Chapter 117: At Cross Purposes

They carried the clothes they had picked out of the wardrobe room away with them and changed in Lewis’s room.

The clothes, which seemed to have been shut away in the wardrobe room a long time, had a slightly peculiar scent, something like medicinal herbs. Put on, they felt somehow cool and stiff.

“Somehow… I don’t think it suits me.”

“The shirt frills showing out from the jacket sleeve are a bit much, somehow.”

They put them on and looked one another over. Lewis had chosen a crisp shirt with the crest of the baronial house embroidered on the sleeve and trousers of a colour to match. Royce had a dark brown thing rather like a knight’s outfit. Ren had a white shirt with embroidery at the collar, a brown waistcoat and black trousers.

“Is this the sort of thing, do you think?”

“No idea.”

“The sizes fit, at any rate.”

All he could tell was that, next to the second-hand clothes bought in the village, the cloth looked far finer. Ren didn’t know what one was supposed to wear when relatives came and were received, and neither Lewis nor Royce seemed to know either.

When they had all changed and come out into the corridor, a voice came from the far end of it.

“You three — why are you dressed like that?”

“Eh…?”

They turned to find their mother standing there with a look of bewilderment.

“Mother. Does this look odd?”

Lewis spread his arms a little to show what he had on as he asked her.

“It suits you, but… Ren and Royce as well… Who handed you those clothes?”

“From the wardrobe room. I borrowed the key from Simon.”

“Simon did? …Go and fetch Simon.”

Their mother turned to the maid behind her and told her to fetch Simon the steward.

(What? Were we not supposed to wear these clothes after all…)

Seeing his mother looking so at a loss, Ren began to feel uneasy.

“Eh? Is something wrong with it? We were told to go and change into proper clothes, so we changed!”

Royce said it crossly. His lower lip stuck out in dissatisfaction.

“Who told you to change?”

“Grandmother did. She told us to change into proper clothes.”

“Mother did!?”

At Royce’s answer, their mother’s widened eyes wavered. She let out a long breath.

“I see… I had meant Ren and Royce to stay in their rooms today.”

“Eh?”

Ren’s and Royce’s voices came together for once.

Royce’s eyebrows went down; he looked shocked.

“You mean, don’t come out in front of the guests? …Not just Ren-niisan — me as well?”

Royce asked their mother in a small voice, as though holding down his anger.

(Not just Ren-niisan… Is that why Royce and I were moved out of our rooms? But then we were told to change as well… What are we supposed to do in the end?)

Royce’s words left Ren feeling somewhat clouded, but for the moment he was turning things over, trying to understand the situation.

“What’s this commotion!”

His grandmother’s carrying voice rang down the corridor. She came up with two servants behind her, expressionless, and looked them over sharply. As her eyes passed over Lewis, Ren and Royce, her gaze shifted very slightly up and down.

“Um… Mother… I was thinking of having Ren and Royce wait in their rooms. I can’t keep an eye on everything, and if there were any discourtesy to the guests…”

“What are you saying. Guests who have come from far off should be greeted.”

When their mother put it to her diffidently, their grandmother struck the suggestion down flat.

Their mother let out a small breath and lowered her eyes.

“All the same…”

Their grandmother’s eyes turned to Ren and the others again.

“How very ill-assorted. I wonder who chose them.”

“We chose them ourselves.”

“Yourselves?”

At Lewis’s reply their grandmother’s eyebrows shot up. Then somewhat hurried footsteps came near. It was Simon the steward, his face pale, his shoulders heaving as he breathed.

“You… called for me…?”

Simon said it while breathing hard.

“…Simon.”

Their mother stepped half a pace forward.

“There’s something I wished to confirm, so I called you. I hear Lewis received the key to the wardrobe room from you…”

Simon’s shoulder gave a small twitch. His eyes wandered a little.

“…I’m extremely sorry… I had my hands full showing the guests in… as it was…”

Simon forced the words out. His colour was bad, and his eyes had something vacant about them. He was swaying faintly.

(Eh? Is he all right? He looks about to fall…)

The steward looked as though he might collapse at any moment. His grandmother, her back perfectly straight, addressed Simon.

“I knew there weren’t hands enough, which is why I brought servants from House Noisette, was it not?”

“Y-yes… I’m most grateful for it… It was my own inadequacy…”

Simon answered like a man whose wits had half left him. Just then someone who looked like a servant of some house came down the corridor at a rather hurried step.