That Theodore left didn't mean that Blanche was alone for long though. Mere seconds after the emperor had stepped out of the room, Stella came rushing in.
Blanche, who had attempted to walk the few steps to the standing mirror to confirm whether she had miraculously recovered overnight like her lover, was quickly pushed onto the bed again.
“My Lady! You can't stand up yet, you have to rest first. If you need something, just tell me, and I'll get it for you.”
The concubine thought about asking when she would be able to walk again, but her maid was actually right. Out of Blanche's numerous tries to raise to her feet, only one had worked, and her legs were shaking before she had even taken a step. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't ready to move around yet, so she didn't bother to discuss with the servant. “Alright, alright. It's good to see you again. How are you?”
Stella put her arms onto her hips as her mistress patted the spot on the bed next to her but sat down there anyway. “Well, since the moment that I saw that you were up, I was feeling better. I'm still a bit worried about you though. I mean, you suddenly collapsed in the middle of the ballroom. Your cold was bad but not this serious. Seemingly, the both of us and the doctor underestimated how weak you actually were.”
Blanche still wondered why she had hallucinated about a scene that wasn't even in the novel as well. If she had just fallen over, it would have been explained by her high temperature, but the rest was hard to explain. While a fever might cause hallucinations, she found it strange that she had felt such strong pain because of it. “We can't do anything about it now. Besides, the royal doctor didn't realize how serious it was despite all of his medical knowledge, so we can't be blamed for not doing that either.”
“I know, but still.” Stella sighed as she halfheartedly sorted some dirty plates with the leftovers from breakfast. In the middle of doing that, she suddenly froze as if she had remembered something and stiffly turned to her mistress. “Now that you mentioned the word ‘blame’... Are you aware of the fact that His Majesty is by far the scariest person I have ever met when he is angry?”
Blanche certainly believed that. The nightmares and the fresh memories of the hallucination proved that Theodore could probably get most of his subjects to do anything he desired only by raising his voice. His general aura in public was intimidating enough to show every rival that he was the untouchable emperor of Artias and wouldn't bow down to anyone. If he was in an argument, his presence was even more oppressing, like his lover had noticed during their disputes about his marriage to Seraphina and his refusal to marry Blanche. However, since he still cared for her, he didn't fully explode on those occasions.
Theodore's raw fury was a completely different story. He was a stubborn but very calm person that planned all possible outcomes. He rarely got furious, and when he did, it wasn't pleasant for any bystanders, not to mention the target of that wrath. Theodore didn't need to harm someone physically or directly threaten them to make them cower in fear and beg for forgiveness.
But it had never gotten to that point as long as Blanche had lived in the palace. If the emperor had a way to evade a fight, he would do so until the very end and give his best to be diplomatic. A case in which he ignored his usual approach was so extraordinarily rare that she had witnessed his unveiled anger more often in her dreams than in real life.
Still, Blanche didn't doubt that her being unresponsive for two days had upset him enough to snap at her maid. After all, Theodore hadn't hidden his frustration about her lies in front of her either. “I know that he can be very intimidating when he wants to. What did he say to you?”
Stella shrugged, but her grimace betrayed her pretense of playing down her dissatisfaction. “His Majesty didn't say much at all. He yelled almost the whole time. I think the doctor was treated a bit more harshly than me, but I still got my fair share of scolding. I didn't like His Majesty's tone, but he was right about being furious. We truly shouldn't have allowed you to go through with that stupid plan. And I understand that he was angry at us lying about your allergy three months ago too.”
“Yes, he mentioned that already. It would have been better if the doctor had stayed quiet about that, but I don't think that he could even consider lying after being screamed at.”
Stella nodded in approval and continued to sort the dishware again. “Admittedly, I revealed more than I should have too. I'm sorry.” She gave her mistress an apologetic look before focusing back on her task. “His Majesty kept asking me why you insisted on going to the ball, so I told him.”
Blanche had already heard that this hadn't contained any sensitive information, but she was still uncertain, so she asked again. “You didn't mention Sefare, right?” Her mind was already racing to go over the consequences that Theodore knowing about this would have when Stella hectically shook her head.
