15 — Viola’s No Good Very Bad Day

I returned to the main house with my hand in Mr. Fisalis’ after he’d finished giving me the grand tour of the newly renovated cottage. I was super embarrassed to show up at the house holding his hand like that, but he didn’t seem to care one bit and wouldn’t release me no matter how hard I tried to escape. When we opened the front door, all the servants were lined up to greet us, just like they did when Mr. Fisalis came home from work.

Rohtas grinned and asked, “What did you think of the renovations, Madam?” as I clawed at Mr. Fisalis’ iron-clad grip.

“It looked wonderful. Everything turned out very cozy and inviting,” I replied, putting a brief hold on my mad rush to free myself.

“I suppose you could say our humble advice was worthwhile in the end,” Rohtas replied, eyes smiling.

Once we finished our dinner, albeit a little later than usual, and I had gone back to my room to get ready for bed, I started reading the books I had borrowed from the cottage right away.

“You’re absolutely brilliant. Knowing I’d like books like these, even though I never explicitly said so,” I told the two maids as I held out the book in my hand, prompting them to turn around.

“I was able to make an educated guess based on our everyday conversations.”

“You’re always, like, going on about how fun it would be to visit different kingdoms and regions whenever we have foreign cuisine at mealtime.”

It made me kind of happy how obvious they both made it seem. Only the sharpest-eyed servants for the Fisalis family!

“You always watch Cartham very closely when he’s cooking.”

“And you clearly enjoy gardening.”

They’ve been watching over me this whole time! So much that they even figured out my interests. There were so many hints in what I said and did.

“What did you think of the detective stories and fairy tales, by the way?”

“We were worried you might think those were overly obvious choices.”

Gosh, weren’t the cookbooks and travelogues the obvious choices? Besides, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking the easy route, so I can’t complain!

“Wouldn’t an obvious choice usually be romance novels, though?”

“I didn’t think you’d like those kinds of books,” they both said at precisely the same time.

They thought that about me? I’d read anything, even if it was romance, assuming it was popular. I mean, I’m a girl, aren’t I? Oh, looks like they inferred that based on what I said and did, too, considering how they’re both avoiding eye contact with me.

I might have been just a fainthearted young girl (?), but I accepted that painful truth and said, “Oh... okay...ahem. It seemed like there were still a lot of interesting books, anyway, so thank you.”

“It’s Master you should thank,” said Dahlia, brushing off the praise with a smile.

He must have been the one who brought them all here, yeah. I’m grateful he did, though... that he actually thought about me before he went out and got everything. Same goes for the renovations to the cottage. I have one more thank-you to give, then.

“You’re right. Well then, I’ll read this one tonight before I go to sleep.”

For some reason, I really, really wanted to read that book, so I took it to bed with me.

“There’s no need to push yourself and rush through it, Madam,” Dahlia chided me as she lit the candle beside my bed.

“Oh, it’ll be fine.” I’ll want to get to bed early, anyway.

“Sleep well.”

“You too. Good night.”

Mimosa and Dahlia left for their own rooms after we said good night, and I snuggled under my duvet and began to read.

To get straight to the point, it was not, in fact, fine.

—

I blinked weakly against the bright morning sun. The usually gentle, warm sunlight felt like invisible knives slicing into my eyeballs that morning.

I had stayed up all night reading.

I got up more or less at my usual time, but was in no way well-rested. I basically didn’t sleep at all.

The travelogue featured faraway lands and foreign kingdoms depicted in lush illustrations, and utterly captivated, I found myself turning page after page as if in a trance. No sooner had I finished than I picked up the mystery novel—only to be drawn into that, too, completely on edge the whole time over various traps and tricks, wondering who the culprit could be. Far from lulling me to sleep, it kept me awake, unable to even think about going to bed until I found out who the bad guy was.

Seeing no reason for me to oversleep despite this, when Dahlia came to rouse me at my usual time, I looked like I had only just woken up (I had) and fumbled my way pathetically out of bed. Everyone would be worried about me, though, if I was stumbling around, so I turned to my iron willpower to cover it up!

...And yet.

“Good morning. Did you... Madam? Did you sleep quite alright last night?” Dahlia inquired in an ever-so-slightly scary tone. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t fool her, and she easily noticed that something about me was off.

“I guess I lost track of time reading my books... Sorry,” I apologized, shrinking in shame as if I was being scolded by Mother. Have mercy, Dahlia!

Dahlia sighed in exasperation at me before admitting defeat.

“Nothing we can do about it now. Perhaps you can lie down briefly after breakfast. In the meantime, let’s see if some makeup can hide those bags under your eyes. This is your forte, I believe, Mimosa?” she asked, turning to face Mimosa, who was waiting to pounce half a step behind her.

“Oh, I can certainly fix those.”

Mmgh, I’m sorryyy. I promise I won’t do it again. I will reflect on my naughty bookworm ways.

