Chapter 8
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It had been months since Aubrey had lived in the mansion. Just when she thought things would quiet down, the rumors swelled and returned full steam.
It was not that she didn't realize that the daily gossip of the ladies was the primary concern of the house. But Aubrey hadn't expected the interest in her to be so persistent.
"Besides, there's Emily in this house, that sweet young thing who hasn't even made her social debut yet. If we let the rumors continue, and she gets a spark, we're going to be in trouble......."
Barbara's brow narrowed at that. This was just starting to get interesting, Madam Delove thought.
"Think about it. With all the rumors flying around, how many families are going to take the hand of the Lady of the Ravant family. Of course, we all know it's not true, but that's the way it is with people."
Barbara wiped her brow thoughtfully. Her mind wandered to Emily, who was already looking forward to her social debut, which was still years away.
"We need to organize, for Emily's sake. Do you think all those loud mouths will be quiet next year? I'm sure once the season starts, they'll be all over the subject again. It's obvious even if you don't look."
Madam Delove threw her hands up in disgust. She squinted at Barbara's reaction. Barbara sipped her tea cautiously. Madam Delove was right.
If a rumor had survived this much disregard, it might be worth clearing up. But how? How could she handle this situation sensibly?
Barbara sighed heavily, and then noticed Madam Delove looking around as if searching for something.
"What are you looking for?"
"Oh......."
Madam Delove was looking for the girl of rumor. She had visited the mansion countless times since she first heard the rumor that the Count of Ravant had become the girl's benefactor, but somehow she had never seen a hair of the girl.
The rumor was that the child was quite ugly. She was not to be seen in public, and she was to be kept hidden in the mansion.
The rumor was also that she was the illegitimate daughter of Count Ravant. He would never patronize a girl who had nothing going for her.
"Every time I come, I don't think I've ever seen her."
Madam Delove spoke softly, and Barbara shook her head with a disembodied laugh.
"The child is doing fine, so please don't make another rumor out of this."
"Madam, how could you say such a thing!"
"I'm just kidding."
Barbara said and looked up to where Aubrey would be. The child always looked down on this garden from the window of her room on the second floor.
Sometimes dreamily, sometimes with a look of great regret. She wondered if she was looking out here now.
"Aubrey is a very clever child."
Barbara smiled, remembering Aubrey's changing face. She had been, indeed. All it took was a quick lesson in table manners from a child who didn't even know how to eat and was too busy spying on other people's cutlery, and the next time she sat down to eat, she was amazingly different.
"She's so bright and good."
And, contrary to her fears, she's actually gotten along quite well with Emily. It had made Barbara's heart flutter to hear that the two of them had enjoyed tea together when Aubrey had been in the house only a few days. Madam Delove looked at her curiously.
"You're full of praise."
"Anyone who saw her would think so."
"Well, why don't you take her out to socialize with Emily?"
Madam Delove's words were more provocative than ever. Barbara stared at her in surprise, then shook her head resolutely.
"I don't want to do that. I just want to help her see and learn as much as she wants."
When Aubrey seemed bored and read some of the books she'd been given, Jeffrik gave her permission to let her in and out of the library.
From then on, Aubrey would go in there every chance she got and read all day long. Perhaps she would grow up to be an accomplished scholar, Barbara thought. A socialite.
"I don't think she'd want that."
"You don't know that."
Madam Delove said firmly.
"What do you think children want at that time of year? Every girl dreams of a fancy ball once in a while, and I don't think she's any different."
"......."
"Besides, there's Emily, she's got to see and hear things."
So sure of herself, Barbara slowly began to falter, but soon shook her head.
"Let me think about this slowly."
It would be four years before Emily made her social debut. Barbara hoped the rumors would die down in the meantime. That the interest in the mysterious girl who was the Count of Ravant's patroness would die down.
* * *
The young maid, Trin, was a girl with a dense line of freckles on the bridge of her nose. Sometimes Aubrey wondered if that was why she was so good to her, because she too had freckles on the bridge of her nose.
Trin brushed Aubrey's hair whenever she could. It grew back, nourished by Trin's tender loving care and the delicacies of the Ravant Manor.
The hair that had once bounced at the nape of her neck now touched her shoulders. Once again, Trin sat Aubrey in a chair and brushed her hair out of her face.
