Chapter 46
The hand stroking my arm belonged to the maid assisting me with my bath. When I turned my head, our eyes met, and she gave me a gentle smile.
Ah, right. Facing someone’s smiling face while being completely naked... felt a little strange.
Except for when I attended my brother’s engagement ceremony and the week after that incident when I was too unwell to bathe alone, I had always handled it by myself.
Most nobles received assistance while bathing, and some even had servants of the opposite sex attend to them... My god, how disgraceful.
Either way, I wasn’t someone who could easily accept exposing my bare body to another person.
While I was lost in thought about noble bathing customs, the bath came to an end.
The maids pressed a towel against my hair, drying it thoroughly, then applied various creams and lotions to my face and body—things I didn't even recognize. With powder and color on my face, my pale complexion looked much livelier. My hair was braided, accessories were added... and finally—
“My lady, I will help you into your dress.”
Jane smiled as she held up the dress—pink, adorned with white ribbons and flowing lace.
It was a design that didn’t match my taste in the slightest, but I had no choice but to wear it.
That dress had been sent by Vivian.
A month and a half ago, when she wrote that she wished to visit me while I was ill, I refused her request but included an invitation in my reply.