I survived breakfast with Mr. Fisalis, even though I was pretty out of it, and managed to show him off to work as was our norm. He set off after our usual exchange of:

“See you this evening.”

“Have a great day!”

Phew, he didn’t notice I’m like a zombie!

I guess I figured that I’d be in the clear as long as I could get him out the door, because after that, my batteries seemed to drain rapidly. Once I was sure the front door was shut and I was turning on my heel for the salon, an uncontrollable sleepiness suddenly overtook me. Staggering in a drowsy daze, I put out a hand to stabilize myself, but it landed on an ornamental figure that was so obviously worth more than my own parents’ house that I had only ever admired from arm’s length.

CRAAASH!

It toppled as soon as I touched it, falling to the hard marble floor and loudly shattering into a million pieces.

“Eeee! Madam!”

“Are you alright!?” the servants cried out in a panic.

I, on the other hand, was so sleepy that I could only look around in confusion from my spot crouched on the floor, unable to even get up. With absolutely zero idea of what had just happened.

What happened?, I went so far as to ask myself, stupidly.

“Madam! Are you hurt?” Rohtas asked as he ran over to me, ushering me away from the broken pieces scattered about me on the floor.

Once Rohtas had moved me somewhere safer, I looked back at where he had found me to see; it was absolute carnage, shards of broken vase strewn everywhere! Huhhh!? I was so sleepy that at first it was like looking at something that wasn’t real, but then it hit me. I was shocked back to reality with a jolt.

I annihilated that priceless ornament! What am I gonna do!?

“Wh—wh—what do we do, Rohtas? I broke it!” I asked Rohtas, holding my head in panic. I could feel the blood drain from my face in fright. So much for hiding my pale, sleepless skin with makeup.

“Not to worry, Madam. ’Twas nothing but a decoration. What’s most important is that you’re unhurt,” he told me soothingly, but that museum-quality vase certainly didn’t look like “just a decoration” to me.

I saw how careful the maids were with it when we were cleaning! So of course I figured out it was priceless and knew not to touch it. But now I’ve gone and broken it, after all the effort and care those maids put into looking after it! How will I ever live with knowing that I destroyed a valuable artifact in a sleep-deprived stupor!?

“No, no, nooo, you can’t just say that was a ‘decoration’! Aaaaaah, what am I gonna dooo!?” And I was always so careful around it, too!

“Please, calm yourself, Madam. Why don’t we go back to your room for a moment?” Dahlia tried to console me, rubbing my back as I tried to avoid bursting into tears, but I was so shaken up that she wasn’t very successful at it. I clung to her and Mimosa as they guided me back to my room where I promptly collapsed in a heap on my sofa.

“It wasn’t an heirloom or anything of that sort, so there’s really no need for you to be so upset, Madam,” Dahlia told me as I lay whimpering on the couch.

“That’s not why I’m upset. It’s because everyone says that everything in this house is so valuable,” I replied, referring to what I’d heard from the maids as we had cleaned.

“I’m more concerned about your safety than about any item in this house.”

“I should’ve kept it from breaking even if it meant getting hurt! I’m tough enough, I would’ve been able to, too, but I was absolutely useless... I’ll replace it... I know it was worth a lot of money, but I can probably still buy another, I bet. But that’d mean taking out another loan after I just finally got rid of the old one... uuungh,” I whined, not even listening to what Dahlia said.

“No, you really don’t need to do that. Please, calm down,” Mimosa insisted, sighing. I didn’t really hear her, either.

“Buh—But how will I make up for it? Manual labor? Maybe I could go find a job somewhere? Honestly, I’d rather just become a servant...” I mumbled to myself, trying to come up with ways to repay the Fisalis family, when Rohtas returned from cleaning up the mess I’d made.

“It’s nothing you need to worry yourself over, Madam. And certainly not something you need to repay anyone for,” Rohtas said with a stern smile at my continued anxiety.

“But, but...” I continued to sob, to which he let out a single long-suffering sigh.

“I have an idea. Instead of staying here and being upset, why don’t you go back to your parents’ house? It’s been a while since you saw them. Perhaps a change of scenery—and more importantly, spending time with them—will make you feel better,” he suggested.

But I was so depressed at that moment that I misunderstood what Rohtas meant.

“Oh. You mean Mr. Fisalis is going to divorce me...” I replied, assuming the worst. Rohtas only sighed even more deeply.

“No, Madam, I did not. Come now, take a break from all this at your parents’ house, and then come back when you’re feeling better,” he instructed me, speaking slowly and clearly.

I didn’t notice the emphasis on ‘then come back.’

“Okay,” I nodded in agreement, feeling lower than dirt.

I deserve to be divorced at this point. Just my luck that this would happen right after Mr. Fisalis finally showed me that he wanted to get along. I’m the one that made this mess, though, so I can’t get out of it. I had better do as Rohtas says and go home, I thought with a miserable sigh.

“...It’s not as if we’re going to leave you there,” Rohtas muttered with a wry smile. I was so down in the dumps, though, that I didn’t hear him.