When That Door Opens - Chapter 18

“I’ll make sure to give my brother a good scolding. No matter how close friends they are, he should not keep Your Highness waiting like this.”

“It’s all right. Dusk is a talent in the Treasury Department, so he must be busy. I came because I was curious about some old Treasury reports anyway.”

“Still. I heard that Your Highness is preparing a lot on your own. And now reading Treasury reports too. I worry that you might harm your health.”

“Jerome is even busier than I am. It can’t be helped.”

Jerome?

Yvonne’s body flinched as she was about to set down her teacup.

“I don’t understand why high society praises Duke Lance as the top groom. He’s so indifferent to you, his betrothed, Princess.”

Clatter!

Yvonne dropped the teacup. Fortunately, it didn’t break on the saucer, but the hot tea spilled all over her hands. Yet, she didn’t feel the pain.

Jerome’s betrothed.

She couldn’t breathe.

Jerome has someone he’s promised to marry.

Ah, foolishly. Why didn’t she think of that? She blamed herself. There’s no way an unmarried young duke wouldn’t have a betrothed.

“Are you all right?”

A silk handkerchief was gently placed on Yvonne’s reddened, scalded hand.

“It must be painful.”

I’m fine.

She should have said that, but her frozen lips wouldn’t move. Jerome had a fiancée. And that fiancée was this Princess before her. Shocked as if she had been struck, Yvonne could only look up blankly at the Princess.

“Are you very surprised?”

While some nobles avoided even brushing against the hands of commoners, Princess Amelia was carefully cleaning and examining Yvonne’s hand. Even in her gestures, nobility was evident.

Ah, this person. His fiancée. This beautiful person.

Yvonne couldn’t bear to look at her any longer and lowered her head.

“I apologize, Your Highness. She mentioned not feeling well and then made such a mistake…”

Young Countess Alpen apologized on Yvonne’s behalf. With a slightly stricter noble, Yvonne would have been slapped several times already. However, Princess Amelia showed no sign of displeasure or offense.

Instead, she instructed the butler to bring ice, then carefully wrapped it in her own handkerchief and gently placed it on Yvonne’s hand.

“It will be cold, but it’s necessary to avoid scarring your delicate hand.”

The Princess had called it a delicate hand, but Yvonne’s hands, calloused and scarred from a lifetime of work, were far from delicate. It was Princess Amelia’s hands, without a single blemish, that was truly delicate and fair. The stark difference visible at a glance hurt Yvonne more than the burn.

“Thank… you, Your Highness.”

Yvonne managed to say in a thin, almost breaking voice. Princess Amelia simply nodded, her large eyes softening in response.

Yvonne didn’t even feel jealous.

Sometimes, when she saw herself and Jerome reflected in a mirror, she thought he looked as if he had been cut out from an antique painting. Of course, the one who had stolen Jerome from that painting and ran away was Yvonne herself.

And at this moment, Yvonne realized. This person was the other half of that masterpiece.

Just then, the butler approached and cautiously informed them.

“The carriage to escort Her Highness has arrived outside.”

“For me?”

Princess Amelia stood up, looking surprised.

“Perhaps it’s a message from my brother?”

“That could be. Well, I will see you next time then.”

With a sense of urgency, the Princess quickly bid farewell to young Countess Alpen and hurried outside. Yvonne, who had been left holding the handkerchief with the ice, suddenly thought, Should I really keep such a fine handkerchief?

“Oh my. The sun must be rising in the west tomorrow.”

Young Countess Alpen exclaimed in shock as she checked outside the window. Yvonne also got up and walked over to the window.

“Oh.”

It was Jerome. The one she had waited for night after night but could not meet. He was there, like a lie, like a dream. So easily.

However, the blue eyes that had smiled at her were not directed at Yvonne. Standing in front of the white carriage with the royal crest, Jerome was solely focused on the Princess.

He approached to escort Princess Amelia down the steps, extending his arm courteously. The Princess took his arm with a gentle smile, descending the stairs one step at a time. The natural flow of their movements suggested they had done this hundreds of times before.

They were a perfect match. Standing together, they looked like a picture. Yvonne held her breath, pressing down on the cold, aching center of her chest with her palm.

“He used to be so indifferent, but with the wedding approaching, he seems to have come to his senses.”

Wedding.

As she watched Jerome hold the Princess’s hand as she boarded the carriage, pieces of young Countess Alpen’s earlier words began to fall into place in Yvonne’s mind.

An important event. Difficult people. A dress that must be completed in ten days. And a fiancée.