A Summer Night's Ball

At last, the day of the ball had arrived. Small stars were stitched across the sky, and the street leading to the Drake manor glowed with gaslight.

One in the kitchen. One in the hall. Just right.

In the carriage bound for the Drake manor, I ran back through the plan I had rehearsed countless times over the past several days.

Mia, sent in with a letter of recommendation praising her cooking, is in the kitchen. And Hans — comely, and well-versed in the manners of the upper class — is in the hall.

Each waited at an assigned post, holding a crucial piece of the plan.

And the sleeping draught. That, too, had been delivered without fail, or so I was told.

Detective Robin had told me the orders were already in place, so his people inside the manor could set the plan in motion at once.

If only the sleeping draught puts Cedric and Gloria soundly to sleep…

After that, the rest would come easily enough. Once the two of them were asleep, I would seize a moment when no one was about and repay them in the very coin they’d spent. My plan was to strip Gloria of the dress she wore, put it on myself, and reclaim the name ‘Marienne.’

To think that merely trading dresses is what it takes to become myself again.

Nothing about my own body could prove I was myself, and yet a mere dress, the kind one sheds and dons again every single day, was all it took to stand as proof of me. Laughable. Still, for the present, it remained the one sure way to reclaim my name.

And after that.

I would shut the two of them, drugged senseless, into a single room, and stage the tableau of a couple caught in the act of their affair.

Return to the ballroom, and gather everyone round, crying that I’d caught my husband in the very act of his affair. Just as Gloria did at the triumphal banquet.

With a single stroke I would lay Cedric and Gloria’s villainy bare before the world, and reclaim the name ‘Marienne’ in the same breath.

And in doing it, you would be wounded…

I looked at Herman, seated across from me. As if he’d felt my eyes on him, he raised his gaze slowly from the documents he’d been reading and met mine.

“What is it? Something you want to say?”

Meeting those deep, dark eyes, my stomach churned. I’d been in the carriage only a short while, so there was no cause for sickness, and yet something rose in my throat.

In a few days’ time, Herman too would come to know the whole truth.

Once all of this is over and done with, I want to apologize to you, truly, from the heart.

Whether I’d even be given the chance, I couldn’t say. By then he might no longer wish to so much as look at me.

“I’m sorry.”

For all that I’d wished Herman happiness, I was the one who had gone and laid a plan like this, and it made me feel like the worst sort of hypocrite. No matter how I turned it over, I kept arriving at the same conclusion. There was no other way. And still the regret lingered. Had there truly been no other path?

“For what, all of a sudden?”
“It’s only… I feel as though I’m dragging a man who’s busy enough already off to some pointless little affair.”

Of late Herman had been so taken up with nursing me through my illness that he’d scarcely been able to attend to his own affairs. The work must have been piling up on his account, and yet he had insisted, needlessly, on coming along with me. In truth I’d have preferred to come alone, but I had no fitting excuse to turn his kindness away.

“There’s no need to apologize for what’s only natural. When the invitation bids a husband and wife attend together, how could I ever send you off alone?”

As if he’d merely stated the obvious, Herman turned his eyes back to the papers in his hand. He was the same man every time, as though stamped from a single mold. Never overly kind, never overly tender, and yet beneath it all he brimmed with a warm consideration. He was a good man. The kind one can’t help but come to love.

I hope you won’t ache too badly over it. Chalk it up to a strange bit of misfortune and shake it off quickly.

That he might meet a good person, and live out the rest of his days in happiness.

For I shall always pray for you, even if only from afar.

That was the only feeling I was permitted, and nothing more.

Heralding the start of a grand ball, the front of the Drake manor had become a teeming sea of resplendent carriages. Ladies in evening gowns, escorted by gentlemen in tuxedos, stepped down one by one.

This seems on a grander scale than the society balls House Drake used to hold every year.

There were far more guests than usual, and the decorations were lavish to excess. Given Gloria’s vanity, it was hardly a surprise. If anything, I thought, her vanity had worked out splendidly in my favor.

After all, the more witnesses, the better.

Before long our own carriage drew to a halt before the manor. Herman stepped down first and held out his hand, as naturally as breathing.

“I do believe you’re the loveliest thing here tonight.”

