Blanche barely dared to keep her head upright as she stepped out of Theodore's office and immediately looked around with concern. She found the person that worried her so much quickly.
Seraphina was standing by the wall on the opposite of the door, surrounded by her three maids. Even while just waiting there, she seemed elegant. Her posture was flawless, and her presence made it clear that she wouldn't let anyone oppose her. She looked heavenly in her navy dress with her calm expression.
Though Blanche didn't have much time to catch a glimpse of that, it was enough to make her hate the thought of that woman working along with Theodore for hours at a time even more.
As soon as the empress heard a noise, her eyes wandered to the door, and her face contorted into an expression of irritation upon seeing the concubine. She took a second before she covered it up with a version of her neutral mask, which might be a little darker than before.
That was enough to make the decision whether Blanche should greet the empress or not easier. If the other woman wasn't keen on conversing either, they didn't have to do that just to follow the protocol. Blanche still had wobbly legs, so she was a bit slower than she wanted to as she stepped to the side where Stella was waiting, only to be greeted by an appalled expression.
However, that shock faded quickly as Stella glanced at the empress. Within seconds, the maid was hiding her mouth and turning away while making some weird quiet noises, apparently trying to stifle a laugh.
That only confused Blanche, but she didn't dare to turn around. What should she expect when her servant was reacting like this?
Seconds later, Theodore raised his voice to tell the knight to let Seraphina inside.
The concubine stood still for a couple of seconds, while Stella was still holding back her giggling, before turning around. The empress had left, and only the three maids were waiting there. Two of them were glaring at Blanche while Kate looked extremely uncomfortable. But the concubine hadn't done anything bad, had she? There was no reason for them to be angry at her unless they disliked her meeting Theodore.
Blanche was quite irritated as she turned to Stella, who had calmed down but was still grinning from one ear to the other one. “Why are you so happy?”
Stella leaned her head to the side to meet the other women's gazes and let out a snicker. “Let's leave, My Lady. You should go to bed early to rest. Today was exhausting, was it not?” Her voice was loud enough for the empress' attendants to hear, so it was obvious that Stella was purposefully saying strange things.
Blanche was slightly confused, but she didn't want to disturb her maid's act. So, she simply replied with something that matched the servant's statements. “Yes, but it can't be helped. I'll just lie down earlier, and I'll feel more energized tomorrow again.”
Stella nodded at that and led her mistress back to their chambers without looking back. During the whole walk, a smug grin was plastered onto the maid's features, but she refused to explain anything until they were alone. When they entered the room and closed the door behind them, Stella let out a little squeal and plopped onto the couch, where she hugged one of the pillows. “Did you see their expressions? It was perfect.”
Blanche followed her and sat down at the other end of the couch. “I saw that they were angry about me committing some grave offense that I can't remember doing. Did I mess up somewhere? It would be nice of you to enlighten me since it seems like you noticed too.”
Stella threw the pillow onto the couch and jumped up, still with a smirk on her face. “It might be better for you to see it yourself.” She hurried to the dresser and retrieved both a hand mirror and a brush from the drawers. She returned to the sofa and sat down in front of her mistress to hand her the mirror.
Blanche was even more taken aback by that and skeptically took the item before turning to look at her reflection. As she had expected, she was still blushing, and her cheeks were flushed, which anyone could see at the first glance. That might have been fine if that had been everything, but that wasn't it. In addition, her hair was so tangled that it was obvious that someone had touched it, and her lips might be a bit more reddish than usual too.
The worst part, however, was the obvious red spot on the side of her neck.
Blanche rubbed her finger over it for a moment, but it didn't disappear. This wasn't the result of her dirtying herself but of Theodore's constant kissing and nibbling. Along with her shaky legs, this appearance was enough to give any spectator a specific image of what had happened.
At that realization, even more blood rushed to her head, and Blanche could hear it whooshing in her ears. “That... We didn't...”
That wasn't really convincing, but Stella nodded. “I thought so already. But it was still very amusing. You should have seen how aghast Her Majesty and her maids were upon seeing you coming out of His Majesty's office like that. They deserve it!” She hummed as she moved closer to her mistress and began brushing Blanche's hair. “We probably won't go out today anymore, but we'll make you look less drained anyway.”
The concubine was only sitting there in shock and held still while trying to process the embarrassment of knowing that Seraphina and her attendants definitely had misunderstood. Should she try to correct their assumptions later despite it being obvious that the emperor had kissed his lover quite passionately? No, that would make the situation even more uncomfortable, and she had no way of approaching the empress anyway.
