Chapter 3:
Capriccio in the Foyer
SOMETIME AFTER LECT’S PROPOSAL, ANOTHER meeting took place in the Rudleberg foyer.
“You said this was for the ball, but what exactly are we doing, Melody?” Luciana asked.
“Dance practice, my lady.” The maid clapped her hands and smiled at a confused Luciana. “You’re out of practice. Not since the Spring Ball have we had a proper lesson, so this is long overdue.”
“What about your work?”
Melody furrowed her brow. She spoke her next words with a gravitas befitting a terrible tragedy. “After a long and arduous debate with myself, I’ve come to the conclusion that preparing you for the Summer Ball is as much a part of my duties as seeing to the household. I’ve taken the necessary measures to ensure you may have my complete focus for the remainder of our stay.”
Only three days remained until they departed for the capital. Upon discussing the matter with Ryan, the butler, and Lullia, the housekeeper, they all decided that now was a good time to begin transferring responsibilities back to the county estate’s retinue.
“Question!” Micah’s hand shot up. “Why are we here too?”
Lect, Rook, and Schue stood beside her, equally confused.
“I’ll be covering some simple movements, and I’d like you all to learn with us,” Melody said. “More pairs will help things feel more realistic.”
“I have to dance?” Micah groaned. “Am I even tall enough?” She glanced around at her potential partners. They all had close to half a meter on her at least.
“Ten centimeters is the optimal height difference between dance partners, but what’s important is having fun. Let’s not mind the details.” Melody offered a reassuring grin.
“That’s right, Micah,” Schue said. “If height was everything, all the short princesses of the world would never get to dance.” He flashed what he surely thought was a winning and not at all goofy smile. “They deserve love too!”
“Right, um, why are you here?” Melody asked. “I never called for you.”
Schue belonged to the county retinue, the retinue who would be on their own once Melody and the others left in just three days. Starting tomorrow, the estate would operate under the assumption that they were already gone, so as to soften the transition. And yet Schue was here. Taking dance lessons.
“Don’t be like that, Melody! I thought we were special.”
“You’re just a manservant, but that’s looking tenuous to me!” Luciana snapped her fan into harisen form and swung with all her might, but there was no thwack. “What?!”
Schue continued after a dexterous dodge. “Tsk tsk, my lady. Did you think I’d never learn?”
“Enough,” someone rumbled.
“Ow!”
“Thank you, Rook,” said Luciana.
Schue rubbed the back of his head. A swift chop had killed his cartoonishly smug attitude quite effectively. “Rook! That hurt!”
“No more games. Melody is waiting to begin,” the valet-in-training mumbled.
“Right! I’m sorry, Melody. Lady Luciana here just keeps interrupting, doesn’t she?”
The maid simply replied, “Um, okay.”
“The audacity!” Luciana said. “Schue’s the problem, Melody! I was only trying to whip—to set him straight!”
“‘Whip’? Were you about to say you were going to whip me?!” Schue exclaimed.
“You’re a degenerate! You! Sir Gutless! Lay this villain low!”
“Er, me?” Lect said.
“Right before you is a flirt and scoundrel who is a threat to women the realm over, and you won’t do anything about it? You call yourself a knight?! What if he harms Melody?! Has the thought even crossed your mind?!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, you can keep that in its sheath, Sir Gutless!” Schue said.
“Everyone be quiet!” Melody roared. “For goodness’ sake, it’s a dance lesson! There is no reason for all this hubbub!”
The knight, the lady, and the valet slumped and apologized in unison.
“I can’t even begin to guess where this bad blood between you and Schue comes from, my lady, but—”
“You can’t?”
“My lady.”
“Er, sorry.”
“As I was saying, it makes me very sad to see you levy violence so readily against your servants.”
“No, Melody! Listen! I-I’m sorry, Melody!” Luciana turned frantic at the sight of her downtrodden and disappointed maid. “I’m sorry. I really am. It’s just the way it thwacks, Melody. It’s so satisfying, but clearly I’ve gotten carried away. I promise I’ll be more responsible.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that. Now, Sir Froude, I’ll thank you not to threaten to unsheathe your sword in my lady’s abode.”
“I-I apologize,” Lect stammered. “Could you, um, not call me that?”
“Oh, but it’s only proper, Sir Froude. What you ask of me would be a breach of conduct. You understand.” Melody smiled, but there was no joy in it.
“I’m sorry, Melody,” he said. “I let myself get swept up in the moment and acted against my own code. I swear to you it will not happen again.” The knight shrank in on himself, his voice faltering. “Now if we could…go back to normal.”
