Chapter 110 - What Gets Left Behind (1/2)

Court reconvened again before we knew it. Mariela's tea parties were slightly less terrible than the dowager queen's had been. Partly because I got to spend the majority of the time holding baby Roland and partly because she made sure to include lemonade for me.

Unfortunately, it didn't change the fact that tea parties were hot spots of gossip and inane chatter that made my brain bleed. Every single morning I had to sit around and deal with it.

Rosenia got bad-talked in that special noblewoman way a lot in her absence. Everyone whispered about her fallen state and how she had gotten pregnant too late, being careful to be sure the queen didn't hear. She probably would have burst a blood vessel if she was hear so it was for the best that she was stuck in bed.

I briefly wondered what these people would say about me once Al and I ran away to the mountains. Not that I cared. This pack of vultures meant nothing to me.

The countess would probably lose her mind though, which could be a bit bothersome. She had been over the moon since I became a princess. The cynical part of me thought that Adele better marry very advantageously to make up for how much of a disappointment I would be.

Technically speaking I would be the ”queen” of our new nation but the Kanta were so small and even further behind technologically than the rest of this already primitive world. She would likely be horrified.

I was petty enough to enjoy thinking about her future distress but also felt a tiny bit of guilt for the mess that would leave my fake siblings in. We had been spending a lot of time with them lately. It became harder to leave the palace when so many nobles were milling about.

Percy had begun actively seeking a wife at his parents' insistence and was not at all happy about the prospect. Out of all of my siblings I saw him least because he was too busy calling on various noble families with marriageable daughters.

Adele clung to me like glue whenever she visited, which I didn't mind one bit. But every time I saw her—or any of my fake siblings, really—it made me miss Abby even more than usual.

Edmund hung out with us a lot too but usually found an excuse to go to the kitchens, be it by himself or with us accompanying him. Al's earlier theory that he might have a crush on Marcy didn't seem so far-fetched.

He had been finishing up his final exams at Calabaster Academy in the spring and hadn't been able to join the family when they came up for court so this was his first time visiting since my wedding. I was surprised he had remembered Marcy from their one encounter.

”What are you making?” Edmund asked eagerly, leaning over to peer into the contents of a bowl of red liquid.

Marcy smiled sunnily at him and continued chopping strawberries into mush. I was amazed that she was actually pureeing something without the use of a blender. I supposed people must have done it somehow before they were invented but had never seen it personally.