LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 8 - Rosie
It turned out that Miss Rosie was recuperating at a villa about a fifteen-minute walk from the castle, tended to by servants.
Master Alexis arranged an appointment for me to visit her and when the day came, he and I walked along the road to the villa.
When people working the fields along the road noticed Master Alexis, they took off their hats and greeted him, very welcoming.
Master Alexis responded in a similarly friendly manner. With how often he came to visit Rosie along that road, it was no wonder he was already familiar with them.
He announced me as “my wife, Seraphina.”
I was frantically trying to memorize all their names as they introduced themselves one after another.
“I’m Ben.”
“My name’s Bernard.”
“I’m Anna.”
“My Count, please take the lettuce we just picked for Miss Rosie. It’s crispy and delicious.”
“Thank you, Ben. I will take it.”
We waved goodbye to them and continued walking along the peaceful road until we arrived at an elegant villa with colorful roses in bloom.
Master Alexis rapped on the door knocker.
A maid opened the door and invited us in.
“How are you feeling, Rosie?”
Miss Rosie laid on a canopy bed in a room with floral wallpaper.
She slowly sat up when Alexis called out to her.
Her painfully thin arms and legs peeked out from under her simple nightgown.
She was a cute girl with long flaxen hair and dull brown eyes. She was only eleven years old.
Rosie looked between Master Alexis and me.
“Ah… Big brother, is this person Mistress Sara?” she asked with her pale cheeks flushing, excitement in her voice.
“Yes, she is,” Master Alexis replied, then turned to introduce her to me. “Sara, this is my little sister Rosemary. Everyone calls her Rosie.”
“Hello, Miss Rosie. My name is Sara. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh! How refined! A lady from the Royal Capital is different after all!”
Rosie folded her arms and looked at me with sparkling eyes.
Sure, I was from the Royal Capital, but calling me a lady felt a bit embarrassing.
“There, there’s no need to praise me so much…”
“I asked big brother to bring you here so many times! I asked him, and he still hasn’t! Cough, cough…”
“Rosie, calm down a bit.”
Master Alexis put a blanket over Rosie with clearly practiced movements and tucked her in.
Rosie looked at me with unease in her eyes.
She was probably worried that we would leave because of her cough. She was so young, and yet already bedridden with sickness — I felt bad for her.
I crouched down beside the bed and smiled at Rosie.
“Rosie, I brought you a gift so we can start off on a good foot. Will you accept it?”
“Ah, of course! Thank you very much. What is it?”
She opened the package I brought and took out a pillowcase embroidered with small birds.
Rosie’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, it’s so adorable! …Oh, did you embroider it yourself, Mistress Sara?”
“Yes.”
“It, it’s amazing! You are so good at such a ladylike thing!”
Rosie jumped up again. Master Alexis was about to say something with a grim expression on his face, but before he could say anything, Rosie squeezed my hand.
“Please, Sara, could you teach me how to embroider?”
Without thinking, I turned to look at Master Alexis.
He had a reluctant look on his face.
Guess that meant no.
“Well… I will definitely teach you when you get better, Miss Rosie.”
“Eh!”
“Rosie, don’t be troublesome.”
“I, I understand.”
My heart ached as I looked at Rosie quickly pulling back and dejectedly running her fingers over the little birds on the pillow case.
“…Miss Rosie, when you feel better, why don’t you come with me to climb the mountains of Searfield too? I’ve been in the Royal Capital all my life, so I’ve never done any hiking.”
“Eh? Really? I climbed to the top with my brother when I was five years old!”
“Oh, is that so? That’s amazing.”
“…But I had to carry you for the last third of the way up the mountain.”
“B-big brother, that part does not matter! …Anyway, when Mistress Sara goes hiking, I will guide her!”
I beamed at her as she said this.
“Thank you, Miss Rosie. I’m really looking forward to it.”
“Sara, you are my family now, so why are you still talking to me like a stranger?”
“Well… I guess I should call you Rosie, then? But aren’t you very formal to me as well?”
“I, I am a lady in training, so it’s okay for me!”
The three of us chatted happily for a while, but then Rosie started coughing again and me and Master Alexis had to leave.
But before that, there was something I really wanted to do.
“Rosie, can I take your measurements? It won’t take too long.”
“Measurements…?”
“I want to measure how tall you are.”
I pulled the measuring tape out of my pocket, quickly took Rosie’s measurements and wrote them down.
“And it’s done. Next, I will sew you some cute loungewear.”
“Ooh! You can make clothes too?!”
“Yes, as long as it’s not too complicated. What color would you like?”
Rosie began agonizing over her choice.
“Well, um… Pink would be good, but also light blue too…”
“Okay, I will make both so you can change between them.”
“Aaah, really?! Thank you so much, Mistress Sara!”
✧✧✧
“Rose seems to like you,” Master Alexis said on our way back from the villa.
“I’m glad to get along with her as well. She’s a very spirited and cute child.”
“…She really is. Until last year, she used to run around the castle yard with the servants’ children, full of energy…”
I remembered Rosie’s sunken cheeks.
She didn’t seem to have the strength to run around the yard now.
“…Master Alexis, is there any way to cure the illness?”
“I’m afraid not… No matter how many doctors I brought… but I’m sure my sister is very glad you came to visit.”
The resigned words of Master Alexis’s pierced my heart.
Why did Rosie need to be stricken with illness at such a young age?
I wanted to teach her embroidery and climb mountains with her.
…But as it is now, I probably wouldn’t be able to make either of those things happen in reality.
I was frustrated by my own helplessness.
When we returned to the castle I immediately went to the sewing room, inspected the stockpiles of fabric and thread, and called Johnson to place an order.
The goods arrived the next day.
I lost myself in cutting, sewing and embroidering a design of a rosemary plant. Within a day, I had made brand new loungewear outfits in different colors ready for Rosie.