The Madwoman Of These Parts

For now, I was attending this affair under the name ‘Gloria,’ which meant that no matter what havoc I chose to wreak, it was ‘Marienne’ who stood to lose nothing by it.

Ah. That’s right — of course it was.

The moment that truth dawned on me, a laugh spilled out before I could stop it. Sprawled across the cold corridor floor, tittering to myself, I only set the onlookers whispering all the more furiously.

“So the rumors were true after all.”
“Quite so. There’s no doubt of it now — she truly has lost her mind.”
“Just look at those eyes. It genuinely gives me chills…”

Cedric had shoved me so roughly that my upswept hair had come loose in a tangled mess. Bothered by the ruin of it, I made a show of seizing the ribbon and pulling it free. My soft hair scattered through the air like feathers, then settled back into place.

“Oh my goodness. What on earth does she think she’s doing?”
“How appallingly vulgar. She must have forgotten she’s standing in the imperial palace.”

Oh, I knew. I knew full well that their code of manners had no place for conduct like this. To wear one’s hair down in loose, trailing waves simply wasn’t done, not unless one happened to be an opera performer.

And so what of it?

In their eyes I was already madwoman enough. Whether my hair hung loose or was bound up tight made no difference now.

With my tangled hair down, my view opened up all at once and a strange sense of release washed over me. I could breathe again, so I tossed the loosened hair back over my shoulder and smiled, refreshed.

“Ria, you ought to hold on to some dignity. There are so many eyes on us.”

Gloria truly had a remarkable gift for performance, rattling off one after another exactly the sort of lines I might once have said myself.

I cast a sneering little smile Gloria’s way and rose to my feet. The sight of her burrowing into Cedric’s arms as though I frightened her was quite a spectacle indeed.

Yes, go on playing the poor, pitiful little thing. That’s the only way I’ll look all the madder in everyone’s eyes.

Gloria would do everything in her power to protect ‘Marienne’s’ reputation. After all she’d gone through to steal that place, she could hardly let filth stick to it now.

But I’m different.

Just as Gloria was pouring all her effort into guarding the name ‘Marienne,’ I intended to pour all of mine into dragging the name ‘Gloria’ through the mud.

I’ll make you trip over your own clever little scheme.

Resolved to the very core, I stepped up before Cedric and Gloria.

“I threw my arms around you, did I?”

I peeled off my gloves, brisk and unhurried.

“You can stand by those words, I trust?”

And then I flung the pair of white gloves, striking them both square in the face.

“Oh — you!”
“Hah. Mad as they come.”

Even their outrage struck me as petty and detestable. The way they hunched their shoulders and squeezed their eyes shut was so identical they might have been cast from the same mold.

At the same moment, a gasp of fascination broke from the crowd. And no wonder. At a triumphal banquet, they were witnessing a spectacle unlike anything the evening’s pageantry could offer.

Glancing frantically about them, Gloria and Cedric flushed a deep scarlet. Watching them, I slowly parted my lips.

“The one who threw his arms around me against all reason was you, Cedric Drake. You were the one begging me there was no one for you but me — so why the sudden change of tune?”
“Wh— what nonsense. Kindly stop speaking of things that never happened!”

At my words, Cedric launched into his own defense as though delivering an impassioned speech.

“Do you not realize how discourteous it is to round on an innocent man like this?! And is this not, moreover, the triumphal banquet of Duke Ernst himself? What lingering attachment can you possibly still hold for me, to carry on this way!”
“Attachment? Me?”

I seized on it at once and shot back.

“The answer I couldn’t give you earlier — I’ll give it to you now. Cedric, I haven’t so much as a hair’s worth of attachment left for you.”

Cedric and Gloria said nothing. Riding the momentum, I drove the point home like a nail.

“So please, don’t flatter yourself. And don’t come sneaking around behind that girl’s back, either. It makes my skin crawl.”

My words stirred up a small commotion. The onlookers looked back and forth between Cedric and me, seemingly at a loss over whose account was the truth. Not that they genuinely cared which of us was being honest, of course. They only wanted to know which side they were free to revile.

Making a show of it, I raised my voice and called out.

“Ah — don’t tell me the reason you’ve staged all this is that you want Herman and me to divorce?”
“Wh— what utter nonsense—!”

As though struck at the very heart of it, Cedric’s flushed face drained white in an instant. His lips moved as if to offer some excuse, but not a word came out.

