“Tennis clothes are a first for you, I see.”
Her tone was full of annoyance.
“...Yes.”
Mitcham lowered her gaze as she answered.
“Have you ever played a match?”
She disliked tennis, as well as horseback riding and even boating.
Being active under the sun was a shortcut to ruining her skin.
“...No, Your Highness.”
Anne Boleyn frowned.
What more could she possibly say to someone like this?
Anne Boleyn mercilessly ordered the woman to be sent away.
Mitcham’s desperate pleas for another chance disappeared as the door closed, but Anne Boleyn’s head throbbed.
Were there so few talented people in Britain?
“Look again.”
Anne Boleyn walked behind the partition and instructed her secretary, Cecil, to search for a new designer.
This was the third time.
The middle-aged designer, supposedly famous for tennis clothes, was too old-fashioned, and the inexperienced designer was only focused on superficial flair.
At this point, she was increasingly regretting firing Madam Lauren so hastily.
The clothing designs Madam Lauren had presented remained vivid in her mind.
They were fresh, and she had thought to herself that they were just like Madam Lauren.
She had really wanted to wear them at this tournament.
The tooth marks were clear on her red lips, which she had bitten hard.
Considering the necklace incident, it was infuriating. In return, Eve Lauren’s boutique had taken a big hit.
All of its stores in Litten department stores had closed, and the magnificent main store on Buchanan Street was temporarily closed.
That should be enough.
“I’ve changed my mind, Cecil.”
Anne Boleyn, who had changed her clothes, said to her secretary.
“Call that woman back.”
“Are you referring to Miss Mitcham?”
Cecil, not understanding the princess’s intentions, asked again.
“No. Madam Lauren.”
“……”
Her expression showed that she had made a firm decision after much deliberation.
The long rays of the summer afternoon sun cast shadows on the table, following the patterns of the lace curtains.
Even after Anne quietly set down her teacup and retreated, the two remained silent for a while.
Olivia had not expected that the person Edgar would send would be Madam Lauren.
Olivia couldn’t decide how to handle this situation.
She couldn’t trust Madam Lauren, who ignored her client’s wishes. So, it was right to send her back. If it weren’t for Edgar.
“I’m sorry, Miss Blanchett.”
Madam Lauren, who finally spoke, apologized.
Olivia stared silently at Madam Lauren.
“Sincerely.”
The sunlight pooled in the teacup, which no longer had steam rising from it.
Her gaze, which had been fixed on Olivia, fell there. Then, her eyes, which she raised again, were full of confidence.
“Please give me a chance to make up for my mistake, Miss Blanchett.”
‘She might not accept it, but that’s my condition for the acquisition.’
That’s what Edgar had said to her when she brought the business plan.
So, she had to make Olivia choose her, no matter what.
She could even kneel if she wanted.
She never thought she would have to lower her pride, which she hadn’t even lowered before the haughty princess, before this woman, but it didn’t matter.
“Why should I?”
Madam Lauren’s eyes flickered slightly at the cynical tone. She felt like she had been fooled by her seemingly weak appearance.
Her eyes, which she had thought were like a clear lake, were like a fathomlessly deep sea.
“Please go back.”
Olivia said firmly.
It was none of her business. Whether Lancelot acquired Lauren, or Lauren acquired Lancelot.
She still hadn’t forgiven Madam Lauren for using her, and she simply didn’t want to work with someone like that again.
This won’t be easy.
Sweat trickled down Madam Lauren’s spine.
“You don’t have to accept my apology. I won’t beg for mercy. I wouldn’t forgive myself easily either, Miss Blanchett.”
Madam Lauren straightened her back and met Olivia’s gaze.
“But shouldn’t you at least give me a chance?”
Olivia was speechless, at a loss for words. This was the most brazen apology she had ever heard.
“I don’t want to work with someone I can’t trust.”
Olivia’s attitude was firm. Madam Lauren couldn’t back down.
Behind her was a cliff, and if she lost Lancelot, she would have no place in Britain.
She was still young. A dressmaker in a rural backwater?
“If it’s hard to trust me, then fine. Don’t trust me. But instead.”
Her eyes, filled with the weariness of middle age, were resolute. Madam Lauren twisted the hem of her skirt and said.
“Use me.”
“……”
The faint wrinkles around Madam Lauren’s eyes trembled slightly.
“There is no designer in this country who surpasses me.”
“You disappointed me with your outstanding skills.”
Madam Lauren was hit right where it hurt. Her red-painted lips were tightly shut.
No matter how eloquent she was, she wouldn’t be able to say anything in this situation. Her gaze slipped away, and she slowly raised her head.
“My life is in your hands. You can use me. I’ll do whatever you want. So.”
