It was also a deliberate act by Mary. She had intended to draw Granny Gordy towards her side to better deal with the side consort in the regent household. Yet with several days of getting along with her, Mary realized that Granny Gordy had an extremely high dignity in the household and everyone was scared of her.
What Mary wanted was a helper, not someone who was superior to her; therefore she decided to take the keen edge off the spirit of Granny Gordy.
As both sisters had finished discussing their own color match, Mary suddenly said to Daisy, “I bet Amy sis is still at Grace Sis’ Dewdrop Pavilion at the moment. Tell them for me, that father had given each of us an aquamarine jade, and ask them what color of the string bags they prefer to match their jades. Tell them that Bella from Planifolia Garden makes great string bags and I would let her make and send those string bags to them tomorrow morning during class.”
Daisy agreed and left. Luna was full of confusion, but she did not dare to ask her when Granny Gordy was around.
As for Granny Gordy who was a bit surprised, she asked, “Why does your Highness want to make string bags for the second and third mistress?”
Mary stared at Granny Gordy unmindfully and replied with a shocking expression, “Why did Granny Gordy ask that? Aren’t Grace and Amy sis my sisters? Should there be any reason exchanging gifts among sisters? Granny Gordy was behaving so strange, I remember granny did ask us sisters to love each other this afternoon.”
Granny Gordy’s face instantly flushed red and went white. All these years in the palace, it was her first time getting debunked in front of so many people. But still, Mary was her master, even though Ralph owed her a favor, she would not dare to do anything blatantly towards Mary. She swallowed the humiliation and said, “Now that I’ve handed this jade to your Highness, if anything goes wrong…”
“Don’t worry Granny Gordy, if anything goes wrong, I’ll explain to father that it’s none of Granny Gordy’s fault.”
Her words seemed to portray that Granny Gordy was timid and did not have the courage to take on responsibilities.
Granny Gordy, not knowing what to say, pointed at a thing carried by another servant and said, “This jade flute is a thing played by the former masters in the past. His Majesty said that he had witnessed the fourth mistress’ obedience. Seeing her suffered from injustice today, he wanted to give this flute to the fourth mistress.”
Luna loved playing flute, and she played wonderful music, therefore the jade flute was indeed a great gift given by Ralph to her.
Granny Gordy again, turned to Mary and said, “Your Highness, his Majesty had also prepared gift for you.”
Mary was startled. Ralph had a gift for her too? She did not even do anything today.
Granny Gordy let the servant behind her hand a pile of calligraphy books to Mary and said, “These are the calligraphy books made by his Majesty overnight and every single word was written by his Majesty himself. These two are regular scripts in small characters and this one is his Majesty’s cursive script. His Majesty had mentioned to let your Highness practice writing and will check on your Highness’ homework from time to time.”
Mary let Chloe to hand over the three calligraphy books to her, and upon flipping the pages, she had mixed feelings.
She was not from the present, and she did not possess any feeling towards Ralph. Moreover, her previous body was unvalued and she was made an idiot for all these years. She had held some grudge towards Ralph, but now she realized he was actually good to her.
Mary only spoke for that one sentence last night, and yet Ralph went and sent her those three calligraphy books today. Ralph was a minister in the royal palace and needed to deal with the state affairs. He went to work in the morning and could not even have any leisure after finishing his work. Furthermore, he needed to deal with the trivial matters in the household. Yet he was able to pick out time to write her the calligraphy books in just a single night!
She would be lying if she said she was not touched. Mary closed the book slowly in her hand, bowed slightly at Granny Gordy with Luna and sent her away.
Returning back to June Hall, Luna looked at Mary’s calligraphy books and said with envy, “Father was so nice to you.”
Mary gave her a glare and replied, “Are you saying that father was not nice to you? I’ve seen that jade flute, though I do not know any musical instrument, but from its material, I can tell this jade flute is of good quality. If you think father is not nice to you, how about we exchange the gifts? You give me your jade flute, and I’ll give you my calligraphy books, how’s that?”
The jade flute was Luna’s very life and she would not dare to hand it over. She quickly hugged the jade flute and smiled, “I don’t want to exchange it with you. Father wants you to learn to write by giving you the books. I’m lazy, dumb and unintelligent, so I don’t want to exchange it with you.”
Mary then teased her for being stingy.
The sky had been dark. Luna gave Mary a glass lamp that she liked specifically, “It’s dark. Let your maiden carry this and it can light your way,” and wanted to get the servants together to send Mary back, but Mary refused while appreciating her kindness. To be honest, Luna was actually just a simple girl.
On the other hand, Mary was amused by some ridiculous things she had done in the past. She should not have set tricks on Luna and David, but Grace and David instead.
Returning back to Planifolia Garden, Mary let Angelica to give some gratuities to the servants in June Hall. As she just finished changing her clothes and washing up, Daisy came back from Dewdrop Pavilion.
It turned out that the side consort was still worried about Amy after Grace sent her back to Prosperity Hall, so she wanted Grace to have a look at Amy immediately.
