The blood in Blanche's veins froze as she stared at the letter with a familiar green seal in her hands. How had Sefare found out about where they were? He shouldn't be able to find out about this manor at all. And why was he writing her now? In a panic, she quickly turned the letter again and pressed it against herself so that no one would see the seal. “Thank you!” She voiced a curt response to the maid that had given her the letter before spinning around and hurrying to the staircase.
Stella had to run a few steps before she caught up with her mistress and immediately opened her mouth as if she wanted to question why the concubine was reacting this way.
Blanche gestured to the letter. “I want to read it in private. It could be urgent.” That was just an excuse. She knew that whatever Sefare had written wouldn't be pleasant for her. If she could, she would just light this paper on fire and let it burn until there was only ash left. But of course, it wasn't an option to ignore her enemies' plans. Even if this just gave her a fraction of a clue about what he was intending to do, she would have to accept anything terrible that he might tell her in hopes of getting information. She almost ran up the stairs and stepped into her room. She immediately stopped by the door and turned to Owen and Stella. “I want to be alone for a moment. Please wait outside.”
The both of them nodded, even though the maid did it with concern written on her features.
Blanche closed the door and rushed to the table. She didn't even have the patience to get a knife to open the envelope and just ripped it open with no restraint. She pulled out the letter and gave her best to ignore the pounding of her heart as her eyes scanned the text.
Sefare told her that this was her last chance to rethink this matter and to join them since she wouldn't like the second option. He kept repeating that she had nothing to lose if they went through with the plan and would only gain an immense amount of power. He also tried to lure her in by saying that she was like a daughter to him, that he could possibly adopt her and claim that she was his illegitimate child. Being a marquess' daughter would enable her to become the emperor's wife so that she could become royalty, so this was apparently supposed to sound charming.
The whole letter was clearly written by Sefare judging by his handwriting, but the words were definitely not his. Blanche was rather sure that Luciano or Claude Vasquez had dictated what he should send her. The amount of cleverly hidden manipulative phrases was too high for Sefare to have come up with them himself.
Naturally, everything that was written here was a lie.
Sefare didn't care for her nor would he risk damaging his reputation by suddenly adopting a random woman, unless he was sure that he would gain enough power to make up for that. But in the end, their goal wasn't making Blanche Theodore's wife but to kill the emperor.
It was a good sign that Sefare still saw the need to lie since it proved that he felt like the emperor was a huge threat even at this point. The dowager empress surely hadn't won yet. But the news still didn't make Blanche happy.
The concubine didn't hesitate to grab a match and to set the paper on fire before throwing it into the fireplace. She crouched in front of it until there was no white to be seen anymore and then mixed the ash until she was sure that no one would be able to find anything. Hopefully, no one would ask questions about the missing letter. She could tell Stella since the maid had a general idea about the situation with Sefare, but if Owen found out, she was done. There was no way that the loyal knight would keep quiet about her being connected to intrigues against the emperor, no matter how often she might swear that she hadn't known about that in the past. A few words to Theodore would be enough to ruin everything again.
Images of her execution flashed in her mind even as she tried to avoid that and just scared her more.
Blanche glared at the remains in the fireplace before burying her face in her hands. This was awful. Everything about this was absolutely horrible. Her meddling with the storyline hadn't just troubled her lover by strengthening his opponents, but it also wasn't guaranteed to give her a happy end. If the emperor ever managed to defeat his enemies, which he would have to in order to be completely safe, they wouldn't hesitate to reveal that Blanche had been a pawn. As soon as Sefare had nothing to lose anymore, he would drag her down with him.
If the situation was like this, did she even have a chance of becoming happy? Or was this world simply against her? This was one of the moments that made her feel like she was all alone with no one here to help her. No matter how kind someone was, they would never know about the burden that being able to foresee what would happen in the future brought with it.
Maybe Theodore would be able to understand what she was thinking. Maybe he wouldn't, but she wished for him to be here in any case. Then he could pull her into his arms and tell her that everything would be fine, and she would believe him. But that wasn't possible because he was in the capital to fight against the mess that she made.
Blanche hugged herself as she tried to hold back the whirl of emotions in her mind, but she already knew that she was failing. The loneliness that she had suppressed for the past two weeks rose to the surface along with her fear of being deemed a traitor by her lover and her frustration about Seraphina's attitude towards her. With every second, all of this became worse, but she refused to give up on holding herself together. Still, her expression had probably revealed everything.
She asked herself whether it would be better to just tell Theodore, but the thought alone burned like the sharp blade of an axe on her neck. ‘You will be killed if you say anything.’ For some reason, that thought grew in her mind with each passing second. She didn't want to believe it, but could she ignore what was more likely to happen?
