Blanche slowly sat up. “Well then. I think it's time for me to leave. We'll see each other in the evening, right?”
Theodore reluctantly loosed his hold on her. He pouted at her. “You're mean. You just came, and you already want to go and leave me behind with this stack of incredibly interesting documents. Don't you want to stay a bit longer?”
“I don't want to take away your valuable time. You need to finish all of those today, right? Those are two very big stacks.” She gestured to the desk. “You won't stay up until past midnight to get them done, so you'll have to deal with them now.”
Theodore gave her a cheeky grin. “You seem to have forgotten something. I made everything way more efficient. Two thirds of my workload went to the ministers, and another great chunk will be taken care of by the merchants who previously forced their duties onto me. In addition, I also found two or three methods to increase my speed while reading such contracts. Leon was really impressed since I always finished while he was on the tenth page of twenty. Those documents on the table are the ones for the entire month. And the ones on the right...” He pointed to one of the stacks that had about the same height as the other one. “Are already finished. I did some during the past week, and I spent an hour before the meeting checking them and actually went through some while the ministers were talking about useless things.”
Blanche was astonished by him being able to manage all of his duties this well. Seeing how he finally had free time now made her feel less bad about stealing Seraphina's idea about the ministers. Her lover was way more relaxed now, so she was happy about proposing this to Leon. A grin spread across her face. “You're truly amazing. You're the best ruler this nation could ever have.” She gave him a short kiss, which made him smirk at her.
“See? I can finish all of them in two hours if I really take my time. So, you could stay longer.” He looked up at her with round eyes, and that was enough to make her consider agreeing.
It was tempting to cuddle with him for a few more minutes, but Blanche already noticed what this was leading to. They would only become more affectionate from now on, and she didn't intend on forcing Leon to run out to shield his eyes. She would much rather postpone their cuddling time to later. “I could. But you could also hurry to finish this and come back earlier. Then we could have a really nice evening.” She tapped her fingers onto his chest and slowly moved them over his collarbone while showing him a playful grin. “It's much better if we're alone for a few hours at a time, isn't it? Besides, I don't think you want Leon to throw us out.”
There was a glint in Theodore's eyes that made her believe that he would simply keep her here and send his secretary out, but that wasn't the case. Her lover pretended to think about the issue for a moment before he nodded. “Then I'll make an exception and let you go. But you have to promise to wait in our room.”
Blanche gave him a smile as she slowly climbed off his lap with his help. “I promise. I'll just use my time to take a look at all of your decorations again. I still didn't memorize all of them.”
The emperor let out a chuckle as he rose to his feet as well. “You have enough time in the future. In a few years, you might get bored with them, so I'll make sure to buy you new things.”
She didn't bother to point out that his interior didn't belong to her and that she didn't really need anything. She knew how he would respond, so she could spare her breath. “You always give me presents. How about I do that for you for a change? I'll go to the kitchen first and bring you a nice cake as a reward for your hard work. With only a few spoonfuls of sugar, of course.”
“That sounds good. I look forward to it.”
Leonard turned around to them and chimed in. “I would like that too. After all, that means that you'll stop using this office as a personal chamber.” He gave his best to sound as annoyed as always, but today, there was anger in his voice that he couldn't hide. It wasn't directed at the couple though. It seemed like he was still furious about the previous events, which was understandable since Duke Vasquez had disrespected the emperor a few times.
Blanche showed him a smile that she hoped to be soothing. “Don't worry. I'm leaving.” She turned to her lover and grabbed his hand before squeezing it once. “Then we'll see each other when you're finished. You can take your time so that I can prepare the cake.”
Theodore gave her a bright smile when she let go of him and waved when she walked to the door.
She mirrored the motion. “I wish you a nice afternoon. And I hope that you have a nice evening too, Leon.” She stepped outside and didn't even need to watch her lover closely to see that his face fell as soon as she was out of sight. He was beyond furious, which revealed an expression that she hated on him.
It didn't necessarily scare her because of her nightmares anymore since she hadn't had one in a while, which she assumed to be thanks to the royal doctor's herbs. But it was still unpleasant to know that he was feeling unwell. Today, it was obvious that he would be angry, and she felt guilty for having indirectly caused the situation by not being able to stay quiet.
She closed the door behind herself and turned around, only to be met with loud chatter. To her surprise, Stella was talking to the two guards by the entrance, and they loudly complained about a man, whom they addressed with very disrespectful titles. She could only assume that they were referring to Duke Vasquez. Stella's wrathful expression was rather easy to interpret.
