Once again, it seemed she’d read me like a book. I’m truly not good at this...
“Why did you change your mind?” I asked.
There was too big a difference between our skills. I couldn’t casually wheedle information out of her, so I decided to be blunt instead.
“Lady Jennifer seemed so sorrowful at the funeral. I know it’s only to be expected with how close the two of them were, but there was something that felt off. Then when I arrive here, both Lady Jennifer and Sir Azenagua are gone? That’s when my theory was confirmed. Lady Jennifer is planning something, isn’t she?”
I could feel myself gulp. I’d told her that both my parents had gone to their countryside villa to heal their hearts. I hadn’t expected her to be able to see through me so easily.
I couldn’t allow myself to leak information and be a hindrance to everyone. I needed to simply smile and hide all my emotions behind it, making sure not to give anything away with unconscious changes in my gaze, hands, or breathing.
“Going blank is another way of showing emotions, you know. There are situations where even if you need to erase your emotions, doing so becomes a tell. It’s not good to become too guarded,” she advised me through a giggle.
I really am no good. I can’t defend against her at all.
“Everyone seemed to think that your mother was losing power when her brother, my husband, passed away, and when Sir Azenagua resigned from his position as prime minister, but I don’t see it that way. I’ve made many plans against your mother and never once have I come out on top. I’ve worked hard to figure her out so I could win at least once, so I feel like I understand her better than most others. The reason that I’m intent on sitting back and watching is because I’ve no doubt she’s mounting a counterattack.”
Mother could even win against my aunt, who’d been fighting for decades in the royal palace as queen and could dispatch me as easily as if I were a child. I was starting to feel like I would never be like mother. Maybe it would be best to give up on this avenue of being useful to Sir Gino. But what can I do?
“Dee...he’s actually been smiling at me recently. It’s a very beautiful smile. He invites me to have meals with him and even tea. It’s like he’s a different person entirely from who he was at the palace. That’s why I’ve started to wonder if my trying to make him king wasn’t for his sake, but mine. I’d intended to spring into action after watching the movements of the Sevensworths, but now...”
She truly cared about the former crown prince and was ready to give everything up for him. I could easily see her deep regret and how deeply she loved him. I was truly happy to see their relationship improve to the point that tears began streaming down my face, making her frantically try to comfort me. Eventually, the tears stopped, and we returned to chatting with one another.
“Mother, Madam Anastasia, pardon my tardiness,” the former crown prince said.
Though this tea had originally been meant for the three of us, he’d been delayed due to his training regimen. Now that he was here, we shifted from the heavy topics of before to much more lighthearted ones. It was a very enjoyable time.
“This is a very nice drawing room. I enjoy the breeze, and the scent of the sweet olives is very relaxing,” the prince said, praising the Fan Columbine.
This room had a large window that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, which could be opened when the weather was pleasant like today’s. There were sweet olive trees nearby, which the cool autumn air delivered to us, and the purple flowers of the aster tree also swayed in the wind. We could also see the red of the dianthus and the white and pink of the cyclamen. In the distance, a layer of light clouds was drifting across the clear blue sky.
“It’s been a while since I’ve had these cookies, mother. They’re just as delicious as I remember,” the former crown prince said with a satisfied smile as he ate the cookies.
“You can have as many as you want,” my aunt giggled, wearing a very happy smile.
I simply watched over them, not really understanding why she was so happy.
“I made these cookies,” she said.
“You did?!” I exclaimed.
I couldn’t hide my surprise. Before becoming queen, she’d been the daughter of Marquess Klein and set to marry the heir to the royal family. She shouldn’t have been of a status where she was allowed to cook.
“When I was in elementary school, I threw a fit saying I wanted a homemade taste,” the prince began explaining.
Greater nobles who underwent strict education tended to have good grades and be at the top of their schools. The elite class, which both Sir Gino and I’d been in had solely consisted of greater nobles. On the other hand, the former crown prince had been in the third class, which had a lot of lesser nobles and commoners.
The commoners would have home-cooked meals that their mothers made, so all his friends in his class talked about a homemade taste. However, he had no clue what that was, so he felt as if he weren’t loved and went crying to his mother.
Though she’d never cooked before, she learned how to make cookies from one of the palace chefs just so she could give them to him.
“When I started middle school, I stopped eating them as much, even if she baked them for me. Eventually, I forgot about them entirely, but I recently began remembering the taste of those cookies. I had a craving the other day, so I asked her to make some again.”
I couldn’t believe this. Despite her jam-packed schedule every day, she’d still found time to learn how to make cookies simply because he asked, and then he wouldn’t eat them even if she took the time out of that schedule to make them for him? That was horrible of him.
“It’d have been one thing if he’d been a gentle girl like you, but he was completely normal for a boy in his rebellious phase,” she said leisurely.
She really does care about him a lot.