The Fantasie of a Stepmother

Chapter 8

“I see you’ve been training since the early morning, just like Johan when he was younger,” Lucrecia crooned. “You must be hungry. Let’s have breakfast.”

Jeremy didn’t acknowledge his aunt’s flagrantly intimate greeting. He took one more glance at me and walked away.

As he was left behind, Lucrecia folded my hand between hers and smiled brightly.

“Won’t you join us, my lady?”

“No, I...”

After my husband’s death, I had most meals alone in my room. The second I sat down with the children, all hell broke loose.

Sitting at a table while the twins complained that they didn’t want to eat this or that, or that something smelled off, while the two older brothers were out to get me. It was hard to focus on eating.

Oh... my fate. I wondered once more if it would be better to give up everything and choose an easy life.

“I had something to discuss with you,” said Lucrecia. “Regarding the children.”

***

“A governess?”

I put down my teacup, eyes wide.

We were in the atelier, far from the annex dining room, where the children were eating.

We probably made a nice picture from afar—two women enjoying a cozy breakfast.

Lucrecia smiled as if she had expected this response. “Yes. For the twins.”

“The twins already have instructors for different subje—”

“I know,” she cut me off. “I mean an instructor specifically to train them for their debut. Rachel is already ten.”

Ah, so that’s what she means.

Most young women started receiving special lessons to prepare for their debut at around age twelve.

Some started earlier, but before, I found a teacher for Rachel a little after her twelfth birthday. At ten, it was a bit early.

“I think it is too early. Most—”

“Most young women start at twelve or thirteen.” Lucrecia agreed.

She lowered her voice. “However, I can’t help but worry about them. I love that they get along so well, but Rachel’s behavior may be difficult to change if she is allowed to continue doing whatever she wants. To me, she’s perfect, but other people may not think the same.”

Lucrecia blinked slowly, speaking as if I should understand what she meant.

I couldn’t argue. It must have been plain to her as well that when the twins started acting out, even the fortified Wittenberg Palace might collapse under them.

Rachel was usually the leader of the two. Leon simply followed her lead. Luckily, Leon stopped causing trouble as he grew older, but Rachel was a terror even after she debuted.

If I hadn’t already been public enemy number one, Rachel might have taken the crown as the Shame of All Noblewomen.

Let’s just pretend that I became a villainess to protect her in the first place, okay?

“Makes sense,” I said. “Do you have a recommendation?”

“Certainly. Madame Loisel is famous in this field,” Lucrecia agreed, ready and waiting with a suggestion. “Luckily, we are acquainted, so I am sure she will accept.”

I pondered for a moment.

Before, I tasked Countess Bayern with Rachel’s education. She had been a close friend of my husband. I remembered her as being quite friendly and warm.

Madame Loisel’s name was familiar, but I didn’t know her. Could I just agree to this without asking for more information?

If I’ve heard of her. It must be for a reason.

Moreover, Lucrecia had a point. No harm could come from finding an instructor sooner, especially if I were to walk away from this house.

In the worst-case scenario, Lucrecia might use the teacher to spy on me, but I doubted it could cause much harm if so.

I assented with mild indifference, and Madame Loisel began visiting the Neuschwanstein estate the very next day.

***

A quiet night had fallen over Neuschwanstein Castle. While the children were fast asleep in their beds, I was wide awake. I was used to this.

Instead of rubbing the sleep from my eyes and trying to read one more document, I was spacing out and sorting through my thoughts, my work long complete.

“Um, my lady...?”

Roberto had been assisting me quietly as I rushed through two days’ worth of reports.

I responded without looking at him, chin in my hand, staring into space. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” he said. Then added, “Perhaps you should get some sleep.”

“Go ahead,” I told him. “I have a lot to think about.”

I sensed him wavering in the doorway, candle in hand.

What? Does he suspect I didn’t fully understand the reports because of how quickly I went through them?

I turned my head to look at Roberto.

He seemed to deliberate for a moment, then, girding himself, he looked at me with pitiful eyes and said something I did not expect.

“My lady, pardon me for saying this, but... are you all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I replied with a question. “Is something wrong?”

“No, my lady,” he acquiesced. “Please rest soon.”

After all that confusion, his reply left something to be desired. I sat, puzzled, for a moment, then left the study for some air.

The castle was silent. I once had thought about wandering this giant estate every night to count the rooms.

It was so large that if there was a banquet on the first floor, someone could be murdered in one of the numerous rooms in the upper floors, and no one would know.

Of course, such a thing would never happen.

Though their presence was subtle, the house knights took shifts to patrol the grounds around the clock. Anyone I might encounter in the halls was more likely to be a knight than family or staff.

From the head of the house’s point of view, there was one important difference between the staff and the knights besides status and identity.

It was hard to hire loyal workers, but it was even harder to find loyal knights.

The knights swore fealty to the lion biting the sword and wore gold epaulets on their shoulders. They would always be the claws of Neuschwanstein, no matter who was head of the house.

Even if their loyalty lay with the children rather than me, their value could not be calculated in a sum.

I passed the knights, who bowed silently, and entered the front yard. I was immediately baptized with cold water.

“Aaaah!”

I was frozen, head to toe.

Oh, my dear dead husband, oh God! I haven’t felt this sensation in a while!

I raised my head and saw a bucket swing over the balcony above, and the twins’ golden figures vanished from view.

I was dumbstruck.

I was wondering why you two had been so quiet these past several days! This explains it.

“Wh-what the?!”

“My lady!”

“My lady, are you all right?”

Pandemonium erupted around me.

Ugh, chaos in the middle of the night because of those stubborn children.

Knights leaped to my aid, but I raised my hand to them as I retreated inside. Or at least, I tried to.

“What is going on?”

“Oh, master!”

Jeremy appeared, still in his evening wear, as far as I could tell through my shivering.

Why isn’t he asleep?

Jeremy looked alarmed. I didn’t feel like dealing with him, so I started to brush past him.

To my surprise, he grabbed my arm. “Was it the twins again?”

I wanted to say, “Who else?” but something else entirely emerged from between my chattering teeth.

“I-I’m dying!”

I sounded so pitiful to my own ears.

Your mother is dying, you demon!

Jeremy was speechless. Without saying anything more, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and started walking. He was already much taller than me.

“Gwen!” Jeremy called.

Gwen came running and jumped at the sight of me. I must have looked like a mouse that had fallen into a lake.

She started a fire in my room and brought hot tea. Even after changing my clothes, the cold stuck to me. I wrapped myself in a blanket and sat crouched before the hearth, blowing on my tea.

But...

“How do you feel?”

Why is Jeremy still here?

“A little b-b-better,” I said, my teeth chattering.

It’s hard to talk like this! Why is all this happening in the middle of the night?!

I shouldn’t have assumed that the devil twins wouldn’t stay up this late to prank me.

I’m sorry. I’ll never underestimate you again!

I swallowed my bitter tears and glanced at Jeremy.

I found a boy kneeling, staring at me with a grave expression. His dark green eyes looked as light as mine, perhaps from the light of the hearth.

“Don’t let them do that again,” he said. “They keep doing it because you just let them get away with it.”

I’m not so sure, I thought. I feel like your siblings will be this way no matter what I do. Just like you.

But I couldn’t say that out loud, so I said nothing instead, and nestled further into my blanket.

Jeremy sat by me, watching me, for a long time.

When he finally left, I was freed from his unreadable gaze. I tottered over and flopped onto the bed.