The inside of the jeweler's store was adorned with lavish furniture and a generous amount of decorations that only underlined the impression that the expensive facade had already built up. The center of the huge room was framed with many display tables that were covered with glass, which were filled with jewelry that glittered in the light of the extravagant chandelier.
Immediately, Blanche felt the need to try on all the accessories she saw. Her eyes probably shone with admiration, so she wouldn't be surprised if the vendor, a young woman in a neat costume, rushed over to them because she sensed an opportunity to make a profit.
The vendor spoke up without skipping a beat. “Welcome to our humble establishment. I hope that you will enjoy your stay. I will help you find anything that fulfills your demands to the best of my ability. Could I offer you some freshly brewed tea?”
Normally, Blanche would have agreed without hesitation, but today she didn't wish to spend more time in the store than she had to. Leonard had to return to Theodore's side quickly. In addition, she already began to fall for every single one of the gorgeous accessories before even catching a glimpse of them from close proximity. She didn't want to buy anything for herself, so she had to get out quickly. “Thank you for the offer, but that isn't necessary.”
The saleswoman put on a polite smile that had to have been perfected over the years of working in a boutique. “If the lady changes her mind, please do not hesitate to tell me. Is there anything I can assist you with? Are you searching for something specific?”
Blanche shook her head. “No, I will look around on my own. I'll inform you if I need anything else.”
“Feel free to take your time.” The vendor told her that in a soft voice before returning to the counter, where she had previously stood.
Leon let his gaze roam across the whole room, which was being guarded by multiple knights that were positioned in each of the corners. He turned to the concubine. “I will get an overview of the items as well. If you make your choice, let me know. I might be able to persuade them to lower the price.”
Blanche froze in her place while the secretary began to circle the display tables. Usually, jewelers didn't negotiate, especially ones with such financially strong clientele. What made Leonard believe that he would be able to convince them to agree to his bargain? Though on the other hand, he was the emperor's advisor, which revealed that he had to be more intelligent than most others. He probably had a way with words.
The concubine turned away from him and spun around twice to determine where she should start her inspection. Quickly, Blanche realized that she would have to fight her materialistic side unless she wanted to beg Leon to buy every item here. It would be best to not look at the things for too long, or she would risk falling in love with some of these accessories, and then she would struggle to leave them behind. She wasn't here to get anything for herself but only for the empress, so she had to keep her calm during her examination.
After forcing herself to pass by a few displays that seemed to hold necklaces and bracelets, which were begging her to buy them, Blanche began to freeze a bit. She turned to Stella, who was walking behind her. “Isn't it rather cold in here? In such a store, you would expect them to heat the premises at least a bit. Or is it better for the jewelry like this?”
The maid looked at her with bewilderment. “I don't think that it's that cold. Do you want to put on your coat?”
Blanche accepted her offer with thanks before continuing to look at the displayed items. She finished examining the accessories in the main hall and entered the side room, where a considerably smaller amount of jewelry was stored. However, even without any experience, she could tell that these items were much more expensive than the other ones had been. In her case, that wasn't dejecting but a good sign. A present for the empress had to be of a higher value, so she was in the perfect section.
And as if destiny had guided her, Blanche's eyes instantly fell onto the greatest display in the middle of that room. Something drew her towards it, and as soon as she looked at the accessories on it, she knew why. She had been extremely lucky for once.
The glass covered a set out of multiple accessories, including a necklace, earrings and a tiara made out of gold with sapphires.
“It's perfect.” Blanche couldn't help but mutter in awe while she stared that the beauty that was directly in front of her. She couldn't know without lifting it, but the tiara looked like it was rather light despite obviously having been created by someone with great craftsmanship.
A little voice in her mind squealed at seeing this and encouraged her to try it on. It took all of her self-control not to listen to that demand, and the longer she inspected these accessories, the harder it became to struggle against that selfish part of herself. How fitting her personality was for a villainess. Which reader wouldn't be annoyed by a materialistic brat that regularly attempted to steal the heroine's possessions?
Quickly, Blanche turned away and searched for Leon. Since she had found a gift now, he would only have to take a look at it and confirm whether it would be alright to hand this over to the empress, and they could leave. Though before she even reached the main room, she froze in her tracks upon noticing another isolated display. Curiosity got the better of her, and she stepped closer to find out what item was special enough to be put there.
At the moment that she saw the earrings, she knew that she had made a mistake.
