The sky was pitch black that day, even at midday.

Dense clouds, as dark and dreary as the hide of a sewer rat, hung over Heitzrind manor, and a thin rain fell without pause from morning, unseasonable for early summer in June.

Bailey, who worked as a maid at the manor for many years, muttered that she couldn’t recall weather this gloomy around this time of year.

“…The roses in the garden are going to wilt, and they only just bloomed.”

The manor’s rose garden was considered the most famous garden in Portzsheim.

Everyone would peer through the gaps in the high walls to catch a glimpse of the garden when the roses came into full bloom around May and June. The golden gates of Heitzrind manor did not open easily for just anyone.

The servants busily polished the manor’s parlor, staircase, and door handles without rest.

The mistress of the house, the Duchess of Clausen, appeared to be in no better a mood than the ominous sky above.

They kept their hands moving, doing their best not to irritate their employer.

Then again, even without the weather, there was never a day when irritation and cold contempt were absent from the duchess’s face.

“The atmosphere in the house is already unsettled enough as it is, and now the weather has to be like this too. Has the duke gone out?”

“Yes, he left since early this morning. Without a word of where he was going….”

“Right, wasn’t it ten days until the young master’s arrival?”

“That’s right. The kitchen is already in an uproar. They say they’re preparing all of Karl’s favorite dishes, and the larder is packed full. Just the orders placed with the shops in Bern alone….”

The maids were taking the chance to catch their breath and chattering away about things no one asked, when a rough engine sound cut through the rain outside the manor gates. The servants, who had been diligently sweeping and wiping their assigned areas, swiftly put away their tools and took their positions by the door.

The duke, who left the manor since dawn, returned.

The loyal servants lined up at the head butler’s direction to receive their master.

“Welcome back, Your Grace.”

Head butler Norman bowed deeply in greeting to the Duke of Clausen.

As he straightened up from his bow and looked at his master, he noticed a small, golden-haired girl standing behind the duke.

“Your Grace, it seems you have brought a young guest with you.”

“…Her name is Adelaide Baden. She will be living here with us from today. She is the daughter of a dear acquaintance, so see to it that she is treated with special care.”

Head butler Norman gave Bailey a small nod as a signal, and the seasoned woman promptly guided the little girl to her side.

Ten years old, perhaps?

She was a small girl with curly golden hair that barely reached her shoulders. Whatever had cut her hair, the lengths on either side didn’t even match.

A plain dress the color of dull grey, as dreary as the day’s weather, looked out of place on her, and the short dress appeared tight even on her small frame.

The white legs beneath her skirt looked cold enough to ache despite it being early summer. A sorry sight of an outfit.

Bailey thought the girl looked like a little mouse.

The drizzle fell without end, and small droplets of rain clung to her bright golden hair.

On a typical June day in Portzsheim, those curly golden locks would have caught the light and shimmered, but right now there was not even a sliver of light to make her stand out. Only the wall-mounted indoor lamps, hastily lit in anticipation of the master’s return, flickered faintly.

It was as Bailey guided the little mouse of a young lady past a gas lamp.

The amber glow of the flame wavered and lit up the girl’s face, and only then could Bailey get a proper look at her. What followed was a start of shock.

She felt her old heart nearly leap from her chest.

‘…Good heavens!’

Bailey knew a young lady with golden hair this dazzling, delicate features, cream-like skin, and green eyes.

It was an event from well over a decade ago.

‘…Why does this child have to look so completely like her mother?’

Bailey’s hands trembled faintly.

The child blinked her bright eyes and looked up at Bailey.

Bailey looked to head butler Norman as if seeking help, and Norman seemed to recognize her only then as well.

Even the loyal butler, who remained composed no matter what came his way, could not hide the bewilderment on his face.

“My lord. The young lady is….”

Norman turned to the duke in flustered confusion, when just then, the Duchess of Clausen appeared at the top of the central staircase connecting the second floor to the parlor below, trailing her long dress behind her.

Her deep blue dress and her face, gone even paler than that blue, came into view as she descended the dark reddish mahogany staircase.

“…A leopard never changes its spots, they say. What a fine thing to do. Anyone who sees her will know at once whose child she is. I truly wonder, does the duke have no sense of shame!”

Behind the furious duchess stood her devoted maid Daina, her head slightly bowed.

The moment the girl followed the duke inside, Daina understood at once who she was and whose daughter she was.

The woman who drove her mistress to the edge of her nerves.

And the small child who was her spitting image.

The duke’s conduct, seemingly dismissive of her mistress, made Daina’s blood boil.

The moment Daina laid eyes on that wretched little girl the duke brought in, she quickly checked the duchess’s expression first.

“Daniela. That is an excessive thing to say. I am not unaware of what you wish to say, but a young child and many servants are listening. You know as well as I do that Lord Baden, Adelaide’s father, is someone I have known for many years through business. Until yesterday, this child was in the care of a charity school. She has lost both her parents, so I ask for your generosity.”

Whether the duke genuinely sought his wife’s mercy was unclear.

Yet the eyes of the Duke of Clausen, looking up at her with cold indifference while asking for generosity, held a faint trace of contempt.

The blue veins stood out on Daniela’s white hand as she gripped the reddish mahogany banister.

Her trembling fingertips looked ready to gouge into the solid wooden railing.

And so Adelaide became a member of the Heitzrind household.

“Are you my new nanny?”

The small girl standing before Bailey looked up at her with wide, blinking eyes and asked.

Bailey was at a loss.

Everyone was floundering, caught between the duke and the duchess, unable to move in any direction.

Bailey herself didn’t know where she was supposed to take the small girl standing at her side.

The standoff between the duke and duchess dragged on, until the duchess abruptly turned and walked back up the second-floor staircase.

In reality, her steps were quiet, without even the rustle of fabric. Yet to Bailey’s ears, it sounded exactly like a storm raging from within the duchess’s deep blue dress.

Each time the long trailing hem swept across the red staircase, it felt as though a blue tempest of blood swept through Heitzrind manor.

Once she disappeared fully onto the second floor, the duke gave Norman a look, and Norman in turn gave Bailey a nod.

A heavy, mercury-like air wrapped around the entrance of Heitzrind.

Bailey wanted to be free of the situation, so she quickly took the mouse-like girl and moved to a guest room on the first floor.

Guest room in name only. In truth, it was a room where temporary workers stayed when the manor was short on hands. It was close to the manor kitchen and tended to be noisy, and being at the far western end of the manor, the air was cold.

The room sat unused long enough that the air inside was damp, so she quickly lit the firewood and warmed the room.

From the outer shutters connecting the room to the outside of the manor, the sound of wind and rain, now grown considerably stronger, came through.

Bailey lit the fire and thought quietly to herself.

‘If I take this child up to the second-floor guest room, the duchess will be horrified. I can’t push the mistress any further to her limit, so this room, where she’s least likely to catch the mistress’s eye, is the best option for now. If His Grace says anything, I’ll move her then.’

It was the intuition of someone who worked at the manor for a long time.

As she silently tended the fire and tugged at the bedsheets to straighten the bedding, the child spoke to her.

Was she her nanny?

Bailey let out a long sigh and answered.

“What did you say your name was, young lady?”

“Adelaide Baden. Everyone called me Adele.”

“All right. Then I’ll call you Adele too. How old are you this year, Miss Adele?”

“My birthday passed last month, so I turned twelve.”

Bailey had generously estimated ten, maybe eleven, so she thought the child was quite small for her age.

Then again, come to think of it, this child’s mother, Rene von Eduard, was also a young woman of small build.