As it seemed to be the norm by now, Theodore was quite harsh while talking about the empress and how he didn't care for her presence. “Did she complain about not being told anything yet?”
Leonard massaged his temples and rested his elbows on the table. “I informed her that we would tell her everything important in a meeting today.”
The emperor kept quiet for a moment before replying. “Ah. Unfortunately, I will have to accompany my angel to the tailor at the same time that said meeting will be. What a coincidence. It appears like you will have to explain everything, Leon.”
The secretary narrowed his eyes. “I already expected that, so I didn't give the empress a specific time. You surely won't take twelve hours to go meet Madame Charture and let Lady Blanche try on a dress that is already finished.”
Blanche turned to look over her shoulder. “You ordered a dress for me? What for? We could just get it later, so you don't have to miss the meeting.”
Theodore put his lips onto her forehead before responding with slight annoyance in his expression. “Sure, but I don't want to see the empress. That's why we can conveniently say that we have an appointment at that very hour. You can imagine how long she is going to lecture me about what happened yesterday. She will feel attacked in her honor and complain to me about that while blaming me. Frankly, I don't see the need to listen to that when I know what she will say and what I will respond with. So, Leon can deal with her.” His face didn't change when he moved on to the next topic. “I did order a gown for you for the banquet that I mentioned. The festivity is the day after tomorrow, so we need to check whether it fits. It's a beautiful dress, but I wish that the occasion would be a bit more pleasant as well.”
Blanche frowned at his harsh words. Surely, it wasn't nice to listen to Seraphina's speeches, especially when the heroine was angry. But the empress' opinion couldn't just be ignored, right? But Blanche wouldn't insist on talking about this subject now. She was at fault for yesterday too and felt bad about that, but she didn't regret falling into her lover's arms. So, she allowed him to change the topic. “You said that the dowager empress and her son will be present at the banquet, right?”
Theodore's expression darkened. “Yes. To be honest, this isn't really a banquet either but more of a party with a buffet. The typical aristocratic households will come, and all members of the royal family will be present too. The nobles are calling it ‘welcome party’ for those two, and the title alone makes me sick. I certainly don't intend on celebrating that they are released from confinement, but for now, we have to keep up appearances. I would have liked to skip this, but there will be a real banquet with the Duremont family in a little over a month, and we would have to invite the two troublemakers then if they don't come now. Obviously, it's better to get it over with during a party. At least we won't have to sit at the table with them the whole time but can run away. It's not pleasant, but we'll have to smile at them and pretend to be friends for one evening.”
That truly didn't sound amusing in the slightest. The emperor would be forced to fake a friendly attitude while chatting with the people that wished for his death, had killed the person who raised him and wanted to take Artias from him.
Even Blanche felt wrath boiling in her stomach even though she wasn't directly involved in the situation at all. She strained her neck to make eye contact with her lover. “I have to apologize in advance. I won't be able to hide my hatred for them, so that might cause trouble.”
“The dowager empress doesn't veil her resentment for me either. So, it's fine. As long as we don't insult them openly, no one can blame us. Maybe it might even be good to show that we aren't as close as my brother pretends us to be. I wiped that constant smile off him once already, and that was a first that I would like to repeat. On the other hand, I would like to beat him with his own weapons too and crush him with kindness. So, in the end, either way is perfect.”
It would be even better if that problem didn't exist at all. But Blanche didn't say that. She knew that the second prince could be insufferable if he wanted to, so it would be troublesome one way or the other.
After a few seconds of silence, Theodore turned to his secretary. “I almost forgot. Why did you come here? You said that you expected that I wouldn't meet the empress, so that wasn't everything.”
Leonard nodded with a slightly annoyed expression. “Yes, I would like to ask when you will leave the room so that the servants can finally begin unpacking. It's going to take a while for them to put everything in the dressing room and sort the clothes, so it would be kind of you to give them the whole day. After all, you gave half of the servants two days off. So, they need more time if they have to focus on preparing the party tomorrow.”
Blanche leaned her head against her lover's chest and tilted it backward until she could see him. “Didn't you let them unpack your things already? It's been a month.”
