The next morning was less relaxed than the evening, even when worries about the doctor's visit still distracted Blanche. She woke up while still being drowsy and hoped to get some sleep without needing to worry about a possible pregnancy, only to notice that her lover was up already. Apparently, Prince Linden would arrive earlier than expected, and she was the only one that wasn't ready yet.
Luckily, Theodore and her maids helped her prepare, so she could continue to think about whether her missing period meant anything while being dressed. She yawned the whole time and only felt a bit more awake when they left the palace and the cool, fresh air filled her lungs. Still, she shamelessly used the excuse of being tired as a reason to lean against her lover while walking. She sighed in relief when she realized that the Ocrean carriages hadn't reached the entrance yet. She could see them at the far horizon, which thankfully meant that the couple wasn't tardy because she had wanted to sleep a bit longer.
Despite that, Blanche took a moment to scold her lover. “You do know that ‘My fiancée was so adorable while complaining about not wanting to wake up that I let her sleep for another half an hour’ isn't an acceptable excuse to miss the arrival of the prince of an allied nation, right? I surely hope that you do. If we had made him wait because of that, I would have seriously gotten mad.”
Theodore grinned down at her and gently poked her cheek. “That's easy for you to say. You didn't see that adorable display that I got to witness. You are extremely cute without trying it, and when you cuddle against me and tell me to give you five more minutes, I can't resist. That should be obvious. If you want to get up earlier, say that while you are lying in bed.”
She would do that if she was able to think clearly while being drowsy. But sadly, the warm blanket and the embrace of her lover made it hard to even think about why standing up was actually a good idea. “Don't tell me that it's my fault now. You are supposed to be the emperor. You should control what happens within the palace. If you become weak because of me, that isn't a good sign.”
Her lover just smirked at that and pulled her closer to him. “I'm always weak because of you. I can't resist you no matter what. And that makes you the most powerful person in this nation. I will never give you an order or forbid you from doing anything, except for one thing. You can't leave me. I won't allow it.” He tightened his hold on her for a few seconds to underline his words but didn't get to add anything. When footsteps approached them, the couple turned to the other person. Theodore scanned the head maid for a moment before he spoke up. “It's been a while, Gloria. I assume that you were busy taking care of the matters I instructed you with. Say, have you been training again too? And you changed your nutrition plan a bit.”
Gloria bowed. “Indeed, Your Majesty. Thanks to your advice, I managed to take an hour a day to return to old habits. It was refreshing to do so. Of course, I did not neglect your orders either. Everything has been taken care of. The concerned people have been rewarded, interrogated or dismissed. We were very much surprised about the accuracy of your hints, Your Majesty. May I ask how-”
Theodore raised his hand and held his index finger in front of his lips. “I never reveal my secrets to anyone but my Blanche. So, I can't tell you how I knew. I have my sources. I am proud of you for dealing with everything. The last big problem within the palace will be disposed of in a few days too, and then we will finally be done with the inside.”
Blanche watched that conversation from the side while secretly examining the other woman. She hadn't seen the head maid in a while either.
To her surprise, the elderly woman looked rather different now. Gloria's face was a bit slimmer while her body seemed to be more muscular. Surely, one couldn't see much due to her uniform, but it still appeared like the head maid had changed a little. As if she had noticed that she was being stared at, she turned to the concubine and made eye contact while her expression remained as stern as always.
Blanche took a moment before remembering to speak up. “Good morning, Gloria. How have you been?” That was a boring greeting, but it was too early for her to think clearly.
The head maid remained quiet for a few seconds before replying. “I wish you a wonderful morning too, Lady... I apologize, but I am not entirely sure how I am supposed to address you now. As a member of the royal family, you would-”
The concubine quickly lifted her hand. “No, no. Everyone kept using the same name as before. I'm content with that.” She didn't need to get used to another title, only for it to change again in a few months.
Gloria nodded at that. “I understand. Good morning, Lady Blanche. I have not had the chance to give you my regards yet. The staff members will collectively congratulate you on the day of the engagement party, but I would like to do it now that I have the chance.” She bowed to the couple. “Congratulations on your engagement. May your union bless Artias with prosperity and happiness. I congratulate you for becoming the future empress as well. I look forward to serving you with all of my loyalty.”
Blanche wasn't sure whether she had expected that reaction.
Didn't Gloria hate her? Working with that woman later might be one of the biggest problems. After all, the head maid was faultlessly loyal to Seraphina, who had now lost her position and was sent to another nation. Certainly, Gloria wouldn't be happy about that. So, pledging loyalty to the person that had basically pushed out her old mistress wouldn't be pleasant for the head maid. Still, she seemed to be calm instead of just hiding her anger.
