Chapter 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6: How a Wife Kills Time

I verify how I’ll take my meals from now on with Lotus.

Afterwards, I somehow manage to finish breakfast then have tea or something. Now, I have nothing to do, to put it bluntly. Back home, there were so many things that needed to be done I didn’t even have the time to say “nothing to do”. But this is a prestigious Duke’s house. There’s more than enough people to help out with work. Rather, it would be utterly unthinkable for the “mistress” to do manual labour.

“Mistress?” Dahlia says.

Perhaps she saw me rolling around on the sofa by myself, groaning.

“Yes, what is it?”

“If it would please you, you could embroider?”

So I see. The mistresses of prestigious houses kill tim- I mean, elegantly spend their time doing activities like that… Since at any rate I’m a young celebrity now, I didn’t even think of doing something like that.

But for me, needlework is…

“Embroidery, I see. I can embroider, but my speciality is darning and patching.”

Oops, ended up talking like a peasant seamstress.

“…”

It can’t be helped, back home there was obviously a lot more clothing that needed to be patched up than time to do something unproductive like embroidery. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit this myself, but I’m pretty good with my hands and am good at anything from patchwork to re-attachment. Oh, Dahlia’s looking at me in pity. Don’t wipe away a tear with your handkerchief!

But it’s not like I can’t embroider, you know? Since it doesn’t have any use, I didn’t ever just embroider, but I often embroidered flowers and birds and such on my little sister’s clothing.

Let’s take back everything I just said.

“… Ahem. Well then, what would be good to embroider?” I smile again at Dahlia.

She pulls herself together too and suggests, “How about a pocket handkerchief for your husband to begin with?”

“My, what a lovely idea,” I say flatly.

“It would have been lovelier if you hadn’t said that in a monotone.”

“O ho ho ho.”

Please ignore my monotone.

Though I’m simply his wife for appearances, if he keeps something I made close to him, we’ll look as if we’re a lovey-dovey couple from the outside, after all! As expected from the head maid, nice idea.

With an embroidery set that Mimosa nimbly prepared for me, I begin embroidering a handkerchief to be given to my husband.

Carefully, carefully, carefully.

“I’m already done…”

I ended up finishing the handkerchief before even an hour had passed.

“Mistress, you’re very clever with your hands!” praises Mimosa in astonishment.