At some point, Stella knocked on the door, and Blanche reluctantly let her in, which proved to have been a good decision later. The maid hugged her mistress without asking questions and wrapped her in a cozy blanket before putting her in bed and lying next to her. With time, the concubine managed to calm down as she gave her best to fall asleep.
While she was sleeping, she wouldn't have to deal with this harsh reality, and that was exactly what she needed right now. Still, she dreamed about being led to the execution site, Theodore and Stella lying on the floor with blood around them and Seraphina looking down at her while the villainess sat in a cell. Blanche was happy when that night was over.
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Another week passed without any occurrences, but Blanche liked it better that way. She hadn't lain around while sulking again after that one evening, and she was a bit proud of herself for that.
The main reason that she had been able to carry on had probably been that her lover was sending her sweet letters. She collected all of them in one of the new suitcases, which she had asked a servant to buy so that she would be able to bring back the gifts Theodore had bought for her in Ibela. She had to admit that she read the letters over and over again whenever she felt lonely. Writing back to him also filled her with joy, so her letters continuously became longer every day. Even though she attempted to refrain from mentioning how much she missed him too often, she probably wrote this a hundred times. Still, it was calming to come up with long texts about what she had baked today or how she had taken a walk and found another beautiful place within the huge estate yet again.
The only thing that worried Blanche was how rarely her lover mentioned the problems he was facing. She hadn't received any information about what the dowager empress might be planning or how soon she could see him again. This made it seem like it would still take a while, which was a depressing thought. The last three weeks without him had been torture, and she wouldn't be able to distract herself with baking and writing letters for much longer. But there wasn't anything she could do but pray for Theodore's safety and their quick reunion.
Aside from doing that, she had to stick to busying herself so much that she didn't have time to worry about anything. She continued the routine that she had begun ever since her lover had left and followed it every day, with the only exception being the day that the messenger arrived with the emperor's seven letters of last week. Then she stayed in her room for as long as it took her to read all of them. She had done so yesterday, which meant that she would have to wait another week for another stack to arrive and that she had more than enough time to devote herself to copying even more recipes to try out.
“To think that I would freely visit the library every day. I would never have thought that this might ever be the case.” Blanche shook her head as she put her hand onto the door handle.
Stella next to her shrugged. “Since you aren't really reading normal books, this doesn't count. Going through all the cooking guides we have isn't really reading. I'm interested in whether you will attempt to continue like this in the palace though. You've probably written down your favorite recipes from over two-thirds of the cooking guides here, even though His Majesty wouldn't have minded it if you took them with you. If you plan on trying this at home, you're going to take a few months.”
The concubine rolled her eyes as she opened the door. “I would need a dozen suitcases to transport all those books, so I would rather leave them here. But I can calm you in the other regard. If I'm at home, I only need to write down where to find the recipe on my list since the books will-” While speaking, she had entered the room and moved past the first row of shelves.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
As soon as her gaze fell onto the table that she was always working on, she froze upon making eye contact with Seraphina. Great. The concubine hurried to make a curtsy while waiting for the other woman to speak up.
Fortunately, the empress quickly began. “Good morning, Lady Blanche. What leads you here?”
The concubine straightened her posture again and forced herself to keep her frustration at having to retreat hidden. “Good morning, Your Majesty. I was intending to write something down, but I was not aware that you were inside. I apologize for disturbing your work. If you give me permission, I will leave immediately.” She just hoped that Seraphina hadn't heard about the letter. Otherwise, Blanche could prepare to miss her head soon.
“That is not necessary. I am not working at the moment, so I do not need absolute silence. There are two seats here.” The empress, who didn't seem to view the concubine as a traitor yet, gestured to the chair on the other side of the table. “Please do not feel disturbed by my presence and simply finish what you came here to do.”
Blanche nodded and choked down her complaint about not wanting to sit here if that meant that she would be uncomfortable the whole time. “I could never feel disturbed by Your Majesty. Thank you for your generosity.” She cringed at her own exaggerated politeness before she quickly stepped to the shelf that contained the books she was searching for. Normally, she went through three of the cooking guides and wrote down about ten recipes every day before going to eat lunch. Today, she would just take one book and leave afterward to avoid spending more time here than necessary. She just had to cover up the fact that she was running away, and it should be fine.
The concubine chose a thin guide about simple pastry to make sure that she would be able to copy the recipes quickly before stiffly walking over to the table and giving Noah a small smile.
Seraphina was already immersed in her book again and didn't pay any attention to her while she sat down across from the other woman.
