Chapter 9
***
"It feels good to be here."
"The flowers do smell nice, don't they?"
Boris gave her a smug smile. She held out the orange juice she'd brought for her share.
"This is my return for the gift of the sandwich."
Of course. Aubrey folded her eyes into half moons and laughed. She gulped down her juice in one long, slurping motion.
"So there are some flowers I didn't see?"
Aubrey asked, looking around at the blooming roses. There were always plenty of red roses, but this spring was different. White, yellow, and even pink roses were adding color to the already gorgeous garden.
"They've been painstakingly cultivated under his lordship’s orders, and this year must be special."
Boris said, stroking the roses as they came alive with intense color.
"This year is supposed to be special?"
"Yes, because this year the lady is finally going to make her first steps into the social scene."
Boris looked around the garden widely. This wonderful, beautiful creation would soon be filled with glamorous ladies and gentlemen. In the summer, when the sun stays up late, there will be evening parties, and in the late afternoons, when the reddish sunsets, there will be well-dressed gentlemen asking to have tea with the ladies.
Lady Emily, growing more and more beautiful by the day, would turn them down with a polite smile. Boris chuckled, imagining it as if he were watching a play. Then he caught sight of Aubrey, dazed and muttering.
"Ah, so Emily's making her social debut this year."
Somehow Boris felt sorry for Aubrey. It had been five years since she'd appeared on the estate in a ragged state. The young woman who'd turned the manor upside down had grown up to be beautiful.
She'd grown too big to eat much quality food after all these years. Her once skinny, contorted body now glistened with flesh.
Her hair, once cut short, had grown long and cascaded over her round shoulders. And best of all.
"That sounds like a lot of fun."
Her smiling face bore a striking resemblance to his master's. The same one that had made him fall in love at first sight and woo her passionately. Of course, the aura was slightly different.
If the Countess of Ravant was the image of goodness and tenderness, this young lady had a slightly harder edge to her. Her large, round eyes were slightly upturned at the corners, and when she smiled, she had an adorable, almost melting smile.
The small, upturned nose and red, round lips were perfect, as if they were put there on purpose. Her long, slender neck, which must have been hereditary, made her small face stand out even more.
If a stranger saw her, they would never recognize her as she was before. Boris shook his head at the thought of her hiding in a mansion with such beauty.
"Stop sitting and go inside, it's getting quite hot."
Boris gestured, and Aubrey lowered her eyes.
"So you're just going to drink all this orange juice and then go in?"
"Of course!"
She sprang to her feet, looking as if the grass had died. Red hair flowing in the breeze, a sunny smile plastered across her face. Aubrey, the beautiful, poor girl.
* * *
After frolicking in the garden with Boris for a while, Aubrey headed back to the mansion, enjoying her company but feeling an unexplained melancholy wash over her the closer she got to the mansion.
Nothing had changed since she had gone from being a girl sponsored by the Ravant family to a nineteen-year-old who could barely be called a girl anymore. A cozy bed, good food, and clean clothes were given to her, but that was all. Every day was the same old routine.
It was all she was allowed, and the routine soon became boring. Anxiety about the future set in. The fear of being kicked out at any moment was still there. When she came of age, she might have to move out on her own.
She wasn't noble; she wasn't a member of the Ravant family. That fact weighed on her like a shackle, making her feet heavy. Whenever she could, Aubrey would write.
There were few letters she didn't know now, and she could write. Her short stories were usually similar. A starving, poor girl finds happiness. Aubrey wrote as if the girl were herself, and that was the only comfort she could find in her anxious times.
* * *
For a time the mansion was in an uproar. Women bearing clothes and jewelry prepared for Emily hurried to her chambers. Their praise for the noble lady was so loud that it could be heard beyond the closed door.
Whenever she could, Aubrey would retreat to the library, where she could read and write and, for a time, stave off her melancholy.
When the flowers Boris had so carefully tended were in full bloom, the Count couple and Emily left for the palace. They didn't return until late at night, their faces full of smiles.
It was clear that Emily's debutante ball had been as successful as she had hoped. Afterward, Emily and her handmaidens became even busier. The royal debutante ball was just the beginning, the real socializing was just beginning.
From then on, Aubrey was confined to her room, not even to the library. She was a little reluctant to run into Emily, who was dressed to the nines. The dresses looked very expensive, and the plain brown dress Aubrey was wearing was on a different level.
One day, Emily suddenly called out to her. She cautiously entered the room and saw Emily standing in front of three mirrors.
"Welcome, sister."
Emily greeted her with a wry smile. The afterglow of her successful debutante party was still lingering, or maybe it was the anticipation of the countless parties to come.
"Look at this. What looks good on me."
Aubrey hesitantly approached, stood behind Emily, and slowly raised her head. In the mirror, Emily in her voluptuous light blue dress and herself in her brown dress were quite a contrast.
"Sister?"
"Uh, uh."
"What are you doing?"
The next thing she knew, the maid was opening Emily's jewelry box and showing it to her. Aubrey looked at the jewelry in hindsight.