The concubine was taken aback by that, so she almost forgot to respond. When she noticed that she had been silent for a while, she quickly spoke up. “Thank you, Gloria. I am honored to have a skillful head maid like you among the staff. I will do my best to become worthy of your services.”
Theodore chimed in as brushed over his lover's head. “You already are. You are the most wonderful person in this whole world, after all. That's why every day with you feels like a divine blessing.” He bent his hand and caressed her scalp with his fingertips until small shivers ran down her spine.
Blanche had intended to ask him to do this later when they were alone, but the massage already convinced her of the opposite. She leaned into his touch and enjoyed the small tingling that spread through her entire body. Her lover truly had magic hands. Only he could make her melt this quickly. She almost forgot that they weren't alone within a few seconds.
Gloria's voice was what reminded her of their position. “If I may ask, Your Majesty, am I allowed to inform...Lady Duremont of our guests' arrival now? The carriages will reach us in a few minutes, and it would be appropriate for her to greet the guests too.” The way she said this made it sound like she hadn't been allowed to inform Seraphina before.
Theodore's indifferent expression also made it seem like that could be the case. “Sure. But I think she already noticed that her husband came. She'll do her best to be here on time. Give her a few more seconds and watch how she'll glare at me. So, you don't need to waste your time.” He turned to his lover again and grinned at her before continuing his massage.
No one had to ask why he hadn't told Seraphina yet. Even during the former empress' last days here, which she had mostly spent at the Duremonts' and the Ravillots' mansions, he hadn't shown her any kindness. He had ignored his ex-wife when he could, and when he couldn't, he was unnecessarily harsh and smug.
Even Blanche was a bit annoyed with that by now. Luckily, the other woman would leave in a short while so that she could have her peace. But the concubine didn't point that out. She just leaned into her lover's touch and closed her eyes for a bit. “How far are the carriages away?”
Theodore rubbed small circles into her skin while replying. “They are at the main gate. Only a few more seconds, and they'll come in. But they will still take two minutes to get to the building due to their slow pace. You can relax a bit more.”
She had intended to do that, but hurried footsteps made her open one eye.
Seraphina had stormed out of the palace and stopped on top of the staircase when she saw that the guests weren't there yet. Her maids arrived a moment after her and paused to calm their breathing. But they didn't get much of a chance since their mistress already walked forward again. Seraphina still had the authority of an empress even though she had lost her title. She still could immediately seem elegant again even after her hurried entrance as she carefully lifted the hem of her dress to climb down the stairs before striding toward the couple. Even then, she kept a cool expression, but there was a glimpse of anger in her eyes, which looked similar to how she had acted while fighting with the concubine in the past. When she reached the emperor and his lover, she stopped a few steps in front of them before curtsying.
Of course, Theodore did the most disrespectful thing he could do. He just turned away to watch the carriages. That earned him a glare from his lover, which he took as his cue to kiss her cheek.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Blanche almost sighed. If he wasn't nice, she would do it for him. She showed the other woman a smile and spoke up. “Good morning, Lady Duremont. It's a pleasure to meet you here. How have you been?” She narrowed her eyes at Theodore while adding something he should have said. “You may rise.”
Seraphina waited for a moment while scanning the emperor's expression before straightening her posture again. “I wish you a wonderful morning as well, Lady Blanche. I apologize if my sudden appearance startled you. I, unfortunately, had to rush here because I did not hear about our guest arriving earlier.” She glanced at Theodore, who still ignored her completely. “That is why I almost left too late. I am glad that I managed to come downstairs in time.”
Blanche stared at her lover for a while longer, but he remained stubborn when it came to ignoring Seraphina. So, she just continued the conversation. “I am relieved that you arrived in time too. Our guests should already have reached the gate. They will be here in a few...” She turned around to see that the first carriages already moved onto the plaza. Apparently, the coaches had been a bit faster than expected. “Seconds. You came at the perfect moment.”
Theodore now had found his excuse to refrain from greeting Seraphina. He turned to the carriages and pulled his lover toward them. “Let's go see Linden. I'm sure that he will be happy to come back here. And he may push us aside immediately, but don't concern yourself with that.” He stopped next to some of the more plain coaches and waited for a moment until the door of one opened.
Prince Linden climbed out a second later. The first thing he did was look around for someone who was probably Seraphina. As soon as he found her, a faint smile appeared on the normally expressionless man's face, but he quickly hid it again. After a few seconds passed, he tore his gaze away from his lover and searched for the emperor, whom he quickly spotted. He walked toward the couple and met them halfway.