As soon as the group noticed Blanche, all of them turned to her, and Stella immediately dashed forward to greet her mistress. “My Lady! Are you alright? That person didn't touch you, did he? If he did, I will personally pour boiling water over him the next time he shows his face here.”
Blanche was about to respond that Claude probably wouldn't enter the palace anytime soon, but one of the guards was faster than she was.
He bowed down deeply to her, which startled her enough to make her take a step back. “Please forgive us for reacting too slowly! We only noticed what was going on when Sir Maillont already secured everything.”
The second guard mirrored his colleague. “We were careless and risked the situation getting out of hand if our head knight hadn't been here. We won't ever let something like this happen again. We sincerely apologize!”
The concubine raised her hands in a rejecting gesture. “No, no. You didn't do anything wrong. Nothing had happened yet, so it would have been strange to assume that the duke had any bad intentions. Besides, I'm perfectly fine.” Judging by Owen's reflexes, they didn't have any chance to intervene before him either. She had witnessed how fast he was during the vacation when he had managed to hit a chessboard that had fallen from a shelf out of the air to prevent her from getting hurt. If they were able to keep up with him, it would be much weirder. “I was just glad that there were guards here to prevent anything bad. For now, that person won't come into the palace again.”
Stella balled her fist and positioned them in front of her chest as if she prepared to hit someone. “He deserved that. Did His Majesty say whether he will get punished?”
Blanche nodded. She didn't want to smile at others' misfortune, but in Claude's case, she couldn't hold back. “Theo dismissed him. Duke Lamont will be the new minister, and Duke Vasquez is banned from entering the royal estate unless he apologizes to me.”
The maid's face lit up at that, and she raised one of her hands in victory. “Yes! That whole family can burn along with the dowa-”
The concubine stopped her by holding her hand in front of the servant's mouth. “Don't say that. You can think it, and most here won't hold it against you. But if you voice this, it might reach the wrong people, and they could put you on trial for treason.”
Stella lifted her chin and put her hands onto her hips. “Telling the truth isn't illegal. I want them to get what they deserve. I really doubt that His Majesty would be angry at anyone for voicing this.”
“In fact, he shares your opinion. But if there are enough witnesses, he can't just drop a charge. Well, I mean, he probably could, but that would cast a bad light on him. You know...with the rumor going around.”
One of the guards chimed in at that. “No one here in the palace would ever testify about someone criticizing His Majesty's opponents.” The young man wrinkled his forehead as he glared at the invisible enemies. “He made sure to inform us about them trying to use members of the staff as soon as he heard about them moving. He gathered us by the training square and gave a speech about how the situation was so that all of us could be prepared for any underhanded schemes. His Majesty has always been a kind and intelligent ruler, so we would never question him. All of our loyalty belongs to him, and that won't ever change. That means that we will protect you too, Lady Blanche. From now on, we'll be more careful. Especially if that man enters despite being banned from here.” He bowed again, which she found a bit strange.
It was actually normal for servants and knights to bow to nobles, but they usually just lowered their heads when the aristocrats passed by except for when they were facing members of the royal family. However, in the past, they had mostly ignored the concubine, so being treated with such exaggerated respect was confusing.
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Blanche was about to tell him to raise his head when he, luckily, did so on his own. “Thank you. I am grateful to hear that. Thanks to the royal guards, all of us can feel safe here. You reacted well. If you had stepped closer to Duke Vasquez, he might have snapped.”
Stella narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. “Maybe a small cut would have calmed him down though. He didn't only dare to offend you and pretend to be the victim afterward, but he also did the same when His Majesty stepped in. That man is obviously insane. I hope that his wife locks him in their cellar until he calms down. In a few days, he will probably crawl on all fours and beg to get his position back. He will surely apologize to you, My Lady.”
If Claude was that type of person that could be scared with a few signs of authority, things would be much easier. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
Blanche shook her head to keep her maid from getting her hopes up. “He won't. You saw how enraged he got when someone questioned his status. I would guess that he is completely obsessed with power. That's why he clings to his rank and strives to climb even higher. That's why he wants to support the second prince too. He hopes that his family will become the second most important household right after the royal family. That man will never go to his knees. He is too prideful for that. I'm also sure that I won't receive anything that remotely resembles an apology. He will either insult me, which I'm surprised he didn't openly do today, or he will threaten me. I could do without both. So, not meeting him at all would be best.”