Blanche hurried to open the guide and put the notebook next to her before grabbing a pen and a jar of ink from the middle of the table. Luckily, she didn't need to search for long before she found an interesting recipe. Now she could finally focus on writing instead of on the fact that she was sitting in front of her fated nemesis. For a while, only the sound of her pen scribbling across paper filled the room along with the occasional turning of the pages. When the concubine heard another noise, she inconspicuously looked up to see what had happened, only to find that the empress had closed her book and was staring at the other woman.
Blanche lowered her gaze again to finish the recipe she was currently copying and hoped that the other woman would have left or chosen another book by the time that she was done. That wasn't the case. This time, she wasn't able to pretend like she hadn't noticed either since they had made eye contact. So, she put the pen down and lifted her head. For a moment, she was silent before hesitantly speaking up. “Uhm, I do not wish to be impolite, but is there something you would like to tell me, Your Majesty?”
Seraphina didn't skip a beat before replying. “Yes. I want to ask you something. This would lead to a longer conversation though, so feel free to finish first.”
Even though Blanche would have loved to delay this, letting the empress wait would definitely not be a good idea. So, she hurriedly shut her notebook and the cooking guide. “Oh, this is nothing important. I have more than enough time to do this later. What do you wish to talk about?” Hopefully, it wasn't anything bad. The concubine repeated this like a mantra in her head until the other woman spoke up.
“We would need some privacy for this conversation.”
This was enough to make Noah, Owen and Stella leave the room, which just terrified Blanche more. Hopefully, this wouldn't be anything bad. The concubine didn't want to be executed again.
Seraphina waited until the others closed the door before her eyes wandered back to the other woman. A second of silence followed before she broke the tension. “I am ashamed of having to ask you about a matter like this, but unfortunately, His Majesty refused to inform me about the reasons for his sudden departure. I only heard that there were problems in the capital and naturally thought that I would return as well, but he strictly forbade me from doing so. I would have liked to know what would cause him to take such drastic measures, but he did not let me talk to him even once. Since you stayed here too, I can assume that there is something dangerous going on in the capital. But especially then, the empress should be present. Thus, I was upset about His Majesty not even telling me what this was about. I feel like I should know, no matter whether he wants me to, so I wished to ask you. You are the most likely person here that could be aware of something more than there being problems in the capital. I would ask you to be fully honest this time. I wish to hear the truth rather than an excuse of some sort.”
That didn't sound good. Blanche had known that Theodore would keep the information about the dowager empress confidential, but not telling the empress was too much.
Seraphina wasn't the sole ruler of the nation, but she had a lot of influence. Not informing her of such pressing matters was reckless. How would she be supposed to react if something bad happened and she had to intervene? Then she wouldn't have any idea about how to handle the situation. This was unthinkable.
Unless Theodore didn't trust Seraphina. But how couldn't he trust his greatest political ally? That couldn't be the reason.
In the end, Blanche didn't know a lot either, but she, as a concubine, still had been told more than the empress. This actually made her speechless for a moment before she found her voice again. She was careful not to say anything that could trouble her lover though. “I have to admit that I only know the summary, but Theo told me a bit about it. It seems like the dowager empress is gaining power at the moment by employing an old rumor. This is connected to the topic I mentioned during the hunting festival. Her Grace, the Duchess of Duremont informed us about there being a baseless rumor about Theo being a tyrant emperor. Apparently, the factions that are against him are attempting to use this to worsen his reputation.”
The empress was silent and nodded to herself. She kept quiet for a bit, probably while processing everything, before responding. “I still do not understand why he could not simply tell me that, but I assume that you would not know either. Then I would like to ask a second question.” She made eye contact with the concubine. “Are you aware of which households are part of each faction?”
Blanche couldn't hide her frown at this question. Even though she wasn't good with politics, she knew which people were against her lover and which supported him. The most important people had been on her mind from the very beginning since Theodore had warned her about some of them, and the rest had become obvious to her due to the novel. So, she could say that she wasn't completely clueless with confidence. “I am.”
“Then you should also know that the Vasquez family is His Majesty's opponent, and still, you appeared to be very friendly with their son.” There was an accusing undertone in Seraphina's voice, which was enough to make the concubine's face scrunch up.
‘Don't mess up now, or you will regret it.’
That was all Blanche could think, so she struggled to find a coherent answer that wouldn't convince Seraphina that she was a traitor that needed to disappear.
