The Sixth Plan. To Know Thy Enemy. (11)
The wrong recommendations would also have an adverse effect on the person who recommended them, so unless you were a person who believed as much as your own family, you still could not use them recklessly. When I fired the maid who tried to feed me that strange drink, I had to fire both the person who recommended the maid as well as the people within the maid’s circle just as making the wrong recommendation could really cost one a job and one’s life.
“The ones whom Mrs. Blone recommended and hired have all been sorted out already.”
All of the people whom Charlotte had heard and memorized from Merilyn were hired by Merilyn herself during the time she was the Duchess. And the person who brought the letter from Count Petrika to Charlotte had been the servant that Mrs. Blone hired as well.
It was generally the responsibility of the castle’s mistress to manage those who got employed by the castle. Therefore, it had been Merilyn as well as Countess Blone. When the two of them took care of the safety of the Duchy of DeMancier, Count Petrika sent in large numbers of people at that time, but Count Petrika’s power had been slowed down by the appearance of the Duchess Dowager. Still, quite a few of them would disappear during the funeral.
“Okay, let’s go.”
“Yes.”
One of the purposes of holding this funeral had been completed. Gellerhard picked up the box that he had prepared at his feet and gave it to me before the both of us—Gellerhard and I—took a step forward. The mourners, the servants of the castle, all moved out of the way in order to make way for me and Gellerhard as we approached the coffin. Gellerhard’s left arm was coiled around my body and the box that I was carrying rattled with every slow step that I took.
“Mother, Gellerhard and I would like to mourn Charlotte together.”
The Duchess Dowager came over and hugged me. She had been standing outside in the cold and her body was already as cold as ice.
“It is cold. So, let us finish it soon.”
“Yes.”
The short whisper sounded like her mourning for Charlotte. The Duchess Dowager moved over for me and I slowly went towards Charlotte.
The woman who was lying in her coffin had flushed cheeks and red lips that the funeral director had worked so hard on. Her plain white dress was her shroud and her white silk gloves hid the discoloration of poison from her fingertips. I bent my knees and took a seat.
“Charlotte, how should I convey this feeling… I really appreciate your hard work.”
He opened the box and poured its contents into her coffin, right onto her stomach. Suddenly, the gold coins that had been poured out bounced against each other as they clinked sharply and finally one fell onto the floor.
“It’s a gold coin.”
“Gold coins!”
The voice that did not suit the place quickly died away, but the scent of greed did not disappear. Gellerhard assisted me up as he closed the empty box and rose from his seat.
“I hope that it will be a long trip, enough with this free money.”
Hopefully, it would be a very long journey where not even a handful of rest could be taken at all. I truly wished so.
* * *
I entered the castle and took a very long bath in warm water. My skin, which had been cold for a long time from staying outside amidst the cold wind, eventually warmed up. Despite the fact that my cheeks were flushed and my hair had already been damp, it was still cold inside somehow, so the bath time began to get longer. A cold sense of anger and contempt had pooled inside my hollow heart ever since Theodora’s departure before the damp melancholy and the humid sadness soon overflowed.
When I got out of the bathtub, the maids dried me off and dressed me in a gown. After I told them not to dry my hair, I sat down in front of the fireplace and stared blankly at the flames. A hot light softly warmed my face. The crackling sound of the burning fire strangely caught my attention and I could see why Gellerhard would always sit in front of the fireplace at every opportunity.
“Mandy, can I come in?”
With a soft knock, the door opened and my mother soon entered. Now that it got mentioned, she was my mother and she had always been by my side, but she would disappear from time to time. I didn’t pay much attention to Charlotte’s mother either since I was really distracted by that work of hers.
“Yes, Mother. Welcome. Would you like some tea?”
“I already drank some with your father.”
She did have a drink, but couldn’t she just have another cup of tea with her own daughter? I noticed that my mother was more reluctant to show up rather than refusing the tea itself. Therefore, when she came up beside me and plopped down on the floor next to me, I knew that she had something secret to say to me.
“Oh, my! You’re still clumsy even when you are already a mother. What are you going to do if you were to catch a cold while staying this wet?”
“It’s indoors anyway and I’m right in front of the fireplace—”
“Still! Hold on, let me dry it off.”
As she dismissed my excuses, my mother straight away jumped up from her seat. My mother’s nagging began as soon as she patted my hair dry and brushed it gently with a dry towel that the maids had left behind earlier.
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