Theodore leaned his head forward to meet her gaze and gave her a slight smile. “My things are already in place. This is more about something else. You know that you've been sleeping in my chambers very often lately? Before the vacation too, and in the summer residence, we even shared a room. In the past, your maid always had to run around in the evening to bring you new clothes, which isn't quite effective, especially since there is a completely empty dressing room next to the one with my attires. So...I thought that we could put some of your things here so that you don't have to get them when you sleep here. Since a lot of the dresses are already in suitcases, this seemed to be a good moment to transport them here.”
Blanche felt her throat dry at that. Did he have any idea how that would seem to others? “I can't just-”
The emperor cut her off with a kiss. When he separated from her, he gave her a wide grin. “That's right. You can't just put your things into another person's room without permission. But wasn't I the person that proposed it? And if you wonder about others' opinions again, I can ease your worries. Only a few trusted servants enter my chambers, so no one else would know. There are way more staff members watching you and your maid getting clothes from a room from another floor to spend the night here. The less you run around before coming to me, the fewer people will see. I don't really care about that though. If you ask me, everyone here could know. They probably do know, and I'm happy with that. After all, no one should question whether I truly love you with all of my heart.”
Leonard chimed in at that. “I'm going to interrupt you here because this will end in another competition of who can proclaim their love in the most cliché way possible otherwise. I don't have any desire to witness that, so I'll finish the discussion for you.” He faced the concubine. “Lady Blanche, there is no need for you to think about any consequences. You are merely following His Majesty's orders as any citizen and guest in the royal palace should. If people have complaints, they can come to me, and I will confirm that this was the emperor's idea. If that doesn't help, they can also speak to Theodore himself.”
That almost made it sound like he assumed that the concubine was scared of people criticizing her for this. In reality, her greatest worry was that Theodore would have problems with Duke Duremonts due to rumors. But it didn't seem like she would get far with this argument here.
Blanche sighed inwardly before replying. “Alright. The biggest part of my things should still stay in my dressing room though. Otherwise, the servants would have furnished it for no reason.”
Her lover gave her a bright smile. “If you say so. Of course, you can always access your things. You are also free to change which clothes you want to store in which room at any time. You still remember me saying that you can enter my chambers and any other room in the palace whenever you want, right?”
How could she forget that ridiculous statement? “I do.”
“Good. Then we settled that too.” Theodore lifted his head to meet the secretary's gaze. “Is there anything else?”
A bright smile tugged at Leon's lips. “Of course. You can't forget telling Lady Blanche about her greatest accomplishment yet.”
The concubine gazed at the secretary in confusion before looking over her shoulder to her lover. “What is he talking about?”
The emperor showed her a radiant beam that was almost blinding. “About you winning my heart and earning-”
Leonard chimed in to interrupt him. “No. This isn't about your novelettish compliments. This is about an actual political advancement that improved our government significantly.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Blanche froze at that. “What are you talking about? I'm not connected to politics in any way.”
Theodore continued from that point, still with the same wide smile on his face. His eyes were shining while he spoke. “Well, you didn't come up with the finished product, but I based a law on your idea. I tweaked it a bit so that it wouldn't cause problems and put in an emergency paragraph that would allow me to ignore the law if everything went wrong. Then I had to convince the ministers, which was rather easy. They were keen on having more power without noticing that they only have to work more and that I can still get rid of them overnight. I only needed to repeat an old speech about their duties, and they agreed. And now we have a new law that gives me more free time while those men spend more time on useful things instead of troubling me.”
With every sentence, the picture became clearer. Blanche's mouth fell open as she stared at her lover with wide eyes. “You used the idea that I proposed to Leon? The minister law? That was just a joke.”
Leonard replied before Theodore could. He was smiling brightly at her too. “That wasn't a joke. While we drove to the jeweler, you chatted about politics like you were interested in the topic. And then you came up with a simple yet new approach, so I told Theodore about it. After the hunting festival, he began preparing the implementation of the law, and it was finished two weeks ago. The ministers agreed, and now he only has to take care of a third of the things that he had to deal with before. I was a bit skeptical when you wanted to change the core of our monarchy just so that Theodore could have more free time, but it was a genius idea.”
That was true. That idea was revolutionary in this nation. But Blanche hadn't been the one to come up with it at all. Seraphina had worked hard to design such a law in the latter half of the novel, and now the concubine was getting praised for stealing that and voicing a rather obvious statement about Theodore needing to share his responsibilities. She didn't know how to feel about that.