Grace was reluctant, dilly-dallied along the way and upon reaching Dewdrop Pavilion, she was told by the maidens that Ralph had left earlier. Pushing open the doors, she saw Amy fainting on the floor. Grace was feeling intimidated, if what had happened to Amy in Dewdrop Pavilion, the side consort would hate her forever.
Grace then asked people to carry Amy back to Spring Court and inform the side consort regarding this. The side consort, feeling anxious, called for Madam Barbosa to take her register and look for doctors to treat Amy secretly, without notifying Ralph.
After listening to Daisy, without any mood, Grace chose the color combination randomly, olive yellow for her and amber for Amy, and shoved Daisy away.
Mary did not take it seriously. In general, Amy did not receive a light beating and she would be bedridden for half of the year. Losing a rival at this time, Mary was thrilled.
She was not from the present after all, therefore Mary did not like people carrying out night duty when she slept for the night. The maidens were also relieved and happy, leaving Mary as the only one sleeping in the huge room at night.
When the clock struck twelve, Mary suddenly awoke from her sleep, her instinct towards danger made her sat up instantly from her bed and growled, “Who’s there?”
“Miss Debeur must be extremely tired these days, sleeping soundly without even noticing her guest has been here for such a long time. Is this Miss Debeur’s hospitality towards her guests?”
Knowing it was Norman, Mary let out a sigh of relief. She noticed she was wearing only a binder and her clothes were hung on the rack, and getting out of bed to take her clothes seemed awkward, therefore she tucked herself under the blanket.
“I’ve never been told that guests would come to visit when the master was already asleep.”
Norman chuckled in the dark; his bitterly-cold breaths were coming closer and closer. Almost reaching the side of the bed, he stopped, “Is Miss Debeur practicing writing recently?” His hand raised slightly and the flapping sound of the papers was heard.
Those were the scripts she wrote before she slept, based on the calligraphy books she received and she was going to show them to Mr. Watson the next day.
“Miss Debeur was writing based on Lord Regent’s words?” Seeing Mary not replying, he continued, “Lord regent’s words were hard to ask for, Miss Debeur was indeed blessed.”
Mary frowned, “You come here during midnight just to admire my writings? Speak out and tell me what do you actually want.”
Norman sighed and spoke, “I’ve helped Miss Debeur so much yet she still treats me coldly.”
“If you don’t want to speak out I’m going to have to chase you out.”
Norman chuckled, “It’s better that Miss Debeur covers herself nicely first.”
Mary looked downwards and saw that part of her was not covered by the blanket and her shoulder was exposed in the air—–and also in front of Norman’s eyes.
Mary blushed and tucked herself under the blanket further.
“For my information, Miss Debeur’s mother was the eldest princess of the Rustica kingdom, right?”
Mary frowned; she could not wait for Norman to leave as soon as possible. Not knowing why, she felt that this man was specifically dangerous and her instinct told her to leave him as far as possible.
“Yes, so what?”
“The imperial court is going to hold a national festival in July; I bet Miss Debeur knew about this?”
Mary gave a soft reply. It was actually her first time knowing this from Norman. Since it was only mid-March, there was still four more months until the festival, so what does it have to do with her?”
“Until then, the Rustica kingdom will definitely send an envoy here, and who knows, the emperor and the queen of the kingdom might fetch Miss Debeur back to have a short stay.”
Mary’s biological mother, Lenroe, was the daughter of the king and queen of the Rustica kingdom and was most loved. She insisted on marrying Ralph after witnessing his charm regardless of her parents’ disagreement, which also formed an alliance between the Cynthian Empire and the Rustica kingdom. Unfortunately, the relationship between Ralph and Lenroe was not good.
“You came here during this late hour, just to tell me this?”
Norman was shocked under his mask, how could this matter be of no importance towards Mary? Mary could have used this opportunity to change her fate; after all, her mother was the only princess in the Rustica kingdom and was loved dearly. As the sole progeny of the princess, she could have lived better than here in Lord regent’s household.
“If this is all you want to tell me, you can leave now. Thank you for informing me and I would like to rest now.”
Norman stared at Mary with a curious look, “Now that I’ve told Miss Debeur about this, shouldn’t Miss Debeur give me something as a token of appreciation?”
Mary frowned more and more, she could not wait to go down her bed and kick him off her room, sadly she was unable to do so. She randomly pointed at the money case on the dressing table and without other choice, said, “There are some coins inside, if you like, you can take all of them.”
Norman burst into laughter; he waved the written scripts in the air and said, “Looks like I can only take away Miss Debeur’s calligraphy scripts as a token of appreciation.”
Mary who panicked all of a sudden, yelled, “Give it back! I need to show them to Mr. Watson and father tomorrow!”
Norman had already jumped out of the window, but still did not forget to leave down a message, “Take care of the wound on your heel!”
Mary clenched her teeth out of anger. That rogue! It looked like she could only burn the midnight oil, if not, how should her submit her homework tomorrow?