Theodore put on a bright grin as he greeted the other man. “Good morning, Prince Linden. I'm happy to welcome you back so quickly. I hope that your journey here wasn't too stressful.”
Linden, who had returned to his neutral expression, nodded once. “I have to thank you for welcoming me once again despite the short notice. This time, I will not elongate my stay while bothering you unnecessarily though. We will depart the day after tomorrow so that we can rest a bit before leaving again.”
Theodore accepted that with a smile and squeezed his lover's hand to signal that he was done greeting the prince.
Blanche knew what that meant and quickly spoke up. “We are honored to have you visit us, Prince Linden. There is no need for you to worry about staying here for a bit longer. After all, the journey here must have been exhausting, especially since you have barely had a break while staying at home. We took care of the previous problems, so there is no need for you to be as cautious this time. You could visit the capital if you wish to.” She wasn't too sure whether it was fine to greet this important visitor first, but then again, she was pretty sure that the customs in Ocrea were a bit different.
Linden didn't seem to care much about her addressing him first. At least he didn't look or act like he was offended and just replied normally. “It is an honor to meet you again too, Lady Blanche. While I would love to see more of Artias, we have a somewhat critical situation at home. I doubt that my sister would be vile enough to use this chance, but I wouldn't be too sure about her ally. My father should have everything under control, but there can always be some unforeseen incidents. That is why I am reluctant to stay away for longer than necessary. We will have to postpone another long visit until the situation back home is better.”
The concubine gave him a little smile. “That might be for the best. If you stayed now, you would risk meeting Cedar again too, and you probably wish to avoid that.”
Before the prince replied, Theodore chimed in. “Since you are here already, we could discuss one or two more contracts, but aside from that, I won't hinder you from returning quickly. Make it three days.” He scanned the carriages and gestured to the servants. “Your people are tired, and the horses are too.”
Linden turned around to gaze at his people for a moment before responding. “I will listen to your request then. It may be better for us to take some time to discuss something I wish to bring up too.”
The emperor grinned at him. “I have a rather clear picture of what you could be referring to. I doubt that that will take very long, but I am fine with having a discussion. But first, we should focus on the important things. I have a few questions for you. Let us start with the most important one. How is your father?”
Linden bowed his head for a moment. “I will need to sincerely thank you for your help. He is feeling much better. I am not sure whether this is because he believes in the medicine or because it actually works. In any case, we are overjoyed to see him laughing again. We are forever in your debt.”
Theodore didn't seem surprised to hear that in the slightest. “There is no need to thank me. I am content as long as the king is healthy. If you wish to do me a favor, secure the peace between our nations. But we're already doing this without needing a reason, so everything is fine.” When he finished speaking, he turned to his lover. “It's good to hear that you have pleasant things to tell us though.” He paused, and his smile got brighter. “We have some good news too even if ours are a bit less important. You actually do not really need to know this, but I am too proud to keep myself from bragging.” He grinned and lifted his hand that was intertwined with his lover's. “Blanche is now officially my fiancée, and she will become the empress of Artias as soon as we marry.”
Either Linden was amazing at holding back his shock, or he truly wasn't fazed by the news since he responded without any special reaction. “I am happy to hear that you were able to reveal it now. Then it seems like I can congratulate you again.” He made eye contact with the concubine. “May you become a wise ruler that has the best for the people in mind and leads our nation to prosperity. I am not sure whether this saying makes sense in Artias since your system is a bit different, but we greet the future queen like that. I hope that it is somewhat appropriate.” There was no way that anyone would complain about a prince from a neighboring nation using his own greeting, but it was pleasant to see how he confirmed that he didn't wish to offend anyone.
Blanche smiled at him. “Thank you. I hope that I will be able to do that. I will certainly do my best.” Even if the empress wasn't truly much of a ruler and just supported the emperor at the moment, that might change soon.
Linden nodded at that before his gaze wandered to the side. It was easy to guess whom he was looking at even without turning around. But he didn't make any attempts of walking over to Seraphina, most likely to not be disrespectful toward the emperor.
Theodore only needed a glance to see what was going on though. He made eye contact with the other man. “Go on and greet her. You don't have to hold back. We will not disturb you. Blanche and I don't mind giving you some privacy for a moment.”
For a moment, Linden froze at that. He scanned the emperor's expression for a while before speaking up. “You knew?”