“No, no! Of course not. I'm not that dense. I only talked about the part about you wanting to improve your reputation. His Majesty wasn't pleased to hear that you were putting something like that before your health, but at least he stopped yelling after I voiced this.”
The concubine exhaled deeply in relief and allowed her maid to hand her a glass of water. She gulped down the contents while observing the servant, who seemed like she had something to confess. “Do you still want to talk about anything else?”
Stella finished sorting the plates and rested her hands on her lap as she intertwined her fingers. She looked down for a moment before hesitantly meeting her mistress' gaze. “There is another thing that I have to apologize for. I didn't manage to give Marquess Sefare the letter. I was only a few steps away from him, but he was always chatting with another noble. When he was finally alone, he moved to the middle of the room to watch His and Her Majesty dance. Then you collapsed, and... I didn't think about the letter anymore.”
The maid looked so dejected as she spoke that Blanche's desire to comfort her was greater than her dismay about having lost yet another chance to finish this. She tried to calm Stella immediately. “Don't be angry at yourself for that. It wasn't your fault. It's unfortunate, but I can still send the letter directly to him. I wanted to avoid that to keep someone else from accidentally reading the message, but if we have no choice, I will do it. The only problem is that I need someone to deliver the envelope to the tree that you always hid the monthly letters in. Would you be able to do that in a couple of days when people aren't paying that much attention to us anymore?”
Quickly, Stella's frustration turned into motivation. Her eyes lit up, and a smile was painted onto her lips as she realized that her mistake hadn't been that bad. “Naturally! I will simply pretend to go into the city and put it there like I always did in the past.” Seemingly, that problem would be solved soon too.
Blanche was still a bit uncertain. Surely, the old messenger would just think that a typical monthly information letter for Sefare had arrived, which would ensure that he delivered it from the tree to the marquess' mansion without questions. Sefare would be the only one to read the text then, and he couldn't incriminate Blanche without bringing himself in trouble either. This should technically be safe. Since the concubine had no other choice, she would just have to use this option. “Just for the record, where is the letter now?”
Immediately, her maid pointed to the desk. “I put it back into the drawer from which you took it before the ball. I had to hurry since His Majesty was in the room, but he was distracted with taking care of you, so he didn't notice. Still, I made sure to hide it below some other papers. I didn't have any chance to check again before now though. After all, His Majesty didn't leave your chambers during the whole time that you were asleep, so we were never alone.”
The concubine nodded in relief. This meant that she didn't need to worry about her message disappearing and someone else finding it. For the next week, she could forget about the letter until the situation had calmed down, and then her maid could bring it outside. However, when Stella finished, she had already planted different worries in Blanche's head, which made the concubine speak up. “Did I really sleep for two full days? And Theo didn't leave my side once? He said that, but I thought that it might have been exaggerated.”
Stella shook her head. “He never left your chambers. He also didn't allow anyone but the doctor, Lord Astame and me to enter, and that was only for a few minutes each time. His Majesty was the one who cared for you for the biggest part. And actually, it took two and a half days. You didn't open your eyes until yesterday's afternoon. Well, His Majesty said that you sometimes did wake up in between to eat and drink, but you weren't able to reply, so that doesn't count.”
That meant that a lot of things could have happened in those days, and Blanche didn't know a single thing. She turned her whole body to face her maid and crossed her legs. She could this opportunity to inform herself about the occurrences in the palace to avoid being confused in case that something important had transpired. “Did anything special happen while I was sleeping? We barely had a chance to speak yesterday, but now we have plenty of time. Let me guess... The rumors have taken over the whole palace. Did someone proclaim me dead already?”
Stella's frown proved that this was probably true. “Not dead, but some are keen on stressing how serious your condition is. Naturally, I have no clue which servant told the others in the first place. The only thing I know is that every single member of the staff was informed about the events at the ball. You can't imagine how many people approached me to wish for your recovery while I was out. That was at the point where I was frustrated because I wasn't allowed to be with you to help you, so I didn't need to be reminded of that every time, which upset me even more. Eventually, I chose to stay in my room. I was already there mostly to be ready in the case that His Majesty called for me, but he never did except when he asked me to bring some food.” That was to be expected.