“Oh, I... I didn't really... That was just a thought, and I didn't believe that it was practicable. So, this isn't...” Blanche felt guilty for being seen as smart when she had actually just copied another person's reasoning and simplified it. She thought about pretending to have read this somewhere, but there was no way that anyone who knew her would believe that. Without mentioning the novel, it was hard to explain how she had claimed the idea of a person from the future that didn't know about it yet too. So, she didn't have an excuse.
Leon gave her a toothy smile. “Don't be modest. That simple thought saved us a lot of time and trouble. I'm glad that you said it out loud. Otherwise, we would still have problems managing our emperor's time. Thanks to you, I have some free time as well, which would have been impossible before.”
Theodore wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him while resting his chin on her head. “See? You're a genius. Such new approaches are exactly what a nation requires to flourish. Every ruler needs a person that thinks like this by their side. I'm very grateful that you came up with this law. And because you did that, we can spend much more time with each other. Leon finally has enough time to get a lover too so that he doesn't have to be jealous anymore.”
Immediately, Leonard's face fell, and he gave the emperor a look of pure annoyance. “You are very good at ruining the moment, Theodore. I can tell when I'm not needed here. Please don't forget to leave your room or at least get dressed so that the poor servants don't have to see you like that.” He gestured towards the cuddling couple. “There are people waiting to bring Lady Blanche's things in after all. Then I wish you a pleasant time at the tailor while I have to deal with a fuming empress. Thank you for that, Theodore.”
Theodore lifted his arm to wave to the other man. “Goodbye, Leon. Don't lose your composure. In that case, you would get another lecture about respecting the royal family.” His voice even sounded like he was grinning, so the concubine didn't even have to look up to check whether he was laughing at the secretary, who was narrowing his eyes at the emperor.
Blanche grinned at seeing this interaction and spoke up as well. “Have a nice day. Hopefully, the empress won't be too angry.”
Leonard shrugged. “Oh, I don't know. Maybe she doesn't care about you two eating each other's face while everyone in the palace watches. I doubt it. But she can't complain to me about that incident since I wasn't involved, so I'll just remind her of that if she starts talking about yesterday. Goodbye, Lady Blanche. I'm sure we'll see each other for some etiquette lessons soon. I have free time now after all. I can rest for so long that my body is confused, so I would like to use my valuable time for something else aside from sleeping.”
The concubine nodded and couldn't hide how excited she was to finally pick up her lessons again. “Gladly. We will see each other anyway when I visit Theo in the office. We can simply make an appointment then.”
Leon wrinkled his forehead and let out a quiet sigh. “I can imagine how this will look from now on. If Theodore doesn't have anything to do, you will constantly be there. I don't necessarily mind, but please don't turn the office into your bedroom. I still would like to have a work environment that isn't full of cuddling couples.” Before either of them could respond, he left the room and closed the door behind him.
Blanche's mind immediately wandered back to the previous topic. She loosened her lover's hold on her a bit to turn around. “About that law... How did you manage to implement it? I would have assumed that the ministers would be against changing the core of our constitution.”
In the novel, they had been. The ministers had protested before even listening to the idea and had only shut their mouths when Seraphina had given an emotional speech about the well-being of the nation. The empress hadn't even been here, so she couldn't have talked to them.
Theodore smirked at his lover. “I just told them that they would have more power to do good for Artias and that I would have more time to focus on other matters like this. Then I enumerated topics that each of them favors, so they quickly stopped arguing. They didn't really hear the part about me still having full authority over their work. One word by me, and all of their decisions are undone. Practical, right? And all of this is just because of your idea. My sweet genius.” He leaned forward to kiss her forehead.
Blanche waited a few seconds before pulling away. She couldn't let them believe that she deserved any recognition for copying another person's thought process. “Actually, that isn't my idea at all. I just stole it from...” She still had no excuse for that, so she would have to change her approach. “Well, I just said that you need more free time and that the ministers are useless. Everything else was added by Leon.”
The emperor continued to grin while stroking over her head and leaving behind a small tingle on her scalp. “He recounted the conversation a bit differently. Why would he give you credit for his thoughts, even if it's just about a vague concept? And you were the one to say it first, so it's your idea now. In the end, you were the one that gave me a reason to ponder over our form of government more. Now you also deserve my praise for that. No, the whole country's praise. I plan on rewarding you for that soon, but I still have to prepare something for that. Just wait a while, and you'll see.”
