Bailey, who had been attending at her side, suggested a walk in a tone full of sympathy. Isabella turned to look out the window once more. The sky was still dreary. The thick dark clouds showed no sign of retreating. Once they finally let loose their rain, they’d vanish without a trace, as though they had never existed.

I want to disappear like that too. Those storm clouds seemed happier than she was, trapped in a situation where she could neither receive love nor give it, unable to do anything at all. At least the clouds could pour their rain wherever they wished, whenever they wished, and then vanish cleanly.

“It looks like it’s going to rain soon. The other maids will complain. What kind of garden walk is this in the rain, they’ll say.”

“What are you talking about? Whether it rains or snows, a maid’s duty is to follow wherever the grand duchess wishes to go. Don’t think like that.”

“I want to walk with just the two of us.”

“I’d like that too. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time it was just the two of us.”

Before her marriage to Declen, she and Bailey had always walked together, just the two of them. On hot summer days they would walk all the way to the lake and wade in the shallows, and on cold winter days they would pack and throw snowballs until their cheeks and noses turned bright red. Back then everything had been happy and good, without a worry in the world.

“Shall we go out, just the two of us, Your Highness?”

“……”

“It’ll be fine if we just go to the garden. It’s the grand ducal estate, after all.”

“……”

“If we only go as far as the pavilion in the garden, we won’t even get rained on.”

Bailey’s voice kept going as she quickly mapped out a plan. The thought of the two of them walking alone together after so long seemed to lift her spirits almost instantly. Even without being told, it was obvious Bailey had been suffocating too. It was plain to see how excluded Bailey was among the grand ducal household’s staff, not even being a proper maid of the estate.

She was still Isabella’s closest attendant, so no one would openly mistreat or ostracize her, but there would be an undercurrent of exclusion, a sense that she didn’t quite belong to their circle. And with the recent prophecy, that undercurrent had only swelled further.

[He who severs that woman’s neck with a shard of the broken flute shall be blessed with eternal wealth and glory.]

The prophecy that had come down again just days ago had been enough to shatter Isabella’s heart. She did not want to be the woman in the prophecy. And so she had not slept. If she did not sleep, Avilion could not appear to her in dreams again. That was the thin, fragile belief she clung to: that if she never slept, she would not become the subject of that prophecy. It was that belief, however hollow, that kept her from closing her eyes.

One day passed, then two, and her body began to send warnings. It might have been bearable if she had kept herself constantly moving, but she could not. Declen had come to her with a warning of his own.

— It seems you are once again the subject of the prophecy, so I ask that you avoid leaving the grand ducal estate as much as possible. All public engagements will be cancelled.

Before she could say a word in reply, he was already gone. She stared blankly at his retreating back, then sank into the nearest seat. And after that, she did nothing. What was happening outside? Were they pressing him to kill her? Declen told Isabella nothing of what was unfolding, and neither did anyone else. Even Bailey told her nothing of what was going on around her.

It would be better if someone were by her side. But he was not. She wanted to talk things over with Reymon. But she could not go out. Paralyzed by a relentless helplessness, she sat still, and her sleepless body dragged her toward unconsciousness again and again.

She slapped herself, opened the large bedroom window and let the wind rush in, fighting off sleep with everything she had. But on the afternoon of the third day, Isabella collapsed into sleep as though she had fainted.

[I am sorry, child.]

Does saying sorry make it all right? Why me? Why only me? She woke without ever having confronted him. She called for Bailey and had her bring a mirror. Just as on the day the first prophecy had come, Bailey looked at Isabella’s forehead in silence, then quietly handed her the mirror. Only after seeing it for herself did she have to accept, with bone-deep certainty, that she was the subject of the second prophecy as well.

After that, she cut everything off. She stopped the walks she had loved so much. She stopped the occasional trips outside the estate, taken with Declen’s permission when the walls felt like they were closing in on her, when she would slip into the bustle of passing people and pretend to be an ordinary citizen of the empire. Now she simply sat in her wide, quiet bedroom, embroidering, painting, drinking tea.

She had endured all of this. So why, of all days, was the suffocation pressing in so hard today that she could barely stand it?

“It’ll be fine. We’re still inside the grand ducal estate, and it’s only the garden at most. His Grace will surely turn a blind eye to that much.”

“You think so?”

“Of course! He knows how much Your Highness loves walking in the garden. That much will be fine.”

Isabella had been tidying away her embroidery hoop when she stopped at something Bailey had let slip without thinking. He knows I love the garden?

