Jared looked askance at James with a faint smile and spoke with an uncanny tone of voice, “Ninth brother, you’ve been aberrant today. When have you started to grow interest in other people’s business?”
James’s heart gave a sudden leap. He prevaricated with a chuckle and replied with a grieving voice, “Sixth brother, didn’t you say that I’ve missed a good show? It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it, as what happens here is none of my business though.”
Jared pouted his lips towards the side hall and teased, “You care about that lady in there very much. The show I was talking about concerns her too, don’t you want to know about it?” He then immediately switched the topic and smiled harboring a bad intention. “Ninth brother, I’m also curious why you care about her that much. Did you know her back then?”
James quickly denied by waving his hands, “Please don’t make fun of me, sixth brother. You know I’m ill and need to take medicines all year long. I never went to any banquet, so how would I have the opportunity to know ladies? I was just feeling sympathetic towards her for being injured like that – lying on the ground but was only cared by an elder sister. Therefore I felt that we’re in the same boat.”
Jared felt it hard to carry on with his words as James had mentioned “in the same boat” which obviously meant him and the other princes as the elder brothers had not cared for their ill-stricken younger brother. If his words were spread to the emperor’s ears, he who started the topic might be the first being criticized.
Jared was astute and certainly did not want to become the target for criticism. He changed the subject and watched the show with James while taking the time to tell him what had happened just now.
It was Amy who had lost her mind as if bewitched. The side consort felt embarrassed when the crowd was making fun of Amy after James carried Mary into the side hall followed by Luna who was carried by the servants. She had intended to let Grace marry Leonard and was also scared that Amy would ruin her plan therefore she instructed Madam Barbosa to take Amy away for a rest.
Yet Amy refused to leave and grinned at Ivo instead. “May I know the birth order of your Highness?”
Not to mention Amy who was an undignified mistress, even a dignified liege would not randomly speak to a prince like that.
Ivo had a bad temper; he pulled a long face at once and sneered, “What good manner Lord Regent has taught, until his daughter has become like this.”
Not knowing whether Amy was truly dumb or she had understood his words but was just pretending, she smiled joyfully and replied, “Father was very nice to me and I’m the one most loved in the family.”
Ivo let out a grim laughter. “Didn’t people in the city always say that the third mistress of Debeur family is the number one talented mistress?”
Jesse who was naïve quickly chipped in, “Who said that? Isn’t Lord Mathilda from the Rustica kingdom the number one talented mistress in the world? Oh yes, Miss Debeur, I remembered that Lord Mathilda is your mother’s niece, so she’s your cousin too.” The ‘mother’ mentioned by Jesse was certainly Mary’s mother—Lord Regent’s queen, Lenroe.
Yet Amy did not want to pay attention to him at all. Among the sons of the current emperor, the crown prince Henry belonged to the official department, the second prince Iago was in charge of the imperial academy, the third prince Hector took charge of the war department while the fifth prince Ivo took charge of the criminal department. The sixth prince Jared took charge of the rites and religious temple while the eighth prince Leonard took care of the revenue. The fourth prince Sebastian was the pet of the emperor and was always idling about, yet he would occasionally help in the religious temple.
It was the seventh prince Jesse and the ninth prince James who were complete idlers. The ninth prince at least had his poor health as an excuse to ignore the state affairs, yet the seventh prince who was in great health did not manage to achieve anything.
To sum up, the seventh prince was an unbelievably stupid person therefore Amy would not lay her eyes on such a prince.
As Jesse had just finished his words, Amy spoke with disdain, “Oh yeah? Sadly, a brilliant and talented mistress like her is that ugly in the face.”
To be honest, Amy admired Lord Mathilda too. She had an arrogant personality and there were not many females who deserved her admiration, and Lord Mathilda from the Rustica kingdom was the one she acclaimed the most.
Rumor had it that Lord Mathilda was able to compete her intelligence with the messenger of the Cygnus kingdom. She amazed the world and went famous overnight by writing a book when she was nine years old. The emperor even summoned her himself and bestowed her honorable title for accomplishing such a brilliant feat. Moreover, Lord Mathilda was also excellent in writing, especially her clerical and semi-cursive scripts. Her unique graceful strokes of calligraphy works were even given the name “Mathilda lettering”.
What made people marveled the most was the sewing skills of Lord Mathilda. The pattern she sewed was outstanding and remarkable, and one of the sewing products paid tribute annually from the Rustica kingdom would definitely be of hers.
Yet unfortunately, it was said that Lord Mathilda had a hideous face and whoever saw her face would have nightmares when they slept. Therefore Lord Mathilda always wore a silver mask over the years and not dare to show her face.
Amy had used to admire Lord Mathilda and dreamt of being impressive like her one day. Yet admiration was only admiration, she was unwilling to let anyone compare her with Lord Mathilda.