But more than the servants' reaction, Blanche worried about one of the nobles. Their opinion would decide about her future, so it would cause many more problems if they spread the rumors. After all, she had collapsed in Theodore's arms. That definitely had shown that they were close.
The concubine waited for Stella to hand her another glass of water and took a few sips before asking. “What about the ball? What happened there after I passed out?”
The maid drank a bit as well before replying. “It was stressful. Do you want me to give you the summary or the details?”
Blanche needed every bit of information she could get. The answer was clear already. “The details too, please.”
Stella removed her shoes before imitating her mistress posture on the bed and preparing to talk for a while. “I only noticed that something was going on because I followed Sefare to the middle of the ballroom, where His and Her Majesty and some couples were dancing. At first, I thought that everyone was looking at them, but then I saw that some people were circling you. Apparently, you had begun to shiver uncontrollably and were having a panic attack, so they wanted to help you. You didn't react to them at all no matter who addressed you. I didn't focus on that because I was trying to make my way to you, but as far as I can remember, Luciano Vasquez and Henry Duremont were among them too.”
Those names made Blanche raise her hand to interrupt. “Are you sure that Duke Duremont attempted to help me and not just wanted me to be quiet?” It was hard to believe that Henry would actually show the slightest bit of compassion for his daughter's detested rival apart from the forced politeness in the emperor's presence. It made sense for Luciano to get involved since his family's plan depended on the concubine's well-being, but Duke Duremont didn't have any reason to do so.
Stella seemed sure though. “Yes, I am. When I arrived by your side, he asked whether you were fine or needed a doctor.” The maid wouldn't lie about something like that, so it had to be true, but a small portion of skepticism remained.
Though a small detail like that was hardly important, so Blanche nodded and asked her servant to resume.
Stella complied quickly. “Just when I reached you and saw how no one could get through to you, His Majesty noticed too. He kept his eyes on you and resumed dancing for a few more seconds before he stopped to approach you. He called your name numerous times, but you still didn't reply. You only seemed to get more scared and tried to back away, which logically worried him even more. You whispered his name but didn't say anything else, and when he was right in front of you, you fell down. His Majesty kept you upright, and then you snapped out of it. He asked you a few questions, and you managed to answer them correctly.”
For that part, Blanche had been awake and vaguely remembered what happened. That wasn't the segment that she was worried about though. Theodore had interrupted his dance with the empress to go to his lover and had not only called her by her first name without an additional title. He had also touched her in front of every aristocrat in the capital. If that didn't serve as another proof for his affair, not much would.
Blanche buried her face in her hands. “That's going to spark so many rumors that you won't be able to count all of them. The empress' family will be raging right now.” She lowered her hands after a few seconds of silence and looked at Stella, who was showing her a forced smile.
“My Lady, if that bothers you, you won't want to hear the rest.”
“Oh, no...” The concubine considered not listening to the story but decided against that. She would rather know what was going to cause problems in the future. She sighed loudly and breathed out her response in frustration. “What happened?”
Stella looked to the side as she replied. “When you passed out and fell to the ground, His Majesty caught you. Well, he had to bring you out of the room to the doctor, and he didn't allow anyone else to touch you. So... He lifted you up and carried you out himself.”
Blanche let her upper body fall backward, which caused her maid to squeal in surprise. She hit the mattress and covered her eyes with her arms before muttering to herself. “This is a nightmare...”
Every of Theodore's previous actions might have generously been interpreted as his care for a close friend. But the fact that he had carried her out despite having countless knights at his disposal would only make people assume one thing. Additionally, he had done this in front of his wife, whom he had left behind to help Blanche, and all the other guests. In summary, the concubine's attempts to keep their relationship as secret as possible had completely failed, and within a week, every noble in the capital would know about this.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Why did you do that, Theo?” Blanche had only whined that to herself, but the maid heard it too.
