Our Twisted Plan

Dear, darling, sweetheart, of all things. For a man with a face gruff enough to chew rocks, there was no limit to the things that came out of his mouth.

I’m not even Gloria. How am I supposed to call him anything of the sort?

But saying so out loud would accomplish nothing except getting me shut in my room again. The moment that thought landed, I clenched my fist and pulled my lips into a bright little smile.

“Then I’ll call you Herman. That seems the most pleasant of the lot to hear.”

Apparently calling him Herman suited him well enough. He calmly changed the subject and fixed his gaze on me.

“So what is it you want.”
“What I want?”
“Your intent, I mean. The reason you’re suddenly behaving as though you’ve come to your senses.”
“…”

It threw me. After being treated as a madwoman all this time, it startled me a little every time he spoke as though he took me for sane.

No. Come to think of it, there’s nothing so startling about it.

I had never once been out of my right mind; the only thing that had changed was the circumstances around me. And the same held true for the man across the table.

“The master has come home alive, hasn’t he. So you must gather your strength as quickly as you can and become the master’s pillar.”

Just as Tess had said, Herman Ernst had come home alive, and with him came a reversal of fortune for me, abandoned here in the ducal castle.

“That’s because the circumstances have changed. Your Excellency, too, has—”

At once Herman’s dark brows twitched. I hurriedly cleared my throat and pressed on.

“Herman, too, has come home alive, so now I as well must do my part properly. I can’t very well keep drifting through life in a daze.”
“So you’re at least aware of the sorry state you’ve been in. And here I’d assumed you’d hawked off your conscience along with the household accounts.”

His words struck me as somehow barbed, so I straightened my posture and quietly steadied my breath. He was right, of course. Gloria really had sold off her conscience; how else could she cast aside her one and only sister without so much as blinking?

“Surely not. I felt a great deal myself, reading the Imperial Times.”
“Such as?”
“It weighed on me that, after you’d struggled so hard to make it back to the Empire, I never gave you a proper welcome.”
“And?”
“And seeing that a man could endure such dire straits and still come home alive, I thought I ought to try my hardest to the very end, too.”

So that I might somehow return to my rightful place. I swallowed the words that rose up behind it and gripped my knife hard.

I’ll take back everything that’s mine, no matter what.

If he could cling so fiercely to life out on the boundless open sea and still make it home, then what was there that I couldn’t do? Even if that road proved harder than crossing a field of thorns, I couldn’t give up here.

“In a way, Your Excellency, you’re something of a model to me.”

Half of it was the performance of a woman duty-bound to make a good impression on Herman, but the sentiment itself was unmistakably sincere.

“Ah. A model.”

Herman let out a dry, scoffing laugh. All my earnest warmth earned in return was a cold sneer.

Not knowing what I’d done wrong, I looked at him. In that instant he twisted one corner of his mouth into a jeer.

“The same goes for me. You’re a model to me.”
“I am?”
“Yes. I truly want to live the way you do. Frittering away a fortune without lifting a finger — now that’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it?”
“…”
“They say even a rich house that falls can live five years off what’s left, but looking at the state of our family now, that doesn’t seem to hold true at all. To think my one and only wife pulled off something so difficult. I couldn’t be prouder.”

Reproach steeped every word, anger simmering just beneath it. Only then did I begin to understand why Herman had been in such a foul mood all along.

Gloria must not have looked after the house at all.

I’d more or less guessed as much from the wrecked state of the ducal castle, but House Ernst’s finances were in even graver shape than I’d imagined. Abashed, I lowered my gaze.

The person who truly deserved Herman’s rebuke wasn’t here in this room, and so the harsh words he flung at me felt a touch unfair. Still, as one of House Seymour myself, I couldn’t be wholly free of that resentment.

“I won’t be bored for a while, at least. Thanks to a certain someone, I’ve a great deal of work on my hands now.”
“…Please don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Honestly. First the disease, then the cure, is it?”

The conversation wasn’t going to last; Herman Ernst had no intention of drawing it out with me. But I needed at least some productive exchange from him. Only then would my odds of breaking through this situation improve.

Ah, right. Let’s talk about the triumphal ceremony.

Recalling the topic I’d prepared in advance, I spoke up quickly, before the meal was entirely over.

“By the way, Your Excellency—”
“Herman.”
“…”

Catching my slip, I bit down on the inside of my cheek. Unused to addressing my twin’s husband so familiarly, I kept forgetting.

Still, I’d better get used to it.

I forced a smile and went on.

“Herman, I read in an article a little while ago that you’d postponed the triumphal ceremony. Does that mean you’ll be returning to the capital before long?”
“Most likely, yes.”

He answered without looking up, carrying on his aristocratic meal, knife in hand. I widened my eyes as though that weighty voice were a lifeline lowered down to me.

“Then I’d best hurry my own preparations. Around when do you plan to set out?”

Around then, Herman’s eyes, buried in his plate, lifted to me. As though he’d heard some nonsense, he creased his brow and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.

“You’ve no need to prepare.”
“Why is that?”
“Because I’m going to the triumphal ceremony alone.”

