Lucille wasn't sure how this had happened. She had believed that she had refused with enough vigor to push this role aside. And still, Blanche had told her to host the tea party when the empress left to feed her daughter.
Even though that might not become necessary at all, Lucille was already nervous now. She only stood in front of her mirror and got dressed, and yet, it felt like she was being watched by countless people.
Angelica ran around and helped the other woman do her hair, but even her kind advice didn't help much.
Lucille was hopelessly overwhelmed by the prospect of being left alone as the host. She would even have liked to reject attending now, but that was a horrible idea. After all, the empress counted on her. For some reason, a shy, inconspicuous viscount's daughter was supposed to host the royal tea party while Blanche stepped aside. Lucille pushed that thought away once more and forced herself to meet her gaze in the mirror.
The attire Madame Charture had given her was beautiful. She had never guessed a peach-colored dress that revealed her shoulders and was decorated with roses to be fitting for her, but this one was gorgeous. Lucille suspected that the skirt was a bit too puffy to sit for a long time, but she should manage. She waited until Angelica finished her hair and then quickly thanked the maid before leaving her room. As always, she didn't want to risk being late, so she would end up being much too early again. She left her room, but she didn't get far.
Cedar was standing in the hallway and showed her radiant smile as soon as she came out of her room. “Good afternoon, Lucille. How have you been?”
Nothing much had changed in the past hour they hadn't seen each other. Still, she showed him the most confident smile she could muster despite her concerns. “I've been well. What did you do while I was busy getting ready? Are you on the way to the office?”
Cedar gave her a grin that already betrayed that he might do something troublesome for her. “Not yet. Theodore will bring his wife to the party, so I'm still safe for the next ten minutes. So, I believed that asking the most beautiful woman in this nation whether she would allow me to escort her to the festivities might be worth a try. Of course, this could end up with me being rejected and heartbroken, but you can never know.”
Lucille was pretty sure that her cheeks already reacted to that. Hopefully, her powder would cover it up. “I...thank you very much.” She only noticed that he hadn't said her name afterward and almost expected a joke about that.
But Cedar just smiled while he offered her his hand. “At least you understand that I was talking about you. I guess that I wasn't rejected this time. That's my victory, and I will use it to the fullest.” He interlocked their fingers and smirked at her in a way that made her knees weak. He was playing unfairly.
Lucille could only pray that no one would see how nervous she was. As always, holding Cedar's hand was enough to make her worry. Still, she enjoyed it. When they walked toward the balcony, she almost wanted to ask him to stay, but she knew that he couldn't do that. This party would only be for the ladies. That he had escorted was kind enough.
They climbed down the staircases and quickly reached their destination. When they entered the huge empty ballroom, Cedar spoke up. “You seem a bit nervous. Are you worried about something?”
Lucille was relieved to be asked since she could finally speak about her concern. “Her Majesty told me to host the party while she is gone. I don't know why I should do that instead of Duchess Duremont. I refused multiple times, and yet...” She glanced at him and waited for a reply.
Cedar let out a little chuckle. “I think I understand the empress. She wants to signal that you are a part of the royal family and have our trust and support. She wants to protect you like this. It's similar to what Theodore did with her, remember? I know that it will feel weird to do something like this for the first time. But if you wish to consider marrying me, you need to get used to it.” He had probably just said that to distract her.
In any case, it was enough to make Lucille avert her eyes. She blinked a few times before she felt how the traitorous embarrassment came back. This wasn't good at all. She would need to stop thinking about that.
But Cedar was right. If she planned on becoming his princess consort, she would need to gain at least a little confidence. She would have to represent the royal family and interact with other nobles. She would need to be polite while showing enough authority to prove that they couldn't step out of line.
That was definitely, absolutely impossible. For someone like Lucille, who barely had any confidence and even trembled when she had to greet influential people, that sounded like a way too big responsibility.
And yet, one glance at Cedar made her reconsider. She really would like to marry him. He was the only man she could imagine being her husband. He would offer her so much and even gave her a lot at the current time. So, she would need to do her best to fulfill the role of being his wife. This meant that she had to take on being a member of the royal family as well.
Cedar was too good at reading her emotions. He already grinned at her while she processed his words. “Don't pressure yourself. You only need to keep in mind that the royal family supports you. If you feel like the guests ignore you, ask them whether they look down on us in any way. Either Theodore, Blanche or I will scold them then. All of us can be scary, believe me. I'm pretty sure that there will be little trouble though. The most problematic person there will be Mother, and you have enough help to deal with her. We still hope that she will be too prideful to attend the party of a commoner empress though.” His smile widened as soon as he mentioned Camille, which proved that he wasn't happy about her presence.
