Please Don’t Remember Me - Chapter 7 Part 2. Farewells And Ponytails
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It’s easy to overthrow your own vision of the future. No one knows what will happen tomorrow.
Clara’s eyebrows furrowed and her mouth tightened, but Sofia’s smile remained as warm as ever.
“I’ve come to report to you. The other two are noblewomen, so it must be difficult for them to come, but I am a commoner. I’ll come again soon.”
“Yes, please do, but in a more comfortable dress.”
“Well, well, well. I’m wearing this dress today because I had to say my last good-byes to the Duke. Tomorrow I’ll put on an apron and help my father in his business.”
Sofia reached out her thin white hand, and Clara squeezed her hand.
“Well, I’ll see you soon.”
“Yes, I’m sure I’ll stay here forever.”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone soon. Hmm.”
Sofia lifted her parasol high in the air and went away.
Clara turned the sign over and returned to the shop. There, Greta raised her eyebrows in concern.
“Are you all right? I hope you haven’t been mixed up in anything.”
“No, no, I’m just here to tell you that a friend of mine is moving to a new house.”
“Are you sure? If you see anyone strange, tell me.”
“Yes, thank you.”
Clara didn’t think they would encounter any crazy people in this relatively safe area, but Greta was a bit overprotective, probably because she has a daughter.
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After Sophia’s arrival, letters arrived from both Aria and Laura. It seemed that after Clara left the house, the Duke stopped coming to visit the three of them. It was not that the three of them were kicked out, but rather that the Duke had given them a large sum of money to escape before the Princess could harm his lovers, and they were grateful to him.
“We have nothing but gratitude for the Duke,” they wrote.
There are many forms of love, aren’t there?
To Clara, who had never been in love, it seemed like a distant story.
In a letter from Aria, she wrote that she had introduced Melissa as an excellent maid to a Marquis she knew. It was a relief to know that Melissa was going to be taken care of. And she was relieved to know that she had made the right decision in entrusting Aria with the job. However, she thought it was too much to say that she is excellent.
Clara looked out of the window of her room. It was the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, and she could see lovers holding hands as they walked with each other. She wondered what the difference was between a mother and a child holding hands. The lovers seemed to be looking at each other calmly, but with great passion.
The pot on the stove made a gurgling sound. She heated up the rest of the soup she had made last night for breakfast. The leftover bread from the shop was already hard, so she dipped it in the soup and ate it. When she was in the villa back in her country, she was never served hard bread, so Greta was disappointed that she didn’t know how to eat it. Soaking the bread in the soup makes the bread softer and tastier, and if she used the bread to scoop the soup out at the end, it would clean the plate and make it easier to wash. What an efficient and economical way to eat.
‘There’s so much more to the world that I don’t know.’ Clara thought to herself as she wiped the dishes with a cloth.
This was the reason why the people in the restaurant knew that she was from a noble family, because of her naivety, her formal language and her elegant manners. In fact, she was royalty, but there was no way that a princess would wear an apron to serve people, so she pretended to be a noblewoman who eloped because her marriage was rejected, and could not return.
In front of the mirror, Clara put her hair in a bun and tied it up a little higher than usual. This hairstyle is called a “ponytail”. She didn’t know this before because her maid of honor combed her hair every day with perfume and she rarely wore it tied up.
‘A ponytail,’ said Clara, ‘that’s a very clever way of putting it.’ She shook her head and her hair shook with it. It was true that the horse that pulled Ernesto’s carriage had a blue fawn coat and its tail swung like this.
She wore a light blue ribbon on her hair today. She bought it with her first paycheck. It was an inexpensive item that she wouldn’t have even touched when she was a princess, but it was the only thing in the world that she would have chosen with the money she earned from working for herself. It was worth more than any luxury item. She fell in love with it at first sight, it was clear lake blue with white lace on it.
In comparison to her older siblings, Clara was allowed to do as she pleased. Even so, when she left the palace, her clothes and hairstyle were set, as were her plans for tomorrow and the next month.
In this way, she could choose whatever she wanted and wore it. Even going out today was a decision she made for herself.
Clara thought about all the things she would like to do in the future. It’s hard to live on her own, but it’s even more exciting.
‘I have to go now!’
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