The Stolen Wedding Anniversary

“Over here, not there.”

A slightly more high-handed tone than usual slipped out of me, and the servant caught her mistake at once, bending low in a flustered apology.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so terribly sorry, my lady.”

Overwrought as the apology was, my irritation refused to settle, no doubt because I had already been through this same thing more times than I could count. I felt I ought to say something plainly, so the mistake wouldn’t keep happening.

“It’s quite all right. It’s hardly the first time it’s happened. Isn’t that so, Mari?”

But Gloria accepted the apology in my place, and there was nothing more I could add.

“Indeed. I do wonder why this has started happening so often of late.”

I murmured it, my eyes running over Gloria’s updo and her housedress.

“Why on earth could that be…”

Looking at her now, it was no wonder they kept mixing us up. Somewhere along the way, Gloria had taken to favoring the dresses I usually wore and doing her hair the way I did mine. It made me wonder whether the servant who’d confused us was really the only one to blame.

“So — what is it you came for?”
“The master has sent a telegram. It seems his business will run late, so his return home will be delayed.”
“I see. Very well.”

I gave a small nod to let the servant withdraw.

“Honestly, it’s too much. Business is important, I know, but — today of all days, shouldn’t he be spending it with his wife?”

Gloria huffed, more worked up than I was, as if the matter were her own.

“It’s fine. It’s for his work — there’s nothing to be done about it.”
“There’s fine and there’s fine. No, this won’t do. You just stay put. When the Count comes home, I’ll have a word with him.”
“Don’t. There’s really no need for that.”
“No, this is my ‘duty.’ What are sisters for? I’ll step in on your behalf and give him a good sharp scolding.”
“That’s enough, Ria.”

As Gloria’s childish prattle ran on, I finally drew a firm line. Somehow I couldn’t shake the feeling that she kept trying to wedge herself between my husband and me.

When my expression hardened, Gloria’s eyes widened a little. She looked genuinely startled by the sudden rebuke, and perhaps a little hurt as well.

“If I’ve upset you, I’m sorry, Mari. I only said it because I was so vexed on your behalf. A wedding anniversary is something a couple ought to mark together, but somehow it seems you’re the only one looking forward to it.”

With that, Gloria quietly bowed her head.

“The truth is, I…”

Gloria dabbed at the reddened skin beneath her eyes and murmured, her voice low.

“I just want at least you to have a happy marriage.”

At those words from Gloria, I couldn’t say a thing. It felt exactly as though the breath had been knocked clean out of me.

What am I even thinking — about Gloria, of all people.

Gloria’s husband, Duke Herman Ernst, had been a gifted naval officer. Two years ago, though, he met a valiant death in the war on the Central Continent.

The war’s end had been all but in sight.

When word came that the warship he commanded had gone down in the middle of the Aphro Sea, Gloria was left a widow while she was still young.

“I’m sorry, Ria. I hadn’t stopped to think how you must feel.”

The sight of Gloria in her pure-white bridal veil, vowing that she would surely be happy, rose before my eyes as vividly as if it had been yesterday.

A girl who longed so for a happy marriage, only to lose her husband in a single moment.

A corner of my heart ached with pity.

“No. I suppose I spoke out of turn.”

A breeze heavy with the scent of roses brushed past Gloria’s cheek. She swept her disheveled golden hair back behind her ear and forced a smile.

“Gloria…”

Back home, the family had urged Gloria to remarry any number of times, and each time she would only shake her head in silence.

Ria must have loved her husband dearly, after all.

Two years had already passed since the war ended. In that time, a rare handful of those who had been aboard the wrecked warship survived and were rushed back to the Empire. As if they’d agreed on it beforehand, they insisted their commander, Herman Ernst, had to be alive, but as the months wore on, their claims lost their shine. The war scholars pronounced the odds of his still being alive by now as good as zero, and no one clamored any longer that he would come home.

“I’ve had a great deal on my mind lately, so I suppose I’ve been a little on edge. I know you meant it out of care for me. I’m always grateful to you, Ria.”
“Oh, it’s nothing to speak of. I’ve always been on your side, haven’t I? Besides, it’s nothing at all beside how you look after me.”

About a year ago, I had brought Gloria to the capital. She had lost a great deal of her fortune to a failed business venture and had stopped eating and drinking altogether. Rather than leave her in the ill-kept ducal estate, I did everything in my power to see that she wanted for nothing at the Drake manor. Because she loved flowers, I kept the manor’s garden lovely in every season, and since she was so fond of black tea, I even bought up a fine tea plantation in the southern provinces.

“It’s I who am always grateful, Mari.”
“But of course. You’re my one and only other half.”

