Previously
Baldur de Skadi reveals he utilizes exiled nobles as scribes and accountants, which Jeanne finds relief in compared to hard labor. After testing her extensive knowledge through a multilingual debate, Baldur unexpectedly offers her a position as the tutor for his thirteen-year-old niece and adopted daughter, Ana.
The duties were very similar to when I had taught the viscountess’s young daughter, so I had nothing in particular to ask.
A full smile spread across Madame Pauline’s face.
A rod? The word made me flinch.
Normally, wouldn't a parent demand the exact opposite? For now, I took it simply to mean that I had permission to teach my pupil a bit more strictly.
Having said everything she needed to say, Madame Pauline withdrew, the ring of keys jingling at her waist. Once I shut the door, I was alone once more.
‘Finding work as a tutor is certainly a stroke of fortune, but what will become of me now?’
Left by myself, a sudden rush of emotion welled up inside me, and tears threatened to spill from my eyes once again.
‘What if the child I have to teach looks down on me and torments me because I'm a criminal? What if I ask for help and nobody listens to me? The young lady at the viscount’s manor stopped bullying me once she realized I was on good terms with her grandmother, but here, I have no backing whatsoever. What will happen to me if I get dismissed? I have nowhere left to return to….’
A dark tide of worries came crashing over me.
‘I must not be like this. I have to stay strong….’
I tried desperately to steady my fraying resolve, but I could not stop the tears from pouring down.
‘Crying won’t solve anything, and there’s no one here to help me, so why am I weeping like this?’
Had I known it would come to this, I would have gone back to my family much sooner.
‘Back to the arms of my mother and brother, who were only waiting for my holiday….’
I lost track of how long I stood there wiping away tears with the back of my hand. Hearing a knock, I opened the door to find the young girl who had brought me my food, standing there with a lamp in hand.
I answered with an effort to sound cheerful, then followed behind the child as we walked along corridors and descended flight after flight of stairs. I wanted to catch a glimpse of the outside, but it was already dark, leaving the window panes steeped in blackness. The only thing visible was my own reflection in the dim glass.
The maid came to a stop before a heavy wooden door.
When I pushed open the door and stepped inside, I realized that Madame Pauline’s boast about it rivaling the royal collection was not mere exaggeration born of housekeeper’s pride.
‘There are so many books.’
It felt almost as though every volume in the world had been gathered here. Inside the vast chamber, bookcases crammed tight with books spread outward like wings on either side of a corridor that extended straight from the doorway.
‘Perhaps… in terms of sheer volume, it might even surpass the royal palace.’
The Duke’s scholarly erudition seemed to have sprung directly from this very room.
‘She said he dismissed quite a few tutors in the past… and now I can see why.’
With standards as high as his, the tutors he had hired before must have seemed utterly unreliable. Even so, the level of education parents expected of an ordinary noble daughter was not particularly demanding. Just how far did the Duke wish to elevate his adopted daughter’s knowledge?
‘Granted, she is not merely an ordinary noble, but the daughter of a ducal house. If she should marry a foreign prince someday, she might well need the refinement and wisdom to command a royal court.’
A queen might have to wade into political battles for the sake of her child, or even serve as regent in place of a young son. Realizing this made it clear why the Duke had dismissed so many tutors, but it also sent a surge of anxiety through me.
‘I managed to scrape through the interview, but can I truly satisfy him? What if I fall short of his standards and get dismissed as well?’
Though I had years of tutoring experience behind me, I had only ever taught two pupils. That night, searching for books to serve as lesson texts and preparing the curriculum kept me up late, temporarily driving away the dread and unease of being an exile in a strange land.
The following morning, a knock on the door woke me.
Breakfast was the customary stew.
Finishing my meal, I gathered the lesson books into my arms and followed the waiting girl outside. Sunlight came pouring into the hallway. Walking behind the maid, I stole glances out the windows to see a fierce wind sweeping away the fog shrouding the estate like a broom.
‘The scale of this estate certainly befits a ducal house.’
While it lacked hedge mazes or marble fountains, the grounds possessed a charm all their own. It was almost as though a slice of pristine nature had been brought directly into the courtyard. Far in the distance, a stream trickled by, with a herd of deer grazing near its banks. Beyond them stretched a dense woodland encircling the grounds, a strange vista that stirred my curiosity. If time permitted after lessons, I wanted to take a walk out that far.
Yet I soon shook my head.
‘It’s not as if I came here simply as a tutor.’
No one would allow an exile, who might take the opportunity to flee, to wander outside unattended. Nor would they trouble themselves to assign a guard just so an exile could take a stroll.
‘Must I remain confined within this manor the entire time, then?’
Occupied with such thoughts, I arrived at the study, but my pupil was nowhere to be seen.
I took a moment to look around the room. It was spacious. Firewood was piled high in the hearth, beside which stood an upright embroidery frame and a pedal harp.
‘Oh dear, I haven’t picked up an embroidery needle since I stopped teaching the viscount’s daughter. And the harp… what if the young lady plays better than I do?’
In the center of the room sat a desk and chairs, and opposite the fireplace was a waist-high bookshelf. A few books that appeared to have served as lesson texts rested on it; flipping through them quickly revealed that they were elementary grammar books.
‘Elementary? How old did they say she was again?’
Just as I slotted the books I had brought into an empty corner of the shelf, a knock came at the door.
At those words, a girl in a blue dress stepped hesitantly inside. She had raven hair just like Duke Skadi’s, paired with green eyes that gleamed like emeralds.
‘Good heavens, how can she be this lovely?’
Her appearance was so breathtaking that for a moment, words completely failed me. Come to think of it, though I had been overwhelmed by terror at the time, Duke Skadi was an exceptionally handsome man himself. Did striking looks run in the ducal family? Still, I soon recovered my composure, reminding myself that during my time at court tutoring Young Master Mael, I had seen countless beautiful people, particularly among the ladies.
The girl spoke hesitantly.
Having established our forms of address first, I watched Lady Ana cautiously take her seat under my gaze. Her features were as exquisite as an angel’s, yet a strange, profound sorrow shadowed her expression.
‘It’s only natural, of course.’
I attributed her demeanor to the recent loss of her family. Having suddenly lost her parents and been placed in an unfamiliar setting, she must have lost any arrogance typical of nobility. The shock I suffered when my own father passed away had been overwhelming as well. Thinking of that, an ache of fond sympathy welled up in my heart, even though I hardly knew the student before me yet.
I placed the examination papers I had prepared the previous night in front of Lady Ana.
An examination paper was an indicator that revealed a student’s current level. The night before, to determine where she stood, I had arranged questions by subject, spanning from the simplest basics to advanced concepts.