Later Ami defiantly went to work in her garden. On the cusp of harvest, the bounty was nearly ready for picking. No one else will tend to this garden if I don’t. Ami considered that a terrible waste. 

What else was she supposed to do with her days? There was only so much she could do to prepare for her wedding, she had no occupation nor any intention of making social visits. Why change her routines after leaving the tower? 

How different this place was from her past life with her mother. They weren’t popular in the village they lived in by any means. An unwed mother who had traveled to make a living, of all things! But the mother and daughter found joy in their life, carving out their own happiness.

One of her mother’s greatest happinesses was growing the exotic plants she found on her former travels. Their garden wrapped around their little cottage, a wild mess to the untrained eye. But her mother had a method for the chaotic garden, and her plants thrived. She worked hours in the dirt, and Ami learned to love to grow and nurture as much as she did. 

Now, years later, Ami found slight comfort in returning once again to the earth.

Ami was interrupted from her nostalgia by her father’s displeased secretary Martins, who appeared once again seemingly out of nowhere. Ami jumped in surprise when he called her name.  She glanced at the sun, realizing she’d missed the noon meal quite some time ago. She supposed the excessive breakfast had filled her up to now.

“Miss Amoret,” the disgruntled aid gritted. “Lord Rhineton requires you in his office.” The man had probably been ordered to track down the missing girl and was none too pleased to find her elbow deep in mud. 

“Alright,” Ami nodded crisply, brushing the dirt from her dress. A poor job by the roll of Martin’s eyes. He guided her swiftly back inside the manor.

Her father frowned at her when she entered his office. “Please be more considerate of my requests next time, Amoret.” His frown deepened when he noticed her dirty hands and skirt. 

“Yes, Father,” Ami chimed obediently. A man she’d seen in and out of the manor throughout the years stood near her father and nodded to her. From the look of it, he was the Rhineton family’s attorney. She stepped up to her father’s desk. 

“Sign the documents here.” Lord Rhineton gestured to the legal documents and a pen in front of him. Ami took her time picking up the papers. Her father returned to his work only to jerk his eyes up to meet hers a moment later. Something must have occurred to him by his startled look.

“If you need help finding where to sign, just ask Jaspers,” he referred to the attorney watching her impatiently. 

Ami guessed his meaning. Did he just consider that maybe she was illiterate? Ami looked at him cooly. “I’ll be just fine.” Yes, I know how to read and sign, Father. My mother taught me well.

Scanning the documents, she found they were to legitimize her position as a daughter of nobility-a birth certificate, an official statement from her father to be notarized, and several others.

The process of legitimizing a bastard child wasn’t simple. There were few successful court cases of noble houses bringing in a bastard son as heir. Lord Rhineton, a commander of the imperial military, had enough sway with the courts to get his way. Ami suspected the officials involved received a hefty bribe from him.

Goodness, Father. You went to so much trouble for me, Ami thought with a sour taste in her mouth.

The legal papers were hard to get through, but Ami figured they were as fair as they could be with her. She signed the documents. The attorney notarized everything when she was done. 

Her father was preoccupied with other work, but Ami couldn’t keep waiting for the attorney to leave them alone. She knew her father was already busy preparing for his military campaign and would be out of the manor soon. She wanted to use this chance to get more information from him.

“….Father, when will I have the opportunity to meet Captain Everick?” 

Her father looked surprised that she was still there. She went on, “Will I see him before the wedding? Where is he now?” 

Lord Rhineton chose his words carefully. “The captain and his soldiers will arrive sometime before the wedding, and the day after they’ll depart for the battlefield.” He scowled. “I told you, Amoret, you only had to endure one day with him. He’ll be gone by the next morning”

Ami rolled her eyes. “But he’s going to be here before the wedding?”

“Perhaps,” he said vaguely. After giving her a generous glance, he continued, “In fact, it might boost the morale of the troops if we throw Captain Everick and his men a welcome banquet upon their arrival. You can meet him then.”

The news did nothing to boost her own morale, though. 

Great. Another event to perform for. 

........

Ami had been living in the family rooms of the manor for a few days before she ran into her sisters again.

She had noticed a pattern watching from her bedroom window. Her father would go to work first, sometimes to his study, often to the military camp not far from his estate. Later in the morning, Giselle and Lady Rhineton left the manor to attend to social calls. A world Ami had no interest in. Her youngest sisters, she learned, went to their lessons with the governess. Another thing Ami didn’t know about, as her only education was from her mother and self-taught. 