And to be honest, Blanche was a bit happy about that outcome too. After all, the heroine had definitely been angry after coming to the conclusion that Theodore was meeting with his lover in his office during the day. That would significantly lower the chances of the spouses bonding today, which was a victory for Blanche. Her worry about them falling in love despite her attempts to prevent it was still present, but because of this incident, her uncertainty regarding the spouses' meeting today had gotten smaller.
Blanche was content with that for now, however, Stella's remarks by the office made her sure that the misunderstanding hadn't just been an accident entirely. “Say, your words earlier were purposefully trying to emphasize the attendants' wrong impression, weren't they? The part about me being exhausted wouldn't make any sense otherwise.”
The corners of Stella's lips lifted at that. “I apologize, My Lady. But I couldn't pass up on such an opportunity. That was the perfect revenge for Her Majesty's awful behavior yesterday.”
Blanche scanned the other's satisfied expression for a moment. “I don't know whether I'm just misinterpreting the things you say, but...it does sound like you dislike the empress.” She unwillingly tensed as a part of her hoped for affirmation.
Stella paused shortly. She lowered the brush and stared to the side for a couple of seconds before looking back. “I'm unsure. I'm torn between saying that I dislike her and that I'm about to dislike her. But with time, my opinion on her only seems to get worse, so I think that calling it ‘dislike’ is right.”
The concubine froze at that and tried to ignore how important this topic was to her. “But why? What happened?”
In the novel, Stella had admired Seraphina from the very beginning and despised how hostile her own mistress was while the heroine always treated her servants with respect. After being forced to carry out countless misdeeds by Blanche and accidentally breaking a vase in the process of sneaking into the empress' room, Stella had been caught and confessed everything. The emperor had accused her of slandering his lover and wished to punish her, but Seraphina had intervened and taken the woman in as her own maid. This incident had only made Stella even more fond of the heroine.
But if the current Stella claimed to think the opposite, didn't that mean that the story had been changed in a way that was severe enough to fully alter the emotions of a character, who was supposed to be a companion for Seraphina? If that was true, Blanche had her proof that people could develop in a manner that didn't correspond with their role in the book due to her meddling. So, she should be able to avoid being the villainess too, right?
Blanche once again prayed to the gods so that she barely remembered that she had asked a question about the reason for the dislike a moment ago.
Stella still remembered though. She began frowning as she thought about her answer. “It's not because of a specific event but because of the way that she had been treating you ever since you changed. Before that, I could understand her hostility, but now she is being unreasonably harsh. At one point, she even asked me whether you had ever hit me, which was a baseless accusation for example. She sent you away during the tea party, even though you didn't do anything. Then she made you cry on multiple occasions, especially when you were in the office with her before your fight with His Majesty. She didn't let you leave at the ball earlier either, which caused you to collapse. Yesterday, she threatened you, even though you just wanted to drink tea with her sister. These are only the cases that came to my mind first.”
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The maid paused for a moment before resuming in a lower voice with a more relaxed expression. “Then there are days when she is really kind. She defended you in her fight with Lord Vasquez after all.” Her frown deepened again as she continued. “But that doesn't make up for the mean things she has done. I would say that the thing that frustrates me most is that she acts disrespectfully towards you and then expects you to follow all the unnecessary rules of noble society. If you make a little mistake or just do something that she sees as an error, like wearing a navy dress, which isn't forbidden at all, she assumes that you were attempting to provoke her. That is very unfair if you ask me.” All of those things only seemed unfair to Stella because her mistress was acting kinder now and had become her friend.
That had happened because Blanche had changed her attitude and taken action to avoid her doom. Did that mean that she was on the correct path? Right now, it truly seemed like Blanche could change a person's emotions and also their role in the novel. Could she keep Theodore from becoming the love interest like that too? That question should make her euphoric, but somehow, it also terrified her.
What if she ruined Theodore's happy ending like that? What if she tried to reach an ending at his side and hurt him or became the villainess because of that? Blanche's heart began beating so fast that she feared that it might jump out of her chest.
“My Lady?” Stella seemed to be worried about her mistress' sudden silence, but the concubine couldn't bring herself to say anything.
Instead, Blanche just jumped onto her knees and threw her arms around Stella. She was too tense to explain anything and didn't let go, even though her maid repeatedly called out for her. Her efforts had evoked a major change to the novel's storyline. She wasn't alone anymore. She had gained friends, and they were on her side. Granted that they weren't somehow forced to forget that so that the villainess would end up like she was supposed to, Blanche had already made big progress like that. Then maybe altering the rest of the book wasn't completely impossible.
