“Adel! You’re struggling this much and you still combed my hair! You like me too much, Adel, it’s a problem.”

“I don’t like you, Violet.”

“But let’s focus on the movements for now. Come on, lower yourself just a little more.”

“Ow! Stop, I can’t go any further, I’ll die if I go any further!”

Violet didn’t stop until she had gotten Adelaide’s chest all the way to the floor. Adelaide collapsed in a heap, drenched in sweat.

“Adelaide Charlotte Berthier!”

On top of that, another uninvited guest appeared. Duke Berthier.

“What is it, Your Grace? I feel like I’m dying right now.”

It was Adelaide’s way of saying: don’t start with me and just walk past.

But Duke Berthier wiped away tears and walked into the room. He kept clapping his thick palms together. Yes, he was applauding, overcome with emotion.

“Magnificent! That’s my daughter! You’ve finally shown the early-rising, exercise-loving spirit you inherited from me!”

“I don’t have any such spirit.”

“I knew it would show itself someday! Every time you told me I hadn’t passed down anything but a stubborn nature, my heart felt like it was tearing apart!”

“Benjamin, give His Grace his blood pressure medicine. He’s going to keel over.”

Benjamin was standing beside Duke Berthier, clapping right along with him. Even Violet, watching the scene unfold, joined in the applause.

Adelaide gave Amy, the only one not clapping, the opportunity to help her up.

“Amy. Throw all of them out.”

“All of them, she says!”

“I’m sorry, I’m Lady Adelaide’s dedicated maid, you see.”

Amy drove Violet out and drove Benjamin out. Only Duke Berthier remained.

“Remember this, Adelaide. You are my daughter. Just as the early-rising, exercise-loving spirit showed itself in you today, tomorrow the spirit of receiving praise with an open heart will show itself.”

“Is that something to say from a man who smashed eighteen vases at the imperial palace?”

“Who told you that! It was Lionel! I’ll get that boy!”

Adelaide dispatched Duke Berthier magnificently. Adelaide wanted nothing more than to go straight back to bed, but her body was soaked in sweat, so she had to bathe first.

“Exercise and a bath first thing in the morning.”

“It’s a good habit, though, Lady Adelaide.”

“You’re welcome to have all the good habits you like.”

“I have to be by your side at all times, so that’s a bit much for me.”

“I’ll give you permission. Starting tomorrow, go exercise with Violet in my place.”

Amy pressed her lips together. The movements Violet demanded were strange enough just to watch from the side, and Amy had had to hold back laughter more than once.

Even to Amy’s easygoing eye, it looked less like exercise and more like a punishment.

“All talk and no follow-through.”

“My mother always said my mouth would float even if I drowned.”

“Your mother is so wise, so why did you turn out like this?”

“They say children always grow up to be the opposite of what their parents nag them about.”

“That’s not a universal truth. I’m not like that.”

“You are too, Lady Adelaide. Whenever His Grace says something, you go out of your way to do the exact opposite.”

“Bring me a needle. I need to sew your mouth shut.”

“If my mouth gets sealed, what will our Lady Adelaide do for entertainment? The water is all warmed up. It’s just the right temperature, so don’t worry and take your time getting in.”

Adelaide had been about to say something sharp, but she met a gaze so full of warmth that she closed her mouth.

It wasn’t the look she had grown sick of, the one that said she was pretty. It was the look of a mother hen adoring her chick, a mare cherishing her foal.

“Stop staring.”

“How am I supposed to attend to you without looking?”

“When I tell you to stop, just stop! You never listen the first time!”

“I can’t help it when our Lady Adelaide is so lovely.”

Adelaide sank deep into the tub to escape Amy’s gaze.

‘I’ve been stuck in a seventeen-year-old body for too long. I may not look it, but I’m twenty-seven, and here I am, with a girl who’s only nineteen.’

“Oh, right. Lady Violet asked to borrow a few of your dresses, Lady Adelaide.”

“She dragged in a bag the size of a house and she has nothing to wear?”

Amy, well used to Adelaide’s rough way of speaking, simply laughed it off. At least she never forgot her basic manners outside.

Adelaide knew how to separate the personal from the professional, and her sharp words were never aimed at Amy. That was Adelaide’s way: harsh words, but never a hand raised or a real insult thrown.

“Lady Violet said she couldn’t sleep last night, so I showed her around your dressing room. Her eyes lit right up and she said she absolutely had to borrow something, so I couldn’t help it.”

