But not only Eliza, but even Mrs. Isaac and Mrs. Rexon seemed to completely disagree with her words. The three elderly women narrowed their eyes simultaneously and shook their heads.
All at once, the three noblewomen felt like a towering wall to Grace.
“You must eat your fill. You are far too thin. The biting winds will blow here in Richmond soon. If you don’t eat heartily at a time like this, you’ll catch a nasty cold even wearing fur.”
“The Duchess is right, my lady. You left most of your meat untouched, but you must eat plenty of meat in Richmond. Only then can you survive the winter.”
“The dead of winter in the Taylor Dukedom is merely early winter to us. I know, for I have spent a winter there.”
As Mrs. Isaac and Mrs. Rexon took turns speaking after Eliza, Grace could only blink, at a complete loss for words.
Just then, she felt a sudden touch on the back of her hand. Without hesitation, Eliza had reached out to gauge the thickness of the dress cuff peeking slightly out from her coat.
“Duchess.”
When Grace called to her, Eliza snapped with a stern expression.
“This fabric is just cotton! Why are you still wearing something like this?!”
“Ah, I—”
“Are the winter dresses for Grace still not ready?”
“My apologies.”
“The merchants promised to bring them by this afternoon. I shall dress her in them the moment they arrive.”
“Yes, you must. And since she has not yet fully recovered, she must wear fur!”
“Andy, go and fetch the fur at once.”
“Yes!”
“Look here, the north wind is already blowing. In other regions, fur is worn for fashion, but here we wear it because we must. Cover yourself with this until the fur arrives.”
Eliza, who had been nagging about one thing after another as if she had been waiting for this, finally pressed the blanket she had been covering herself with into Grace’s hands.
“I am fine, please keep it…”
“When an elder gives you something, you say thank you and accept it.”
With nothing else to say, the blanket ended up draped over Grace’s thighs. The warmth Eliza’s body had left in the blanket gently heated Grace’s legs. Mrs. Rexon, who had personally covered her with it, gestured with her eyes for Grace to respond quickly, and Grace opened her mouth in a daze.
“Thank you.”
Only then did Eliza seem satisfied, raising her teacup and quirking her eyebrow.
“This is tea brewed with freshly harvested jujubes and honey. Try it. You all, sit down.”
“Let me set things up. The pumpkins this autumn were just—so ripe! How sweet they were without even a single spoonful of sugar! Hmm-hmm!”
Mrs. Rexon hummed a tune and opened the basket.
“Pumpkin pie, pumpkin muffin, and these are pumpkin cookies!”
“Please try some berry pie as well. It has cooled just enough to be perfect for eating now. Jessie, please set this up.”
“Yes!”
As the swift hands of the three women swept over the table, it was packed so full of food that not a single gap was visible.
Grace glanced over the refreshments and took a sip of the jujube tea. The warm, sweet taste was not unpleasant. She savored the sweetness on her tongue and the aroma traveling up her throat to her nose, when a plate was pushed before her teacup.
When she raised her eyes, the gazes of the three noblewomen were fixed upon her.
“I believe you ought to eat the pie quickly.”
It was then that Jessie whispered in a voice laced with laughter.
“What kind of tea time has table legs bending under the weight?”
The moment a low, cool voice that no one could imitate sounded from behind, everyone except Eliza rose from their seats. Grace also stood up and immediately turned toward the voice behind her.
Surprised that such a large man could approach so close without a sound, she saw him hold out the black object in his hand.
Shimmering delicately, fiber by fiber, in the sunlight, it was black fur.
“Put it on.”
When Grace raised her eyes, Ares gestured toward the fur as if urging her to take it.
“Did you forget you had a fever? You must wear this at all times.”
Grace took the fur in a fluster, and Ares brushed past her.
“It’s winter; what sort of outdoor tea time is this?”
“It’s rather pleasant if you wear fur and sit under the sun. After this season passes, we’ll have to stay indoors for at least five months, so we must enjoy it now.”
Ares chuckled briefly and sat in the seat Mrs. Isaac had occupied.
“I’ll sit here.”
“I will reset the teacup for you, Your Grace.”
While Mrs. Isaac quickly cleared away her teacup and presented a new one, Grace put on the fur Ares had brought. The problem was that it was excessively large, likely because it was his. With her arms through the sleeves, she could hardly drink her tea.
Ares glanced at her and added,
“Drape it over your shoulders like a blanket. That’s what I brought it for.”
“Yes, thank you.”
In the end, Grace sat down with Ares’s fur draped over her shoulders. A thick scent rose from the fur enveloping her body. Fierce and rough, yet somehow cloyingly sweet—that fragrance was the same one she had always smelled from Ares.