Stella stayed silent for a moment before lowering her gaze. “Yes, probably.” Her desire to see Claude grovel for forgiveness was basically oozing out of her expression still.
Blanche put on a little smile to calm her maid down as she tapped her shoulder. “Since there is nothing we can do about it either way, we'll just leave now. I will have to pacify you with pancakes tomorrow. I have to make a cake for Theo today.”
Stella faked a grin as well, but the remaining traces of resentment were still visible. Sometimes, the concubine asked herself what she had done to deserve such a loyal attendant. Theodore couldn't have chosen a better person to be by her side.
Blanche patted the other woman's back again before turning to the guards. “We will take our leave now. I just want you to know that you are doing a great job. Have a nice day.”
The knights stared at her in confusion for a few seconds before hurrying to bid her farewell.
She guided her maid down the hallway they had come from, only to almost have a heart attack when Owen called out to her.
“Lady Blanche, please wait.” The guard came from the other end of the corridor and quickly caught up to her. “Please excuse my late arrival. It will not happen again.”
Blanche waved her hand around in the air in a dismissive motion. “It's fine. You were tending to a more important matter. Did he cause any problems?”
“Not directly. He was muttering to himself the whole time like a madman, and I only caught a few of his words. They were enough to convince me that I would have to clearly phrase in which position he is at the moment. He was quiet after that.” It was easy to imagine that Owen could be very intimidating when he wanted to. Most likely, Theodore had sent him with Claude for that exact reason. This sounded like Duke Vasquez got rebuked, which definitely raised the concubine's spirits. “I will remember his words today and make sure that he will not come closer to you than a social gathering may demand. He will not hurt you even if he were to try.” That, on the other hand, didn't sound too good.
Blanche had expected that Claude would hold a grudge, but he was even less secretive about it than she would have guessed. “I see. Thank you, Owen. I feel much better with you being here even if I still worry about Theo.”
Owen bowed his head slightly. “It is an honor for me to be able to protect you. His Majesty was very clear about him being very much capable of defending himself. I am still unaware of why he hid this for such a long time, but that might have been for the best. Now only his closest companions are aware that he is a much better fighter than his enemies believe him to be.” That was a pretty helpful plan.
After all, Theodore had proven that he didn't need much time to take out his opponents' best man during the hunting festival. The weaker others thought he was, the easier it was for him to fight back. Still, the concubine was surprised that he had never told her about that before. But maybe she had just gained his full trust this year. It would make sense since she was significantly more focused on his well-being now while she had been unaware of many things before. After all, she had only known him for a little under two years now, which was a much smaller amount of time in comparison to the six or seven years he had spent with Leon and Owen. So, she was more than honored to have him trust her fully.
A soft smile appeared on Blanche's lips as she turned to the hallway again. “Let us go to the kitchen now. I'll bake something for Theodore, and the two of you can have a piece too.”
She happily strode down the corridor to go to the kitchen as fast as possible so that she wouldn't make her lover wait later. She hadn't expected to pass by the corner where Clark and Harris had previously fought nor had she thought that they would still be there.
Blanche raised an eyebrow at that and looked at Stella. “It's a bit surprising that they didn't leave. We took a while by the office, didn't we? Did they argue the whole time?” She didn't have any desire to witness another fight right now, but to her surprise, both men were silent.
Maybe they had yelled at each other the whole time and now had enough. It certainly looked like they were both exhausted. Clark was leaning his back against the wall and glared at his colleague's reflection in the mirror across from him. He was the one crossing his arms now and looked like he could snap any second.
Harris sat on the sofa next to him and had buried his face in his hands. It seemed like they could have easily been on edge like this for the past hour.
Blanche hadn't intended to get involved, but to her, it appeared to be unlikely that that situation would get resolved calmly if she just walked by. So, she slowly approached them while trying not to scare them.
Clark hadn't noticed her yet, and his tapping on his arm became quicker until he spoke up after what looked like an eternity of silence. “What now?”
Harris stood up and lowered his hands, which revealed his reddened face. One could easily tell what puffy eyes like this meant from experience, especially the concubine, who cried at every opportunity. The servant turned to face the other end of the corridor. “We'll just forget that this whole...thing ever happened.”