Stella was quick to correct that. “It's actually not as bad as it sounds. No one really seemed angry, except for Duke Duremont. Everyone else understood that His Majesty only wanted to protect you. Even Her Majesty defended his actions later.”
The last sentence made Blanche sit up again to make eye contact with her maid. “The empress did? I assume that she was trying to limit the damages of that incident.” Her maid gave her another glass of water, and she impatiently drank it.
Luckily, Stella didn't let her mistress wait long and quickly replied. “Maybe. But I don't think so. After all, she had an argument with Lord Vasquez because of that. I wasn't there since I followed you, but Sir Aldis told me about that. Apparently, Lord Vasquez provoked a fight with Her Majesty, and she didn't allow him to run his mouth.”
The concubine frowned as her brain tried to remember whether the heroine had ever fought with Luciano. She was sure that they hadn't. After all, he was a love interest and attempted to curry favor with Seraphina from the very beginning. His whole personality consisted out of being overly kind and carefree. It wouldn't make sense to destruct that image in the first half of the book just to make him stir up a dispute with the empress. “And Noah is sure that it happened like that?”
Stella affirmed that with a nod. “You can ask him yourself when you meet him the next time. He doesn't seem like a person that would lie about something like that.” It was true that Noah wasn't a liar. In the novel, he had always been very honest and wouldn't purposefully mislead someone.
Still, this didn't make any sense story-wise, so Blanche couldn't help asking. “Did he tell you more about that argument?”
Stella nodded again before she moved around to sit more comfortably. “He recited everything that he remembered. After stressing that he wishes for your fast recovery a hundred times, of course.” She grinned at Blanche before continuing. “Apparently, the whole room was busy gossiping after His Majesty left with you. Her Majesty then calmed everyone and chatted with the guests like nothing had happened. A little later, Lord Vasquez approached her and began to voice his sympathy for her. He talked about how uncomfortable her situation must be. When she asked what he meant, he explained that the way that her husband was treating her was unacceptable. He stressed that His Majesty had simply turned his back on her to basically hug another woman in public. At first, Her Majesty was quiet, but...”
Stella's eyes glimmered with satisfaction as she narrated the story. Her words already showed that she wasn't paying attention to the fact that she hadn't actually witnessed those events unfolding anymore, but Blanche didn't interrupt her. “Then she said that everyone knew that His Majesty and you were close friends, so it wouldn't be strange for him to worry about your health. She even completely silenced Lord Vasquez by asking whether His Majesty should have just dropped you onto the floor because people were watching.”
It was odd for Seraphina to defend Theodore's behavior. Normally, she was quiet whenever the rumors about her husband's affair came up, changed the subject or reminded the responsible ones not to overstep their boundaries. However, she never truly hid when she was displeased with Theodore's actions. She mostly showed his in private when she was alone with him. In public, she kept her stoic expression and only spoke up when Blanche had committed a grave offense, like taking the empress' seat at the banquet had been. Seraphina had never been forced to scold Theodore in public since he always followed the rules and conventions, and she would address smaller issues when they were on their own. In case that he made a major error, the empress probably would keep quiet in the guests' presence too.
That Theodore had carried his lover out of a full ballroom definitely qualified as such a pretty major mistake. While Seraphina would never state that he had done something wrong openly, she usually would not deny it if the topic was addressed either.
Blanche admitted that outright. “It surprises me that the empress would do something like that. She has no reason to protect Theodore from rumors that developed because he messed up. I would understand if she had emphasized the part about us being friends to keep gossip that might harm her reputation at bay. However, I thought that she would still agree that Theo shouldn't have acted on an impulse.”
Stella grew even more excited at that. “Yes, but she didn't! In fact, she had a big argument with Lord Vasquez after that. At first, he was as taken aback by her response as you just were. Then he grinned again and dropped all those little hints that Her Majesty was a very supportive wife to even ignore her husband's affair. Naturally, she wasn't overjoyed by that, so she began to attack him back with ambiguous comments as well. In the end, they fought for a good while since both refused to give in until the Duke of Duremont intervened. Naturally, none of them had voiced any open insults, so the bystanders didn't even notice how hostile they were until they listened to the conversation. Both kept their composure the whole time. Lord Vasquez was still smiling, and Her Majesty showed her stoic expression for the whole evening.”