Lucille wanted to point that out, but they already reached the balcony.
The royal couple was waiting there while cuddling as much as ever. Blanche spotted the others first and showed them a bright smile. “Good afternoon. You finally came. I was already worried that my substitute host wouldn't attend. But of course, she is here.” Surely, she was reminding the other woman on purpose.
Lucille could only avert her eyes. “Good afternoon. I'm still not sure whether...”
Blanche cut her off. “You are the perfect choice, believe me. I can assure you that I felt like you did before I got used to this. But you will not be alone. Duchess Duremont, Duchess Vasquez and your friend, Lady Lamont, will be happy to help you if something goes wrong. If you feel like someone is overly insolent, threaten them by using our name. Cedar can scare any person you need to get rid of too.”
The prince let his smile fade to act like he was concerned for a moment. “What harsh words. That almost makes it seem like I would threaten others regularly. I could never dare.” His smile came back immediately after he finished.
Lucille still remembered what Cedar could do when he was mad, so she would like to agree with the empress about him being somewhat intimidating. She stayed quiet to avoid accidentally hurting him though. She didn't want to make him feel like she was scared of him.
Theodore let out a snort. “I don't know if you noticed, but our whole family is terrifying. We all have our own way of expressing anger, and few people want to face that. In any case, I can ease your worries. We warned them, so both duchesses are prepared to chime in or call for help.” That didn't sound good at all, but Theodore faced Lucille before she could say anything. “Lady Valerian, there is no need for you to worry either. Most people here are kind. You can deal with some useless gossip for a few minutes, and then Blanche will come back to save you.”
Lucille looked at the emperor and faked a smile, but she wasn't convinced. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
Theodore's response came immediately. “We should stop using titles. When we become family, this will only be bothersome. Recently, my brother was kind enough to tell me-”
Cedar cut him off. “Surely, this can wait a bit, can it not? We will deal with the tea party first and then discuss this.” He received a grin as a response. That caused him to hurry to speak before his brother could. “I can basically see that you want to use what I said to your wife when we met against me.”
Theodore's smirk already answered the question.
Lucille watched that interaction before glancing at the terrace below them. A few guests had already arrived and waited for the empress to greet them. This quickly made Lucille's stomach churn. “Pardon me, but the guests are waiting. Should we not greet them? Or will we stay here for a bit longer?”
Theodore let his eyes roam across the guests before replying. “We need to wait for one specific person first. We want to show all the guests that you two belong to our side after all.” He paused for a moment before he resumed. “Ah. There our favorite person is. Look who is accompanying her. It seems like the most pleasant people here grouped together.”
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Indeed, it seemed like Camille Estien had arrived. She was surrounded by three noble ladies, and the most striking one was Jenna, who walked right by the other's side.
Lady Peril glanced up to the balcony, and her red lips formed a smile, which was somehow sickening even though she hadn't done anything right now. Maybe it was because she looked straight at Cedar, as always. She did that despite seeing that Lucille was holding his hand, which was more infuriating than it should have been.
Camille looked up as well. While listening to Jenna, she kept her eyes on Cedar, and her expression showed as much icy bitterness as always.
Cedar met her gaze and responded to his brother at the same time. “At least her supporters are idiots. Why would they openly side with her in this current situation?”
Theodore shrugged. “I assume they would like me to have an accident soon. Then they wouldn't be surprised if the brother whom I suddenly get along with would reign. They want to curry favor with the person whom they believe to be your closest relative. That is enough of a sign to put them on the red list. They would be happy if something bad happened to me and my family.”
Cedar stared at the group for a moment. “Idiots. No one would believe that it was an accident if the emperor, his wife and his daughter disappeared at the same time. And they really think that a different ruler would risk being connected to their crimes by supporting them? Any ruler would need to get rid of them immediately to prove that they weren't connected to that plot.”
Blanche had an unusually cold expression on her face despite being in her husband's arms and holding her sleeping daughter. “That's why calling them idiots isn't wrong. The dowager empress also never keeps her pawns for long. I don't get what they are thinking. The only one whose goal there is obvious is Lady Peril. That witch has delusions.” She let out a noise of indignation before forcing herself to neutralize her expression. “Now that our idiots are there, we will go down. We need to greet them and show our superiority.” With that, she put on a bright smile and prepared to climb down the stairs.
