The Meaning Of Orange Roses

“Madam, you look absolutely beautiful!”

The maid who was arranging Giselle’s hair exclaimed with her hands clasped together. Giselle looked at the proud maid and spoke with an embarrassed smile.

“It’s thanks to your hard work. Thank you all.”

The maids blushed and smiled softly, seemingly shy about receiving thanks from the person they served.

Watching this scene, a contented smile spread across the head maid’s face as well. She couldn’t help but smile at the mistress’s thoughtfulness in acknowledging the servants’ efforts.

“Now, let’s put on your jewelry, madam.”

The head maid approached Giselle with a jewelry box, still smiling. If nothing else, only Giselle herself was allowed to touch the jewelry in the box.

She opened the jewelry box brought by the head maid and took out a necklace. It was a pearl necklace that perfectly complemented her snow-white skin.

The necklace also enhanced the pure beauty of a new bride who had not been married long. The matching earrings had the same effect.

Giselle gazed at her reflection in the mirror.

Her appearance in the fresh green dress still felt unfamiliar and difficult to get used to.

She stood still for a moment, then twirled around once.

As the dress skirt spread wide open, the morning glory vine-like pattern embroidered on the hem displayed its vivid beauty.

It was a pattern that matched perfectly with her curly pink hair.

‘Looking at myself like this, I think I’m quite pretty too…… No, what am I thinking?’

Giselle blushed with embarrassment after her inadvertent inner monologue, then spoke again.

“Um…… By the way, is everything ready?”

“Yes, madam.”

The head maid forcibly pulled down the corners of her mouth that were trying to rise on their own and answered calmly. The nanny also smiled beside her, looking at Giselle with an expression of pride.

Giselle’s face flushed red again at that gaze, but she pretended to be calm and turned her head to look out the window.

The front gate appeared somewhat busy, perhaps because carriages carrying guests invited to today’s tea party were arriving one by one.

“Then let’s go out.”

She left the bedroom to welcome the guests. The head maid, nanny, and maids followed behind her.

* * *

“Oh! Will the master arrive before the tea party ends? Did you tell him, head maid?”

While going down the stairs, the nanny suddenly seemed to remember something and carefully asked the head maid in a small voice. The head maid slightly furrowed her brow and answered ambiguously.

“I told him a few days ago, but he left in a hurry this morning, so I couldn’t remind him.”

“Oh my, what should we do? If he forgets……”

The nanny’s face quickly darkened upon hearing the head maid’s words.

It was a social custom for a husband to make an appearance at his wife’s first tea party.

She had also heard that it was currently fashionable in social circles for the husband to prepare a gift for his wife’s tea party.

Small gifts to give to departing guests.

Such as flowers or desserts.

If the husband did not attend the tea party or did not prepare such gifts, it could be interpreted as the couple not having a harmonious relationship.

In other words, it could also mean that the mistress was not being properly acknowledged.

Therefore, Lucas’s attendance was essential for Giselle’s tea party to conclude successfully.

“There’s no need to worry. How could our master, who is so perfect, forget? Especially since it’s madam’s first tea party. The two of them have such a good relationship.”

“You’re right. Just looking at the master’s eyes when he’s with madam……”

The nanny agreed with the head maid’s words, smiling contentedly.

“……”

Unaware of their quiet conversation, Giselle took a deep breath with a tense expression. Her fingertips trembled slightly as she gripped the stair railing.

Although she was pretending to be calm, in truth, her heart was beating so wildly it felt like it might jump out.

How could it not?

This was her first tea party ever.

Moreover, it was her first tea party as the “mistress of the Taylor household.”

If there was anything that could be criticized, it would affect not only her but Lucas as well.

That’s why she felt an even greater sense of responsibility, and the pressure was inevitably substantial.

‘……I can do this well. I prepared hard. Not just me, but everyone together.’

Giselle stopped halfway down the stairs and looked back. The head maid and nanny, who had been following her down, looked at her with puzzled expressions.

