Hug Me and You'll Die

8: Noble ladies are not supposed to be gossiping about the pleasure quarters.

Somewhat subdued, Desmia allowed herself to placed onto the nearby bench. With puffed out cheeks she muttered, "Tch, we could do with fewer roses anyways."

Despite the Fairblooms dire financial straits and the dilapidated look of the rest of the estate, the earl had always insisted that the family's expansive rose garden needed to be maintained at all costs.

Kale froze for a moment. Then in a melancholic tone, he said, "Don't say that, young mistress. You know as well as I that every single rose in this garden is precious to master. They were all grown by Lady Cattleya after all."

Desmia sighed as she flattened a fallen rose petal under her feet. "I know mother really treasured this rose garden when she had been alive, but roses, they're not necessarily cheap to care for and we can't really afford the extra costs. If she wanted to plant flowers then she should've planted wildflowers or something. Those would've been easy to maintain. If she just wanted to plant something period, then she should've planted herbs and vegetables. We would've at least have a use for those."

"Young mistress, Lady Cattleya grew roses because they're the symbol of the Fairbloom family," reminded Kale gently as he picked up the garden shears and resumed pruning.

"Yeah, our symbol is the blue rose." Desmia held out her hands. "Do any of these look blue to you, Kale?"

"Well, blue roses don't exist in nature, but Lady Cattleya grew every other variety. In any case, the blue rose is the symbol bestowed upon us by the sixteenth king himself. They represent-"

"Our undying loyalty to the king. Yeah, yeah, I know. I've heard this before," droned Desmia. "Because centuries ago, one of our ancestors took a knife for the then king and the king out of gratitude, bestowed upon him a higher rank, a crap ton of treasures, land and a blue rose for our official crest because the blood that spilled out from his stab wound resembled a rose in full bloom. And it's a blue rose and not a red one, the colour of actual blood, because the king thought blue was more regal and noble than red. Did I miss anything?"

Kale blinked. "Your memory seems to have gotten better, young mistress."

"Tarragon's repeated it so many times I couldn't help but memorize it," replied Desmia drily.

Tarragon was the Fairbloom's elderly house steward whom had served the family for over forty years.

"You should be proud to have descended from such a prestigious noble line, young mistress. It's something that commoners like me can only dream about."

"Now you're starting to sound like Tarragon." Desmia sprawled out on the bench. As she laid down, the chain with the ring flopped to one side.

Maybe I'll have to sell this ring. I was reluctant at first since I didn't know if he'd come back to reclaim it but seeing that there's still no correspondence, perhaps I can secretly pawn it off or something.

"Hey, Kale. Do you think we could make a trip to town soon?"

Kale shook his head. "It's not safe in the town right now. After coming back from the festival I found out that besides the pickpocketers that targeted us, there is a whole new crop of pickpocketers and thieves in town lately."

I guess that might've been why that ham from last time was so overly suspicious of me.

"For some reason, these new guys seem a lot more organized too. Until the situation improves, it won't be safe for you to go."