Not only did Blanche want to own them under any circumstance despite not intending to buy anything for herself, they were also in the royal colors, which was the one thing that she should avoid. But her legs already refused to move from the spot where she stood and forced her to gawk at the jewelry even longer. Four little sapphires were embedded in a frame of gold that was skillfully processed and connected by gold chains that were so slim that they looked like threads. They were too exquisite to ignore them and would match with the necklace Theodore had gifted her so well. Blanche was interrupted before she could fall for these earrings even more though.
“Did you find anything?” Leonard's voice sounded from directly behind her.
Blanche flinched and whipped her head around to meet his gaze. “Ah... Yes, I did.” The secretary's presence helped her to overcome her weaker self despite doing it with a heavy heart. She felt like a child whose sweets had been taken away from her as she took a last yearning look at the earrings before leading Leon to the other display. “After pondering about it for a while, I remembered that the empress has a lot of massive headdresses but no lighter ones. So, I thought that this tiara and the matching set might be good for her. I wouldn't know what else she could possibly like, and this seems to be a solid choice.”
For a moment, Leon remained quiet and leaned forward to inspect the jewelry. “I'd have to ask the vendor to take this out of the display to examine it completely, but at the first glance, it does seem to be well-made.” He lifted his head to meet her gaze. “I didn't expect you to actually put so much thought into it. I mean, I didn't say that to offend you. It's just that the empress' gift for your birthday last year wasn't very...kind. So, I assumed that you would return the favor.”
It was true that Seraphina had gotten revenge for Blanche ‘forgetting’ to buy a present by handing an item with a double meaning to the concubine.
Last year, Theodore had wanted to organize a small event with only a few guests and asked Blanche to decide which date she liked. Since she didn't actually have amnesia and remembered her birthday, she just chose the real date, which had promptly been used. The party had been joyful, and Blanche hadn't believed that the empress would show up. Though, naturally, the heroine hadn't ignored the conventions that forced her to attend the birthday party of the emperor's guest.
When Blanche had gotten the box with the gift from Seraphina, she had been even more surprised. Still, she had remained cautious, which then had been proven to be the correct approach. At first, the gift had seemed like a stunning bracelet with a connected ring, but after some time, two things had become obvious.
For one, the accessory might have looked like it was expensive, but that wasn't the case. The light blue gemstones that adorned the silver weren't actually real gemstones. Instead, they were made out of some mineral that was commonly found at the coast of Artias for a month every year. When these stones were freshly taken out of the water, they were beautiful, but the older they got, the more they lost their color and began to crumble away. This meant that the most valuable thing about them was their appearance, and they were only a temporary form of amusement. With such a gift, Seraphina had suggested that the new owner of that bracelet was similar to the accessory.
Secondly, the ring was way too small to fit anyone that wasn't a toddler. Blanche wasn't sure whether that was supposed to hint that she behaved like a child or that she would never be Theodore's wife or both. Either way, those suggestions had hurt her more than she would like to admit.
In the end, the heroine had put an awfully big amount of thought into finding a gift that insulted the concubine, and Blanche would have to lie if she said that she wasn't still a bit angry about that. After all, most of the guests had been aware of the hidden insult that the present veiled. Though she probably deserved it for trying to humiliate the empress in front of every aristocrat in the capital on multiple occasions. At least she hadn't shown too much joy about the bracelet because she had doubted that Seraphina would simply give her something so gorgeous without a catch, so she hadn't embarrassed herself.
And ultimately, she was glad to have received that gift since Theodore had felt guilty and bought her a similar bracelet that wouldn't fall apart. She loved that accessory and had worn it quite a few times in the past, admittedly also in front of the empress, just to remind her that the emperor had turned the provocation into yet another present for his concubine.
Blanche didn't explain any of that though. She just shrugged. “Surely, that wasn't nice of her, but I guess I wasn't friendly to her either. It was her revenge for announcing that I forgot her birthday in front of everyone, so it was deserved. Repeating that cycle won't do both of us any good. So, I decided to behave like a normal person instead of a sulky brat this time.”
Leonard paused to scan her expression. That reaction was a little offending.
Was it really that unbelievable that Blanche could try to avoid stirring up trouble for once? Her actions during the last three months should have proven that she had changed. But apparently, most people would take longer to truly believe her. Hopefully, they would take note of her change before she was doomed at the original end of the novel. Nine months didn't seem to be so far away when her life depended on it.
