"Madam, Lady Sionel, the baroness, has arrived."
It was one of the maids serving Blair at the duke's mansion.
Blair tilted her head in confusion. The duke's maids admired their master Herdin as much as they disliked her, so it was always Lina's job to relay messages to her.
Blair hastily finished her tea time with Agnes and returned to the mansion from the greenhouse.
Lady Sionel, the baroness, who had been waiting in her bedroom, greeted Blair with her distinctively high-pitched voice.
"Oh my! You've become even more beautiful after marriage, Your Highness. No, I should call you Duchess now."
"I wanted to thank you for the wedding dress, but I haven't been able to contact you due to the busy schedule afterwards."
"I should be the one thanking you for wearing it, the most beautiful woman in the empire. I'm also grateful for the honor of making your first dress after marriage."
Blair looked around the room while listening to Lady Sionel's flattering words. Lina was nowhere to be seen here either.
"I've prepared the fabrics as the Duke previously mentioned - light and good for cold weather protection. He seemed worried you might catch a cold."
Lady Sionel's chatter barely registered in Blair's mind before disappearing.
What mattered to her was that Lina wasn't in this room right now.
Lina didn't appear even when Blair was examining the dresses Lady Sionel brought and deciding on the design for new dresses to be made.
After Lady Sionel left, Blair asked a nearby maid about what had been bothering her all along.
"Where's Lina?"
The maid hesitated, then answered while slightly avoiding Blair's gaze.
"Well... I'm not sure. Should I go look for her?"
"No, don't bother."
Blair stood up and put on the fur robe she had taken off.
"Are you going for a walk?"
"Yes."
The maid prepared to follow Blair. Blair stopped her.
"I'll go alone."
"Oh, alright."
Blair left the room, leaving the maid behind. The maids waiting outside the room bowed their heads to her.
Blair passed by them and went down to the first floor, then quietly came back up. Through the slightly open door, she could hear the maids whispering.
"Where did that Lina go? She's not crying somewhere just because she got splashed with some dirty water, is she?"
"Crying? She went to wash up without even blinking. How boring."
"She's so tough. Just like her mistress. Still, she'll have a hard time getting rid of the smell."
"But do you think she'll tattle to the madam about this?"
"If she was going to do that, there would have been trouble already. She must know too. No matter how noble her mistress is as the emperor's sister, she's just a nuisance in this duke's mansion."
Listening to their conversation, Blair clenched her dress. Her scarlet lips trembled.
Her premonition was right after all.
No matter how much they disliked her, she was the emperor's only sister. Unable to touch Blair, the maids were tormenting Lina, her maid, instead.
But one thing puzzled her.
Considering Lina's usual personality, she would never have endured this. Why did she put up with it?
Only then did Blair realize.
Lina had been enduring it, fearing that her mistress's already poor reputation in the duke's mansion would worsen.
'It must have been the same in my previous life. I was too absorbed in my own situation to notice...'
Upon realizing this, Blair bit her lower lip hard.
"Madam?"
Startled by the voice behind her, she turned around to find Lina. She was wearing a clean new maid uniform, but her damp hair proved that she had just washed up.
Blair, who hadn't yet grasped the situation, took Lina's hand and entered the room.
The maids who had been gossiping were startled by Blair's unexpectedly quick return and bowed their heads.
Blair approached the maids and said:
"Apologize."
A cold chill flickered in Blair's eyes. The maids who met her gaze flinched at her intensity.
To them, Blair had been a mistress to be cautious around, but not particularly frightening. She had always existed quietly like a doll or a painting, with a calm expression and never getting angry.
But when they met her eyes filled with cold anger, they were too shocked to say anything.
Blair spoke again, slowly and clearly, to those frozen by the unexpected situation.
"I said, apologize to Lina."
"M-Madam, we don't understand what you're suddenly talking about. If we've done something wrong..."
Slap!
Before anyone could stop her, Blair slapped the maid's cheek. Not only the slapped maid but also the watching maids and Lina were astonished.
Blair looked down at the maid who had fallen from her slap. The palm that had struck the maid throbbed as if she had been hit instead.
It felt like she had become Katrina. It was an unpleasant and frightening feeling. Her heart was pounding, and she felt nauseous as if she might vomit at any moment.
But to protect Lina, she couldn't back down now.
Blair clenched her trembling hand tightly.
"You know better than I do what I'm talking about."
"Y-Your Highness. I'm really fine. Truly."
Lina, who had finally come to her senses, grabbed Blair. In this situation where the people of the duke's mansion already viewed Blair unfavorably, it wouldn't do any good to escalate things.
Moreover, if Herdin were to see this...
"...I'm not fine."
Blair added, with a face that looked like she might cry at any moment, but with eyes filled with anger.
"It's not fine at all that you're being treated like this because of me."
"What's going on here?"
Herdin appeared through the open door. Dressed in outdoor clothes and holding leather gloves, it seemed he had heard the commotion on his way out.
"My-My Lord."
The maids and Lina turned pale and bowed their heads at his sudden appearance.
Herdin quickly surveyed the room's situation while putting on the gloves he was holding.
A maid clutching her reddened cheek and Blair whose hand was trembling slightly.
It didn't take long to assess the situation.
Amidst the silence of everyone, only the maid who had been slapped by Blair stepped forward to Herdin.
Search "child" at redcatty [.] com to read ahead up to chap 170.