But she couldn't get overconfident. Pride had killed the villainess, so she needed to lie low. She had to stay on the safe path, especially now that she had realized that she didn't know how close Seraphina had gotten to Theodore. For now, Blanche had to secure that small fragment of happiness that she had obtained until now.
She couldn't leave any opportunity for her enemies to take that away from her.
Apart from losing Theodore's love and him falling for Seraphina, the greatest danger was Blanche's entanglement with Sefare and the Vasquez family. For a few weeks, she should still be safe until Sefare realized that she was serious about abandoning the plan. Even after that point, he couldn't reveal her background or attack her without risking being arrested and put on trial though. So, if he truly wished to harm her instead of only scaring her with empty threats, which she doubted for some reason, he had to do it secretly. This meant that Sefare would have to send someone into the palace in a way that no knight could know about.
As far as Blanche knew, there were only two passages that could give him that chance. The crack in the wall that Seraphina also used and the way into the labyrinth that the concubine still had to find. Blocking both of those off would prevent Sefare from using them to his advantage. That was an easy task. Blanche would only have to locate the second one and tell Theodore. He would take care of them immediately and possibly even make someone examine the whole wall to search for other gaps in their security.
A short glance at the window proved that the sun hadn't set yet, and that was all Blanche needed. “Stella, we'll have to go into the garden now. I want to take a closer look at the labyrinth.”
Despite her servant's irritated comments, Blanche managed to convince her quickly. Still, Stella was a bit reluctant, but her mistress basically dragged her outside. As soon as they had stepped out of the building, the concubine steered towards the maze, which earned her a lot of skeptical inquiries.
“My Lady, are you sure that we should do this now? Why did you want to come here so suddenly? It's quite late, so we can do whatever you want tomorrow too.”
Blanche made a dismissive motion with her hand while searching her surroundings for knights, which she luckily found quite a few of. “It's not dark yet, so we can see enough. And we're to find out how Sefare entered without coming in through any of the gates. No guard would have let him into the royal estate in the middle of the night, so I assume that he must have used a secret passage of some sort.”
Stella frowned again. “Yes. You mentioned that when you met Lord Sefare... But what are you going to do when you find that entrance? We can't just leave it there, right? I'm really unhappy with how you decided to ignore it last time.” The maid's uncertainty was dripping out of her voice, so Blanche gave her best to calm her.
“I'm sorry for that. I'll take care of it now. As I mentioned, I'll tell Theo, and he will close it off along with the second passage so that we won't have any uninvited guests anymore.”
Stella abruptly stopped upon hearing that. When the concubine turned around to look at her, the servant's eyes were widened. “The second one? You already know about another passage?”
Blanche quickly turned around and continued walking to avoid the reaction that she would follow. “I accidentally found a hole in the wall a long time ago. But it looked like a tree was covering it, and the gap wasn't that big. I forgot about it until now.” If she had mentioned using this passage to go out alone, Stella would probably have had a heart attack.
Even now, her maid was baffled by how one could forget something like this and scolded her mistress for the next few minutes.
Blanche ignored that as much as she could while circling around the labyrinth and checking whether there were any gaps in the surrounding hedges. Though it was obvious that her logic had been flawed when she reached the end of the maze that faced away from the palace. The labyrinth wasn't connected to a wall. It ended in the middle of a wide field with only a few trees and flowers, which belonged to the royal property too. Even if Sefare had used a second entrance to the maze, that couldn't have enabled him to go through the walls that surrounded the estate.
It was useless to find the hole in the hedges because of that, but Blanche still finished the circle and examined the gap she eventually found. As expected, it was nothing special and didn't give her a reason to worry either. It was just a small entrance between the hedges near the back of the labyrinth, which led to an area that was nowhere near the edges of the royal property. No one could use this to break in.
The concubine sighed as she spoke up. “It seems like he used a separate way to come into the garden.”
Stella was silent for a moment before opening her mouth. “Then he must have used the other way that you already mentioned.”
That was the logical conclusion, but to Blanche, who had the novel's memories, it didn't make any sense. No one except for Seraphina and the concubine should know about that hole. If Sefare had been aware of its presence, why hadn't he used it once in the story? Had he been waiting for the right opportunity? Or was her knowledge of the book simply not extensive enough?