After realizing that the concubine wouldn't add anything, Leon finally broke through the silence. “You're right. About not repeating the cycle, I mean. This gift seems to be a solid choice, so let me take care of it. I'm going to talk to the vendor now. It might require a couple of minutes to convince her to lower the cost a bit, so you can continue to look around in that time. In the worst case, we'll have to pay the original price. It's not like we don't have enough, but...ten-thousand gold coins is still a hefty sum.”
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Blanche almost choked upon hearing this. “Ten-thousand?” She didn't know a lot about Artias' economy or money in general since she had never worked or earned anything on her own. But even she knew that that was a big amount. If she remembered correctly, a less wealthy citizen would earn about a total of a thousand gold coins in their lifetime. Paying tenfold for one set of jewelry seemed to be excessive. Though it was for the empress, the female head of a society that was based on spending your wealth on luxury items, so it was probably fine. Still, Blanche was a little bedazzled by that large sum, which caused Leon to raise an eyebrow.
“That isn't even the most valuable accessories that the royal family owns. If that makes you speechless, you don't want to know how expensive the crowns and thrones were. You also never asked how much the gifts that our emperor buys you are worth, right?” Leon was right. She hadn't.
In fact, Blanche had always been focused on her desire to possess dresses or jewelry and not on how high the costs for Theodore had to be. Being confronted with that made her feel a bit bad. “I should ask for less, shouldn't I?” Voicing that question was pretty useless when she knew the answer herself.
However, Leonard's expression didn't turn accusatory. He just shrugged. “Your lover can afford it, so I wouldn't worry too much. If he couldn't give you something, he would always be honest about that. That means that anything that you own was in line with the budget. Though I doubt that you'd be able to use up all the royal family's funds, even if you bought everything you desired for your whole life. But I still can't help wanting to lower the price when I'm able to. I'll try to get it down to nine-thousand, but since the carriage shows that we are from the palace, I'm uncertain whether they won't attempt to raise the cost instead.”
With that, Leon steered towards the counter, where the vendor was already waiting for him with shiny eyes. She probably expected to make the sale of the year and was eager to sign the contract.
Instead of following Leon's advice and inspecting the rest of the displayed jewelry, Blanche walked to the waiting area and sat down on one of the fluffy, red sofas. The earrings from before had already burned themselves into her memory, and she wanted to buy them so badly. She didn't need to add even more accessories to the list of items that she desired but wouldn't allow herself to have. Because of this, she stayed put while trying to not look around too much.
Fighting the side of her that wanted to possess everything, especially the things Seraphina had, was crucial. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to win later when her life depended on it.
Unfortunately, others didn't know that, which made Blanche's lacking enthusiasm a bit strange to witness.
Stella positioned herself next to the couch and let her gaze wander across the store before speaking up with obvious confusion. “Won't you choose anything for yourself, My Lady? I've seen so many beautiful hair ornaments that would match with a few of your dresses.”
Blanche was almost tempted to ask whether there were some necklaces with amethysts that could go with her purple butterfly ornament, but she forced herself to decline. “Actually, I wasn't going to take anything. I own so much already, so I don't necessarily need more jewelry.”
Before Blanche was even finished, Stella began frowning. “Well, you never really need jewelry. It's more about-” The maid interrupted herself, and immediately, her body language revealed that something had soured her mood. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and narrowed her eyes at whoever had approached them.
The concubine followed the other woman's gaze and quickly felt the desire to imitate that expression. They had unwanted company.
Harris had advanced towards them and was now standing directly in front of the sofa while staring at Blanche. Though being watched by him wasn't as annoying as before. Instead, it was rather unsettling how he kept observing her despite seeing that she had noticed as if he was completely lost in thought.
For a while, all of them were quiet until Stella became more and more frustrated and finally snapped at him. “What are you looking at? Don't you have something to do?”
When Harris evaded her gaze and flinched slightly at the harsh tone, Blanche believed him for a moment before she remembered who the person in front of her was. He was an actor much like Claude and Luciano Vasquez were. The only difference was that he was acting in a way that no one would realize that he wasn't being honest. The two others didn't even attempt to hide that ill intentions were veiled behind their smiles. It was disturbing how genuine Harris' expressions looked. If Blanche hadn't heard about his twisted personality and witnessed it herself, she would definitely have been on his side.
The hurt on Harris' features really made it appear like he was shocked by his colleague's anger. He bowed down before slowly lifting his head and meeting her gaze. “I apologize for troubling you, Lady Blanche. That wasn't my intention.” He replied in a weak voice that sounded as if he was the victim of Stella's unjustified resentment.