Her voice was hoarse with desperation.
“Please, accept me, Miss Blanchett.”
Madam Lauren knelt.
The slanting sunlight bathed the reception room in gold. A quiet silence flowed, and time slowly passed over it.
“You are in great debt to me today.”
Olivia broke the silence.
The emerald ring on Madam Lauren’s hand flickered faintly with light.
“You will have to repay that debt. Without fail.”
Olivia’s blue eyes, sitting upright, were calm. Her elegant face stared directly at Madam Lauren.
“...Thank you.”
Madam Lauren raised her stiff head.
The pride she had never broken, not even before the princess of a country, was easily broken before Olivia Blanchett.
“I won’t disappoint you.”
At least, as long as she was working with Edgar, it was a valid sincerity.
A sudden silence fell over the toilet room, which had been filled with the sound of the cool water from the grand fountain and cheerful laughter.
Anne Boleyn raised her trembling hand. The maids who had been tending to her hair stopped their movements and stepped back.
Anne Boleyn, who had been staring at the mirror, slowly turned her head.
“...What did you just say?”
She had heard it clearly, but she couldn’t believe it.
“Madam Lauren has refused.”
Cecil bowed her head apologetically.
“Refused?”
Anne Boleyn’s eyes flickered with anger at the completely unexpected situation.
How dare a mere dressmaker.
It was as humiliating as being compared to a bastard.
“What’s the reason? What did she say?”
“……”
Cecil couldn’t bring herself to speak.
She was worried that the princess, who was already in a bad mood, would be greatly upset.
When she only moved her lips, Anne Boleyn coldly rebuked her.
“Cecil. Speak.”
“...Marquis Lancelot has acquired her.”
Anne Boleyn frowned at the name that had suddenly appeared.
“Edgar?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Blue veins stood out on the back of her hand, which was clutching the armrest of the chair. She struggled to calm her increasingly rapid breathing.
‘You’re the one who said goodbye.’
Edgar’s words, which he had uttered coldly and indifferently, pierced her heart like a dagger.
‘We’re over.’
When she had returned after the divorce and first went to see him, he had said to Anne Boleyn, who was sobbing apologetically, mercilessly.
“That’s not a reason not to come to me.”
Edgar couldn’t have stopped her. He was heartless, but he wasn’t a despicable person.
At least, she hadn’t done anything wrong to him to deserve such treatment.
If Madam Lauren, whose pride had been hurt by the last incident, had refused privately, she would have been willing to show generosity.
“Tell me, Cecil.”
The secretary hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“That is to say... she has decided to be in charge of Olivia Blanchett.”
“……”
Anne Boleyn’s face turned blue as if she had been splashed with ice water, and her chin trembled.
“Surely... on Edgar’s orders?”
“That’s what Madam Lauren said.”
Anne Boleyn’s reddened eyes became increasingly crimson. She shuddered with betrayal.
How could he do this? How could he do this to me...?
The wind blew through the wide-open window.
Following the wind, which carried hot air, Anne Boleyn approached the terrace.
The garden, covered with flowers, looked as terrible as a blood-red world today.
“I need to see Ed. Prepare it.”
Anne Boleyn finally managed to part her lips after a long time.
She was holding back tears that seemed like they would fall at any moment.
Edgar stared languidly at the setting sun over Litten.
As the opening day of the Dumbleton Championship approached, he had more work to do than usual, so he was not pleased with the visitor who had arrived without an appointment.
Especially since that person was a princess.
“How... how could you do this to me?”
Anne Boleyn bit her lip, sobbing.
She couldn’t bear his gaze, which was so calm it was cold.
It was her first love.
The memories of her passionate time with him were still painfully etched in her heart. They were so vivid, like yesterday’s events, that she felt like she was going crazy.
She resented the man who seemed so indifferent.
“You’re too much. Really, you’re too much. You.”
Tears fell helplessly as she looked at the face of the beautiful man who had once slept in her arms.
Edgar looked at the woman with indifferent eyes.
Here we go again.
A weary sigh escaped him.
“How... how could you even take away my designer?”
The tears that had been flowing quietly soon turned into sobs. They didn’t seem to stop easily.
Edgar closed his eyes tightly. How was he supposed to make this woman understand? He was starting to get annoyed.
“What’s the reason for going so far? Is the rumor that the hotel was robbed true? So, are you being threatened by that woman?”
Edgar burst out laughing.
Anne Boleyn was so surprised that she blinked her long eyelashes, which were covered in tears.
“Listen, Princess.”
His voice was so low that Anne Boleyn stopped sobbing.
His dark, blue-gray eyes narrowed as if he had encountered something terrible.
