The man laughed awkwardly. “No, I couldn’t demand such a thing. His Lordship was the one to summon a doctor for my wife. I already owe him a debt I cannot repay.”
“Humph! Even if that’s the case, do you really think you can look after this child right now?” Ariel asked. She might have brought Jack back to his father, but there was still a risk that the boy would wander off again.
The gardener frowned. “Well...” He glanced down at his son, who seemed to have completely forgiven the earlier incident thanks to the petal tossing game and was gazing back at his father with a happy grin.
Seeing that innocent smile, Ariel let out a sigh. “It looks like there’s no other way. I have plenty of free time anyway, so how about I look after Jack while you’re working?”
“What?! I couldn’t ask that of you, Your Ladyship...!”
“So you’d rather risk him getting lost or hurt?”
The gardener groaned.
“Then it’s decided,” Ariel said with a laugh. “Come on, Jack. We’ll play together until your papa’s finished working.”
“Okay!”
Jack jumped into Ariel’s arms without any hesitation. He had no sense of wariness toward others. He’s so trusting, I’m worried that someone might kidnap him! I’ll have to keep a careful eye on him.