CH 12

First Past

There was an estate called Wind Whistle Rock in the western part of the kingdom. The name was derived from the sound of the wind blowing along the rocky mountains as it sounded like a whistle. And there was one person here among the young ladies who was the subject of all the talks.

It was Ann Belvard, known as “the expressionless lady”. Ann Belvard was the daughter of the Duke of Wind Whistle Rock. She inherited the bright blue eyes of Duke Jacob Belvard and the dark, frizzy hair of the Duchess, Ambria Belvard. However, she did not resemble her parents to their rich sensibilities.

She had been a quiet baby since nursery. The Duke was horrified at the thought that there might be something wrong with his daughter, but the doctors had no answers. Ann continued to grow and reached the age of 10. She still did not cry. She did not laugh.

She did not explore the world with innocent interest like other young children her age. She was charming but bored and dull.

She studied poetry and music, and the rest of the time Ann mainly read books. Or she watched the servants and peasants as she sat on her swing with an expressionless face.

The servants would take off their hats and bow when they saw her, but she only nodded her head without a hint of a smile.

“Pull your lips like this.”

Her mother, Ambria, used to knead her daughter’s fluffy cheeks like dough.

“That’s what a smile is. And you should smile when someone greets you.”

“Why?”

“They don’t like it when you have a blank expression on your face.”

“What does likability do for you?”

Ann thought as the Duke’s daughter, the servants would treat her with respect for the rest of her life. Respect and admiration were given without effort. There was no need to do unnecessary things to gain those.

Her mother would reply that it was necessary for her to make her debut in the social world, to dance and marry a man with a good title. Ann surmised, frustrated.

“There is no reason to make everyone like you.”

To her surprise, Ambria gave a surprising reply.

“But it’s very important to make sure at least no one hates you.”

She lowered her voice.

“My precious Belvard. If I could only understand a little more of the thoughts that were in your head—“

Ambria did not call her daughter abnormal. However, she certainly recognized that her daughter was different from normal people. It was not because she was slow to develop facial expressions and poor at emotions.

The problem was in a more fundamental area that she could not explain in detail.

“Why do you sit on a swing every day and watch people?” She tried to understand her daughter.

“To imagine.” Ann replied indifferently. “I imagine I was the hunter and they were the prey.” 

Her mother’s hand on her cheek jolted for a moment. 

“I’ve learned a little riding, but when are you going to teach me archery?” Ann’s curiosity was more pressing. 

“…Later. It’s too early,”  Ambria shook her head with a faint smile. 

“You said learning time is at the age of ten.”

“I don’t mean it’s too early for you.” 

Suddenly her mother’s smile looked sad.

“I mean it’s too early for me to handle it.”

Ambria quickly collected herself, a feeling that Ann would never understand. “Anyway,” she said, “practice smiling. Be kind to everyone. To the rich and the poor, the aristocrats and the peasants. You never know when or if you will need them.” 

Ambria added. “Not to make them like you, but not to hate you.”

Ann loved her mother. At least that was a feeling she was comfortable with. So again, incomprehensible advice, but she nodded. Ann did not remember her father, Jacob Belvard, Duke of Wind Whistle Rock, well. He just seemed very busy and frequently absent from the estate.

The king was weak and the nobles were strong. Thus, her father stayed mostly in the Cathedral, the capital of the kingdom, and was busy sitting around the round table with the other nobles.

Then one day the Duke of Wind Whistle Rock suddenly died of a fever before their daughter was even five years old. The estate that remained as his legacy was ruled by his wife Ambria.

Unless she remarried, the title of Duchess of Wind Whistle Rock was never changed. And she was foolishly faithful, confident that she would love only Jacob Belvard and the whistle-filled Wind Whistle Rock forever.

Ambria Belvard, Duchess of Wind Whistle Rock, was certainly a worthy opponent to adore. She was a good lord. In particular, once every ten days she went to the market herself without having to use her servants.

She checked everything, from the wealthy merchants with their piles of gold coins to the shabby ones with their stalls barely secured on the dirt floor. No one could imagine there was such a noble.

“We didn’t need the apples. There were plenty in the cellar.”

Ann said, looking at Ambria, who had bought the old woman’s basket of apples with a bag of gold coins.

“And they’re all so damaged and ugly.”

Ann poked the basket’s crushed and bruised apples with a blunt stick.

“It is the duty of a lord to take care of poor people.” Ambria smiled benevolently.  “Anyway, you eat the apple regardless of whether it’s ugly or pretty.”

She clicked her tongue as she looked at her daughter, who had quickly chewed the apple despite her whining mouth.

“I’m confused whether I’m really raising a daughter or a cow.”

“Where shall we go next?”

Indifferently, Anne asked, taking a bite of her apple.

“Shall we stop at a butcher shop?”

“Which shop? The one by the river?”

“No, we looked around there the other day, so let’s go somewhere else today.”

Ambria said cheerfully. She seemed relieved that her daughter was interested in seeing the market.

“Isn’t that the Duchess of Wind Whistle Rock!”

When they arrived at their destination, the owner quickly jumped out, wiping his bloodied hands on his apron. His name was Ronald, but no one called him that. They just called him “Uncle Mulally,” as was a habit everyone was accustomed to. 

“And as expected, you came today.”

A glimpse of familiarity flashed across Uncle Mulally’s face.

“…Lady Ann!”

He treated Ann with as much courtesy as he would have greeted the Duchess. He didn’t mind if the young lady just nodded her head with an unimpressed expression.

In fact, Ann liked Uncle Mulally quite a bit. He was a man with a delightful and interesting profession. Of course, that didn’t mean she wanted to smile enthusiastically.

