That night, Mary did not sleep peacefully. While she finally slept in after Luna who kept on tossing and turning had slept, she dreamt of the ninth prince, James’ familiar eyes, as if they had recognized each other in the previous life and reunited in the present.
When she did not dream of it at last, the sky went bright.
Mary used to get up and meditate without needing Angelica and the others to wake her up, yet due to not having a good sleep last night; she was still sleeping soundly cuddling with Luna when Angelica and the maidens had finished tidying up.
Angelica could not help but wake both of them up when it was about time for greeting. Luckily both of them did not get up on the wrong side of the bed and woke up the moment Angelica called them.
They wanted to greet the side consort after a round of quick clean up so that the side consort could not pick up their flaws, yet they did not expect that Amy had lost her temper, she insisted having some peace as she had arrived at Munashii Temple and refused to meet both Mary and Luna.
The side consort felt heartache for her little daughter and relented. She sent Margaret to ask Mary and Luna to have their meal in their own room before greeting her.
Mary and Luna could not be more pleased about that. Since it was Cold Food Festival and they were required to have three days of cold meal, the vegetarian food provided by Munashii Temple was green rice dumpling. Both of them ate the dumpling casually accompanied by the rose dew made of hot water, and stopped eating while having their own thoughts in mind.
They held hands and went to the side consort’s when they predicted that the side consort had finished tidying up.
Amy remained bedridden as she had a bad injury that forbade her to walk on the floor. Upon entering the room, they noticed that Amy was lying on the bed watching her maidens, Brit and Gwen playing Cat’s Cradle while Grace and the side consort were whispering with each other at the other side of the room. Both of them silenced upon seeing Mary and Luna coming in.
With a great smile, the side consort asked Mary and Luna to come forward. She gave Grace a cold shoulder and held their hands.
“Were you having a good sleep last night?” The side consort continued further without waiting for Mary and Luna’s answers, “This temple might be efficacious yet it is still incomparable to our household. We’ll get back soon so please bear with it for a few days until we burn the incense sticks.”
She then grinned, “Let’s make your naughty third sister suffer here alone!”
Amy snorted with contempt and continued watching Brit and Gwen playing Cat’s Cradle.
The side consort used to play a kind mother role in front of both of them, yet Mary had goose bumps all over her body seeing her lavishing her motherly love on them. She peeked at Luna and noticed an agonized expression on her. She knew she was also enduring the side consort’s pretentious look.
Grace who was shoved aside due to them did not show any anger; instead, she greeted them with smiling face and showed a kind concern, behaving as an elder sister.
Mary thought secretly, Grace was indeed the side consort’s daughter after all as she had mastered the acting skill of her mother’s, yet she had no idea who did Amy resemble because she was not willing to suffer even for a bit and her emotions were all written on her face. It was easier to deal with this kind of people on the contrary.
After exchanging greetings, noticing there was nothing more to talk about, Grace turned to Sandy and Molly who was guarding the door outside and criticized them, “Don’t you know how to notify us when the fourth and fifth mistresses had entered? Stop being lazy! Luckily they have a good temper, if it’s for other people, you better watch out for your skin!”
Mary frowned, her words did not sound pretentious and that she was actually criticizing Sandy and Molly. Grace was seemingly criticizing the maidens for ignoring them, yet Mary quickly understood the real reason behind when she related the situation she witnessed before to now.
It was obvious that Grace and the side consort were discussing something that could not be known by her and Luna, yet they did not expect them to walk in that casually so Grace vented her anger towards the maidens who guarded the entrance.
Upon finishing her sentence, Amy who remained silent all the time suddenly sneered, “Who’s that “other people”? Please make it clear, Grace Sis. We are the four sisters, and those two incautious servants are your maidens. Leaving out Luna sis and Mary sis, isn’t I the only one left? When did I ever want to peel your maidens’ skin?”
Ever since Mary and Luna visited Amy after she was beaten up, Amy seemed to have a complete misunderstanding towards Grace. To think about it, not only Grace, Amy had felt disgust to every person in the regent household.
“Amy, how could you talk to your elder sister like that?” The side consort’s heart ached with both her elder and younger daughters, she could not bear to see them fighting with each other and let others see the joke.