    The busy schedules of her family members kept them out of her sight, further aided by Ami’s frequent perusal of spaces they had no business in, like the gardens and Ami’s old tower. 

    One day, quite by accident, Ami ran into the two youngest sisters while they were on a study break. Ami had just come back in from working in the garden, trying not to track dirt in the hallways. The servants disliked her enough, no reason to give them another reason to hate her. 

She rounded a corner and came face to face with her pretty little sisters. They jumped in surprise. Ami recovered and smiled at the girls. Brigette caught a look at her dirty dress and grimaced. This would be the second time she saw such a disastrous look. Celeste looked like a moonlit doll, and covered her mouth when she gasped.

Brigette wrinkled her nose. “Why are you dressed like that? Aren’t you ashamed?”

Ami wasn’t offended. She laughed. “Why should I be?”

Celeste grew bold and asked her, “What are you doing?”

 Ami shrugged. “I was in the garden.” 

“The garden?” Celeste couldn’t believe one of her sisters would do such low work that was beneath their station. 

 “The garden. And what are you doing?” Ami flipped the conversation back to them. 

“We’re having a tea break from our lessons.”

  Celeste stared at Ami’s basket. “Sister Amoret, what’s in the basket?” 

    Ami opened it to show her. “Herbs I picked this morning to make tea.” Celeste furrowed her eyebrows, thinking. “You grow your own tea?”

    “You can drink the tea here, you know. You don’t have to make tea from weeds,” Bri rolled her eyes, exasperated by her sister’s backwards ways.

   Ami scoffed. “I prefer to make my own tea. It tastes better anyways,” she winked at the girls.

    Celeste and Brigette spoke over each other. “Does it really?” “That can’t be true!”

    Ami raised a brow. “Well, why don’t you join me for tea and we’ll find out?” That shut them up. 

Brigette spoke first. “We don’t have time. Cela, come on.” 

    Celeste tugged Bri’s sleeve, “I want to try it, sister Bri.”

Ami nodded. “Good. Come, then.”

A few minutes later found the three sisters in one of the parlors, pots of hot water brought in by the staff ready to be poured over the tea. 

Ami took out some of the herbs and showed them to the girls. Flower buds and leaves tumbled over the white cloth. 

“Do you recognize these flower buds?” The two shook their heads no. “Go on, smell them and take a guess.”

Ami chuckled at the difference in the girls. Celeste hung on her every word while Brigette crossed her arms, frowning in suspicion. 

They both bent over the mix of herbs. Celeste piped up, “It smells like roses!”

“That’s right!” Ami grinned. “These are rosehip buds. They make a sweet tea with a floral taste. Have you ever drank it before?”

The two shook their heads again. Ami wasn’t surprised. The ladies of the Empire drank black tea sweetened with sugar and milk.

Ami put the herbs in a tea strainer before placing it in an empty tea pot. Then she poured the hot water over it. 

“Let’s wait for it to seep,” A few minutes later, Ami poured the rosy tea into their teacups. 

They brought the teacups to their lips cautiously, unsure what the taste would be. They sipped.

Celeste spoke first, beaming. “It’s delicious!” She grinned at Ami. “It’s like I’m drinking a rose!” 

    Brigette drained her cup. When Ami offered her more tea, she begrudgingly held up her cup. Ami thought it best not to snicker in her face this time. 

    What a strange turn of events, Ami thought to herself. She never expected to enjoy a fairly civilized cup of tea with her half-sisters. Sadly, she thought, I don’t think I could spend time like this with Giselle. 

    Since the first day she came to the manor and met her half-sisters, Giselle was mature as a refined lady. The oldest daughter of the lady of the manor, Giselle would shoulder the family’s responsibilities on her own, allowing her younger sisters to reap the benefits of noble life without partaking in the bulk of inheritance lessons.

    Ami reflected on such thoughts of her sisters’ lives when Brigette opened her mouth to spew new nonsense.

    “Sister Amoret, we learned about Belland recently in our studies.” 

Ami rolled her eyes. She highly doubted the propaganda found in the educational textbooks of the upper class would do anything to lighten the mood.

    So Ami didn’t take the bait and quietly sipped her tea. But Brigette never needed encouragement in conversation.