“Ria, what is it you keep going on about?”

Gloria, who had been watching the scene unfold beside them, cut in. But she, too, could not hide her agitation, her hands kneading at the folds of her skirt.

“Why on earth would we wish for you and your husband to divorce?”
“Oh? Then why is it that one look at your face only makes me all the more certain?”

Not to be outdone, I pressed on.

“Drop the loathsome little act and tell the truth. It galls you to see me at Herman Ernst’s side — that’s it, isn’t it?”

I let my gaze drift slowly around us.

“And so you went and prepared this little surprise for me.”

For some reason, it seemed I had stung plenty of people besides Cedric and Gloria. Certainly more than a few present took no pleasure in seeing the name ‘Ernst’ fixed to the end of Gloria’s.

Was it always this satisfying — saying whatever I pleased, with no care for how anyone would take it?

I did not stop there. I made my way over to Baron Bernard, who happened to be standing nearby, snatched the wine glass from his hand, and dashed its contents over Gloria.

The sticky wine came streaming down over Gloria’s head. She let out a shrill “Eeek!” and swiped at her face over and over.

“When one receives a gift, it’s only courteous to return the favor.”
“Gloria!”

The red wine stained her pale-yellow dress into a sorry ruin. As the last of Gloria’s cries died away, a suffocating stillness fell over the corridor, the air like a sheet of thin ice underfoot. In the middle of it, the only one still blinking calmly, unbothered, seemed to be me.

“The gall of this woman — and to a man’s own wife, no less!”

No one could bring themselves to speak; they only traded glances. Then, all at once, Cedric Drake shattered the silence with a shout.

“Hah…”

Why, of all things, had I fixated on that single word, ‘wife’?

“Hahaha.”

The moment I heard Cedric’s words, I broke into laughter like someone truly gone mad. It wasn’t loud laughter, of course. Even so, I laughed with a hand pressed to my brow, and then laughed again at the state of Gloria.

“How can a person possibly be this despicable.”

I thrust the empty wine glass right up under Cedric’s nose.

“Do you see it? Nothing left inside?”

“…”

“This is exactly what you are. So stop pretending, so revoltingly, that you’re something more.”

Then I lifted my right leg. The sharp heel of my shoe drove without hesitation toward the toe of Cedric’s.

— Stomp.

“Aaargh!”

Cedric, struck by the sudden pain, forgot all about his dignity and crumpled to the floor. Clutching his foot and letting out one groan after another, he raised his head and glared at me.

“Does it hurt?”
“You— you really—!”
“What a relief.”

I curved my lips into a bright, wide smile. But there was no chance a scrap of petty vengeance like this would settle the score inside me.

“Don’t go thinking I mean to end it here.”

I leaned toward Cedric, his face twisted with pain, and added in an undertone meant for his ears alone.

“Because this is only the beginning. Every pain, every humiliation, every false charge and every disgrace I was made to bear — I intend to give it all back, without forgetting a single one.”

At my provocation, Cedric finally shot to his feet. As though he’d never once imagined being treated like this, he raised his hand at a slant, his eyes glittering.

“You mad bitch!”

At any moment Cedric’s palm looked ready to come down across my cheek. For all that he had always spoken so kindly and gently, always carried himself as the very finest of gentlemen…

So this was what he truly was.

Even in that moment, unwilling to lose, I held Cedric’s gaze without flinching.

“Stop.”

In that instant, a voice cold enough to freeze one’s insides cut in.

“Your Excellency—!”

Herman had caught hold of Cedric’s arm and stood planted firmly between him and me.

“You saw for yourself, did you not, the insults the Duchess Ernst heaped upon me and my wife?”
“I saw. All of it.”
“Then release me. I have done nothing wrong.”

Cedric’s arm was trembling violently; a silent contest of strength seemed to pass between the two men. His pride wounded, he bit his lip and shook his arm, demanding at last to be let go.

“And if I let go — you’ll strike her?”

Herman asked it back in a tone of open contempt.

“How dare you — and to a man’s own wife, no less.”

Herman gave him back the very words Cedric had flung out only moments before. Then he shifted his grip on Cedric’s forearm as though he meant to wrench it back and break it.

By then, a stunned silence had blanketed the whole corridor. That he would call me his wife and take my side even at a moment like this seemed to have caught everyone badly off guard.

Though the one most astonished of all, of course, was none other than me.