It was the kind of season when even a fire crackling in the hearth couldn’t keep the tip of your nose from going cold.

Charlotte opened her eyes, bleary with sleep.

What time is it……

One look at the clock and her eyes flew wide open. Today was the day Viscountess Roman was coming with the wedding dress Charlotte would be wearing. Charlotte had already said she intended to alter her late mother’s gown — and yet the viscountess was coming anyway, which meant she was almost certainly coming for

One look at the clock and her eyes flew wide open. Today was the day Viscountess Roman was coming with the wedding dress Charlotte would be wearing. Charlotte had already said she intended to alter her late mother’s gown — and yet the viscountess was coming anyway, which meant she was almost certainly coming for that reason.

I need to hurry.

Viscountess Roman was a woman who made a habit of arriving late to appointments, but today she might well come early. The viscountess was someone who found even the fact of Charlotte’s existence disagreeable. She would never tolerate being kept waiting by her — even if she herself had arrived ahead of time.

Charlotte threw off her blankets and scrambled out of bed, shuddering at the sharp chill before letting out a long breath. It really was a dreadfully cold winter.

* * *

Viscountess Roman was paying her first visit to the Prairie estate since Viscount Prairie had passed from this world. For someone who had wept at the crowded funeral and declared she would look after Charlotte like her own daughter, the visit was unconscionably late in coming. Charlotte had been fourteen at the time of Viscount Prairie’s funeral. She was twenty-three now.

“My, my……”

Viscountess Roman clucked her tongue at the bare reception room. Not so much as a single painting on the wall. And it wasn’t just the reception room — the entire mansion stood hollow and empty, as though no one lived there at all. Then again, the family business had collapsed alongside her father’s death……

Viscountess Roman fixed a sharp look on the partition behind which Charlotte was presumably changing into the wedding dress she had brought.

“Why is it taking you this long to put on one dress?”

“I’m sorry. It doesn’t fit.”

“Doesn’t fit? What, are you staging a protest for a new dress?”

“No, it’s not that——”

Charlotte began to stammer out some explanation, but Viscountess Roman waved her hand and gave a small, derisive laugh.

“Well. I suppose it might be a touch small on you. It was a dress I wore in my youth, after all.”

As far as the viscountess could see, Charlotte was all skin and bone in the arms and face — and yet she somehow gave an impression of bulk.

That will be her frame, I expect. Big bones. Whereas I have always been slender and willowy, with such an elegantly fine figure.

The viscountess tittered to herself, picturing Charlotte trapped inside the dress, unable to draw a proper breath with the waist squeezing her half to death. Oh, what a sight that must be.

“I ought to see just how badly it doesn’t fit. Move the partition.”

“No, the state I’m in right now——”

Before Charlotte could get another word in, the maid the viscountess had brought with her yanked the partition aside.

Charlotte stood with her face burning crimson — one hand pressed over her chest where the hooks refused to close, the other clutching at the skirt that kept slipping down around her. Even in front of another woman, being seen like this was mortifying.

Viscountess Roman’s face, meanwhile, had gone just as red — though for an entirely different reason. The waist was so large it slid right off her, and the bust so small the dress couldn’t even be properly put on. This was precisely the opposite of what she had imagined.

“You’re no better than a dairy cow! Utterly coarse and graceless!”

The viscountess fanned herself indignantly, quite at odds with the bitter winter cold. Charlotte bit down on the inside of her cheek. The woman picking at her appearance was nothing new — but being spoken to with such open contempt was a first.

Thank goodness I told Maji to wait outside……

Maji was the Prairie estate’s sole remaining maid, and she looked after Charlotte with the tender devotion of family. She was a warm and gentle woman who had quietly weathered the hardest of times at Charlotte’s side. Had she been present, she would surely have been wounded by this even more than Charlotte herself.

“You’ll ruin my precious dress. Take it off her at once!”

Charlotte spun around in alarm before the maid could lay a hand on her — and in doing so, exposed her back: snow-white skin marked by vivid scars. The skin beneath Viscountess Roman’s eyes gave a small, trembling twitch.

Is she showing me that on purpose?

Irritation flared. The viscountess snapped at her maid.

“Put that partition back up this instant!”

“Y-yes, yes.”

The maid hurriedly replaced the partition and then studied Charlotte’s expression, her own brow creasing. If Charlotte kept wearing that wounded look, the viscountess would seize on it as an excuse to keep needling her — and that ill temper would inevitably roll downward onto the servants. Which meant the one who would suffer for it was herself.

