The Fantasie of a Stepmother

Chapter 3

I opened my eyes at the usual hour and found I had fallen asleep against the window. The sun was rising. The sky was blue-grey. It was snowing.

I started when my reflection in the frosted window looked, for a second, like an old woman.

Not that it would be a stretch.

It had been some time now that I’d started feeling older than my years. I was only twenty-three, but I felt sixty.

They say one gets wiser with age, but I felt like I had only grown elderly and no wiser.

Well, it’s snowing. Leon and Rachel will probably be happy... Oh, perhaps they’re too old for that now.

When the children were young, the four of them would run around and play. As the twins made a snowman and Elias threw snowballs, Jeremy scampered around them in the snow. I would watch them from my usual spot by the window.

It was laughable. Nothing could be more laughable.

I always knew I had no place among them. I knew that, and I dared to be hurt by their actions now.

“Are you awake, my lady?” called my maid. “Shall I bring you tea?”

“Yes, do. And Gwen, I have a request for you.”

The curtains were soon to rise on the once-in-a-lifetime wedding that people in the capital had been gossiping about for months.

I wondered how magnificent it would be. It would be quite different from mine, which had been nothing more than some wedding vows and signatures on a contract.

No one would be able to take their eyes off the bride and groom or the groom’s family. There would be plenty of eye candy.

One of my only strengths was knowing when to accept that something was over.

I had pitied Leon and Rachel, who lost both their parents at such a young age. I could never truly hate Elias, no matter how annoying he was.

And Jeremy, who always worried me... you would never know. Long ago, when you lay feverish at death’s door, I stayed by your side night after night. I was even willing to give my life for yours. I didn’t think I was capable of feeling such a thing.

They say that if you expect kindness to be rewarded, bitterness is what you’ll be left with. Thus, I will never resent you. I’m sure you must all have your reasons.

I was worried anyway. I wondered if he would be okay. He was still so young. Would he manage to protect his brilliant inheritance as his father wished?

I was too young when I entered the world of adults. Worry and anxiety always preceded me. But it was no longer any of my business.

It’s all right. The kids will be okay. I raised them, after all!

“My lady?”

I spread all the items on the table and welcomed them into the room: the head maid Gwen, the butler Roberto, and the knight commander Alberon.

They had all been faithful vassals to this household for generations and were the only people I had ever trusted.

“I am going to Heidelberg,” I told them. “No one must know. Make preparations so I can depart in secret.”

“To Heidelberg... I see. How many days will you be there?”

“I won’t be coming back,” I said.

“Pardon?!”

The Heidelberg villa in the provinces was the only place I could consider my own. It had been my husband’s wedding gift. Truthfully, I had only ever been there once, very early in our marriage.

The servants’ eyes were wide as saucers when they looked at the table.

The objects spread there were the treasures I had never let go of during my seven years in this house—the master key that could open any room, the box that contained the will, and the house seal.

“M-my lady, what exactly do you mean?”

“Even if your ladyship was only leaving to convalesce, it would be a shocking matter. Why would you leave?”

“Today is Jeremy’s wedding,” I said. “He is my eldest son, at least in name. I must give him a wedding gift.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m sure that evil boy would love nothing more than to see me disappear.” I put my hand on my hip and grinned.

The servants tried to protest, but after a while, their faces fell.

Ha ha, my goodness.

“Don’t look so serious,” I said. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

“My lady.”

“I hope I am leaving this place in good hands. Do you understand?”

“But my lady...!”

“Serve your new mistress well,” I went on. “Jeremy is your master now, so listen to him. You know his temper.”

“But my lady, this is ridiculous,” protested Roberto. His voice was so desperate one might think he was on his deathbed. “You worked so hard to raise the young masters and young lady!”

I froze for a moment, then scoffed. “I’m glad. I see that at least you all understood me. But you shouldn’t speak that way in front of the children lest you earn their contempt.”

“My lady!”

“Now, now, there is no time for this,” I said, brokering no further argument. “All three of you must go make arrangements for me.”

My job ended here.

Phew, I’m on my own now.

I had worked ceaselessly. I had never even dated before. Perhaps I would start living for myself now, one thing at a time.

Yes, it’s okay. Everything will be okay.

I didn’t know that this was just another delusion.

God have mercy!

Part 1

Starting from the beginning? No way!

I gasped.

My eyes fluttered open at the sensation of a misstep leading to my plummeting down a cliff. Everything was blurry. The only thing I remembered vividly was the snide chortles of the bandits brandishing their knives.

I shook my head to clear it. My foggy vision began to sharpen. As I registered my surroundings, I figured out where I was.

These were my living quarters in the marquess’s house. It was a lavish room. The former marchioness lived here before illness took her life, and then it became mine.

How had I ended up back here? I remembered being on my way to Heidelberg and being ambushed by bandits.

Had I been rescued and brought here? But who could have saved me? If my memory served me correctly, the knights who escorted me had been killed.

I pressed my fingers against my temples to clear my fuzzy head and discerned something strange.

Curtains the color of strawberries fluttered over the window. Next to it was an exquisite vanity.

But how could that be?

What was wrong with the vanity? Nothing in particular, except that it couldn’t be here. It was impossible.

It had belonged to the former marchioness and had sat there innocently until about five years ago when Elias shattered the mirror during an argument. He’d sniffled something about it being his mother’s.

But how was it back here? Did it just look like the old one? In that case, what happened to the rosewood vanity that I had replaced it with?

I was confused and slightly creeped out. I got down from my bed and strode over to the vanity.

The slick round mirror reflected my face. I was once again seized by an indescribable feeling.

The reflection in the vanity mirror was clearly my face. The waist-length light pink hair and light green eyes were mine. But... something was strange. What was it?

I lifted my hand and felt my face with my fingers. Something was definitely off, but I didn’t know what it was. The edges of my face seemed softer. My cheeks were perhaps chubbier, and my eyes rounder.

Somehow, I looked younger than usual. Much younger than usual.

What was happening? Had all the drama and the assault revitalized me? I thought things like that aged you further, not the other way around.

There was a knock at the door. “My lady?”

“Oh, Gwen! Can you come and...” Before I could ask for her help, I was once more dumbfounded.

The person who opened the door and entered quietly was, without a doubt, Gwen. There was no question, but...

“Gwen, have you lost weight?”

“Pardon?” Gwen looked bewildered, as if I had said something bizarre. She, too, didn’t look like she usually did.

Gwen had gained weight recently, perhaps from her penchant for sweets. She had suddenly shrunk back to her old self and looked much younger.

How odd. Had we all grown younger somehow?

“I don’t know what you mean, my lady, but we have no time for that.”

I blinked. Gwen’s demeanor—the way she looked at me and spoke to me—was even stranger than her youthful appearance.

Gwen, the head maid, was one of few on the Neuschwanstein estate who understood me and knew how much I went through raising the children. Yet this morning, her eyes were businesslike, and her tone was dry.

Was she that upset that I had left for Heidelberg and nearly died?

“Gwen, I don’t know what’s...”

“The funeral begins in two hours. You must get ready quickly.”

What?

“What are you talking about?” I exclaimed in a panic. “A funeral? Out of nowhere? Has something happened to one of the children? Please don’t tell me!”

I was the one who had been ambushed by bandits! Had some disaster befallen the children while they should have been enjoying themselves at the wedding?

God have mercy!

Gwen flinched. She stared at me with the oddest, most unknowable look.

She took on a cajoling tone. “My lady... I understand you have undergone a great shock. However, you must accept reality now. The marquess would have wanted the same.”