Melody sighed. “Never again, Lect.”
“You have my word!” He heaved a sigh heavy with relief.
Melody addressed the sore thumb next. “I didn’t request your presence for this, Schue. I really don’t like the idea of you using me to skip work.”
“I’m not!” he cried. “I got Lord Hubert and Master Ryan’s permission! Honest!”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“I swear! You need men to dance the men’s part, don’t you?” Schue stood up straight in an elegant pose.
“You can dance? Come to think of it, you came here after running away from home. It wasn’t a noble house, was it?”
“Oh, please! Me? Nobility?” said the royal. He flashed one of his melty grins. “Anyway, it’s going to be you and Lady Luciana at the ball, right? In which case, you’re going to need an extra man to practice with other than Sir Gutless.”
“Who are you calling gutless?” Lect murmured.
“Just the knight who’s either too shy or too chicken to speak his mind.” Another grin, just for Lect.
“He’s got you there,” Luciana chided.
Lect grumbled.
“What is everyone talking about?” Melody asked.
Two more grins. One refined, the other like pudding. Schue and Luciana said, “Oh, nothing.”
Behind them, Lect could only frown and fume.
Melody did not pursue the issue. Ultimately, Schue would stay. Three pairs were unquestionably preferable to two if they sought to recreate a real ball.
“That leaves one issue,” she said.
“What’s the problem?” Luciana asked.
“If everyone’s going to be dancing, we have no one to keep a rhythm.”
“Yeah, I’m definitely not dancing if we don’t even have a beat to dance to,” Micah said.
She had learned a few basics from Melody, and Rook from Schue, but that was hardly enough to improvise with. Normally, Melody would have resolved this problem with magic, but that was unwise thanks to her new awareness of the need for subtlety.
“I believe I can help you there.” Hubert appeared at just the right moment.
“Uncle? Don’t you have administrative work to attend to?”
“Oh, don’t mind that, Luciana. I’ve just about finished and had a hunch you’d find yourselves in a bit of a bind.”
Thanks to Schue’s request, it hadn’t taken much of the bailiff’s mental faculties to deduce that their numbers would cause issues. It did, however, make for excellent motivation for him to finish his daily tasks.
“My lord, are you certain?” Melody asked.
“Why wouldn’t I be? My niece needs to practice dancing, so let there be dancing.”
“Oh, thank you!” Luciana said.
“It’s my pleasure!” the big man guffawed. “And I know my way around a ballroom, so we can rotate partners. Keep things fresh.”
“I didn’t know you could dance, Uncle.”
“Hey, I’ve been in your shoes before. Seen my share of balls during my time in the capital. I’m a little rusty, sure, but nothing I can’t shake off. What do you say, Melody?”
“We’re lucky to have you, Lord Hubert.” Melody beamed.
He blushed. “H-how about we start with Sir Froude and Luciana? I’ll take Melody. Schue, count us in.”
“Milord!” the boy protested. “How could you swoop in and steal the first dance like that?!”
“Now, Uncle, I know you didn’t offer your assistance just to get close to Melody,” Luciana said. “Unless you did, and that’s exactly why you let Schue put off work to join us.” She gripped her uncle’s shoulder, fingers digging deep. He hadn’t even noticed her slide up behind him.
“O-of course not!” he said. “Really, Luciana, I’m not sure baseless accusations are becoming of a lady.”
“Oh? Then there will be no objections to me taking her first dance?”
“Well, that’s not any better!” Schue said. “Lady Luciana’s partner should be Sir Gutless, while I dance with Melody. Lord Hubert, you clap a beat for us. I think we can all agree to that, no?”
“Actually, I’m, er, supposed to be her partner,” Lect attempted.
But the others spoke with a single mind. “Quiet, Sir Gutless.”
“That’s really starting to get old!”
“E-everyone calm down!” Melody said. “Why are we all fighting again?!”
An inscrutable fervor consumed the foyer, as mysterious to Melody as it was deaf to her attempts to quash it. Meanwhile, Rook and Micah quietly practiced by themselves, far from the others.
“Not going to join them?” the girl teased.
“No. I’d rather dance with you.”
Micah could read the valet’s expression. She knew the truth of his preference was less to do with her and more to do with the alternatives, but she blushed anyway. Rook could be awfully clumsy with his words. At least his footwork was passable, she thought.
The pandemonium reached a crescendo, and it wouldn’t calm until Ryan stormed in to save the day yet again.