Lucille saw that as her sign to follow her. She only took one step when she noticed that she was still holding Cedar's hand. She made eye contact with him before looking at their interlinked fingers. “Will we...let go here?” Even if she didn't want to.
Cedar just grinned at her and closed the distance between them again. “No way. I'm your escort, so I will bring you right to your venue and pick you up here too. At least if Theodore allows me to leave by then.”
The emperor immediately chimed in. “I need to pick up Blanche and Aurora too, so don't worry. We will certainly not let them wait.”
Cedar replied while scanning the guests. “I wouldn't worry about that in general. I would worry about two noble ladies who were on the list of my supporters but aren't here today. I would almost bet that something unpleasant happened to their families.”
Theodore reached the bottom of the stairs with his wife as he responded. “Maybe. They aren't dead though. They have a chance to clean their consciousness and ask for our support. Or they can continue on their current path. We will see.” It seemed like the conversation was over for him here. He brought his wife to the center of the terrace and waited for all the people around them to bow before he gave his Blanche a long kiss. Then he kissed his daughter's forehead before withdrawing after a short greeting.
Cedar had watched that with his usual smile and then turned to Lucille. She could already see that his grin had changed, so she wasn't surprised when he spoke up. “As always, they need to brag about their relationship. Should we do that too? It would certainly sweep some people off their feet, you included.” He wasn't wrong. If he kissed her in front of so many spectators, she would die out of embarrassment.
Even imagining that made Lucille blush. “You...shouldn't say things like that. Not when people can see me.”
“You're right. I'm the only one who can see that expression. It's very adorable. But I fear that I will have to say goodbye now.” Cedar stepped a little closer and hinted a kiss on the backside of her hand. “I will miss you.” Then he let go.
Lucille felt like her breath was taken away. Cedar really liked to see her in this state, didn't he? Then she should just play along, even if it felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest. “I...will miss you too. Until then.” She took a step back and had to force herself to keep her hands down to avoid wiping away her powder.
Cedar grinned at her, but then his eyes focused on something else. In an instant, his beam wasn't genuine anymore but full of bad emotions. It was easy to guess who would bother him.
Camille seemingly hadn't wasted a second before rushing to her son. “Good afternoon, Cedar. You surely did not wish to leave without greeting your mother, right?”
The prince wasn't happy about this, so his smile was as radiant as the sun. “I wish you a wonderful afternoon as well, Mother. Of course, I did not wish to ignore you. I merely planned on waiting until you finished your conversation. It is good to see that you are doing well. I would like to chat with you for much longer, but that will be impossible. Unfortunately, this is only a tea party for the noble ladies, so my brother and I need to leave. Please do enjoy this wonderful event though. May you and everyone else here have a pleasant tea party.” He didn't say more than he had to before turning around.
Theodore was waiting for his brother just a few steps away from him. It definitely held a symbolic meaning that they climbed up the stairs side by side while having a conversation so that Camille could watch them getting along.
Only a few seconds passed before Blanche began speaking after that. “I wish all of you a wonderful day and hope that you arrived in the royal palace without any issues. It is an honor and a pleasure to be able to host the annual tea party for the ladies of the capital. May this event grant you the chance to meet old acquaintances and chat about recent events without the loud volume at our busy balls. I would like to invite you to sit at the table before we begin greeting one another. The seating order has already been prepared, and your names are being displayed by cards in front of the respective chairs. Please do take a seat.”
It didn't take long for the women to do as they were told. As usual, the empress sat on the short end of the table. She had placed Camille at the other end of the table and put those who supported the dowager empress over there as well. Few people were left on the enemies' side, which was calming to see.
But Lucille wasn't calmed by the fact that she would sit right next to the empress. She made eye contact with Blanche and received a happy nod, but she still felt horrible. How could a viscount's daughter end up in between all of the most powerful women in this nation? At least it seemed like she was lucky. She sat next to Fiona, who already greeted her with a warm smile, and Blanche was on the other side. No unpleasant people would be close to her.
It only took a short moment before the empress began the party as every year. She addressed the guests and let them decide which tea they would like.
After the first few minutes, everything was calm, but Lucille still became unwell quickly. She felt like she was being watched by Camille the whole time. That wasn't pleasant when the dowager empress was so full of hatred that even her neutral expression was colder than a glacier. So, Lucille tried to focus on sipping her tea without spilling anything onto her. She avoided eye contact with Camille and looked at other people the whole time.