Jesse was pure-hearted and he had quite a good impression of Lord Mathilda when he had a short contact with her during the emperor’s summons for her in the past. He could not bear to have anyone humiliate Lord Mathilda and feeling unsatisfied, he grunted, “You thought everyone should be like you? Having only a good appearance but is shameless?”
Amy went into rage and yelled while pointing at Jesse’s nose, “What did you say? I dare you to say it one more time!”
Ivo who was cold-tempered quickly defended Jesse and spoke grimly, “Is this how Lord Regent used to teach you? How dare you speak to a prince like this? Why don’t you piss off and reflect on yourself whether you’re truly worthy?”
His words were harsh, making Amy’s face flushed. Amy felt that she was almost embarrassed to death being said by a man in front of so many people, and she bawled at Ivo without even caring whether she liked him or not, “Don’t you think you’ve been fully-fledged being able to take charge of the criminal department! I’ll tell father about what you said to me and let father punish you!”
Ivo was too angry that his face contorted into a smile. “I didn’t know that Lord Regent’s position had overcome mine. Could Lord Regent possibly punish me, as a prince, anyway he likes?”
Amy regretted the moment she said it as she was obviously offending the superior. Yet her arrogance forbade her to give in and she smiled at Ivo too. “You can have a try if you don’t believe it!”
The princes who heard both Amy and Ivo’s conversation all fell into silence. Now that Lord Regent’s family dominated the state affairs and the emperor also trusted Ralph very much, the emperor might concede to Ralph even for a big matter like abolishing a prince’s identity when any of them had offended Ralph’s family.
Even Hector who had faith in Ralph knew about that too. Ralph resembled a useful blade when he was loyal to the Stuart’s family, but if he had any rebellious thought in mind, he was afraid that no one could stop him according to the Stuart’s family’s current situation.
What they clearly had in mind was different from how they talked about it in reality. Seeing Amy’s reckless and menacing behavior before them, nobody could debunk that Ralph himself who was possible to trifle with the Stuart’s family was not one of the causes.
There was an immediate change in Henry’s attitude. He turned and said to the side consort coldly, “Side consort, aren’t the third mistress’s words being a bit inappropriate? Now that all of us brothers are at the scene and we all understand that the third mistress only said it in a hurry and did not mean it, yet it’s a different story when somebody keeps her words in heart. There might be some despicable people trying to abet us to destroy the peaceful relationship between us and Lord Regent.”
His words seemed to remind the side consort to discipline Amy in a euphemistical way, yet he was actually trying to warn Ralph through the side consort at the same time too.
The side consort was not an idiot, she quickly understood the hidden meaning of Henry’s words and broke a cold sweat, her back was all wet out of fear. She pulled a long face and said to Madam Barbosa, “I’ve asked you to bring the third mistress out for a rest, are you deaf?”
Amy pouted her lips and did not dare to argue as she knew she had said unpleasant things just now. She followed Madam Barbosa to the entrance and suddenly halted, giving Grace who was hiding beside the side consort a faint smile and said, “Why, does Grace sis still want to stay here?”
The side consort could not wait for Amy to leave as soon as possible to avoid her causing more trouble here. Although she did not intervene in the state affairs taken care by Ralph, she still knew that it was a crucial moment as the palace was now in turmoil. If Amy had said something inappropriate again and brought troubles to Ralph, not only that Amy was the one doomed, even the whole Debeur family would come to its end.
“Go and have a rest first. Your second sister needs to stay and take care of your fourth and fifth sister.”
Amy was a smart girl, she knew the side consort wanted to chase her off based on her tone of voice and attitude, and she felt unhappy at once. “Mother, I can stay and take care of Luna sis and Mary sis too. How would Grace sis be able to take care of both of them alone?”
Grace started to become anxious too as she was finally able to meet the princes alone. There were always a bunch of mistress from noble families whenever there were times to meet the princes, and her appearance did not stand out and was always buried among the talented mistresses as gentleness and generosity were her only advantages.
Now that she had such an opportunity, she was thrilled and had already planned to display her talents in front of the princes, especially to attract the eighth prince’s attention. Yet her sister was such an annoying vermin!
“Amy, you have a poor health. Do listen to mother and have a rest now.” Grace started forward and grabbed one of Amy’s arms while winking at her maidens, Molly and Sandy to come and take hold of Amy.
Sandy and Molly dashed forward and wanted to drag Amy out, yet Amy had seen them and Grace throwing looks at each other, and she was reluctant to give in. She grabbed Sandy’s arm, sank her sharp nails into it and scratched out a few bloody lines, making Sandy gasped and leaped backward.
Feeling superior, Amy pointed at Grace and scolded, “Do you think you’re able to tame me with your sick intentions? Let me tell you, you’ve made the wrong plan! Good of you to think of getting your servants to deal with me! If you dare, let’s have a debate to see who’s the one being shameless, licking others’ butt and pretend to be kind and generous! Pff! What an obsequious jerk!”