“That’s banned.”

“Pardon? Should I not lend Lady Violet any dresses?”

“No, ‘our Lady Adelaide.’ That’s banned. Don’t use it anymore.”

Amy only smiled and never did give a proper answer. Adelaide gave up and decided to focus on the soothing massage working out the muscles she had put through their paces since morning.

The breakfast table was a far more spectacular sight than the morning exercise. Duke Berthier sat smiling the whole time, watching Adelaide and Violet with a look of warm contentment.

“Thank you for being a friend to our Adelaide, Lady Armetia.”

“Lady Armetia sounds so distant, Your Grace. Please just call me Violet.”

“Ahem, well, of course. You’re Adelaide’s closest friend, so I shouldn’t be so formal. And you don’t need to call me Your Grace either. Just call me,”

Duke Berthier considered what form of address would be appropriate.

“Father, then?”

“Father!”

“You’re Adel’s father, so you’re as good as a father to me too, aren’t you?”

Adelaide looked around the table, thinking someone had to put a stop to this ridiculous little farce. She met Lionel’s eyes, which were crinkled with quiet amusement.

‘This has gone completely wrong.’

Adelaide grasped the severity of the situation and scraped her utensil across her plate. The grating screech drew everyone’s attention.

“Your Grace.”

Violet’s eyes went wide. She had heard that Adelaide and Duke Berthier were not on good terms, but she hadn’t imagined Adelaide didn’t even call him Father.

Duke Berthier let out an awkward cough. Even his own daughter Adelaide called him Your Grace, so for her friend Violet to address Duke Berthier by a familiar title would be truly absurd.

“Please eat. Your plowing-the-fields spirit gets worse by the day. I’m starting to worry it might rub off on me.”

“Violet, that’s just how she is. She can’t stand conversation during meals.”

Violet placed Duke Berthier and Adelaide on a scale in her mind. The scale tipped immediately toward Adelaide.

“Adel isn’t wrong. You should focus on the food during a meal. Our Adel always says exactly the right thing.”

Our Lady Adelaide, our Adelaide, our Adel. Adelaide was on the verge of developing an allergy to the word “our.”

“Violet.”

“Yes, Adel.”

“‘Our’ is banned in this house.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m not Violet’s Adel and I’m not His Grace’s Adelaide. The only person who can claim me is me. So if you say ‘our Adel’ one more time.”

“Adel. You even cut up all my meat for me! Let me cut yours too.”

Adelaide couldn’t stand watching Violet’s knife work, which made her question whether the girl had received any proper upbringing at all, and pulled the plate over.

If not for the curse, she would have ignored it and moved on, but the sight of the mangled plate sent the curse rearing up like a foal with its tail on fire.

“Don’t touch my plate.”

“But!”

“I’m cutting it up because you handle a knife like a three-year-old, so stop thinking about ruining my meat and sit there and eat what you’re given.”

Lionel immediately began cutting his own meat like a three-year-old. Duke Berthier quietly pushed aside his perfectly sliced meat and mimicked clumsy knife work.

“Benjamin, His Grace’s hands seem to be trembling. Give him his blood pressure medicine.”

“Benjamin, no blood pressure medicine needed.”

“Benjamin, have you prepared His Grace’s ear medicine? There’s been no improvement at all.”

“Benjamin! Tell her my ears are perfectly fine!”

Benjamin wanted to flee. Violet hummed to herself as she happily ate the meat Adelaide had cut for her.

Adelaide pulled Lionel’s plate over and cut his meat with brisk strokes. Lionel watched Adelaide’s hands with a pleased smile.

“Thank you, Lady Adelaide.”

“If you’re grateful, go take off those useless hands of yours and come back with a pair that actually works.”

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

Only Duke Berthier’s plate remained. Adelaide clenched her fist with everything she had.

“Ahem, ahem. My wrist is aching something terrible today.”

“Benjamin! Go to the kitchen and have them bring the meat back out cut into pieces!”

“Benjamin! No need to go all the way to the kitchen! I’ll manage with my aching wrist and cut it myself!”

“Please do!”

“Right, I will!”

Adelaide’s palm was covered in nail marks by the time Duke Berthier huffed and cut his own meat himself.

‘Lucky the old man has a short fuse. If he’d held out any longer, I would have ended up cutting his meat too.’

Adelaide let out a sigh of relief at having avoided that indignity.

Two weeks had now passed since Violet took up residence at the Berthier estate.