"There's a party at the Duke of Paddingham's house next week. I need you to pick out some jewelry for me to wear there."
"......."
"I'm sure it's going to be full of fancy people, so I need to be ready, because there are a lot of things you shouldn't do in a royal palace."
Emily was grumpy but excited. As if this was the one time she could be fancy. Aubrey couldn't pick a favorite.
Her eyes were dazzled by everything in the jewelry box. Emily glanced back at her, her blonde hair falling to the left and then back to the right.
"Greedy?"
Aubrey flinched at the smirking question.
"No."
"I'm about to grab one right now."
Smirking, Emily walked over and eagerly reached into the jewelry box. She pulled out a necklace with an amber pendant.
"Take it."
"No. It's yours, why would I......."
"Because you want it so bad that you're staring at it until your eyeballs fall out."
Emily shoved the necklace into Aubrey's hand as if it were a burden.
"I don't like that color, it's like an ugly yellow pumpkin."
Standing in front of the mirror again, Emily stretched her neck and gave Aubrey a pensive look.
"Now that you have a necklace, you need to make it worthwhile, so choose quickly. Which one of these looks best on me."
Aubrey gingerly touched the unexpected gift; Emily seemed happy that she had made it into the social circles she'd been hoping for. After fiddling with it for a while, Aubrey tucked the necklace deep into her pocket. For the first time in her life, it was hers, her jewelry.
"Yeah, Emily. Hold on."
Aubrey smiled as brightly as ever as she picked out Emily's clothes and jewelry. She gave her opinions as she changed and tried on countless outfits.
"That looks really good on you, Emily. You look like a pretty rose."
"What a rose."
Emily said bluntly, but the corners of her mouth twitched upward in inward satisfaction.
"No. You're like a flower. I think I'd have a crush on you even if I were a man."
For a person who spent her days and nights reading books, she had a way with words. And Aubrey's face in the mirror seemed genuine. Emily didn't think the raggedy girl was a good liar, because she'd stutter and stammer whenever she was asked a question.
"Okay, I'll take this red dress, then, and I want you to do my hair."
It had been five years since Aubrey had appeared. She'd been surprisingly quiet. Emily, who'd warned her to keep a low profile because she was annoying, sometimes liked that about Aubrey. It came in handy at times like this.
Besides, Aubrey was on point. She wasn't greedy for what she couldn't have, and she wasn't pushy. She was really a shadow in the manor. She was going to marry a man of her class and leave anyway.
She could live with that for as long as it took. Such was the dignity of high nobility.
"That's enough, now get out of here."
Emily, armed with expensive jewelry and dresses, lifted the tip of her chin slightly. Looking at herself in the mirror, she was the perfect lady of a noble family.
"Thank you, Emily."
Aubrey smiled in her brown dress. In both hands she held the ugly necklace she'd been given earlier. How she liked that one so much. Clicking her tongue, Emily caught sight of her face and hardened her expression.
"Trin, we have to go."
"Yes, my lady."
Emily scanned Aubrey’s white face and the fullness of its features. Aubrey, who had grown into a young woman, stole her gaze for a moment.
Emily couldn't look away until she was out of the room. Emily knew. She knew what the servants were saying about Aubrey's beauty as she grew older. A young woman who looked just like her mother (the Countess, Emily’s mother), who was rumored to be just as beautiful. It wasn't her (Emily), it was Aubrey Sandalwood, that was her.
"Put this away. And bring me the other one. Quick!"
Her irritation rose unnecessarily. Emily took a moment to catch her breath after her tirade. A girl who would be gone in a heartbeat. Aubrey was like that. Aubrey Sandalwood, who could never be a Ravant. With that thought, her irritation subsided.
* * *
Later that afternoon, as the scarlet sunset bathed the beautiful gardens in color, Butler Garder made his way to the study with the mail the postman had delivered earlier in the day. Garder approached Jeffrik and spoke in a slightly excited voice.
"This is the mail that arrived a little while ago."
"Leave them."
"It’s an invitation from the Paddinghams."
Jeffrik shook off his boredom and stretched out his hand. After the royal debutante's ball at the palace, there would be a party at the Paddingham’s residence. The children of every noble family were invited to show their faces at a party that was sure to be a hit with the ladies and gentlemen.
The party was scheduled for the following week, but the invitation hadn't arrived yet, and Jeffrik was on the edge of his seat.
"It can't come soon enough."
As he muttered, a smile of relief played on his lips, but it was short-lived. Looking at the invitation, Jeffrik frowned for a moment, then read it again in disbelief.
"Is there a problem?"
Garder asked in an anxious voice. His master, who should have been happy, looked flustered, like he'd been hit by a thunderbolt.
"Call Barbara......"
"Yes, master."
"Now!"
With a short shout, Garder stormed out of the study. Jeffrik swiped a hand across his face and read the invitation one last time.
He'd read it three times, but the words hadn't changed. The crisp card stated that the Paddinghams wished to invite Emily Ravant and Aubrey Sandalwood to an evening party.
The invitation shook the quiet manor.
***
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