I stared at him, my eyes gone round.

That can’t be.

The triumphal ceremony was my one and only excuse to slip out of this place.

“But, Your Excellency — no, Herman. You can’t go to the capital by yourself. I have to attend the triumphal ceremony too.”
“Why?”
“That’s because…”

Dodging his piercing gaze, I cast my eyes about and invented a reason.

“Because I have an obligation to attend as your partner.”

Strictly speaking, attending as Herman’s partner was no role of mine at all. But this was no time to split such hairs.

One way or another, I have to go with Herman.

It felt as though the lifeline had snapped clean in two before my eyes. Desperate to splice it back together, I blurted out whatever came to mind.

“If I don’t attend, strange talk is sure to spread.”
“That seems just as likely whether you attend or not.”
“Why is that?”
“Because the rumor that you coveted your twin’s husband has been going around society for a good while now.”
“What are you—”
“Ah — and the rumor that Countess Drake faints dead away at the mere mention of your name.”
“!”

My mouth simply wouldn’t close. It had never once crossed my mind that Gloria would be dragging her own name through the mud like this.

You really do burn every last bridge behind you, don’t you.

One thing had become clear, at least. Gloria hadn’t the slightest intention of returning to her own place.

“So stay in the ducal castle. Quietly.”

With that, Herman rose from his seat. Though it was hardly good manners, he added that he would be the one to leave first.

Watching him stand there, resolute, I clutched at the hem of my skirt. I couldn’t let him go like this.

If I can’t get up to the capital, I can’t do a thing. What am I supposed to accomplish, alone in a shut-off place like this?

I shot up from my seat and hurried to him. Seeing me cling so desperately, Herman wore a faintly flustered look.

“But if you keep avoiding it like this, it’ll look as though you’re admitting the rumors are true. Please — reconsider, just this once.”

In a plaintive voice I caught hold of his sleeve. But he pried me loose with ease and shook his head.

“Let’s leave the matter here. Talking it over further isn’t likely to change my mind.”
“Herman.”
“Enough.”

With that flat refusal, Herman turned his back on me. He had no wish to talk any further.

At this rate, my whole plan is going to fall to pieces.

I watched him walk away, nerves on edge. My heart was racing, and still there was nothing I could do.

Then, all at once, Herman stopped walking. For an instant I let myself hope he might be reversing his decision.

“Thank you for the meal.”

But what came instead was something I hadn’t expected.

Herman offered his gruff thanks and left the dining hall. That word of thanks was so very like Herman Ernst. Rough and cold on the surface, yet quietly courteous and considerate underneath.

What a contradictory man.

I turned to look at the fork and knife he’d left behind. On the plate, they had been set down to point toward nine o’clock.

Thank you for the meal.

A courtesy without a single fault to find in it.

At that same hour, in the capital, tea was in full swing at the Drake manor.

Cedric, a cup of fragrant tea sitting untouched before him, fidgeted and paced restlessly around the table. Then all at once he glanced at Gloria. Here he was, half dead with worry, while she calmly sipped her tea; the sight of it was almost a wonder to him.

“That physician from back then — you’re sure we’ve shut his mouth for good?”
“The physician? Our family’s physician?”

The words ‘our family’ slipped out naturally, without a hitch. By now she was a woman who regarded anything belonging to House Drake as entirely her own.

“What about the physician.”
“What do you mean, what about him. I’m on edge, that’s what.”
“Honestly, what’s gotten into you, Cedric. Do you know how much money we blew shutting that man up? Have you already forgotten the trouble we went to, scraping together several years’ worth of his wages in cash?”

Even now the memory of trudging out to the pawnshop through that midnight downpour made her blood boil. To keep from being seen, they hadn’t dared so much as take a carriage, and had crept along the dark roads like a pair of petty thieves. At the recollection Gloria’s face abruptly soured, though Cedric, oblivious, kept right on badgering her.

“What I mean is — will that really be enough. That’s what I’m asking.”
“Then what — should I go and shut his mouth for good myself?”
“Is that even possible? Are you saying you’ve got some decent way to manage it?”

Gloria, who had been staring flatly at Cedric, broke into a bright smile.

“Kill him, of course. Cleanly. What surer way to shut a mouth is there than that?”
“…”
“Oh my — I’m joking. Why put on such a grave face?”

Still, Cedric’s expression didn’t ease. Watching him, Gloria let out a long, heavy sigh.

“The physician who wrote the false certificate is firmly in our pocket, and the locksmith who copied the study key was completely taken in. So what on earth is the problem?”
“There’s no problem. No — there mustn’t be.”
“Then it’s settled. Now stop that and sit down. You’re making me anxious too, for no reason.”

In the end Gloria’s patience ran out, and her voice cracked with irritation.

Left with no choice, Cedric sat down and gave the room an idle once-over.

“Yes — you’re right. You’re right about all of it, but…”

Cedric shook his head roughly, on edge, then put his finger on the thing that had been tormenting him for days.

“Herman Ernst was never part of our plan.”