How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 13

At the Caparoni House

Miram came back to the Caparoni house after being stuffed into a carriage by Leonardo.

The footman opened the door of the carriage and waited for her to alight. However, Miriam hesitated feeling conscious about her dress that was different from her usual style. She also felt guilty about leaving in the middle of the Queen’s tea party. But she couldn’t stay in the carriage forever.

Bracing herself, she got down from the carriage. As she was heading towards the entrance, Tatiana came out to greet her.

“Good heavens, my dear Millie. I was so worried when you didn’t come back from the rose garden.”

“I’m back now. I’m sorry about today, mother.”

At her apology, Tatiana placed a hand on Miriam’s shoulder.

“It’s fine. I was informed about it. But be careful next time. You were at the Witch of the Capital’s residence, right?”

“Yes, I caught my dress in a bush at the rose garden; she helped me out when I was in trouble.”

“Yes, and that’s why you have on that beautiful dress, right? As I thought, bright colours really suit my cute Millie! Let’s send a thank you note from your father to the witch.”

“Alright.”

“You must be tired, right? Go take a rest until dinner.”

Miriam excused herself from Tatiana and climbed the stairs to go back to her room when she saw Alessia waiting for her in the second floor corridor.

“Welcome back.”

“…I just got home. Sister.”

Miriam felt her back stiffen at the cold gaze of her sister, Alessia.

“At today’s tea party. What were you thinking leaving in the middle of it?”

Miriam had always found Alessia, who called out to her without even a smile, a bit hard to handle.

Even though her parents and brother doted on her, Alessia was the only one who treated her harshly.

“No matter how many times mother forgives you, don’t you think you have no awareness as a member of the Caparoni house? A tea party is a society event after all. Or did you go there to play?”

“… I have no excuse for my behaviour.”

Alessia let out a sigh of disappointment when Miriam shrank away from her freezing gaze.

“Be very careful next time. Don’t forget the dignity of the Marquess House depends on every single action of ours. If something happens to the Marquessate it would only endanger the livelihood of four tenants.”

“… Yes.”

Alessia was always right. It was largely because of Alessia that Miriam who was used to getting spoiled hadn’t turned into a selfish young lady. However, Miriam was always scared of her and the sisters were not on good terms.

“I’ll be going back to my room.”

With that said, she tried to go pass Alessia, but was stopped suddenly.

“… That dress. Did you get it from the Witch of the Capital? Did you give a proper thanks?” She circled around Miriam and studied the dress she had received from the witches.

“It’s quite different from what you usually choose; did you like this king of colour and design?”

“Until now, I avoided such dresses thinking it wouldn’t suit me, but the witches said this looks better… So, I also don’t hate it.”

“… I see. Sorry for stopping you. You can go now.”

‘This dress… did she think it wasn’t appropriate for me… as I thought, maybe this kind of stuff doesn’t look good on me.’

Miriam entered her room feeling a little dejected at her sister’s scrutiny.

She’d walked to her room without looking back, so she hadn’t noticed her sister staring at her all the time after she left.

“So she liked this huh… bright colours…”

The muttered words did not reach Miriam.

Miriam returned to her room and, after her maid helped her change clothes, sat in front of the mirror and recalled the witches’ words.

“Your walnut coloured hair is Fer’s and Ana’s… a mixture of your parent’s hair colours.”

“Count what you have. Don’t think ‘this is so different’, but think ‘this is so similar.’”

“No matter what anyone says you are Fer and Ana’s daughter. You’re a member of the Caparoni family.”

No matter how much her family had loved her, she couldn’t help but want to be recognised. No, it was precisely because her family loved her so much that she felt so distressed at not being recognised by the people around them.

However, the witches showed her that she was a part of the Caparoni family.

They’d told her she was her parents daughter. That she took after them both.

Miriam couldn’t hold back her happiness at that. Someone had acknowledged her. SHe felt like she was on cloud nine.

“The shape of my eyebrows, and the colour of my eyes are father’s, my nose is mother’s, this curly hair is the same as my mother’s when she was younger.” Miriam gently swept her fingers over her eyebrows, her nose, her hair.

“I should look at the similarities I share with them. Why didn’t I do so until now…”

Miriam closed her eyes, feeling grateful for today’s encounter.

The three Grand Witches held the highest esteem in the kingdom. She’d thought that even if she went to the castle to seek an audience with them, she could never meet them.

Miriam never could have imagined that, from now on, she would be forcibly summoned to countless more tea parties, and the night went on in the Caparoni household.