She could see the smiles on their faces. Unlike her, they didn’t seem very nervous.

……They were trusting her.

Her.

Her, the novice mistress.

‘I cannot betray that trust.’

Giselle firmly pressed her lips together and turned her head to look ahead. Her eyes caught sight of the ladies being guided into the first-floor hall.

Their appearances, adorned as if competing to see who was more splendid, reminded her of peacocks.

‘That’s right. ……I am the zookeeper. The zookeeper in charge of these peacocks for today.’

Just feed and entertain them well.

Giselle continued down the stairs with this somewhat quirky thought, helping herself relax in her own way.

Toward the ladies who were glancing at her while pretending not to look.

* * *

“……You haven’t understood my words at all, Mr. Schnickel.”

Lucas put down the pen he was holding and spoke with a sigh.

The ledger placed before him was filled with red lines, reminiscent of a battlefield after a bloody battle.

Tap tap.

As he tapped the open page of the ledger with his fingertip, Schnickel hurriedly offered excuses while wiping the sweat flowing down his forehead.

“Ah, well, you see, President. Um…… because an employee made a mistake in the calculation process……”

“I wonder if this can be seen as just a simple calculation error.”

Lucas’s gaze toward Schnickel grew colder. The secretary, who had been quietly observing, silently clicked his tongue.

It would have been better to confess all his sins and beg for forgiveness. If he had done so, he could have expected a reduced punishment considering that point.

‘The President has been in quite a good mood lately.’

The secretary recalled Lucas, who had been consistently generous since the wedding ceremony.

Of course, there hadn’t been a huge change. Most people might even ask what change there had been.

But as a secretary who had observed him closely for a long time, he could detect even the smallest changes.

The warmth blooming on his face that had always looked cold, and sometimes the gentle smile he wore when thinking of ‘someone’.

While the secretary was repeatedly clicking his tongue and shaking his head, Lucas pointed again to the parts he had checked and continued in a low voice.

“A considerable amount of money has leaked out. Can you explain where this money flowed to and for what purpose it went out?”

“That…… if, if you could give me a little time……”

Schnickel’s face, which had been sweating profusely and at a loss, grew even paler.

He seemed to have just realized that the matter had grown too large to be dismissed as a mere calculation error.

‘When Anticia was here, there was never a problem like this!’

He had never imagined that Giselle’s absence, whom he had always dismissed because she was a woman, would be this significant.

He had even said at one point that she had probably taken the job just to seduce a man and get married.

After hearing the news of her marriage to the President, he had even subtly boasted in front of people that he had been right.

But…… that didn’t seem to be the case.

Schnickel, with his mind going blank at the thought that he might be charged with embezzlement, shed tears and mucus, regretting his foolish days.

“Huff……”

Lucas looked at Schnickel, whose face had turned bright red and was covered in tears and mucus, and sighed.

Watching a middle-aged man cry made his head throb.

He pressed one side of his head with his hand and gestured to the secretary. It was a sign to immediately escort Schnickel out.

Thud.

After the secretary took Schnickel outside, silence returned to the office.

Lucas buried himself deep in the backrest and pressed the area near his temple with his hand.

The midday sun had tilted, casting long sunlight on the east side of the office. But the day’s work was not yet over.

After all, he had a dinner appointment with Marquis Naiars, the king’s maternal uncle.

“To think I have to have dinner with that greedy old man.”

Just thinking about it made his head throb even more. Lucas muttered to himself, sighed, and then looked at his desk.

The desk was a mess, as if to prove that he had been busy with various matters all day.

He roughly pushed aside a stack of documents and was about to examine the ledger again when the secretary, who had taken Schnickel out on Lucas’s order, returned.

“President, someone has come from the Marquis Naiars’s household.”

“From the Marquis’s household? Why, are they saying to cancel the dinner appointment?”

Lucas smirked and jokingly asked. It was just a light joke, but it also contained his sincere wish.

However, contrary to his expectation, the secretary shook his head and said something else.

“The Marquis says he wants to move the dinner appointment up by an hour.”