Formerly, the Fallen Daughter of the Duke: Volume 4 [Parts 1 to 5] by Ichibu Saki

Author:Ichibu Saki
Language: eng
Format: epub

Chapter 16

Claire sighed and rolled over in bed when she saw the light of the next morning streaming through a crack in her curtains. She was in a royal palace guest room surrounded by unfamiliar furniture.

The door leading off to the living room opened, and Lui called, “Claire, are you awake?”

“Yes, more or less,” she answered.

“You look as if you haven’t slept a wink.”

“And you look perfectly well rested.”

“That I am,” said Lui. “I’m quite used to this sort of thing, and I’d hate to crash in a moment of emergency.”

Having finished dressing long before, Lui had come to assist Claire with her toilette, or so Claire supposed. Lui’s right, she told herself. I didn’t come all this way for nothing. Claire felt cheered in the presence of Lui and her constant composure. Their trip to Lupty was for one of Claire’s many finishing lessons; it was not their goal to find Charlotte and send her back to Noston. I will send Charlotte home as well, Claire thought, but I must also do my due diligence and follow the agenda. Besides, experimenting with how to purify the magical tornado is of far greater importance than Charlotte.

Claire could not help but worry over Charlotte and her shameless behavior, but so long as Gilbert kept her sister under his wing, there was nothing Claire could do about it on her own. First, she must focus on what she could handle, she decided.

She steeled herself and changed into a gown for the tea party. As her fiancé, Vik had gifted her a selection of dresses to be worn during her stay. A vast number of garments hung in her closet, ranging from breezy frocks perfect for an afternoon tea party to stately and mature numbers fit for a ball. Vik seemed awfully worried, Claire mused, when he picked out these dresses from the tailors. Despite his regret for being jealous over Gilbert, Vik’s displeasure over being unable to accompany her to Lupty was evident to the last. Claire’s intuition had been correct, she supposed—granted, not to the extent that she had predicted finding Charlotte here, but surely no one could have guessed that.

She produced the pocket watch she’d surreptitiously borrowed from Vik and listened to its hands marking time. The orderly sound soothed her. Yes, I’ll be all right, she told herself. I just need to keep my wits about me.

She finished tying the ribbon on her dress and asked Lui, “Has there been any reply to the letter you sent Vik?”

“Not yet. Given the circumstances, I imagine he’ll need to confer with the king before he can send you a response. He might even be speaking with Noston as well.”

Yesterday, Lui had sent letters to both the kingdom of Paffuto and to the ducal family of the Martinos. From her response to Claire’s question, Claire gathered it would still take longer to receive a response from either. Even if anything else happens, I should just wait for Vik to reply, she told herself.

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