The concubine clenched her fists and attempted to keep her expression as neutral as possible. Most likely, she was failing since she was a horrible actress in contrast to him, but she still gave her best. She didn't want to start a fight with him in public and cause trouble for Leon or the vendor after all. Being badmouthed by the manipulative servant with many connections because she angered him also wasn't her goal since that could ruin her reputation completely. She had to be careful. “Do you have something to tell me?” She had spoken with all the calmness that she could muster, and surprisingly, the result sounded almost as she had intended it to.
Harris glanced to the side and fidgeted with his fingers, which made his uncertainty seem so real that it actually scared her. How could someone, especially a servant, have such astonishing self-control over his whole body? It was like both his facial expressions and the movements of his limps were intentionally performed to create a flawless act. “If Lady Blanche allowed me to, I would like to ask you a question.” He was probably pretending to be so submissive in hopes of pleasing the emperor's lover, who had previously been known to strive for more authority than she had.
In the last three months, Blanche hadn't behaved like that, but right now, she felt like being a little arrogant was appropriate. She leaned against the backrest and crossed her legs. For a moment, she gazed at him, with her head being slightly tilted upwards so that she could look down on him a bit. But unfortunately, that was hard to do since he was standing, and she was seated. This wasn't all that made her feel like she wasn't intimidating at all though. Why could she swear that she had talked to Harris like this already? This didn't feel new at all. Maybe Stella had acted similarly before. That had to be it.
After letting Harris wait for a couple of seconds, Blanche replied while trying to seem as confident as possible. “You may.”
Slowly, Harris straightened his posture. He glanced at Stella before making eye contact with the concubine. “I don't mean to surprise you with this, but...today it seemed like you dislike me. A similar situation arose in the kitchen a while ago, in which you sent me away despite me being unaware of a reason. As a servant of the royal palace, it is unacceptable for me to have offended the esteemed guest of His Majesty, which is why I dared to disturb you. I would appreciate it if you were generous enough to inform me which of my actions upset you. I will immediately apologize and make sure that something like that will never happen in the future.”
Blanche's first instinct was to tell him that his mere existence was troublesome to her because she couldn't figure out why she knew him. She felt like some part of her didn't want to blame him despite him being so horrible, and that made her angry. His facade of fake innocence and her own indecisiveness filled her with more wrath with every passing second, but she bit her tongue. She couldn't risk giving this manipulator ammunition that he could use against her later. Still, she couldn't help but be annoyed at his pretense. How could he pretend not to know that his abhorrent treatment of her friend and his insults directed at her caused her to hate him? Blanche's eyes narrowed, and she began tapping her fingers onto the armrest to distract herself. “You truly expect me to believe that you are completely unaware of what you did to upset me?”
The reply by Harris followed instantly, still with the same weak mask in place. “I truly don't know. I have never purposefully done anything to offend any person in the palace, be it a member of the staff or a guest. In particular, I wouldn't deliberately trouble Lady Blanche. But I am aware of the fact that, most likely, someone has fed you lies about me.” That was a pretty daring accusation.
At that point, Blanche's anger became a bit greater than her confusion. If someone accused her friends of lying, she got grumpy. False accusations in general made her boil, so this wasn't surprising. Hiding her growing irritation became harder with each word that came out of his mouth. “What do you mean?” Even now her voice already sounded much more annoyed than she wanted it to.
Harris still replied with an expression that would make him seem like the victim. “During the last weeks, you repeatedly spend your time with four members of the staff. I heard other servants speak about it and have seen it for myself on a few occasions. It's wonderful that you get along well, but those are the four people who happen to despise me. Three of them hated me since the first day that we met. The other one was my friend for years and suddenly decided to turn away from me to become closer to them. That group has made it their task to slander me behind my back and get every colleague of mine to resent me as well.”
Blanche saw that Stella clenched her fists from the corner of her eyes. She felt similarly about the situation as her maid did. She was struggling to not explode upon being faced with such ridiculous statements but decided to wait until he finished. Once again, she was glad that she had witnessed Harris' malicious side herself. Otherwise, his brilliant acting might have caused her to question her friends.
And yet, a little voice in the backside of her head told her that this might just be a misunderstanding. That everything could possibly be resolved if the concerned people just talked with each other. But of course, Blanche didn't say that. She kept quiet while Harris continued.