“A lady!” Ambria laughed at Uncle Mulally’s clever flattery. “I haven’t seen this girl bow. Far from being a lady, she looks like a drunk.”

“What about me?” Ann grumbled as she spat out the seeds of the apple she had just finished eating.

“Yes, the real problem isn’t her brain.” Ambria clicked her tongue.

“Oh?” Uncle Mulally also helped. “There’s a rumor going around that the lady will be going out socially soon?”

“…Lady Ann? Already?”

Before he could finish his question, a boy’s voice suddenly interrupted him. It was Rubert Mulally, who was carrying a box full of butcher knives.

Though only 12 years old he was tall and strong. With one hand he was carrying the box and with the other he could afford to take off his hat and greet people. The apron he wore was stained with blood from chopped red meat.

“I’m sorry.”

Rubert realized belatedly that he had spoken to the noblewoman without manners. Pale and red to the tip of his nose.

“The boy is upset. He thinks Lady Ann is going to go out socially and marry a nice sir.” Uncle Mulally smiled wickedly.

“I dare not think that ….” Rubert mumbled with a bewildered face.

The territory was inhabited by a wide variety of people. Most were peasants, of course, but there were also quite a few freemen who sold peculiar goods, and there was even a potter who baked white dough in the oven.

Among them, the butcher shop earned well. Wind Whistle Rock was a fertile territory and a good place to live. Many people took care of their food.

In particular, the Mulally butchers had always been wealthy. They had been supplying the dukes for generations and were famous for having some of the best quality meat in the neighborhood. Word that some days, if they were lucky, they would get generous wages for serving meat in other estates or the royal court.

So, Uncle Mulally had plenty of financial wherewithal. He was able to give his second son a quality education, unlike his eldest son who took over the shop.

Rubert, who had stayed up late at night reading books, seemed to be diligently helping his father and brother today. 

“It’s a cliché, but a painful story, a commoner who adores a noble young lady.”

Uncle Mulally was determined to tease his innocent son.

“Because from the first time my son met Lady Ann, he acted as if he had a malfunction somewhere.”

Ann recalled the moment she first met Rubert Mulally.

Just like today, Rubert was frozen in place when he found Ann following the Duchess. His green eyes wide open. Pale faces flared red. His mouth opened like an idiot.

What could have frightened him so much about a little girl who could not even reach his shoulders? Ever since, Ann had been curious.

“Please don’t, Father! It’s not true!”

Rubert panicked. In the process, he dropped the box he was holding. Sharp pieces of iron spilled out in a gust of wind. Ann was quickly and breathlessly mesmerized.

“Anyway, my father said something useless…”

Rubert squatted down and picked up the knives.

“I want to touch it too!”

Ann reached for the knife before Ambria could stop her.

Ann imagined stabbing the blade into the red meat on the chopping board. She wondered how it would feel against her skin when she stabbed it.

“Oh, my God!”

Ambria screamed. It was not because she was worried that her young daughter might be injured by the knife.

It was because she was astonished to see Ann’s eyes revealing her terrifying thoughts, her essential flaws as a human being.

“It’s dangerous.”

At that moment, Rubert Mulally’s young but rigid voice simultaneously calmed Ann’s thoughts and Ambria’s fears.

“Don’t come any closer.”

He grabbed Ann’s hand as she reached for the knives. It was calloused and rough to the touch. She liked it. Anne’s attention shifted from the knives to Rubert.

“Your hand is just like the hunter’s I imagined.”

Rubert blushed helplessly before Ann’s burning eyes.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to…. I dared…!”

Rubert gasped. It was as if the hand that held Ann’s for the first time was caught on fire.

“It’s all right. Thank you for stopping my daughter’s careless behavior.”

Ambria, finally came to her senses, said generously.

“Really, how is this going to help you socialize later?”

Then, she scolded her daughter sternly.

“We have to go to the capital’s Cathedral in the near future. We can’t refuse His Majesty the King’s invitation, indeed…”

“The capital?”

Uncle Mulally asked enthusiastically, as if trying to change the mood.

“Yes. His Majesty the King has invited me to a tea party to celebrate young Prince Frederick’s birthday, and I must attend.”

“I don’t want to go.” Ann suddenly grumbled. “I’d rather stay here and watch them use a knife than go somewhere I don’t know and flap the hem of my dress with strangers.”

“Knives are not the sort of thing that ladies enjoy.”

Ambria replied in an uncharacteristically sharp tone. She feared the sense of foreignness she witnessed in her daughter’s eyes.

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to dance with the handsome prince?” Uncle Mulally intervened slyly.

“I’m not interested in anything like Prince Charming.”

Ann twisted her lips, but Rubert, who had been listening intently, smiled faintly.

“I heard that at the royal banquet they serve marzipan filled with almonds and baked in the shape of a bouquet of flowers…” Ambria tossed the bait surreptitiously. “You’re going to practice bowing perfectly right from today.”

When Ann’s eyes widened at her mother’s words, Uncle Mulally started laughing.

“Look at this. She’s no lady at all.” Ambria smiled as well.

“Which part of the body do you need today, madam?”

Eventually, Uncle Mulally asked politely.

“Oh, the tongue meat I had the other day, it’s soft and tender. And…….”

The bargaining became longer because of Ambria’s temperament, which was strictly selective when it came to food ingredients.

While waiting by the side, Ann only hoped that the marzipan she would eat at the royal banquet would be worth the inconvenience of wearing an uncomfortable gown and fake pleasantries.

It was a carefree thought at an age when she had no idea that the silly royal banquet would uproot and ruin her life.

***