Chapter 36

"It's a house with young children in it. That means you need to be all the more careful."

"It's decent enough... isn't it?"

"What are you talking about. This is exactly why knights these days are hopeless. Cleanliness should always come first."

The moment Linda arrived, she went over the manor with a fine-toothed comb.

To Harold's eyes there was nothing wrong with it, but apparently a professional's eyes saw it differently. Since she wasn't wrong, Harold nodded along and trailed after Linda.

And Edgar and Edwin, keeping their distance, were trailing after Harold.

The two of them were doing their best to hide, apparently — their bodies were out of sight, but tufts of hair kept poking around the corner. Every time Harold turned his head, he could feel their eyes on him.

He caught the twitch at the corner of Linda's mouth. Anyone who knew this older woman well would have recognized at a glance that she was enjoying herself.

"Have you had lunch?"

"No. I was just about to..."

Linda raised an eyebrow. Her expression said she'd just heard something outrageous.

"What have you been doing all this time without saying anything?"

There was no room to protest that he hadn't had a chance to say so.

Linda strode into the kitchen. Blank-faced, Harold followed her in. Light footsteps padded across the carpet close behind him.

---

A maid from a ducal house really was different.

It was hard to picture a maid from a ducal house standing at a stove at all, but somehow Linda managed to put together a respectable lunch in no time.

She was using the same ingredients Harold had stocked, but somehow the table looked far more abundant.

Sandwiches with jam and cheese tucked inside. A fresh green salad with cherry tomatoes sliced into it. An omelet and mushroom soup.

And on top of it all, freshly squeezed orange juice.

It wasn't all that different from what Harold had been planning to make, but somehow the colors were richer.

Even the taste was different.

Even Edgar, who'd been keeping an eye on Linda with Edwin in tow, had to give credit where it was due.

"...Thank you for the meal."

"There are more sandwiches. If you'd like more, please tell this Linda."

"I'm fine. Edwin, are you done?"

Edwin shoved the last of his sandwich into his mouth and nodded.

Edgar looked at Linda.

He'd half-expected a fussy servant from a ducal house to pull him up for being rude, but Linda didn't react at all. Nothing like the way she'd taken his uncle to task when she first arrived.

Edgar pulled Edwin down from his chair.

"I'm going to go play with Edwin!"

Before his uncle could catch him, Edgar scampered up to the second floor. He didn't catch what was said, but he thought he heard his uncle laugh behind him.

Because the house was small, it didn't have separate family quarters the way the Bertholdt estate or the Archibald estate did. But the second floor was mostly used for bedrooms. The room Edgar and Edwin had picked was one of them.

He had no idea what the room had originally been used for, but the two rooms were connected by a door between them, without having to go out into the corridor.

Leave the door open and it was effectively one room. They'd decided they'd each have their own room, but for Edgar — who couldn't quite settle if Edwin wasn't in view — the arrangement suited him.

Not to mention it gave them more room to spread out. Their uncle had said they could use any of the other rooms however they liked... but the space had been used by royals for generations, and he didn't much care for the idea. The place also belonged to the Duke of Lambert.

"What's the problem this time?"

Edwin gulped down the last of the sandwich in his mouth.

"Is it because of the new person?"

"I didn't say anything was a problem!"

"You're sulking. What's the issue this time?"

Edwin sat on the bed with a clearly annoyed look and rested his chin on his hand. Somehow it felt like Edgar was the one being told off by his younger brother.

"I'm not saying I don't like her —!"

"Right. So what, then?"

"I mean..."

"Linda? Did that lady do something to you?"

"..."

Edgar shook his head hard, his ears red.

It would have been easier if she had. He could have hugged the bear, pretended to cry, and his uncle would have sent her away.

"I don't know her."

"Huh?"

"I don't know who she is."

That wasn't entirely true. He had heard the name before. In fact, he'd run into her at the Duke Lambert estate once or twice.

But Edgar's awareness of the maid called Linda stopped there. Maid? More precisely, she'd been a nanny. Grisha Lambert's nanny.

Edgar let out a groan and curled up.

"We can't trust the Duke of Lambert, so how are we supposed to trust her! She could be watching Uncle!"

"Ah, well... maybe?"

"Yes!"

Edgar burst out at Edwin's easygoing response.

Edwin slid off the bed he'd been sitting on. Edgar watched him, wondering what he was doing, and Edwin went through the connecting door into Edgar's room.

A moment later Edwin came back, carrying the familiar stuffed bear.

"First, hold this and calm down."

"I said I'm not a kid!"

"I know, I know."

For all his grumbling, Edgar couldn't push the bear away once it was pressed against him, and clutched it tight. The soft fur tickled his nose.

Edwin flopped down beside him.

"You said you don't know if the Duke of Lambert can be trusted or not. Maybe he can be. Uncle wouldn't call someone he can't trust his friend."

"..."

"What do you actually know about her? Let's start with that."

Hearing Edwin's calm voice, Edgar settled a little.

Edgar cast his mind back. It had been so long ago that he didn't remember well... but even so, there were a few things he knew about Linda.