But she felt strangely embarrassed. Eliza was wrapped in a fur shawl, but Ares himself wore a light jacket, and the three maids including Jessie were merely in wool coats. In the midst of it all, she alone was swaddled in a massive black fur and even had a blanket.
“Duchess, I’ll return the blanket. Please cover yourself.”
But Eliza pretended not to hear and gestured toward Ares with her eyes.
“Since when are you capable of such delicate consideration?”
This time, Ares pretended not to hear and gestured toward Grace.
“Fasten the front of the fur.”
Just then, Andrew arrived with the fur, and Mrs. Rexon draped it over Eliza’s knees.
In the end, with Eliza’s blanket also covering her knees, Grace felt so warm she thought she might sweat. At the same time, a strangely ticklish sensation welled up inside her. This peculiar itchiness that had been visiting her lately was not the kind that would disappear if she scratched somewhere.
“Good work. I sent someone.”
As Ares’s voice flowed into her ear and wrapped around her heart, the ticklish sensation seemed to spread up to her throat. Grace lowered her eyes and nodded slightly.
“It was nothing.”
“If that’s nothing, why are the Richmond vassals lining up to receive your review? Such a bother.”
Then Eliza, who had been watching them intently, was the first to cut into her pie with a fork.
“It will all get cold. You, bring another table and sit.”
As if she had been waiting, Mrs. Isaac placed pie onto Ares’s and Grace’s plates, then sat down. Mrs. Rexon, Jessie, and Andrew brought a separate table and sat.
The trees overhead were bare, but the table before her was abundant. The jujube tea warmed her insides, and the pie made with plenty of old pumpkin was moderately sweet and comforting.
As Grace was nearly finishing her first slice of pie,
“Have another slice.”
Contrary to his frigid voice, the largest slice of berry pie was placed on her plate once more.
“Thank you.”
Grace smiled faintly and picked up her fork again. In the meantime, her teacup was refilled with steaming jujube tea.
The berry pie Eliza had personally served was sweet and tart, yet lighter than the pumpkin pie. Grace felt she could understand a little why the noblewomen so enjoyed tea parties. Though the times were precarious, her heart became momentarily as light and refreshed as the taste of the pie.
Just as she finished that slice as well,
“Try this one now.”
Where a gracefully adorned hand had passed, a large pumpkin muffin now remained. Moreover, Mrs. Isaac, who sat beside her, filled her tea the moment it decreased, as if she believed the liquid in the teacup must never run low.
She had clearly eaten her fill, yet the plate and teacup before her looked no different from when she had started. Wondering how she could possibly eat more, she heard Ares mutter beside her,
“How can she eat when she’s feeling so overwhelmed?”
Not only Jessie but Eliza, Mrs. Isaac, and Mrs. Rexon as well—they stared so persistently at Grace eating that she was on the verge of a hollow laugh. Moreover, it was evident that her stomach was filling up from her slowing fork movements, yet with another muffin placed on her plate, it was clear she would end up with indigestion.
“Eat moderately.”
But his consideration was far from welcome in the old noblewoman’s eyes. She was already worried sick that Grace was so thin she might collapse!
“To tell someone who has been working all day to eat moderately. What kind of thing is that to say? Make her eat plenty.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“Whatever you meant, telling her to eat plenty is the proper greeting. While Grace ate two slices of pie, the Duke ate four slices and five muffins.”
“…I am merely grateful that you concern yourself with even what I eat, Grandmother.”
Grace straightened her back and intervened in the sudden clash of the tigers.
“I was curious about the taste of this muffin anyway. Let me try it.”
At that, Eliza, who had been bristling with her eyes wide at Ares’s exasperating gratitude, flinched, and Ares, who had been preparing to retort with an indifferent face, also turned to look at Grace.
Feeling as if she had become a six-year-old child, Grace cut the muffin with her fork and put it in her mouth. Back then, her grandmother had still been alive, so whenever she tried to eat something, everyone had been watching her.
“Our baby uses her fork so well.”
“Mother. It would be a problem if she couldn’t.”
“What are you saying, Luciana? I find it praiseworthy that our Grace even breathes. Oh my, look at that. Look at her eating like that to survive.”
Though her face was faint, she remembered her grandmother’s words quite clearly. It was because she had given such praise every time they ate together.
Then the Queen, who had no interest in what burden her opponent might feel, glanced at Ares.
“She eats so well, doesn’t she?”
She then turned to Grace and said,
“It is praiseworthy that you eat so well.”