But by the time Charlotte had finished changing, her face was composed and unreadable. She looked nothing like someone who had been on the verge of tears mere moments ago. So this seemingly fragile young lady had that in her after all. The maid felt a small measure of relief and drew the partition back.

“Tch. You may go.”

Viscountess Roman jerked her chin toward the door, and the maid gathered up the dress and scurried out. The viscountess turned to Charlotte, who was standing quietly in place.

“What are you doing standing there? Come sit down, quickly. Honestly, this girl has no sense.”

It wasn’t that Charlotte lacked sense. Had she come forward and sat without a word, the viscountess would have rounded on her for sitting without permission.

Hm. Just look at her.

Viscountess Roman subjected Charlotte to a thorough inspection. Abundant brown hair. Deep, blue eyes. Snow-white skin, and a figure that was generous in the bust despite her otherwise slender frame…… Honestly — yes, all right. Her looks were passable enough. But what did that matter?

“What do you intend to do about your dowry?”

Viscountess Roman pressed her fingers to her temple and finally came to the true reason for her visit.

When a bride married, she brought a dowry. In Sandhem, this was simply the way things were done. But look at the state of this house!

How did I end up taking a girl like this for a daughter-in-law.

The incident had happened when Charlotte was small. Viscountess Roman’s only son, Charles, had shoved Charlotte while they were playing together — and straight into a plant pot, of all places.

Charlotte’s head struck the pot with a sharp, shattering crash. She stumbled and collapsed right on top of the broken pieces.

Charlotte was so badly hurt that she was unconscious for some time. She did eventually come to, but the wounds on her back left scars that never faded. To take responsibility, House Roman announced they would betroth Charles to Charlotte.

With scars like that, the poor dear will find it difficult to marry in future. It is only right that we take responsibility.

What a way to speak of one’s own wrongdoing — as though it were an act of generosity. Viscount Prairie found House Roman distasteful, but he genuinely worried that the scars might make it impossible for Charlotte to marry. And if that came to pass, after he was gone someday, Charlotte would be left alone——

It was that worry which led Viscount Prairie to accept House Roman’s proposal. Had Charles ever mistreated Charlotte again, he would never have allowed the betrothal regardless of whether Charlotte spent her whole life alone — but fortunately, from that day forward, Charles had gone out of his way to look after her. And Charlotte had grown genuinely fond of him in return.

In any case, the whole affair earned House Roman widespread praise as the very model of noble responsibility and dignity — yet it was not responsibility that had moved them to accept Charlotte. It was simply that no family in the region surpassed House Prairie. Their bloodline was impeccable, and their finances had been in excellent order.

But who could have foreseen they would fall this completely to ruin!

After House Prairie’s collapse, Viscountess Roman had spent considerable effort wondering how to break off the engagement. Viscount Roman, however, saw things differently.

Are there any suitable prospects left for our son?

Sandhem was a wretchedly small place, and every noble family with a young daughter of marriageable age was in financial disarray without exception.

But if families outside the nobility were considered, the options widened considerably. Sandhem had far more merchants wealthier than its nobles. Every time Viscountess Roman attended one of their gatherings, her eyes would go wide. The women who bowed their heads to her wore elaborate necklaces set with enormous jewels — and a different one each time at that.

Wealthy as they were, without a title to their name, they always deferred to the nobility with impeccable courtesy. Which meant that even if a daughter from a rich merchant family married into theirs, she was unlikely to let her family’s fortune go to her head.

And yet that man cannot free himself from the old way of thinking!

The viscountess pictured her husband roaring about how a noble family could possibly take a commoner in as one of their own.

Ugh. She gave her head a firm shake and returned her gaze to Charlotte with its familiar air of displeasure. Charlotte, who had been looking down at her teacup, lifted her eyes. The moment Viscountess Roman found herself met with those deep, clear blue eyes — keen as a still lake — she startled, suddenly feeling like a student caught misbehaving by a teacher.

Just then Charlotte rose from her seat. Before the viscountess could snap at her for it, Charlotte returned from behind the partition carrying a small jewel case.

“These are the pieces my late mother left to me.”

Viscountess Roman’s face lit up as she snatched the case into her own arms. Inside the case lay only a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a ring. A meager collection, to be sure. And yet——

Just look at these pearls. How can they be so beautiful, so luminous?

She had never seen pearl jewelry like this in her life. The largest pearl at the center of the necklace, in particular, was simply breathtaking.