The situation got even stranger with everything that Stella told her mistress. In the novel, Luciano was trying to become a good friend of the heroine, and he would be a love interest in the latter half. Why would he suddenly attempt to provoke her and thus ruin his chances of winning her over? By troubling the empress, his family also wouldn't gain an advantage but only worsen their relationship with the royal couple. Luciano was intelligent, so there was no way that he hadn't done this intentionally. It was obvious to everyone that speaking about Theodore's lover wouldn't please Seraphina, and he wouldn't do that without a reason.
What also worried Blanche was the fact that something like this hadn't happened in the book. Even though the birthday ball had been describing in great detail, no such thing as a quarrel between Luciano and the heroine had been hinted at. This meant that the concubine might have indirectly evoked it by changing her own actions. That she had collapsed had been the foundation for Luciano to stir up a quarrel, and she didn't know how to feel about it.
On the one hand, this proved that her actions could alter whole chapters of the novel once more. Thus, it was likely that she could also prevent her unfortunate ending. However, it also meant that her behavior had unforeseeable consequences that she hadn't wished for. She wouldn't be able to count on the fact that all the characters behave like they originally were supposed to. If Luciano completely disregarded his goal of getting closer to Seraphina, it also wasn't guaranteed that the rest of the actors still carried out the same things.
And while that would simplify Blanche's efforts to survive, she felt uncomfortable with not knowing whether the information that could help her was actually false now. She pondered about that for a while and vacantly grabbed a leftover piece of bread to nibble on it.
In contrast to her mistress, Stella was rather happy about the events at the ball and gushed about how good it was that the empress had defended Theodore while ignoring that Seraphina had probably only done that to protect her honor. She also emphasized how romantic it had been for the emperor to carry his lover all the way to the doctor, no matter what others thought. The maid wasn't even done with her rant about how the nobles couldn't criticize him for caring about his concubine as a knock sounded from the door.
It had been a very hesitant one, so Blanche immediately knew that it wasn't Theodore.
Stella jumped up from the bed, put on her shoes and rushed to the door to open it.
A young woman in a maid outfit with two long brown braids stood in front of the room with an envelope in her hand. She bowed and entered after the concubine gave her permission.
For a few seconds, they all just stared at each other as Blanche tried to figure out how she knew the maid. She was sure that she had seen her somewhere, but she took a few seconds to remember that this was one of Seraphina's attendants. It was no wonder that she had trouble recognizing her since the servant was extremely quiet in comparison to the other two of the empress' maids, who loudly defended her mistress whenever they could. The concubine had barely heard this maid speak a few words, and the woman's lowered gaze and hunched shoulder only underlined how shy she was.
However, Blanche wouldn't let that fool her. If her guess was right, this could only be the maid that would betray Seraphina. She didn't say anything and waited for the servant to bow and introduce herself.
“I apologize for disturbing you, Lady Blanche. Her Majesty ordered me to bring this to you.” The maid lifted a letter.
The concubine paused at that. The empress had sent a letter to her? Why would the heroine do that? Her mind already raced to go through all the possibilities of what Seraphina could want from her, but she quickly forced herself to pay attention to reality again. She would take a look at the envelope as soon as the other maid was gone, but before that, she still needed to confirm her guess. Unfortunately, the woman hadn't stated her name, so she would have to ask.
Blanche eyed the servant for a moment before replying. “That's not a problem. Please put it here.” She pointed at the cart that was still standing next to her bed and had some free space thanks to Stella's efforts.
The maid nodded and swiftly followed the other's demand.
Blanche glanced at the letter before looking back to the other woman, who seemed to be eager to leave. “Would you mind telling me your name?”