At the same time, she told her about what she was seeing and hearing outside. During her stay at the manor, Aubrey rarely left the house. She didn't want to offend Jeffrik as much as possible.
She spent most of her time in her room or in the library, so Trin's stories were important to her, giving her a second hand experience of a world she couldn't see.
"Madam Delove is here again today, and she talks so much that I get tired of walking past her. Madam Ravant had to listen to all that boring talk."
But it was pleasant for Trin. She could talk to her heart's content in Aubrey's presence about things she dared not say anywhere else, for the poor, good lady had no one to talk to.
"If it’s Madam Delove, she's the one with the fancy hat, isn't she?"
Aubrey asked, drawing a large hat on her head with her finger. Trin giggled and nodded.
"She makes her presence known with her hats, and today she had a dozen flowers on her hat."
Aubrey closed her eyes and tried to imagine what a hat with a dozen flowers would look like.
"I eavesdropped on her on my way in, and madam Ravant is full of praise for you. She said she couldn't believe how bright and good you are."
Aubrey's eyes lit up at the words.
"Is that really what my aunt said about me?"
"Yes. I've told you before, she says that every time someone comes to visit and asks."
Aubrey couldn't believe her ears. To have a Count patronizing her, to have people curious about her, to have someone speak so fondly of her.
"It's strange. I'm in the house, and they're talking about me."
"It's all gossip, especially at ladies' tea, where the most unexpected things are said. Even about each other."
And then Trin said,
"I'd love for people to see you one day, and I think they'd be surprised to see such a young lady. That's what I'm all excited about."
"Well, I don't know, I'm well......."
Aubrey smiled shyly, and Trin hurriedly held out the hand mirror Barbara had bought her.
"What do you mean well? Look at you, young lady. What a beautiful face you have."
Trin said, placing a hand mirror in her hand. Aubrey opened her eyes and looked into the mirror. Her slender eyes grew wider and wider.
She had never thought of herself as beautiful before or since, even though she had gained a few pounds and was now almost human. Her gaze swept over her large, slightly upturned eyes, the faint freckles on the bridge of her nose, her small nose, and her lips, then turned to Trin, who stood behind her.
"......I don't know."
"No, you should know better; this mansion would be abuzz with suitors if you made any sort of social debut."
At the sound of Trin's cheerful voice, Aubrey laughed.
"There's no way I'm making a social debut."
She was flattered just to be staying in this mansion. A social debut for a former slave girl? It wasn't possible.
"Come on, let's finish our studies, Trin. There were a bunch of letters I didn't recognize in the book I was reading yesterday."
Aubrey scratched the back of her neck, embarrassed. Barbara didn't realize it, but Aubrey couldn't read a single letter, she'd been bred to be a slave before she'd ever had that education.
It was Trin who helped her as she struggled to hold onto the unreadable book. She, too, could read to some extent, though not perfectly. From then on, the two of them locked themselves in their room and studied.
"Here, this part."
Aubrey quickly opened the book and pointed to a paragraph she couldn't interpret. Until then, she hadn't even realized it. That the outrageous thing Trin had said would actually happen.
* * *
A fresh spring. The air was already a little warmer this morning, just as they said it would be a long summer. Boris, the gardener for Count Ravant, who had moved to the capital, was having lunch.
Today's menu was a sandwich with eggs and milk. This was not a meal he had planned. Boris remembered the young lady who had brought him this sandwich and smiled so brightly.
After eating, Boris grabbed another bottle of orange juice for his dessert, pulled up his suspenders to support his bulging belly, and headed out to the garden.
He walked along a pathway of overgrown ivy, and soon found himself in an open garden. The mansion was a picture of elegance, set in a landscape that he had carefully manicured.
The lady was squatting in the center of it all. As always. She had always spied it from her room, but once she had the courage to come out into the garden, she had come out every day since.
She often followed Boris as he toiled away. She was quite small then, a bit skinny, as if to prove that she hadn't been eating well. Boris watched her and smiled warmly.
"It's bad for your joints, Miss, sitting like that."
The young lady, who had been squatting and stroking the watered flowers, looked up in surprise. Then she smiled brightly. It was Aubrey, who had grown from a girl of fourteen to a woman of nineteen.
***
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