Secret Wardrobe Of The Duchess

“Do you know where we should go?”

“Yes.”

“But be careful, they might be still in the hallway.”

Once they were inside, Tatiana led the way as she knew where Christopher’s ghostdesigner was.

Each time she clumsily hid in a corner or didn’t duck when passing a window, Rubica’s hand came fast to fix it.

Gabriel had been right, she was really good at this. If only she had known where to go, she should have led the way.

“Here it is.”

They reached the second floor and Tatiana opened the fourth door. They quickly went inside and closed the door lest they might be seen.

The room was quite spacious, but it didn’t have much. There was a huge desk and a black box, but that was pretty much it.

“We’re right next to the hideout.”

“Then, you have rented this room?”

“Yes.”

They had hired a source to be employed at Christopher’s shop and rent the next room of the hideout, just to track one man.

How much money had they spent on this? Rubica couldn’t help being worried. Their magazine clearly sold well, but was its revenue enough for all the expenses they were spending?

“But finding out this much must have cost you a lot...”

“Only very little, compared to what we spent to buy this.”

Gabriel said as she got her hands on the box-like thing. There was a silver object and several buttons on it. She took out a wire and attached it to the wall.

“With this, we can hear every word they say in the adjacent room.”

She was right. When she pressed on the green button, they could clearly hear Christopher’s voice as if they had been in the same room. Rubica looked at the black box, very surprised. It was almost as amazing as Ios’s magic.

“This is an eavesdropping device, and it comes with a recording function. We’ve spent more than half of the profits we earned till now.”

“It’s truly remarkable. My, who made this?”

“His Grace.”

“Are you saying your father made this for his reporters?”

Gabriel gave her a confused look.

“Of course not. I meant Duke Claymore, your husband.”

Rubica covered her mouth with both hands to hear the unexpected reply, but to Gabriel, her treating her great husband as if he was an ordinary man was even more marvelous.

“My father is quite smart, but compared to the duke, he’s a five-year-old boy.”

“Gabriel.”

Tatiana warned her about speaking ill of her own father, but she just shrugged.

“Tatiana, I was giving my father a compliment. Compared to Duke Claymore, he isn’t even a human being. He’s an octopus.”

“Shh!”

Then, Christopher raised his voice. It sounded quite serious. Rubica quickly stopped Gabriel from starting another round of talking while Tatiana pressed on the ‘record’ button.

-I don’t care if you think it’s not right. I want you to make dresses with tons of those ribbons. Your old designs aren’t selling at all now!

-But Christopher, I just can’t accept that design. Those dresses might be practical, but they have no fantasy. Dresses should be unrealistically beautiful. That is my belief.

-Your belief? My belief is money!

And there came the sound of things being thrown. They could hear they were having a fight.

-Argh!

The scream of pain that ended the fight wasn’t Christopher’s, and Rubica couldn’t stand it anymore. She stood up. She was worried sick about that mysterious designer on the other side of the wall. She tried to run out, but Tatiana stopped her.

“No! Your Grace, we’re here to cover this case.”

“Tatiana! That designer might be killed.”

“But... it isn’t our role to interfere.”

“What do you mean?”

Tatiana just smiled awkwardly at the question. Gabriel could see she was embarrassed to explain it herself, so she spoke for her friend.

“Reporters are obliged to not interfere. But instead, they have the right to go to battlefields to do their job, and they are always given protection and the needed help, regardless of their nationality. That is what the international treaty says, and Tatiana doesn’t want to break it.”

“But this isn’t a battlefield.”

“You see, the treaty applies to every occasion...”

“Your Grace, I know our magazine is considered a gossip magazine, but I want to keep the rules, just like a reporter should do.”

They could hear Christopher dragging out the unconscious designer. He moaned sometimes, which was the only sign that he wasn’t dead yet.

However, he wasn’t going to stay that way for long. Christopher had guards in disguise outside the building, which he usually hadn’t done, so he must have come determined to kill his ghostdesigner in case he failed to convince him to design ribbon dresses. Maybe he had met Baron Jacob to ask him to take care of the corpse.

“Okay, then Tatiana, you should stay here.”

Tatiana thought Rubica understood her obligation and let go of her in relief. However, as soon as she let go of Rubica’s arm, she declared,

“But I must go. I’m not a reporter, so I don’t have to respect that treaty.”

“Madam!”

Rubica ran out of the room before they could stop her. Judging from what they had heard, Christopher had a knife. Although the man was thin, he wasn’t weak at all. Rubica was about to get hurt.

“I must go too.”

“Gabriel!”

Tatiana pleadingly looked at Gabriel, and it made her hesitate for a moment. Tatiana was proud to be a member of a family that ran a newspaper.

She had been the first to say The Little Bird’s News wasn’t a mere gossips magazine but newspaper for girls.

Gabriel knew better than anyone how stubborn her usually reserved and kind friend could become. However, she didn’t want to lose someone important to her just to keep her pride.

“Tatiana, I’ll just be a girl who writes a stupid column for a gossip magazine!”

Gabriel went after Rubica, even though she knew how much her choice was going to hurt Tatiana.

***

Since several weeks ago, Edgar’s study had been full of all kinds of fabrics. His desk had piles of books about lace-making and sketches.

Edgar himself was looking at Sharman lace, which was known to be the best of all laces.

He had been doing that for three hours already, so Ios was quite bored and tried to pick a fight.

“Are you planning to change your career and become a designer? Don’t even think about it, you’ll never be as good as my Rubica.”

“Your ‘cousin’ Rubica.”

How could he so irritatingly point it out every time? He wouldn’t even play with Ios, no matter how bored he was.

In the end, Ios couldn’t stand it. He jumped to his feet, snatched the lace out of Edgar’s hands, and threw it away.

“Hey!”

Edgar wished he could punch the dragon’s face, but he remembered Rubica asking him to be nice to Ios as he had no bad will and could barely manage to control himself.

Ios had insisted on going to the king’s palace with Rubica every time she went there, but after long, long persuasion, he eventually accepted he couldn’t go.

Then, he could have gone home and water his precious plants, why was he still with Edgar?

He just wouldn’t leave Edgar’s side.

“Bring me that back.”

Edgar pointed out the lace that was clearly out of his reach and said firmly.

He spoke like that only when he was about to reach the end of his toleration. If Ios annoyed him again, he would no longer let him stay in his study.

However, he had the pride of a dragon and didn’t want to obey his order like a good dog.

“I’ll do it if you beat me in arm wrestling.”

Ios said as he put his right arm on Edgar’s desk. He chose arm wrestling because he knew Edgar couldn’t move his legs, but Edgar just laughed.

“Hey, this might surprise you as you have nothing to do except for playing, but I’m busy.”

“I know you’ve been looking at that piece of fabric for days now. Well, if you are afraid of losing, I will generously fetch that for you, as winners should be generous to losers.”

Before he could finish saying that, Edgar pushed aside the things on his desk and undid his cuff button. The tendons of his hands started contracting, showing how mad he was.