Thankfully, a distracting topic soon came up. Duchess Duremont was the wife of the most influential duke of Artias, who naturally was a strong supporter of the emperor as well. So, she would also be seated close to the empress and be the first one to address this. “Now I believe that we have been curious for long enough. Please do not let us wait for too long. The beautiful baby in your arms is the royal heir, is it not? Will you introduce them to us?”
Blanche's face lit up as if she had seen a miracle. She carefully swayed her angel from one side to the other and looked down with affection while she replied. “Indeed. This is not the formal introduction, of course. That will only be done when our angel here is one year old. We wished to keep her from meeting most of the nobles before that since we hoped that she would be more relaxed around new people by then. But since only few people are here, we believed that it would be fine to show her for the first time. I am incredibly proud to present her to you. This is Aurora Estien, the crown princess and the future reigning empress of Artias. I would like to show her to you from up close, but she is sleeping, so I would rather not lift her. It would be better for the people who wish to see her to come when we are done drinking our tea.”
For the next five minutes, the whole group wished their best regards to the baby and spoke about how they hoped for Aurora to live a long happy life. This went on for a while, and each repetitive greeting was met with Blanche's blinding smile. It was adorable to see how happy she was about her child being praised, but that didn't keep unpleasant people from speaking.
Camille spoke up too, and naturally, no word that came out of her mouth was to be believed. “May the young princess stay healthy and be blessed by the gods so that she may be beautiful and intelligent. She will without a doubt live a wonderful life at her parent's side. I am relieved to see that she is healthy and seems like she will grow up to be a wonderful lady. I have not been able to see my granddaughter yet, so I am glad to finally have this chance now.” Apparently, she wanted to gain pity like this. But even while she said that, her expression didn't change to be less icy. Thus, it wasn't surprising that she hurried to change the topic to something she could use. “But I must ask one thing. You called her the future reigning empress. Does His Majesty intend to change the law to give the power from the emperor to the empress?” She probably hoped that her son would lose all of his conservative followers like that. Little could she know that the most important people in this nation all seemed to have daughters they adored and would like to strengthen.
Blanche was completely calm while she showed the other woman a fake smile and replied. “Indeed. At this point in time, we have not managed to do it yet, but we are in the middle of implementing the necessary laws. In general, all children of the house will be allowed to lead their respective families from now on. We will change the family's register to prove this too. Aurora is named the crown princess and will start learning how to rule the nation when she is old enough. But we talked about her for long enough. There is something else that I just remembered, and I would like to address it before I forget. Your Majesty, your birthday is soon, correct? Will you celebrate it this year?” Her slight mocking tone probably hinted at what had happened last year.
Back then, the royal couple had had a ball on Camille's birthday. The dowager empress had assumed that it would be for her, but that hadn't been the case. Instead, the royal couple had used it to announce their engagement and that Blanche would become empress. Camille hadn't liked that at all. She had yelled and thrown a tantrum until she had been asked to apologize and leave. She had forced herself to do the first thing due to Cedar's mediation, and then she had refused the second part. Thus, she had been escorted out by the royal guards, which had been a more than humiliating endeavor. That had probably been her worst birthday of all time.
Camille's expression became even colder when she heard this. But still, she replied somewhat calmly, even if she couldn't hide all of her hostility. “I am planning on doing that. However, my poor health makes it unfitting at the moment. I will need to postpone holding a banquet a bit. I believe that I could do it in three weeks.”
Blanche feigned surprise upon hearing that. “Oh? Naturally, I am elated to hear that you wish to celebrate. But I do have to worry a bit when it comes to your reasoning. Are you sick, Your Majesty?”
Somehow, it seemed like Camille was pleased with this topic. She replied immediately. “That seems to be the case. I fear that it will be impossible for me to hope for a quick recovery. I do not wish to complain about my ailments since it has gotten a bit better. After all, I was able to attend this party. However, I have been forced to rest in bed for the past month. It has gotten worse with every day for a while, so I fear a relapse. Unfortunately, the royal doctor refused to see me, so I cannot even determine which kind of illness I am suffering from.” She wanted pity. She wanted to seem like the poor woman who was being mistreated and ignored by her family.
Sadly, this wouldn't work. No one had forgotten about the revolt, the assassination attempts on the emperor or the fact that she should actually be in confinement.
Blanche didn't even need to say anything to remind the others of that. So, she could just calmly respond. “I see. It is upsetting to hear that you have been unwell. We hope that you will recover quickly.” She probably wished the other woman death instead, and her soft smile seemed to say that too.
Thus, the conversation between these two ended. The empress didn't leave a long pause though. She quickly addressed Sophia Ravillot, her close friend and a young mother, who happily gushed about her child.