"Angela, since when have you been wearing a cape?""Hm?""I mean when you go into town.""Mm… Ever since I got old enough to know better, I suppose….""Then there aren’t many people who really know your face, are there?""Right. No one except Mark’s family, I’d think.""But if you suddenly went into town without your cape, do you think anyone would recognize you?"Angela blinked blankly at a thought she’d never considered. Certainly, if she dressed differently, the number of people who could recognize her at a glance would drop sharply."As for your eye color—don’t worry. You know how it’s been hot lately and everyone wears wide-brimmed hats?""But my hair…."In truth, what worried her more than her eyes was her black hair.Within the kingdom, black hair was rarer even than gold eyes.With an uncommon golden gaze and even rarer black hair, Angela was all the more unable to move about freely. As Edgar had said, you could hide your eyes somehow, but hair color was not so easy to cover perfectly."That’s why I brought this."Angela’s eyes went round at what Edgar took out."A wig?"What he held was a brown wig—the most common shade in the kingdom. He’d put in no small effort to find one that was especially breathable and natural."Where on earth did you get that? A wig this good isn’t easy to order, and it must have cost a fortune.""The fairy got it for me."Answering lightly, as if it were nothing, Edgar held the wig beside her head and smiled, satisfied."Mm. Not as good as your real color, but it suits you."If she wore it, she might get to experience what ordinary life felt like. With that thought, her heart began to pound with a thrill she couldn’t name.If, as Eddy said, she became not a cloaked witch but just… ordinary—"Trust me, Angela."Eddy’s confident voice fanned her anticipation higher. It felt like, just as he said, she could meet a day that wasn’t like all the others.***Edgar had decided to take Angela out because he’d realized that merely posing as a doll and growing closer to her wouldn’t be enough to achieve his aim.It had already been over a month since he’d first started coming and going from the workshop. So Edgar chose to move more aggressively now. To break through Angela’s walls—sturdier than he’d expected—he needed a turning point that would change how she thought.One part of that was pulling her out of that tiny workshop."E-Eddy. Is it really all right for me to go out like this? Don’t I look strange?"Her voice betrayed how uneasy she felt about her appearance."Not strange at all. If anything…."Edgar looked at the fidgeting Angela with a hint of dissatisfaction.A neat cream muslin dress fell softly along her slim waist, and a line of tiny wildflower embroidery bloomed along the hem. Little bows tied off the sleeves that reached her elbows, and the brown straight-hair wig was loosely pinned up, a few strands trailing along her cheeks.Most of all, the way her golden eyes caught the sunlight and glinted beneath the wide brim of her hat was very fetching."Maybe I went too far for something that was supposed to be simple….""Huh? Eddy, what did you say?""Nothing. Forget it."He’d only dressed the always-drab Angela up lightly, as a lady might, and yet she drew eyes so easily that one corner of his mind felt oddly put out."Eddy, I think that man recognized me. He keeps staring….""That’s not why. Ignore him."He couldn’t understand why the sidelong glances from men all along the street irritated him so much.There had always been beautiful women at Edgar’s side, and random idiots sneaking looks at his partners was nothing new. Yet why did that nothing of a situation rankle so badly today?Maybe it was the way the very men who would normally call her a witch had started throwing looks just because she’d changed her hair and shed her cape. Maybe he simply hated that, if they dropped their prejudice for a moment, they’d see the sort of person so attractive she should never have been hounded into staying indoors for life.Having roughly fixed on that as the reason for his displeasure, Edgar wrapped an arm over Angela’s shoulders and drew her into his side."If you’re worried, stick closer. I’ll shield you.""Is that really okay?"What he didn’t mind—what he even welcomed—was how she stayed glued to him like a duckling seeing the world for the first time.Clutching his lapel anxiously, Angela kept glancing around. The moment he told her she could move closer, she practically burrowed into his arms.At that, a few men who’d been eyeing her with ill intent turned away with disappointed faces."But Eddy, where are we going?"Edgar answered her question with a broad grin and two short words."A good place."The smile was so playful and clear that Angela stared up at his face, dazed.She realized she was seeing an expression she’d never seen in the newspapers—something that belonged to Eddy, not Edgar de Grace. Her heart thudded."This is…."To her surprise, Edgar had brought her to a puppet theater cobbled together from an old wooden cart.The front was decorated with bright fabrics, and above hung a hand-lettered sign with the title that seemed to read The Place You Stayed.A small stage held red velvet curtains; behind them, the performer’s silhouette and the puppet heads bobbed faintly."This is the same story as the book you like, right?"The show was an adaptation of a romance novel Angela especially loved. She’d heard from Bianca in passing that the puppet play was popular, but she’d never imagined she’d get to see it with her own eyes."I’ve paid. Sit here. Let’s watch together."It felt like an unexpected bundle of gifts had been dropped into her arms. Dazed, Angela let Edgar guide her to a street bench."How pitiful, Elizabeth. You still can’t escape your glorious past.""Alexander, I pity you. Do you really believe a vulgar tradesman can buy a title and become truly noble?""Since I don’t, I bought you. For that tidy sum, my vulgarity is something you, as my wife, will have to cover."The play told a twisted romance between a fallen noble lady and a common merchant who’d grown rich.Edgar watched the realistic—yet unreal—little drama with bored eyes, fixing instead on Angela, whose eyes sparkled as she got swept up in it.What about that is supposed to be interesting?He was sure her situation with him was far more dramatic and compelling than that third-rate tale.I need to meet Angela as my true self as soon as possible, but it isn’t easy.All he could really point to for results so far was straightening her house and seeing she ate.As Edgar increased the frequency of his visits, Timothy pestered him daily about when Baron Pierre’s doll would be ready.Of course, he knew he could secure that commission even while remaining in the Eddy persona. If he said he wanted it—or that the fairy wanted it—this pure, kind dollmaker would stay up night after night to make it.But I don’t want to deceive Angela any further than this.Edgar had already crossed a river °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° he couldn’t recross.He had slipped in and out of the workshop more times than he could count on both hands, lying and deceiving her. He had no wish to add to it by wringing a bribe for Baron Pierre out of her with more falsehoods.Not that this clumsy conscience could cover his faults now.Clap, clap, clap, clap!While he sat with those thoughts, watching Angela laugh and gasp and tear up, applause began to break out across the seats. The show had ended."Did you like it?""Yes. It’s my first time seeing a puppet show."No matter the class, puppet shows were entertainment anyone could easily find. Commoners enjoyed them in the street; nobles summoned performers to their homes.Yet she had never seen a single one in all her years to adulthood—though she was a craftswoman who made dolls far finer than those shabby puppets.Annoyance surged at the thought of what, exactly, this woman had done “wrong” to be kept from something so commonplace."Let’s come again.""Again?""You had fun. We can come until you’re sick of it.""Okay!"Seeing Angela beam with pure excitement made something ache in one corner of his heart.He himself couldn’t clearly sort the feeling—whether it was guilt, or pity, or perhaps sympathy.

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