Chapter 777 - Pink Envelope
The next couple of days were spent in leisure after Countess Raylene had decided that her daughter had enough exposure this week.
The departure of the Valente family had affected the entire household so they chose to spend this weekend in silence.
This did not mean that Raylene had not gone out because she did.
As the Madam of the St. Claire family, it was her responsibility to represent the family when the Earl was not around.
Therefore, for the parties which her husband and children did not attend, she had gone alone.
Her companions were Duchess Tanner and Marchioness Kiron who were also in similar situations after their children had declined the offer of coming to these parties.
An example of such a party that Raylene had attended alone was the one hosted by the Leopold family.
The observant mother had noticed that the relationship between her child and the daughter of the Leopold family was not a good one.
Thus she did not insist on Yvonne coming along with her and had attended this party alone.
Even Aleena Kiron had similar thoughts and had not accompanied her mother while Rika seemed to be busy with some other matter which the Marchioness had not revealed.
Similarly, the Tanner boys had no interest in spending time with the ladies since they were busy preparing for their upcoming academic year.
Therefore, the three ladies had arrived and left this party together.
There was also the Yona tea party which Raylene had been invited to and since it was meant only for the ladies, there was no reason to bring Yvonne with her.
Thus, for the last two days, the daughter of the St. Claire family had the opportunity to stay at home and focus on her studies, her health, and her plans for the future.
Since summer had begun now, her classes had been suspended but before she could breathe a sigh of relief with the free time she had obtained, some surprising news arrived at the St. Claire estate.
This bright and early Monday morning, Yvonne had trained with the Captain and her elder brother.
Usually, during this time of the year, Duke Tanner and his family along with the troops of the Red Scorpion Knights would have been in the Tanner fief where their yearly training camp would take place.
However, the long absence from the Capital had caused the Duke to cancel their yearly trip which led the troops to train in their usual location as they did every day.
This allowed Captain Desmo Reel to visit the St. Claire estate even when the rest of the young girl's tutors had halted their classes for the summer vacation.
After her training session with the Captain, the siblings had freshened up before returning to the dining hall for their breakfast.
As the family of four were enjoying the first meal of their day, a knock on the door interrupted the pleasant conversation taking place between the mother and child.
Yvonne felt a lot better after staying indoors so she had no trouble listening to her mother speaking about her plans for the day.
The child had attended a lot of parties in the last week and her good behavior had given her the privilege of gaining leniency from her mother.
This entire week, she only had to attend one party, the one held by the Duchess of the Brodie family.
Yvonne knew that there was no excuse good enough for her to not attend this party hosted by the other duchess of their Kingdom.
Thus, after learning about her schedule for the week, she had not expressed her displeasure but acquiesced after a moment of silence.
She had decided to stay away from Glennise Brodie so all she had to do was maintain a low profile on the day of the party.
With this plan in mind, she was no longer worried about anything and was having a good time listening to her mother speak about the party at the Jorbin family estate that she had been invited to.
Marchioness Jorbin had not invited many ladies as she did not like most of them due to their excessive behavior towards her in the past.
She had decided to send invitations only to those who had been kind to her and in this way, Raylene too had received one from her.
A few of the other guests who would attend today's tea party were Duchess Tanner, Marchioness Kiron, Viscountess Zavanth, and finally Countess Blaise.
Yvonne had raised her brow upon hearing that last name but Raylene sighed and muttered that she felt bad for the lady of the Blaise family whose husband's debauchery was now an open secret in their society.
Rutherford soon coughed, signaling to his wife that speaking of such matters before the children was not a good thing.
At that moment, the knock on the door had interrupted Raylene who was about to shift the topic of their conversation to something more appropriate.
___
"Come in," The Earl instructed and soon saw the old Butler entering the dining hall.
Butler Limo bowed before the couple for interrupting their meal then walked towards his Master, handing an envelope which had arrived a few moments ago.
Raylene and Yvonne stared at the envelope which had a tinge of pink, an unusual color for any noble to use.
Even Howard had guessed that this could not be an official letter coming from the head of a noble family as using this kind of stationery was considered to be unsophisticated.
Rutherford accepted the envelope and scanned it before he could tear it open to see what was inside.
The pink-colored envelope did not reveal the identity of the sender but the seal stamped on it had done the job.
Bright pink wax was used to seal it and the imprint created by the stamp was something he had never seen before.
However, a few simple deductions were enough for him to decipher who had sent this to their estate.
"A letter from the Royal Palace?" He muttered after a while, stunning the others who were waiting for him to reveal who it was from.
"Yes, Master." Butler Limo spoke up this time and even glanced at one of the members seated at the table.
"For the Young Miss." He revealed the name that the messenger had stated before delivering this letter to him.
It was a good thing that there was nothing inside Yvonne's mouth at that very moment for she would have spat it right out due to the surprise she felt after hearing her name.
With furrowed brows, she leered at the envelope in her father's hand, wondering what could the meaning of this unexpected letter be.
She was not close to anyone within the palace that would explain the letter appearing here this morning.
'It cannot be the King's…' She tossed that name out of her mind as there was no way that the Ruler of the entire Kingdom would use a pink envelope.
This thought brought a name to her mind, belonging to the most likely suspect.
"Open it, Vonny!" Raylene was excited at this news and passed the letter to her child before her husband could even come back to his senses.
When Rutherford heard that the letter was delivered by a messenger of the Royal Family, he recalled the incident that he had seen in the Palace where the King had snatched his daughter away for many minutes.
This made him frown and he could not help but fret about what the contents of this letter could be.
However, there was nothing he could do as the letter was already out of his hands and was now before his daughter who was staring at it.
Yvonne's amethyst eyes fell on the seal stamped on the envelope and with just a glance, she knew just who had sent it to her.
Memories of 'Yvonne' receiving similar-looking letters in her dreams had popped up in her mind.
Despite knowing who had sent it, she did not know why they would do such a thing when they had never contacted each other before.
'I only met the Princess once…' She added in her heart, confused at this sudden effort to communicate with her.
Seeing that she had not yet opened the envelope, Raylene urged her once again, and only then did she hesitantly tear it open.
The child scanned the brief contents of the letter and once she was done, she looked up and muttered a summary of what she had just read.
"The Princess wants to invite me for a tea party… Tomorrow…" Yvonne repeated in a daze, not knowing how she could get out of this appointment.