Clark's posture immediately changed at that. He unfolded his arms and stepped towards the other man with a grim expression. “Are you joking? How long do you want to keep this pretense up? How do you think do I-”
Harris spun around at that, and his eyes fell onto the spectators. He mouthed something that was probably a curse and turned his head away.
Clark turned around too. He changed his stance a bit so that he didn't look like he would attack the other man any second anymore, but he was definitely tense. “That's... How much did you hear?”
Stella replied with a frown. “That you fought and that he wants you to forget about it while you disagree. That was all. We just came from His Majesty's office.” An unnerving silence followed. After a few seconds, the maid cleared her throat and resumed. “Uhm, if you want to discuss something in private, you should have entered one of the guest bedrooms. There are lots of people that might see you here.” She didn't receive a response.
At that point, Blanche decided that interrupting probably didn't do anything but delay the argument. It was their own business where they fought and what they said to each other. “I apologize for interrupting. We will leave you alone so that you can discuss this properly.”
This time, Harris' reply came immediately. “No, that's not necessary. I'll leave.”
Clark spun around at that and addressed the other servant in a tone that made it sound like a warning. “Harris. We're not done.”
Harris didn't listen to him though and just stormed off into the other direction.
Clark called the other's name again, this time louder, but that didn't stop Harris. That made Clark run his fingers through his hair as he glared onto the floor. He was quiet for a while, and it looked like he didn't have any intention of speaking up.
The concubine took that as a sign that he didn't want to tell them, but Stella just listened to her curiosity and spoke up. “Did something happen? When we passed by on our way to the office, we saw you fighting already. That argument was a bit too long if you just bumped into each other.”
Clark dropped his hand and glared at the maid. “That's none of-” He cut himself off and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his face had changed, and he just looked bitter instead of resentful. “I'm sorry. I'm not angry at you. I'm just...” He let out a shaky breath and lowered his gaze onto the ground.
Stella walked over to him and gave him a small smile. “I know. It's fine. Don't tell us unless you're sure that you want to. If you don't, we won't be upset. Do you need comfort food? We're on our way to go to the kitchen to make a cake. You can have a slice.”
Clark shook his head. “No, thank you. I still have something to do.” He glanced over his shoulder at one of the doors behind him. “I'll... Maybe I'll join you later.”
Blanche showed him a smile as well. “That's fine. We won't be there for longer than two hours, but we'll leave behind most of the cake like always. Feel free to take all of it. I also feel like Stella will be dismissed very early today, so she might be downstairs too.”
The maid let out a fake gasp as she covered her grin with her hand to seem shocked. “How could you? Am I not needed today again? If everything continues like this, I will be so used to having half the day off that I won't be prepared for when I need to change diapers all night.”
Blanche didn't know whether to laugh at that or let out a nervous chuckle. Children were still a topic that she worried about, and right now, she didn't need even more concerns. “About that... I think I'll do that myself. But that is still very far away. So, you don't have to think about that yet.”
Their banter made Clark show a little smile, but it quickly disappeared. “Well, I would like to go with you, but I'm still busy. Until later or tomorrow. Or, well, you know.”
The concubine nodded at him. “We won't stop you from doing your work. Have a nice afternoon.”
“Thank you. You too. The both of you and...uhm...” Clark glanced at Owen. “Him too.” With that, he turned around and moved to the door that he had previously kept an eye on. The door was slightly ajar, and he slipped inside before closing it with a bit too much force.
Stella observed this with an annoyed look. “So, he has to clean the guest bedrooms. No wonder he is upset. First, he has to meet Harris, and now he is forced to spend the rest of the day alone in a room that nobody uses. You can wipe the furniture inside there over and over again, and there will still be a mountain of dust. It's horrifying. I'm glad that I don't have to do that anymore.”
Blanche let her gaze roam across all the doors on the left side of the corridor. “It's true that we have a lot of guestrooms for very few guests. I think the ministers are the only ones that really use them if there is an emergency that requires them to stay here for a few days. Other than that, they are vacant.”
The corners of Stella's lips rose as she showed her mistress a playful smirk. “The rooms or the ministers' brains?”
The concubine let out a chuckle. “Both. Depending on the circumstances, the latter one even more than the former one.” She giggled about this with her maid for a moment before clapping. “Right. We need to hurry to the kitchen now, or we won't be able to finish the cake in time.” She moved forward without waiting for a response as she rushed downstairs without wasting a thought on the previous events. She knew that the matter with Duke Vasquez wasn't finished, but she was sure that she wouldn't have to deal with that for the time being.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.