“It feels too cold for this...” The dress had long sleeves, but they were made out of lace. Wearing lace when it’s this cold is ridiculous. I want to cry. “Could I just wear this over the dress I’m wearing right now?”
Patience violently objected: Absolutely not! I shivered in my cold room as I changed into the dress with the lace sleeves.
“Urgh, I’m so cold... I must get to the dining room right away...” Patience was still making a fuss, demanding I brush my hair and style it properly. Is Patience really dead? I feel like she’s complaining a lot for a dead person.
Though she was demanding, I’d been an office worker in Japan, so I had some tricks up my sleeve. Even when I’d overslept, I’d still been able to get dressed and do my makeup in ten minutes flat. I sat at the dingy vanity and looked into the cloudy mirror as I brushed my hair, scooping some of it into my hand to style into a half-up ponytail. I pinned it in place with the single hair accessory in the drawer.
With my blonde hair and blue eyes, I should have been pretty cute, but unfortunately I’d lost too much weight. My eyes looked like they were bulging from my skull. This was the first time I’d ever thought that I needed to gain weight, but there was no time for me to revel in that thought.
“My apologies, my lady. I’m here to help you get dressed,” Mary said as she hurried into my room.
Oh, yeah. According to Patience’s memories, Mary always gets me dressed for dinner.
“That’s all right,” I said. It was indeed all right, since Mary was already handling everything else for us, but she seemed truly disappointed that she hadn’t helped me.
“I’ll be taking care of your hair for you tomorrow, before you go to the church,” she said.
Ah, of course. Mary probably wants to do attendant-like tasks. She was now taking on the tasks of a regular maid, but Mary was originally a lady’s attendant, so it made sense that she’d want to focus on that kind of work when she could.
I told her I’d leave my hair to her tomorrow and hurried to the dining room. I’d given my younger brothers my slice of ham this morning in an attempt to show off, and now my stomach was growling loudly. And even if it was too soon for dinner, the dining room had a fireplace.
My father was seated at the dining table, and it seemed there was indeed a dress code for dinner. He was dressed in a tuxedo jacket and a white tie. There were visible scuff marks all over the tuxedo jacket as well.
“You’re here, Patience. Let dinner begin,” he announced. Though he’d remained seated at breakfast and lunch, for some reason he suddenly got up at dinner and greeted me.
I’d rather you do something that generates income than try to be proper and polite.
“Nassius and Henry haven’t arrived yet,” I pointed out as the butler served the same bland soup from this morning. This was also different from the other meals—usually Mary was the one serving us. Not only that, but the table was only set for two people.
“Are you all right, Lady Patience?” Wyatt, the butler, asked me quietly. “The young masters don’t join for the evening meal,” he explained.
I quickly scanned Patience’s memories and found out that children were to eat dinner in their room until they were ten. Among wealthy nobles, a caretaker would feed the children all three meals in their room. In other words, I only got to enjoy breakfast and lunch with the little angels because the Grangers were poor.
In addition to the soup, the rest of the menu was mostly the same as lunch: a thin slice of ham, and hard bread. Though, to my surprise, dinner included dessert.
“We have apple for dessert,” Wyatt said as he served us. There were thin slices of apple with some pieces of cheese. My father also had some wine, while I got a cup of tea.
This tea is so watery! Everything Eva made tasted watery and bland. This needs to change!
“You don’t have to worry about the evaluation at the church tomorrow,” my father said.
The conversation wasn’t really flowing between us. I wanted to ask him about why we were so poor, but Patience wouldn’t allow it. According to her, it was rude for a daughter to ask her father something like that.
Unlike breakfast and lunch, the fire in the fireplace wasn’t immediately put out once the meal was over, but I was worried about my brothers and left the dining room early. They didn’t have a caretaker, so I was worried whether they’d eaten dinner.
“You came to see us, sister?” Nassius asked. The candle to the side of their bed was still lit. It seemed they’d just gotten in bed.
“Of course, I must say goodnight to you two,” I said. “Did you have dinner?”
“We did. The apples were tasty,” Nassius replied.
“I love cheese!” Henry chimed in.
It seemed they had been properly fed, and I let out a sigh of relief. Perhaps the servants that stuck around to help such a poor family like us could be trusted. Though, I did want to talk to Eva, whom I hadn’t met yet, about her bland food.
Under their covers was the gray blanket. This would probably keep them warm, since they were sleeping together.
“Good night,” I said as I pulled the covers up and gave them each a kiss on the forehead. This is bliss!
“Leave the candle lit,” begged Henry, the younger of the two.
“It’s going to be winter. It’ll get dark during the day, so we need to save the candle,” Nassius replied. His smart explanation nearly made me cry.
“I’ll be back later to put it out. You can sleep with it until then.”
I truly must do something about this situation. Oh my, even my own thoughts are beginning to sound like Patience.