Grace quickly behaved as an elder sister, “Mother, it’s because Amy sis could not walk around due to her wounds and could only stay inside the room though with such a good weather, which is depressing. Mother must know that Amy sis loves excitement; therefore as a matter of course she would lose some temper due to the boredom. So please don’t chastise Amy sis to aggravate her suffering.”
Seeing Grace being so thoughtful and tolerant, the side consort hugged her and sighed, “You’re my good daughter after all, how thoughtful until I could not say anything further,” She paused and criticized Amy on the other hand, “Look at your sister, and look at yourself!”
Amy did not lift her head up and replied with an uncanny voice, “Yes, yes, I can’t compare myself to my good sister who is gentle and modest, mature and courteous, who is going to marry someone honorable in the future. Who am I anyway? I’m stingy and wily; no wonder I have to marry a paralyzed guy!”
Amy did see Kace behind the curtain when he came for greeting along their way yesterday. She did not see his face but she saw him sitting on a wheelchair pushed by a footboy. She was greatly disappointed when she saw him lacking any masculine spirit.
She would crush her head on the wall if she had to spend the rest of her life with this kind of man. She felt more and more aggrieved thinking about it and felt that the side consort was biased according to their current behavior. The marriage was supposed to be decided according to age initially, since Grace was the eldest, the marriage with the Gladstone family should fell on Grace too.
And now, the marriage had went passed Grace and fell on her, so how could it not prove that the side consort was biased?
The side consort wanted to explode upon hearing her words but her sleeve was pulled by Grace, “Mother, Amy sis was only having a bad mood having to stay in the room. Didn’t mother mention about taking us sisters to burn the incense just now? Let’s put Amy sis on a bench and choose some strong servants to lift her up. After burning the incense, we can let them lift Amy sis to have a look around the temple.”
Grace snuggled into the side consort’s chest and said affectionately, “Mother, I heard that the apricot blossom of Munashii Temple is beautiful, so why don’t we have a look around the apricot blossom forest?”
Mentioning the apricot blossom forest, Mary and Luna gave each other a look, both of them had remembered the soul-stirring incident last night and their face had turned gloomy for a while.
Luna was unhappy when Amy insulted Kace just now, and also seeing Grace who was a grown-up but still snuggling to the side consort pretending to be a little girl as an eyesore, she wanted to find an excuse and leave.
She held Mary’s hand, bowed at the side consort and spoke with a sweet voice, “Mother, since we’re going to burn the incense, I think our clothes are not solemn enough so I would like to change it with Mary sis and we’ll return here afterwards.”
Amy was teaching Gwen to play Cat’s Cradle and she looked up to see what Luna had worn. Luna used to be the one best at dressing up, and now that Mary had recovered, she had become the prettiest among them and she remained pretty no matter what she wore.
As for Grace, she always appeared amicable with a gentle and obedient look while Amy was always arrogant and confident which gave people a deep impression.
On the contrary, Luna’s delicate and sweet appearance did not stand up among the sisters, she appeared petty but luckily she was good at dressing up.
Since young, no matter how good Grace and Amy’s jewelry and clothes were, Luna’s ingenious clothes’ color combination and hair accessories would triumph over them.
Therefore Amy quickly looked up when she heard Luna mentioning her costume was inappropriate, yet her eyes fell on Luna and Mary’s tightly held hands.
Amy felt slightly unhappy at once. Amy who was once superior felt that she was isolated by every people when she was told to marry the paralyzed Kace and was whipped by Ralph in front of so many people. Therefore she was unhappy when she saw any intimate behavior.
She had had a bellyful of grievance due to the side consort and Grace just now, now that she saw the intimate look between Luna and Mary, she could hardly hold back her anger and she grabbed the rope from Gwen’s hand. She lumped the rope into a ball and tossed it to the ground, yet her movement was too large and the pain made her fell backward.
The side consort exclaimed, luckily Brit and Gwen were at Amy’s side and both of them immediately held her up.
The side consort came forward and asked with tears on her eyes, “What’s wrong all of a sudden? Who has irritated you?”
Amy bared her teeth in pain, she stared at Luna and Mary angrily and sneered, “Not knowing when, Luna sis and Mary sis have become too close to each other until they look like Siamese twins. Wasn’t somebody used to bully Mary sis together with Grace sis and I?”
Luna’s face flushed until her neck went red, she stood there helplessly not knowing to continue holding Mary’s hand or release it.
“It’s not nice of what Amy sis has said, how could Amy sis say such things in front of mother?”