Old-guard houses generally considered it shameful for women to give their thoughts about politics, so if this had been the Lady Janail of before, she probably would have avoided the topic completely. She’s really changed so much.
“So, how did he propose to you?! I’m dying to hear!” I asked, unable to hold back my curiosity.
Lady Janail and Sir Anthony had been in the same class since elementary school, so I very much wanted to hear how their romance blossomed.
“Well, actually, I...kind of pulled a ‘Princess Anastasia’s Courage,’” she said, her face turning red and her voice going soft as a mosquito’s buzzing.
“‘Princess Anastasia’? Are you referring to...me?”
“She is,” Lady Ekatarina said, grinning with amusement as she began to explain.
Apparently, now whenever women proposed to men, they called it “Princess Anastasia’s Courage.” In the play The Goblin Maiden, the main character, Anassy, proposed to her loved one, Ginova. After learning that it was based on real-life events, news had spread that I was the one Anassy was modeled after, and the term for women proposing to men now had my name attached to it.
The play had been necessary to restore Sir Gino’s honor, and I’d thought I’d prepared myself for the consequent talk that would spread. However, I’d had no idea that they’d actually name the proposal after me. This was so embarrassing...
But also, I was surprised that Lady Janail had proposed in the first place. Back during the bird and flower dance, she’d lacked any courage to dance with other boys, so her being so proactive in her relationship was a huge change.
When she’d still been engaged to Sir Christopher, their communication had been almost exclusively through letters, with most of them being sent from him. Their relationship had been very businesslike, which made me feel bad for her since she truly had cared about him.
However, Sir Anthony frequently had tea with Lady Janail and would invite her out to see plays and musical performances. He also came to me and Sir Gino often for advice on what to do for dates.
Lady Janail would always talk about their dates happily, albeit sheepishly. She was so enthralled with her first true relationship that wasn’t just for political reasons, and she seemed so happy.
“Well, anyway...my house actually had this lying around...” Lady Janail said, placing a worn piece of cloth on the table.
“I-Is this double-sided embroidery?!”
“Huh?!” I exclaimed at Lady Ekatarina’s statement.
Though Lady Janail had casually placed the cloth on the table, Lady Ekatarina was extremely surprised, startling me as well. Double-sided embroidery was made through a technique that allowed the person to embroider both sides of the cloth at the same time. Though it was simple enough to do with both sides having the same pattern, this particular technique made it so that each side was different. It was an ancient lost art that was only written about in old books. Something like this shouldn’t have existed in this world; however, it was right in front of us!
“So, since becoming engaged to Sir Anthony, I’ve gotten permission to help the servants with their work, and I found this the other day. When I saw it, I remembered you mentioning something about looking for embroidery with a different pattern on each side, so I brought it here for you two to see.”
“Why is something so valuable so beaten up?!” Lady Ekatarina cried.
“Well...my father decided that the old fabrics in our storehouse should be disposed of, but our servants thought that would be a waste, so they cut them into rags.”
Though it looked like someone had tried to repair some of the frayed embroidery threads, there were obvious signs of it having been used as a cleaning rag. The servants had likely cut it up to make it easier to use, evidenced by the design that was definitely part of something bigger. There were many stains on it from being used to wipe up messes.
“A cleaning rag?!”
“Eek! I-I’m so sorry! Father doesn’t care much about embroidery!” Lady Janail squeaked, shrinking back from Lady Ekatarina’s fury.
I couldn’t blame her for being angry, though, with how much she loved embroidery. Lady Ekatarina quickly apologized and explained that she wasn’t angry at her personally. Though I was aware that old-guard houses didn’t value women’s crafts very highly, even so...this was a tremendous shame.
“Given how long your house has been around, it’s very possible that there are still some double-sided embroidery pieces in your home. We will buy any of them that are left—from any of the old-guard houses—immediately,” I said.
These were very important pieces of culture. If they were simply going to be used as rags, then it was better for us to purchase them all. This was perfect timing too. House Sevensworth already had wealth that rivaled a country, but now that we’d expanded, Sir Gino had been encouraging me to spend money more than ever before.
“Charlotte, come out.”
“Yes, madam.”
Out of the backpack that I’d made for Bridgette came Charlotte. Sir Gino had given her to me as a way to prevent attempts on my life. Though she was supposed to behave like nothing more than a regular stuffed bear in front of everyone else, I felt it was okay to reveal the truth to these two.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you two. My name is Charlotte, and I’m the madam’s stuffed animal,” Charlotte said, trotting across the table and raising the edges of her skirt in a curtsy.
Both Lady Janail and Lady Ekatarina’s eyes widened greatly before they frantically returned the greeting.
“This is House Sevensworth’s new product, stolichny. Please have some,” Charlotte said, bringing a plate with a slice of fruitcake with raisins in it for both of them from the tea cart. Charlotte was very familiar with the sweets that were served in this house.
Lady Janail squealed. “It’s so cute! What is this adorable creature?!”
Though Lady Ekatarina remained outwardly calm, I could tell she was struggling, until she couldn’t hold it back anymore and her lips began twitching as she desperately tried to stop herself from smiling. As her best friend, I knew that Lady Ekatarina absolutely adored cute things. The atmosphere of our conversation had become a little too heavy, so I’d called Charlotte out to help and thanks to her, the remainder of our tea party was very lighthearted.