Throne of Silk and Smoke

Clearly, Maurice and Camilla chose to ignore my words. Maurice snapped impatiently, "How long are you going to keep this act going, Giselle? I really won't marry you if you continue like this!"

He gave me a nasty look, acting like he would make good on his word in the next second. He'd threatened me with this many times in my past life, and I would hastily beg for mercy each time he did. I was terrified that he wouldn't marry me.

This time, however, I remained calm. I said, "Drop the act, Maurice. Go ahead and speak to His Majesty if you're serious about not marrying me. Tell him that you won't do it!"

"Do you think I won't do that?" he retorted.

"Well, no one's stopping you."

Camilla stepped in, trying to pacify me. "Giselle, Mo didn't mean it like that. Since you like him so much, it'd be nice for us to marry him together, don't you think?"

She'd clearly realized something was off with me. She didn't dare provoke me as she'd done earlier.

"I am the chancellor's legitimate daughter. Who do you think you are to put yourself on equal standing as me?" I looked at her scornfully.

Maurice stormed toward me, wanting to continue arguing with me. Just then, an attendant ran in and said to me, "Ms. Giselle, the wedding gifts that Her Majesty has prepared for you have arrived. Please come take a look."

I nodded, and the attendant ran off. Then, four or five other attendants filed into the room while several chests were carried into the courtyard. There were so many of them that I couldn't even see where the line ended.

Maurice cocked an eyebrow at me. "You keep saying that you don't want to marry me, yet you've already made so many preparations for the wedding."

In my past life, Aunt Melanie hadn't approved of me marrying Maurice. Still, out of familial affection, she'd still prepared three huge chests of priceless jewelry as wedding gifts for me. Those three chests had been enough to make Maurice look good.

Now, however, there were far more than three chests.

Maurice was already greedily eyeing the chests as if they were his. Meanwhile, Camilla's eyes gleamed as she ran to the chests and opened one at random. The items inside sparkled under the sun—they were all precious treasures.

She couldn't help but take a huge pearl and balance it on her palm. "This is gorgeous, Mo. Can you give it to me?"

"Of course. I'll give you whatever you want, Cami," Maurice said.

They seemed to have forgotten all about me as well as the fact that Aunt Melanie had given these things to me.

"Ms. Camilla." The chamberlain in charge of delivering the gifts stepped forward. "What you're holding is part of the wedding gifts Her Majesty the empress has prepared for Ms. Giselle. Her Majesty made it clear that no one other than Ms. Giselle is to touch these things. Please put the pearl back and don't make things difficult for us."

She rolled her eyes at him. "All of this will eventually end up in Mo's manor—I'm just looking at them a little earlier than planned! What's the big deal?"

I wasn't in a hurry to get the pearl back. Instead, I asked the chamberlain, "Did Her Majesty mention what would happen if someone else touched these things?"

"Yes, she did. She said that whoever tried to steal the gifts would immediately be thrown behind bars and punished."

I tilted my head in Camilla's direction. "Why aren't you taking her away, then?"

For a second, the chamberlain didn't understand what I meant. Then, it clicked, and he summoned the imperial guards that had come with him. He pointed at Camilla and said, "This woman has attempted to steal from Ms. Giselle's wedding gifts! Seize her!"