Another one of his pointless jokes. We hadn’t so much as set foot in the ballroom yet; how could he declare such a thing so flatly?

It was just as I took his hand, pointedly ignoring the remark, and stepped down from the carriage.

“Oh my, so the rumors were true. To think the Ernst couple would truly attend.”
“Countess Drake’s heart must be broader than the Aphro Sea itself.”
“And what manner of spectacle will she put on for us tonight? Truth be told, I’m the least bit excited myself.”
“Ah, but it’s only because the Duchess has graced the ball that we get to lay eyes on the Duke as well — the busiest man in all the Empire these days, is he not?”

Murmuring voices reached me from every side.

Herman did not shrink from them; he only cast an indifferent glance their way. The women hastily hid their faces behind their fans, and the men cleared their throats and looked away.

“Your Excellency Ernst, and Your Grace the Duchess. It is nothing short of an honor that you have both come to the ball. Allow me to escort you directly to the central hall.”

Through the awkward air, a butler with a familiar face approached. He set a servant to guide us, and we made our way toward the ballroom. The central hall, opening onto that familiar rose garden, was where House Drake had always held its banquets. For years I had passed in and out of it more times than I could count, and yet tonight, for reasons I couldn’t name, it felt like nothing so much as a stranger’s house.

It had seemed off from the very entrance. She really has set her mind to it, then.

The strangeness that had begun in the corridor only deepened the instant I stepped into the central hall. The red-carpeted staircase, the lavishly dressed chandeliers, the roses crowding every last corner.

Yes, Gloria. This was always your taste, wasn’t it.

There were so many flowers one could nearly choke on the perfume of them.

“Overdone.”
“Pardon?”
“The roses, I mean. They’ve got my head spinning.”

Now that he mentioned it, Herman’s face had been drawn from the moment we entered. He must have felt much the same as I did.

At the mouth of the hall, Gloria and Cedric stood receiving the guests. The moment the sight of them lodged in my eyes, I couldn’t help going taut with tension.

Perhaps he’d caught that faint tension in me.

“Come closer.”

Herman drew me in close against his side.

“…Thank you.”

It steadied me, and somehow it made my throat tighten all at once. I let a moment pass before I gave him my thanks.

In that instant, Cedric’s gaze turned toward us. His eyes moved from me to Herman and back, and his face creased faintly. Then he murmured something to Gloria.

Gloria, who had been chatting with other guests, glanced our way at once. Smiling more brilliantly than any rose in the hall, she came straight for us.

“Goodness, Ria. It must have been such a trial for you to come — thank you truly for attending.”

Leaving Cedric behind to greet the guests, Gloria came over to us, and for some reason she couldn’t seem to hold her upper body still. At first I thought she’d laced her corset wrong, but that didn’t seem to be it either.

Was she unwell somewhere?

I needed to take careful stock of the state Gloria was in. When I became Marienne again, there could be no discrepancy from the way Gloria appeared right now. She kept twisting and shifting. She would smooth one arm and press it over her chest, and sway her full hips ever so slightly, whether she knew she was doing it or not.

If the dress is so uncomfortable, she need only change out of it.

That snow-white dress of Gloria’s was the very one I’d be wearing a few hours from now. The instant it struck me, my eyes dropped to her chest.

Just how far down is that dress cut, exactly?

One wrong move and her bosom looked fit to come spilling right out. And to think I was the one who’d have to wear the thing. Unable to keep my horror down, I barely managed to part my lips and speak.

“…You were kind enough to invite me, so of course I had to come.”
“You’ve no idea how relieved I am you feel that way. The truth is, I hardly slept a wink last night — terrified you might turn my invitation down.”
“…”
“Today, let’s be sure to clear up the misunderstanding between us, Ria.”

What misunderstanding. As though there were the faintest misunderstanding to speak of between us. That was what I wanted to throw back in her face, but I only offered a soft smile instead.

But then Gloria, who had looked about to say something more to me, fluttered her lashes at Herman out of nowhere.

“For Your Excellency to attend in person like this — truly, I could not be more honored.”

In that instant, Gloria’s hand settled on Herman’s shoulder. Somehow that coaxing, fluttering touch struck me as brazen beyond words.