The maid almost flinched as she heard the question and stared back at the concubine with wide eyes for a second. Then she hastily lowered her gaze to the ground and hid her hands behind her back. “If...I have done something that angered you, I sincerely apologize. It will never happen again.” She stuttered a bit while speaking, which made her seem even more nervous than her posture already proved her to be.
Blanche held back a sigh at this display. She wasn't trying to hurt the other woman, she had only asked for a name. “You haven't done anything that bothers me, so you don't have to be so scared. I can't force you to tell me, but I just want to know who you are.”
The maid stammered a bit before she finally replied properly. “My name is Kate. I am one of Her Majesty's personal attendants. That is the only important thing about me.” She still sounded as if she feared being punished for something she hadn't done.
But Blanche didn't have any time to calm her as she went through everything she knew about that maid. The name was the right one, so her guess had been true.
Kate had been one of Seraphina's attendants from the beginning of the book. She bonded less with her mistress than the other two maids and Gloria did and hadn't become the empress' friend like the others had. At first, that hadn't caused any problems. However, in the latter half of the book, she had brought her mistress tea, and after drinking it, the heroine had been dizzy and collapsed. This was revealed to have been an assassination attempt, and Kate was later convicted of poisoning Seraphina.
Apparently, an unknown man had offered Kate a huge amount of gold coins if she managed to pour a bit of some liquid into the empress' drink. She claimed to not have known that it was harmful, but Theodore had still insisted on executing her. The only reason for Kate's survival was the heroine's benevolence. Seraphina had refused to kill her and instead sent her into exile, which only served to frustrate her husband.
Blanche was a little angry at that decision too. The empress could have repeated the same thing for the concubine's trial as well, and then the villainess would have survived. Though it was understandable that the heroine wouldn't show any forgiveness since her archnemesis had been involved during the second incident.
But Blanche couldn't change anything about that. She was only able to steer the story's development with her own actions, so she needed to protect herself. Evading Kate was one of the things that she could do. Even if the maid had only endangered Seraphina, Kate had allowed another person to bribe her and would risk harming the empress for money. This was enough for the concubine to know that she would minimize the few interactions she might have with this woman even more. “Alright, Kate. Thank you for your effort. I doubt that she wants to hear it, but give Her Majesty my regards.”
Kate watched the concubine with round eyes before nodding and leaving the room.
Blanche relaxed as soon as the door closed and climbed to the edge of her bed to take a look at the envelope. But before she did this, she turned to Stella. “I don't like that Kate. You should be careful around her.” She needed her maid to be on edge around that traitor, just in case.
As expected when one was faced with such a claim without evidence, Stella reacted with confusion. “What do you mean?” She probably couldn't imagine a person who seemed so shy to be dangerous
Blanche didn't really have a chance to explain that though. “Just trust me. She isn't a good person.” She wanted to end the discussion here and hoped that Stella would listen to her advice.
However, the maid had a different idea. She asked again. “My Lady, are you sure about that? If so, shouldn't you warn Her Majesty?”
Blanche froze in place. If she knew about what would happen, she should warn Seraphina, shouldn't she? But how would that play out? She couldn't just run to the empress and tell that woman that one of her attendants was a traitor. There was no way that the prideful heroine, who was so good at reading other's intentions, would let the concubine correct her. In fact, Seraphina would just distrust Blanche while thinking that she had to protect her own maid. Most likely, the heroine would even see this as an attack and conclude that Blanche had vile intentions.
But warning Theodore without any evidence was difficult too. After all, the empress had full authority over her servants unless severe issues came up. And certainly, the emperor wouldn't pick a fight with Seraphina if he had no reason to believe that Kate was a bad person except for his lover's words.
Though as far as Blanche knew, Kate had only made that one mistake of poisoning Seraphina. Aside from that, the maid had never committed any crimes. So, keeping an eye on that woman to reveal her bad side early wouldn't help. The most Blanche could do here was to try to direct someone's attention to Kate when the date of the poisoning approached. It would still be a while until then, so Blanche could probably relax as long as the political situation didn't change too much from the novel.