“Declen knows I love the garden?”

“Of course he does. I overheard him giving instructions to the gardener the other day.”

“What instructions?”

“He said summer was coming soon, so to plant hydrangeas so that the grand duchess would have something lovely to look at.”

Her heart pounded wildly. She had assumed he didn’t know. Because she walked in the garden the same way he went about his work, she had assumed he paid it no mind. She had thought he gave her no thought at all. Now it made sense, how one day the garden had begun to bloom with lush, full hydrangeas. She had assumed the gardener had arranged it on his own and let the thought pass without another moment’s consideration.

“If it rains, those hydrangeas will bloom even more beautifully. Hydrangeas with raindrops on them are so pretty. Let’s go see them, Your Highness.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Really? We’re going right now?”

“Yes. Let’s go see the hydrangeas.”

The suffocating weight lifted all at once, and the gloom dissolved. She wanted to see the hydrangeas she had looked at every day before shutting herself away, and she wanted to see them now. She wanted to see raindrops beading on their petals. That eagerness must have shown in her movements, because Bailey burst into bright laughter at the sight of Isabella’s hurried hands smoothing her casual dress, then stepped over to straighten the skirt for her.

“Wait just a moment. I’ll go get tea and cookies.”

“Hm? That’s all right.”

She had only just been having tea and cookies, so there was no real need, but Bailey apparently felt otherwise.

“By the time you walk all the way to the pavilion in the garden, you’ll be thirsty and craving something sweet, won’t you? It’s not as if I don’t know you, Your Highness. It won’t take long to get everything together, so please wait just a moment. I’ll be right back.”

After straightening Isabella’s dress, Bailey left the bedroom. Taking care not to crumple the dress Bailey had just fixed, Isabella sat back down in the chair, pressed a hand over her racing heart, and waited for her to return.

Had he truly given the order to plant hydrangeas for her? She was eager to see those hydrangeas that had bloomed so beautifully in purple. She endured the growing restlessness and waited. How long had it been?

“Your Highness! I’ve got everything! Let’s go!”

Flinging the door open just as she used to back at the barony, Bailey stepped in with a bright smile. Isabella jumped to her feet and followed her out.

“Your Highness. Where are you going?”

Just as always, one of the grand ducal estate’s knights knelt before her and asked her destination. It was Ronan Taylor, a face she had often seen near Declen.

“I’m going to the garden. There’s no need to follow.”

“I will escort you as far as the garden entrance.”

“Very well.”

The knight assigned to watch over Isabella said he would only come as far as the garden entrance, which was acceptable enough. She could tolerate that much.

Because what mattered more was that she was going to the garden he had tended for her.

Stepping outside, the humidity hit her skin more heavily than she had felt from inside the bedroom. Even so, Isabella’s mood kept climbing steadily upward. The hydrangeas had been in full bloom just days ago. Had they bloomed even fuller today? She thought she had spotted a few buds that hadn’t opened yet back then.

“It looks like it might rain quite a bit.”

“It does.”

The sky had darkened further since before she came out, but Isabella kept walking toward the garden. Bailey too seemed to be in fairly good spirits despite the cloud-covered sky, perhaps because it had been a while since she had stepped outside the main building.

“Still, you’re feeling better, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I’m all right. I’m glad I listened to you and came out.”

Isabella smiled softly, and Bailey smiled along with her, then held out the large basket she was carrying.

“Look at this, Your Highness. When the kitchen staff heard you were heading to the garden, they packed all these tea foods for you.”

“Isn’t that heavy? Shall I carry it?”

“No, I’ve got it. Oh?”

“Allow me.”

Ronan, who had been quietly listening to their exchange, took the large basket from Bailey’s hands. Bailey turned to him with a flustered look and tried to take it back, but Ronan held his ground. He moved the basket behind his back or lifted it high above his head to keep it out of her reach.

The sight was rather cute and funny, and a laugh escaped Isabella’s lips. Watching the two of them like that warmed something in her. Even if things were difficult between herself and Declen, perhaps it could be different for Bailey and this man.

“Thank you.”

“Think nothing of it.”

Ronan cleared his throat several times after receiving Bailey’s thanks. His ears looked faintly red.

Watching them with quiet amusement, Isabella kept walking, and before long the garden entrance came into view in the distance. At the iron gate that marked the entrance to the garden, Ronan handed the basket back to Bailey.

“Enjoy your time, Your Highness.”