"She's from the Duke of Lambert's mother's side. She was the Duchess's maid — the Duke of Lambert's mother's, I mean."

She'd come along when the young lady she'd served had married. From there she'd naturally become the son's nanny.

"...And then, after the Duke of Lambert's little sister died, she retired."

Yes. That was why he remembered.

The Duke of Lambert — Grisha Lambert — had had one much younger sister.

The girl had been sickly, and her condition had worsened until she died young. Linda, who had been the second child's nanny after Grisha, had been badly shaken and retired to her hometown.

It had happened not long after Edgar came under the Duke's care.

He hadn't been close with the Duke's little sister, but he had spoken with her a few times. Unlike her brother, she'd been lively and quick to laugh. Linda had always been at her side.

"Then wouldn't it actually mean she has nothing to do with the Duke of Lambert?"

At Edwin's point, Edgar nodded slowly.

That didn't mean she could be trusted, of course, but there was no reason to bristle at her from the outset like this. Looking at it the other way, though, for Uncle to be given someone who had once been the sister's nanny...

No. Thought of that way, it was suspicious after all.

"On hold."

Edgar said it before Edwin could get annoyed with him for overthinking again.

"I don't really know what kind of person she is, and Uncle did say he was going to bring someone in."

"Right."

It would be nice if their uncle could just stay at the house all the time, but realistically that wasn't going to work.

And having been looked after by their uncle for the last two days, Edgar admitted the need. He loved his uncle, and it wasn't that his uncle wasn't doing enough, but as a knight who'd spent a long time roaming out in the field, there was a certain roughness to his care that a small child's body couldn't always handle.

If Edgar had been older, he could have handled things himself, but in this body it wasn't possible.

If there was a way to make things easier, was there really any reason to push it away?

"Let's watch."

Edgar tightened his hold on the bear as he spoke.

"If she's suspicious, we go to Uncle."

Maybe... just maybe, Grisha Lambert really was helping his uncle out of good will.

Edwin grinned.

"See, you get calmer once you have the bear."

"Quiet!"

Edgar flushed and hit Edwin with the stuffed bear.

---

"Lively children."

Linda set a teacup down in front of Harold. No clink of the cup, no ripple in the tea inside.

The leaves had probably been steeped at the perfect temperature to the perfect strength as well. Harold just didn't have the tongue to tell.

Even so, if he didn't drink the tea, Linda's look would sharpen. Harold wet his throat with it.

"Are you sure it's all right for you to come here?"

"Is there some reason it wouldn't be, Sir Harold?"

"What about Adelheid?"

Linda gave a small sigh and shook her head. She looked tired, but the smile at the corner of her mouth carried an affection she couldn't hide.

"She's gone with the Duchess to visit Marquis Reichnek. It's been a while since she was down at her grandfather's, and she was thrilled about it."

"How is she doing?"

"Do you actually remember her?"

"Well, I mean... I do remember her. Though she wouldn't remember me."

"She knows you as a friend of Master Grisha's."

Harold cast his mind back.

"I saw her when she was small... probably back when I was in the capital."

"That was seven years ago too."

There wasn't much difference in age between her and his nephews.

Around when Edgar and Edwin were just starting to walk, Grisha's little sister Adelheid had been running around at full tilt. She'd talked a good game too.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed so hard as when he'd seen the great Grisha cornered by his three-year-old sister into playing with dolls.

"Marquis Reichnek gave her a foal for her birthday last year. She's been champing at the bit."

"A foal? Nothing like Grisha, then."

Linda smiled with a pride sharp enough to feel dangerous.

"Master Grisha is simply too mild. Miss Adelheid will make a fine knight."

"Oh?"

"She takes very much after the Reichnek line."

Well, considering how she'd been running rings around Grisha since she was tiny, that made sense. Some of it was Grisha letting his little sister get her way, but Adelheid had put actual physical damage on him too.

Harold had once received a long letter about how Grisha had cracked a rib when his little sister came barreling at him.

For the first time in a while, Harold's spirits lifted, and he laughed out loud. If Linda was going to be with the children, the weight on Harold would ease considerably.

"Hm."

Harold glanced up at the ceiling. He'd heard the boys going up the stairs, so they'd be playing in their room.

"How much have you heard about Edgar and Edwin?"

"As much as I need to. Including that they're wary of strangers."

Harold hadn't mentioned that specifically to Grisha, but he wasn't surprised.

He confirmed what she'd said.

"After what they've been through, that's only natural. If they weren't wary, that would be the real problem."

"The children may test you."

"Test me?"

Linda's eyes lit up.

"They said if I was going to hire someone, they wanted to interview them too. So I told them to go ahead."

The idea of an eight-year-old interviewing a maid who'd served at House Reichnek and then at House Lambert would normally only get a laugh.

Linda did laugh — not offended, but not the amused indulgence of an adult watching children play at being grown-ups either.

"Fitting. That's Count Bertholdt's son for you."

Linda dabbed at the corner of her eye.

"You'd have to have that much ambition to be called Albrecht Bertholdt's child."