    She looked sick. “They have such strange customs in Belland. Isn't that right, Cela?” Brigette turned to Celeste to drag her into the conversation. Celeste hemmed and hawed, uncomfortable with answering. So Brigette did it for her.

    “Amoret, did you know that it’s a custom in Belland to bathe together?” She looked positively scandalized. “Even the men take baths together-completely bare!” Ami groaned. What are they teaching these girls? Celeste yipped and blushed. 

    “Did your teacher tell you why they all bathe together?” 

Brigette stumbled over an answer. 

    Celeste took the initiative to question Ami. “Sister Amoret, do you know why Belland men bathe together?”

    Ami wanted to laugh so hard tears welled in her eyes and she had to take several breaths to calm herself.

    “I’m not sure since I’ve never been there, but I heard there are many natural hot springs in Belland.” She paused to see if her sisters cared for more explanation. They didn’t discount her answer, so she went on. 

    “People from Belland tend to take cleanliness very seriously. They bathe every day, and since they have access to nature’s baths I suppose they use them often.”

    “But they bathe with other people? Without any…clothes?” Brigette shivered but her bright eyes and rapt attention gave her away.

    Ami shrugged. “The springs are large, so it would be strange if only one person used them at a time. And because Belland people value the purity of the springs, they disrobe so nothing contaminates the natural state of water.” 

Ami chuckled. “And I can’t be certain, as I’ve never been there, but I believe men and women bathe separately.”

Celeste sighed in relief, as though she were afraid she’d be forced to bathe in a mixed spring. Brigitte looked disappointed. You silly girls, Ami granted them fondly. 

But Bri couldn’t be kept down for long. “Well, that all sounds silly. They should bathe in their bathrooms in their own homes.”

This Ami didn’t want to let go. “Brigitte, you are fortunate that you have your own private place to bathe. The middle and lower-classes of the Empire might not have access to clean water every day. Many families share bath water a few nights a week because that’s all they can manage.” Brigitte was startled and glared at her, but was rightfully shamed. 

Ami took it a step farther. “And I don’t think it’s fair to compare the pure waters rich in minerals found in natural hot springs to the stale water that comes from our taps.” This time Ami made a scandalized face. “We have to add oils and perfumes to render that water usable.”

Celeste giggled, and Brigitte naturally scowled, but the tips of her mouth curved upwards. 

Brigette finally got her second wind. “The Belland people might be obsessively clean,” Bri snorted, “but that doesn’t change the fact that they are rotten cowards.”

Ami’s eyes went wide. What a hateful thing to say. “Why would you say something so terrible, Brigette?” Ami couldn’t believe Bri would go that far.

Brigette doubled down. “Our governess said so. The Belland people are weak and cowardly. That’s why the Empire beat them.” She stuck her chin out, trying to look down on Ami. “And Father has said it too.” 

Ami glared at her. “Do you believe everything you’re told?”

Brigette smirked. “I heard Father say that when he finally defeated the Belland dogs, they rolled on the ground to show their bellies like vermin.”

“Brigette-“Ami warned.

“He said at the banquet last year that the Belland’s troops’ leader caved in after only a little pressure, and he abandoned his whole country!”

Ami looked at Brigette sadly. Her sister probably had no idea that the man their father defeated was Ami’s fiancé. 

Ami dropped her voice. “That’s not what the military logs say, Bri.” Her sisters looked at her in confusion. She drew a deep breath, exhaling the last of her energy.

“The Belland army held off the Empire for months. They did all they could to defend their homeland. They weren’t defeated in battle, they surrendered when their families were captured by our military.”

Celeste gasped. Brigette frowned. Ami wasn’t sure she wanted to tell them that the one who used women and children against his enemy was their own father. 

“There are different sides to the same story, Brigitte. Even in this family,” she ended quietly. Her younger sisters silenced in self-reflection. 

The tea now gone, Ami wanted to be alone. She smiled weakly at her sisters. “Next time I’ll make a fruit tea to share with you.” Her sisters stirred from their thoughts. Celeste immediately bobbed her head, smiling shyly. Even Brigitte didn’t seem disgusted at the idea. 

After her sisters left to continue their lessons, Ami sat in the parlor alone, swirling the dregs of the tea leaves in her cup. They collided together with force, just like her own thoughts bouncing inside her head.