The author, whose damned name Blanche couldn't even recall ever reading, had planned a second novel, so it wouldn't be odd if they hadn't included all the facts in the first installment. There could be secrets that could harm the villainess.
Blanche clenched her fists as she let her gaze roam across the empty area behind the labyrinth. Within minutes, her determination had already been demolished again and was replaced by the fear of not having enough information to change anything. She felt helpless for some reason. As if she wouldn't be able to prevent something dangerous, simply because she didn't remember that it would happen. That feeling was awful and made her stomach churn. She couldn't keep the sigh from escaping her lips as she sat down on the grass.
That surprised Stella quite a bit. “My Lady, what are you doing? You can't dirty your dress like this!” She looked like she wanted to complain even more but stopped when she saw her mistress's expression.
Blanche began tearing out a couple of grass blades before glancing over at her maid, who had taken a seat beside her. “My mood swings must be infuriating for you. I'm sorry.”
Stella observed her movements for a bit before replying. “What do you mean?”
Blanche pulled her knees to her chest. She hugged herself and lowered her gaze to the floor. “Ever since that dream showed me a world in which I lost everything, I have been trapped in an endless cycle out of hope and grief. In the one moment, I believe that my prayers might be answered. That Theodore won't leave me and that I will be able to have a happy ending. That I won't get executed in front of a cheering crowd or killed by Sefare. That I can live the life I always wanted while being surrounded by my friends. I'm determined to fight for my happiness. And then I remember that I can't be sure of anything, or something bad happens and wakes me up. It can be a terrible thing or just a trivial coincidence that made me realize that I was wrong about my assumptions. In that case, I immediately begin to think about the worst possible future and just want to run away and cry until no tears come out anymore. I'm sick of it myself, and it must be even more confusing to you.”
Stella moved closer to her until their shoulders were touching and gazed into the distance, where the sun was slowly setting and coloring the sky in a red shimmer. She only responded after a moment of silence. “To me, it's not that noticeable. You don't always voice everything that is on your mind, so I look at your expression and try to find out what you might be thinking. In the end, I can only figure out the general state of your feelings like that. When something unpleasant happens, you are sad. When good things happen, you are happy. There are occasions when I notice that something seemingly small troubles you a lot. Like the time when you went to see His Majesty and he was on the balcony of his office with Her Majesty. You began to cry after that and didn't talk to me about it either. In hindsight, it makes sense now that I know that you fear His Majesty leaving you, but back then, I was extremely confused by your actions.”
Stella turned to meet Blanche's eyes. “But even then, I wasn't annoyed. How could I be when I am aware that you are suffering because of something? Just because I don't understand it, that doesn't mean that it's not valid for you to cry because of that. I don't think that you have mood swings either. Depending on your outlook on the future, your emotions can change within seconds. That's fine. I just fear that you might hurt yourself by over-interpreting every single thing that happens. Whether everything ends up like you want it to is never certain, but contemplating this for hours won't give you a guarantee either.”
Blanche knew that. But in her case, stopping to think about the novel meant that she gambled with her survival. She couldn't risk dying just because she was scared of overthinking an issue. Still, Stella's words had calmed her a bit. They had made her feel like fearing the future hadn't turned her into a person that seemed like a lunatic to others. “Thank you.”
The women sat there in silence for a while until Stella rose when it was slowly becoming darker. They made their way back.
While they re-entered the palace, Blanche considered telling Theodore about the passageway immediately, but she didn't dare to visit the office with the knowledge that Seraphina might be there. Being aware of the fact that the main characters were possibly chatting and getting to know each other while working made her feel nauseous enough already. She didn't need to witness it too. She voiced some excuse about being tired and telling Theodore the next day because of that.
Surprisingly, Stella didn't complain but accepted her mistress' decision after being promised that they would inform the emperor on the following day for sure.
When they arrived at their chambers, a servant was waiting in front of the door and handed them a glass with herbs from the doctor.
Blanche thanked him and asked her maid to brew her a tea with those herbs, which she drank as soon as it was done. She didn't feel any different but still hoped that this would prevent her from having any more nightmares. Especially since her stomach was churning with something she didn't like at all. It felt like something bad was approaching, but whenever she thought about it, her brain gave in. It was like she was forgetting something important.
She didn't dream that night, but that wasn't enough to be sure of anything. To be certain, she would have to wait for the next weeks to pass. If she didn't have any nightmares by then, she might be convinced of the herbs' effect.