Blanche had to keep herself from shaking her head abruptly. How could he plan on giving her anything when she hadn't accomplished a single thing? This was a simplified version of Seraphina's plan, so the empress should get credit, as well as the emperor, who implemented this law despite the minister's initial refusal. But arguing about that was impossible when she couldn't explain her reasoning. She bit her lip for a moment while thinking about a way that would prove that she wasn't the one that had come up with this, but she remained unsuccessful.
So, she would have to make sure of something else. “The problem is that my thought process was really simple, so I don't feel like this is special. That's why I don't need any reward either. You didn't tell anyone except for Leon yet, did you?” If people heard that a concubine began proposing laws, which was usually a right that was reserved to the empress and the ministers, it would be a big issue.
Theodore paused as if he was going through the conversations of the last days in his mind. “Not really.”
Blanche furrowed her brows. “What do you mean by ‘not really’? Did you tell anyone, or did you not?”
“I didn't voice your name, but I did say that a very intelligent person gave me this idea. For now, I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to. Unless a situation arises that forces me to do so, of course.”
The concubine let out a breath in relief. “Thank you.” This way she wouldn't be bothered by other people as well. After all, proposing a new law to the emperor despite not having any experience was rather impudent, so she would like to prevent others from knowing about it. Especially since that idea wasn't hers at all.
Theodore wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. “Well then, should we stand up to let the servants inside or stay in bed a bit longer? I think I almost favor the second option.”
Blanche considered simply remaining in her lover's arms for a few more hours. But the thought of the people having to deal with her clothes and waiting behind the door changed her decision. “I agree, but we need to allow the servants to do their work. I would like to eat breakfast too. We skipped dinner last evening, so I'm very hungry.” She drew small circles onto his arm while leaning against him. She tilted her head backward to smirk up at him. “Of course, I'm still touch-starved as well, so you have to promise not to let go of me even if we eat outside the bed.”
Theodore rested his forehead on hers. “How could I say no to that? It's warm outside too, so we could go to the pavilion. Or the winter garden. The dining room is an option too.”
Despite all of those wonderful alternatives, Blanche immediately knew what she would choose. “Then let's go to the pavilion. Today, I seem to have a desire to visit our special place again. It's been two months after all.”
Her lover's smile softened. “So, we share that sentiment too. We can get dressed and go there immediately. I told the gardeners to take good care of the area around it but to leave the high hedges so that we can sit there without anyone watching us.”
“Perfect.” The concubine moved her legs out of the bed and leaned over to the nightstand out of an impulse, only to realize that she hadn't put the ring away last night so that it was still on her finger. That made her turn around and glance at Theodore's hand, but it was hidden behind the blanket. She silently scolded herself when she moved over to him to take a look at his finger. She was probably expecting too much if she wanted him to wear it the whole time. He might have stored it somewhere else like a married man, who wasn't even wearing his wedding ring, should.
As she crawled closer and plopped down next to him, Theodore greeted her with a smile. “Are you searching for something?” He moved his hand before she could catch a glimpse of it and intertwined his fingers with hers before turning their hands around.
Blanche forgot to breathe for a moment when she saw that he was wearing his ring too. “You're really...”
“Of course. I gave it to you so that you wouldn't miss me too much while I was gone. That didn't help much though, as I felt myself. After all, I kept the ring from the very moment that you put it on. At night, I place it in the drawer next to the bed before slipping it on first thing in the morning. Now that you're finally here I don't have to wait in anguish anymore, but I would like to keep the ring.”
She felt how her heart began to melt at that as she extended her arms towards him and allowed herself to fall forward into his embrace. “I missed you so much.”
Theodore caught her with ease and pulled her closer. “I missed you more.”
She tilted her head backward to playfully narrow her eyes at him. “Not possible.”
A wide smirk grew on her lover's face. He shifted on the bed until he was able to slowly lower her onto the mattress. “Are you sure? How about I prove just how much I missed you? It seems like I wasn't direct enough last night, so you have to give me another chance.”
The concubine wrapped her arms around him and pulled him onto her. “Gladly.”
In the end, the servants had to wait even longer until they were finally allowed to enter the room and store the concubine's clothes in the dressing room.