“Luckily, most servants haven't fallen for their made-up stories. Still, I worry about them eventually ruining my life.” Harris genuinely seemed scared as he said that. “They intend to harm me with their lies after all. That is why I am approaching you about that. I can't do anything but ask you to not carelessly believe what they are saying. I'm not a bad person, even if they keep on stressing that.”
When he finally stopped talking, Blanche opened her mouth, but Stella beat her to it. “Are you joking? Did you forget what happened in the kitchen? You insulted My Lady in front of the whole staff, and everyone who was there can confirm that.” The maid sounded like she would rather have yelled at him, but her hissing was conveying her rage convincingly enough.
Though that still didn't cause Harris to drop the act. His fake confusion couldn't be differentiated from an honest display of perplexity even after observing him closely. “What are you talking about? I remember that we had a discussion with one of Her Majesty's maids in the kitchen, but I never insulted Lady Blanche. Was that why you were so angry? Did you think that I was trying to offend her? You misunderstood! I would never do something like that. If any of my remarks made you believe that, I will gladly apologize for it a dozen times.” Now he pretended to be agitated by Stella's words, which only served to increase the irritation of both the maid and the mistress.
Stella couldn't help but raise her voice. “I misunderstood? Are you even listening to yourself? You don't really believe those lies you are sprouting, right? How would I misunderstand it when you called her a whore? No matter what you say, that won't justify those insults!”
Harris' eyes widened as if he was shocked to be accused of something like that. “Lady Blanche, I never said something like that! I wouldn't dream about be so insolent to voice such offending things about you. I don't know why your maid wants to-”
Blanche cut him off there. She had listened to him long enough and wouldn't let him try to cast the blame on Stella. “Maybe I'd be more prone to believe you if I hadn't seen you saying things to my friend with the sole purpose of angering them.” Harris' expression already told her that he would deny it again, so she didn't even allow him to speak up. “When I threw you out of the kitchen, you were about to insult Angelica, Darlene and George. I overheard a great portion of the conversation, so I know exactly that you provoked them and Clark. You did the same to him and George on the day Stella returned from her vacation just because they talked to me.” That certainly made it seem like he despised the concubine. Even if she could swear that Harris had done something in the novel, which made things seem a bit different.
Realization crossed Harris' features, and Blanche thought that he would finally give in. But in the end, that only proved to be part of his act. “I have to admit that I....might have lashed out at them. I'm not proud of that, but...” He began and left a pause, in which he balled his fists. “I snapped in those moments. These are the individuals that have been trying to make me lose all the people that I care about, you see? Of course, I can't always control my anger around them despite my efforts. Especially when Clark is involved. He was my best friend for years! Then he started to argue with me every day, and then overnight, he decided to join the people who have done nothing but slandering me.”
Stella had enough now. “Stop playing the victim! You, you-” She interrupted herself just in time before an insult would come out of her mouth but still glared daggers at Harris.
Blanche used the silence that followed to voice her thoughts while trying to sound calm despite her growing irritation. “I heard that Clark and you were friends and had a fallout. You shouldn't blame him for finding new friends nor should you act like others are the core of all of your issues. Did you never consider that your friendship might have ended because he realized how terrible your personality truly is?”
Harris froze at that. He lowered his head for a moment, which made her believe that he would finally give up. Nevertheless, he spoke up with a slight tremble in his voice. “Please don't say that. Do you know why we had that fallout? It was because the person I believed to be my friend suddenly revealed that he believed rumors over facts and was overly hateful toward people he hadn't even met. That began exactly eighteen months ago. Do you even have the slightest idea what event made us fight?”
“I don't.” Blanche had no idea. Clark had never opened up about that, and his friends hadn't revealed a lot either. She didn't feel like she could ask questions here either since that was Clark's story to tell. She wasn't asked at all though.
Harris stared at the floor while shaking with aggravation and continued without hesitation. “We fought right after your arrival. Naturally, we didn't separate solely because of that, but our regular arguments began because of your presence. It was because we had very different opinions regarding you, Lady Blanche.”
It would be an understatement to say that Blanche was taken aback. How would she have been the reason for that? She took a couple of seconds to collect herself before responding when she came up with a possible reason. “Oh, I can imagine. Small disagreements can make someone find out how mean the other person can truly be. I assume that you ran your mouth about me and insulted me in as many ways as possible while Clark defended me, right?”
Harris stayed silent for a moment. Then he slowly lifted his gaze to meet hers. His eyes showed nothing but sincerity when he answered. “The situation was like that. But it was the other way around. I was the one who defended you.”
That seemed highly unlikely.