Kate would only harm the invulnerable heroine anyway. Even if Blanche didn't manage to find the specific date, Seraphina could take a day of recovery when she would quickly get better without any issues.
Thinking like that was extremely mean, but Blanche couldn't help it. She would try to intervene when the poisoning arrived, and doing more was rather hard. For some reason, she didn't want to think about this much longer too. She had other things to do now.
Blanche finally stopped fighting against her curiosity and focused on Seraphina's letter. The envelope was adorned with the royal seal that consisted out of a blue wax circle that was put on top of a golden one. She lifted the letter to inspect it closer, and unsurprisingly, the crest that was dented into the seal was perfect. One needed some practice and skill to be able to create such a flawless imprint, and naturally, the empress had felt the need to show this to the addressee. The royal seal was usually only used when the messages were sent to important aristocrats and merchants or whenever political topics were discussed, so Seraphina surely didn't have to go out of her way to decorate the letter this carefully.
Even if this just had been a display of status, Blanche felt bad about breaking the seal. However, leaving it undamaged would signal that she hadn't read it and in case of doubt be interpreted as her ignoring the empress. So, she ripped open the envelope and made sure to snap the wax before she pulled out the letter and immediately paused again.
Either Seraphina truly had the most beautiful handwriting that she had ever seen, or the heroine purposefully sent a faultless artistic letter to prove that she was superior in any aspect. Wasn't that unnecessary when everyone knew that the empress was skillful enough to create about every kind of writing she wanted to present? That woman could easily imitate her enemies' handwriting if she wanted to, so it was clear that she had full control of her hands. There was no need to brag.
Blanche read through the few lines and realized that the choice of words was just as refined as the appearance of the whole paper. That only made her more worried about the contents of this letter.
Just as the concubine finished reading, Stella moved closer to her and glanced over her mistress' shoulder. “What did Her Majesty write?
Blanche read the letter twice before she lowered it and voiced the surprising reply. “She wished me a quick recovery and thanked me for her gift.”
Her maid was as relieved by this as the concubine was.
Blanche had already expected a long text about how she couldn't forget her place and that the events at the ball were unacceptable, so she was pleasantly surprised by this politeness. She breathed out in relief and relaxed, which made her aware that she had tensed in the first place. Of course, it didn't mean much for the empress to wish her good health since the concubine had collapsed at Seraphina's party. The host had some kind of responsibility for any occurrences at their events, so this was normal. However, Blanche was overjoyed to read that the heroine had thanked her for the present again.
That had to mean that the empress had inspected the jewelry set more closely and still hadn't found any faults with it. Seraphina even liked the gift enough to feel that it was necessary to thank the concubine again after only having voiced a curt phrase of gratefulness at the ball.
Blanche grinned at that and carefully put the letter back onto the cart. She had successfully changed the scene at the heroine's birthday party. She had given the empress a satisfactory gift and hadn't destroyed the other woman's dress or offended her. Her efforts of improving her relationship with Seraphina seemed to have been successful. It wasn't much, but she had certainly taken a step in the right direction.
Though her smile was quickly wiped off her face when she remembered the rest of the evening. She might have made progress in that aspect, however, she had still committed a big mistake. Theodore's actions had indirectly proven that they were lovers, and any attempt to downplay this interaction would be like a drop of water that rippled the surface of an ocean. As long as the empress wasn't angry about it, it shouldn't cause major problems, but Stella had already stated that Henry had been upset.
Duke Duremont wouldn't stop backing Theodore because of a triviality. Still, he wouldn't hesitate to start a fight with the emperor if he feared that his daughter was mistreated or offended in some way. And her husband openly showing his affair with a woman with an unknown background, in front of every influential noble in the capital nonetheless, certainly counted as offending.
Blanche had won on the one hand and lost on the other. So, while she should have avoided passing out in public, the situation hadn't gotten better or worse in the end. It wasn't perfect, but at least the ball hadn't been a catastrophe like the tea party had. Unless some unforeseeable consequences would arise later. She just hoped that they wouldn't.