In Fran City, within Earl Rochefort's residence, this "special notice" from Carnford was placed on Charlotte's desk alongside ordinary letters reporting the opening of Carnford Bank and border raids.
Sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting motley patterns of light across the sitting room's soft Eastern carpets.
Charlotte sat in an armchair by the window, a bulletin in her hands, her azure eyes swiftly scanning the words upon it.
She wore a light-blue house dress, her short golden hair lying smoothly against her ears. Her face had regained some color since her return from Herwenham, yet that lingering air between her brows—a blend of resilience and weariness—remained unmistakable.
Not far from her, on the floor covered in a thick woolen rug, Earl Rochefort was somewhat clumsily but exceedingly patiently teasing little Klein, who was crawling about and babbling away, with a feather.
The baby wore soft white cotton clothes. His pale golden hair was nearly translucent in the sunlight, and his big azure eyes followed the feather in his grandfather's hand as he giggled and reached out with chubby little hands to grab it.
Lady Isabella sat on the sofa nearby. Though she held a book of poems in her hands, her gaze kept drifting toward the old man and child on the floor, and rare, exceedingly faint traces of softness appeared on her stern face.
The arrival of her little grandson was like a weak yet persistent ray of sunlight, dispersing at least some of the frost that had long congealed between the couple—though perhaps only an insignificant layer of it.
The sitting room was very quiet, save for Klein's laughter.
Suddenly, Charlotte raised her head, breaking the warm stillness. "Karl and the Princess have dissolved their marriage."
The feather stopped in midair. Earl Rochefort froze in the middle