Blanche felt like she almost sounded a bit desperate as she tensed and pressed out her reply. “Your Majesty, I was honest about him being persistent when I voiced that before. I met him once in the capital and made the mistake of visiting the jeweler that he recommended to me. I found out that the store belonged to him when he gave me an expensive necklace as a gift. Theo threw it away, which was probably for the better since I would have done it otherwise. I did not wish to dance with Lord Vasquez at the ball, especially not for longer than one music piece, but refusing a duke's son would have been disrespectful. At the hunting festival, he wished to speak to me too, and as Your Majesty saw, Lady Ravillot saved me from him by using your name. I am not willing to have any contact with that person, but I did not have a choice. He keeps bringing me in situations in which I can't push him away without seeming impudent.” In contrast to someone else, who might have been quite close to Luciano in the novel to the point of wondering why her husband hadn't gotten jealous yet.
Seraphina stared into the distance for a moment. “I see. I can affirm that last part. After you collapsed at the ball, Lord Vasquez approached me with the sole intention of provoking me. He is a truly unpleasant person.” Her expression showed her disgust for a few seconds before she covered it up and looked back at Blanche. “There is something else that bothers me though. You claim to have met him coincidentally. From what I heard, you were in the capital without guards, and he brought you back to the palace. If you do not mind, please tell me how you convinced His Majesty to let you out of the royal estate without a single knight.” Her gaze pierced through the concubine, so it was obvious that she already knew that that would have been impossible.
Blanche didn't even attempt to come up with an excuse. The novel proved that Seraphina had used the secret passageway herself all the way until the villainess had tried to send assassins through it to harm the empress, so hiding it was unnecessary, especially since it was closed now. “To be honest, I never asked anyone for permission. I accidentally found a hole in the walls around the property. I was curious since I had not been in the capital for months, so I used my maid's vacation to go out secretly. I visited the city and then looked around there until I met Lord Vasquez. After that, he would not leave me alone and brought me back. I know that it was reckless to leave without protection, but I only did it once and never again. I told Theo after the assassination attempt because I wanted to be safe, and he took care of it. The hole is covered up now.” She finished and expected frustration since the empress had loved using that passageway to leave to visit the capital without two dozen or more knights.
Instead, the empress narrowed her eyes at the concubine, but there didn't seem to be any anger behind it. “That wasn't just reckless, it was suicidal. Do you have any idea about how many people heard rumors about you? There would be more people recognizing you than people that are oblivious. And you can rest assured that the most famous woman in the nation would not be able to leave peacefully if people notice her.” That almost sounded like Seraphina was genuinely wanting to persuade Blanche not to be so stupid to endanger herself again. As if.
The concubine was more than skeptical and even a bit irritated. After all, the other woman had used the hole too, and running around outside as the empress wasn't safe either. “I understand, Your Majesty. But finding and not telling anyone about that passageway was a bad decision too. If I remember correctly, we both made that mistake. When Duke Vasquez mentioned that I had met his son in the capital, you seemed to be surprised. But not in a manner that would make it seem like you did not know about the hole. You were merely shocked about me having found it, correct?”
For a little moment, it almost seemed like Seraphina's lips had hinted a smile. “It seems like you aren't as clueless as you sometimes appear to be. Not many people are able to read my face. Though, I naturally do not remember ever seeing a part of the walls that was damaged.” Her voice didn't change while she spoke, which made it obvious that she was lying and not even trying to hide it. That wasn't new for the empress either.
Blanche held herself back from rolling her eyes at the taunting remark and just replied with a fake smile. “I may be clueless when it comes to a lot of things, but I am quite good at judging other people's personalities and finding out what they are feeling.” Admittedly, knowing the future helped a lot with this, so she was cheating a bit, but no one else had to know.
The empress scanned the concubine for a few seconds before speaking with an expression that had returned to being as serious as always. “I have to say that I'm interested in that. Our society is full of people that will say one thing to your face before turning around and wishing death upon you. Who would you say has ulterior motives?”
Blanche paused momentarily as she wondered what Seraphina intended to do with this information. In any case, it couldn't be bad to prove that she was able to differentiate friends from enemies. Unless this was a test. Blanche had to be careful then. She couldn't be branded a traitor, or she would lose her head. “The whole Vasquez family and Julien Sefare. The former ones are rather obvious. Their fake smiles and the way that they relish in scaring someone tell you everything you need to know. They hurl insults at you and Theo whenever they can but hide it under the pretense of being so very kind. The fact that the Duchess of Vasquez is the dowager empress' sister makes this even more clear. Lord Sefare is a close friend of them and not as good as veiling his emotions. He is supporting them in their plans.”
Seraphina leaned against the backrest of her chair. “As you said, that was obvious. Who is a bit more subtle in their endeavors?” That she asked even more was unfavorable. Did suspect anything yet?
Blanche prayed that she didn't. The empress' distrust wouldn't do her any good. She was painfully sure of that to the point at which her neck began stinging.