“From the very beginning. I hoped that you would get along, and it seems like I judged that correctly. You are rather similar, do you know that?” Theodore grinned at the other man, which earned him a long stare that seemed to reveal Linden's concern. He quickly added something else. “There is no need to be so cautious. I truly don't care, that much should be clear. I asked you to take her with you last time already, didn't I? I would have been very happy if you had done that, but this is fine too. As long as you are honest now. I know that you wanted to make your appeal later, but you don't have to bother with that. I agree to you marrying her, and I will give you a royal decree. That will erase any problems that could arise. Her parents are by far the bigger threat to you right now. They will probably come here every day to get to know you, and I will warn you. Duke Duremont is harsh sometimes. But if you tell him that he can't threaten you, he becomes uncertain quickly. You will find a way to deal with them. Go see your future wife now.”
Linden actually seemed a bit skeptical for a moment. Normally, an ex-husband wasn't happy to find out that his wife had had an affair, but the situation here was a bit different. He took a few seconds to believe that before he turned to Seraphina and walked over to her. At first, he still tried to move slowly, but he quickly became faster, probably without noticing it. When he reached his lover, she was already smiling at him.
Seraphina moved her mouth to say something and seemed like she was happy about seeing him again. But she couldn't fool anyone by hiding her nervousness in plain sight. This was probably still about her pregnancy and about how she didn't know what Linden would say. But despite that, she tried her best to keep up the facade of being pleased to meet an acquaintance.
For a moment, it seemed like Linden attempted the same. But after the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, he gave in. He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her.
Seraphina reacted before she could stop herself and returned the embrace. She only realized that they were in public when it was too late. She raised her hands as if she wanted to push Linden away, but she stopped midway. Now that they had hugged, it was too late already, so they could just continue. She was silent for a bit before she brought her lips to the man's ear and whispered something.
Linden slowly pulled back at that, but he held onto her hands. It was a strange sight as the former empress was openly showing affection for a man whom she had met prior to the divorce.
But Blanche was sure that no one here would blame Seraphina. She didn't either. After all, that woman hadn't had any emotional connection to Theodore, who had publicly shown his concubine without a care in the world. So, it was just fair that the former empress had a chance to be happy too. Blanche turned to her lover. “They look like they have a lot to talk about. We should give them some privacy.”
Theodore was already gazing at her with a strange expression. “Are you happy for her?”
She was taken aback by that question but still hurried to reply. “Yes. I'm happy if she is going with the man she loves. Obviously. I adore romance, you know that. Besides, she will be a good queen for Northern Ocrea.” A small tiny bit of her might also feel relieved if the heroine of the novel wasn't here anymore. After all, the villainess wanted to keep her happy end. She scanned her lover's expression for a while before adding something in a whisper. “Are you discontent with this?”
Theodore reached over to tug an alabaster strand of her hair behind her ear. “I'm ecstatic. Just three more days, and we won't have to see that witch again. But this is a very lax ending for her, so I'm wondering why you are happy. Surely, the past months weren't pleasant for her. I'm pretty sure that being hated by most of the servants caused many issues for her, but it wasn't really intimidating. I considered making sure that there would be some more...troublesome occurrences, but it would feel bad to involve Prince Linden in that. Since I would like to avoid harming other people, I can't do much about it. If I don't send her to Northern Ocrea, Linden's sister will take over the throne, and that woman is ruthless. She would attack Artias and try to gain the territories in the east again. We can't risk a war just because of our own grudges. But I am still pondering it.” He sounded convinced that this would happen, and at the same time, he actually sounded dejected about not being able to cause problems for Seraphina.
Blanche stared at him for a moment before replying. “You seem so sure about that. How do you know so much about Linden's sister when you've never met her? But more importantly, why do you keep insisting that Her...” She almost used the wrong title. “That Lady Duremont deserves some kind of revenge? I know that you can't tell me yet, but it's a bit concerning.” Because she definitely didn't remember the reason.
Her lover stroked over her head and looked at her with a serious expression. “I apologize for not being able to say it yet. But you should know already. That woman deserves nothing but the most horrible fate. And the fact that we're going to let her go is...upsetting. Especially for you. I know that she will face some trouble due to the political situation there, but it's not nearly enough to make up for all the harm she caused.” His hand wandered to her cheek, and he gently tilted her head up. “If you say the word, then I will exchange this lax plan with something way crueler. I will make sure that-”
The concubine cut him off by bringing her hands to his face. “Theo, I still don't know what you are talking about. How could I when you aren't telling me anything?” She surely couldn't guess it by herself after all. “I'm fine with you waiting a while longer, but don't try to hurt anyone. We don't need any violence unless they attacked us first.”
“But she did attack us first.” Theodore didn't seem like he was exaggerating. He said that with utter conviction.
That was a phrase Blanche didn't like very much. The indication was a bit unpleasant.