I was glad. Glad that I could keep such precious family close beside me, and care for them myself.

“The master has returned home, my lady.”

At the butler’s word, I took off my silver-rimmed glasses and rubbed the bridge of my nose. Squinting at the table clock with tired eyes, I saw that the hour had already slipped past eight. It was a touch late for supper, but I felt we ought at least to share the evening meal, and so I had waited for Cedric to come home.

Gloria included, of course.

It feels awkward, eating all on my own.

Even when I told her not to trouble herself and to eat first, Gloria had refused point-blank.

“Tell him I’ll be down shortly.”
“Yes, my lady.”

For any number of reasons, I felt rushed.

I set the documents in order and left the study. The night sky had already darkened to black, and my face stared back at me from the pitch-dark window.

I’d been bent over the financial reports all this while, without so much as a moment to glance in a mirror. My hair, once soft and springy, had long since lost its sheen under the piled-up fatigue. I didn’t want to be seen looking anything less than flawless, and I meant to keep at least the courtesy a special day deserved. Smoothing my hair with one hand, I hurried toward the ground floor.

“You must be tired, Cedric.”

I had just rounded the corner of the second-floor corridor and come down a few steps.

Cedric was slipping off his coat to hand to the butler. Just then Gloria, standing at his side, snatched it away herself, folded it once more with care, and handed it over.

“Do you know how expensive this jacket is? It won’t do to handle it so carelessly.”
“…I shall bear that in mind, madam.”

Leaving the butler’s words behind her, Gloria stepped up to Cedric with a bright little smile.

“You must be worn out, going all the way down south of the West River. Oh — and how did the meeting with the perfumer go?”

Gloria reached out toward Cedric’s necktie, as naturally as anything.

“It was quite a productive visit. He seemed pleased enough with our terms as well, and the workshop was in better shape than I’d expected. With just a little work, I think we could raise its output.”

Her hands never paused; Cedric let her take the necktie as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and soon the tightly knotted tie slipped free.

I stood on the stairs and watched the two of them, my mind gone blank.

I distinctly told her before not to do that.

Unlike me, Gloria had a warm, affectionate, sociable nature. But every so often she went too far, just like this, and it seemed she genuinely had no idea she was doing anything wrong.

However much this is our own house, she really ought to remember how many eyes are watching.

If even I found myself entertaining improper suspicions now and then, how much worse must it be for everyone else?

And sure enough, I could see the butler’s face, caught there between the two of them, slowly stiffening.

“Oh, Mari. There you are.”

Lost in thought, I turned my head slowly. Cedric and Gloria were both looking at me with slightly awkward expressions.

“Did you have a pleasant day, Mari? Have you eaten?”

Cedric asked.

“Not yet. I was waiting.”
“Both Mari and I are running on empty from waiting on the Count. I’m famished.”
“It seems I’ve unwittingly let even my honored guest go hungry. Had I known, I’d have hurried back.”

Cedric spoke in a light, joking tone, and yet a strange sense that something was off tugged at me.

“It’s grown quite late — why didn’t you go ahead and eat?”

He looked as though he had forgotten some very important fact.

As I studied Cedric through narrowed eyes, Gloria pressed gently on his arm and cut in.

“We couldn’t possibly. Today is your wedding anniversary, the two of you.”
“Ah.”

At that, Cedric paused in thought a moment, his mouth still open. Then, coming to himself, he stepped up to the foot of the stairs and held out his hand to me.

“It’s not without some delay, I’ll grant — but happy anniversary, Mari.”

His soft smile and the voice he whispered close enough to tickle were both perfectly courteous. Tender, no different from any other day, and dutiful besides.

Well, if he’s busy, he might forget a mere wedding anniversary. It’s not as though I gave him any warning.

If my husband had one flaw, it was that he was a poor liar. That was also why I’d had so little trouble noticing his long-standing affair.

There’s no sense in making a scene on such a good day.

I slowly reached out and took Cedric’s hand. As he escorted me gently toward the dining hall, he said,

“I’ve had an Ermaning ‘52 prepared as your gift — I do hope it’s to your liking.”
“An Ermaning ‘52? That’s far too dear a wine to pour over a single meal.”

For a gift from a man who had forgotten his own wedding anniversary, it was an absurdly, almost outrageously expensive vintage. I looked at Cedric in puzzlement, but his face said everything was perfectly fine.

“Well, in that case — I only hope it makes for an evening worth as much.”

In that instant, a faint ripple of laughter reached me from behind. When I turned to look, as if to ask what was so funny, Gloria answered only with a clear, bright smile.