~A Little Scheme~

"Five dresses are missing, and ten have been added," Keziah said, after a quick count.

"Anything important?"

"We still have dresses from all of them, some just removed the ones they felt were more expensive," she answered. "Should I hide the extras before we are accused of theft?"

"It might be too late for that." Oris eyed the flashy gowns then scanned the interior of the tent. "They must have arranged someone to watch this place and tell them when we were back. Why else would we be the only ones here despite being out for so long?"

"Keziah, can you remember which is which?"

"Can't you?"

"Ah. Proud, proud Keziah. Come help me move them around."

"Yes, Mistress."

They knelt and took the pile apart, shaking out the folded dresses and throwing them to the floor until it looked like a thief had ransacked their part of the tent. By the time the other ladies started pouring in, Oris was in the middle of a sob as Keziah sifted through the mess.

"Mistress, it's alright. I'm sure they'll understand."

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have left," a few more tears slipped down Oris' face, "but how could I have known that I would end at Lady Dianne's—"

"Mistress!" Keziah shot to her feet, as though she had just noticed that they had an audience.

Oris hurriedly wiped her tears and said with a hoarse voice, "I need to return these dresses to you. I wasn't aware when my maid collected all of these. Please take them back."

"You dare say you weren't aware? Everyone knows that you were out wearing Lady Yue's dress," came a snide remark.

"You're wearing it right now," someone else pointed out.

Oris shot Keziah a panicked look. "You didn't tell me that—"

"Mistress, you had nothing else to wear, I had no choice," Keziah replied calmly. "Lady Yue offered it, I saw no reason to refuse."

"I'll take it off right now."

As Oris fumbled to remove the laces, Lady Yue stepped forward. "Sisters, let us not be hasty, maybe there is another explanation for this."

Lady Yue, the woman the maid said she liked the most. That should have made her the kindest, but realistically, which maid wouldn't say that her mistress was the kindest? If Oris broke her word and reported what the maid said, then wouldn't the poor girl's punishment double?

The same went for whoever the maid had named as her mistress. Which maid would say who she belonged to after being caught doing something unsavory? Wasn't that just inviting trouble for herself?

So those two answers couldn't be trusted without confirmation and Oris hadn't expected them to. What she had been really interested in was the last question.

A skittish, young maid didn't have the skill to fake an emotion as visceral as hate.

"She isn't on the list," she had said, taking the initiative to offer information for the first time. "Lady Dianne."

It turned out that the maid was just one out of the many people who suspected Lady Dianne of starting the fire. Lady Ria's words had been the spark that had given life to a sea of accusations despite the fact that she herself had been accused of starting the fire too.

When Oris pointed that out, the maid had said, "But it can't be Mistress Ria."

Mistress. Oris didn't think it would be so easy to weasel the truth out of the girl, especially if her mistress was truly that shrew woman.

"Lady Yue, I really need to give these dresses back. Thank you for your kindness but I don't dare offend your cousin."

"My cousin?"

"Lady Dianne," Oris said.

Someone gasped.

"Lady Dianne and Lady Yue are cousins?"

"This is atrocious."

"They are nothing alike, I would have never known."

"Was this a secret?" Oris asked, an unspoken apology in her tone. She stood up. "But Lady Dianne said it herself. You all must take these back."

Just like that, the scramble began. Oris and Keziah stepped out of the way as the women's maids dove in for the dresses.

"Give it to me!"

"No, this is my Lady's."

"You can see our family's emblem stitched here. It belongs to us."

Inevitably, soon the sound of cloth ripping made everyone freeze.

"Oh no." Lady Yue cupped her hands over her mouth, but no one was paying attention to her theatrics. After all, her dress was still safe on Oris' body.

The ladies shot each other embarrassed looks and called back their maids, ignoring their cries of, "Mistress! Mistress!"

"This is purely ridiculous," one of them said with a sheepish smile, "we don't need to fight for clothes that already belong to us."

"Yes," said another, "I don't believe any of us would steal a dress."

"None of us are that wretched. Well, most of us," somebody else said.

"There are five dresses left," Oris cut in before the accusation against was voiced, "whoever they belong to should please retrieve them before one of us is accused of theft."

"One of us? You mean you."

"Lady Kris," Keziah stepped forward and was blocked by the woman's burly maid, "please explain how my mistress stole dresses that were given to her? Now she is returning them. If she wants to steal, wouldn't she hide them away and feign ignorance?"

"Because there was no way she could hide it with all of us watching!"

"Then how could she steal it, with all of you watching?" Keziah asked. "Or do you mean to say that she can hide from the sight of twenty people?"

"Maybe these are not our dresses," Lady Yue said. "Maybe they belong to someone else."

"Are any of you missing dresses? I'm sure your maids all know which ones belong to you. None of them have complained so there should be no doubt about it," Oris interjected. "Someone came into this tent and went through all the dresses, I think they were looking for something but couldn't find it. If no one knows whose dresses these are, I might as well burn them. I don't think it is right for me to wear something that I wasn't given permission to wear."

"Lady Yue," she motioned to the dress she wore, "I will give this back to you. Thank you for your kindness but I cannot risk offending anyone. It is best if you all pretend that this never happened."

"You just want to sweep this under the rug," Lady Kris retorted. "Like Lady Yue said, maybe you stole from someone else."

"That is not what I said," Lady Yue mumbled, but her voice was lost in the murmurs that rose due to Lady Kris' accusation.

"How?"

"What?"

"This isn't only my tent. You all share it with me. Did any of you see me bring back dresses from somewhere? If you did, I won't stop you from taking the evidence to the emperor for him to judge."

"We... We were all out!"

"So was I," Oris said. "You said it yourself. You all saw me walking about in Lady Yue's dress, and we all got to tents around the same time. When did I have the time to steal and hide anything?"

"It could have been your maid."

"She was with me the whole time. How could she?"

"You have other maids."

"So do you. Were they the ones who put the dresses here?"

"N-No, of course not."

"I will need prove of that or what's to say that you all aren't framing for theft?" Oris asked, thoroughly pleased when the majority of them paled. "I would like to see what the emperor would say to that."

"W-Wait, you can't accuse us like this—"

"You are taking this too far!"

"My innocent concern has been repaid with malice."

"It must have been an evildoer who did all this, turning us against each other."

"None of us are thieves. His Majesty wouldn't choose a thief as his bride!"

Just as the cacophony was reaching new heights, a maid walked into the tent and strode towards Oris.

"For you," she said, holding out something wrapped in cloth as she curtsied. "My Mistress fears it would be a disgrace for the Emperor to see you in such tasteless, secondhand clothing. These are all the latest fashions. And new."

As Keziah retrieved the dresses, Oris nodded. "Thank your mistress for me."

The maid curtsied and left.

"Mistress, Lady Dianne is so kind." Keziah hugged the bundle to her chest.

"Of course," Oris replied. "I will definitely find an opportunity to mention her to the Emperor... And you, Lady Yue, for lending me this dress and believing that I am not a thief."

"Of course." Lady Yue looked as though she was about to shed tears. "Thank you."

One of the ladies cleared her throat. "I only came here because the carriages are being loaded again, if everything is solved, I'll be leaving now."

"I'll be leaving as well," someone else said.

"Uh, if no one wants these dresses, I will take them."

"It will be a pity to burn such pretty material. At the very least, they can be used as rags," another said.

In less than a minute the tent was nearly empty again. Lady Yue was the last to leave, shooting Oris a meaningful look before she did.

"Exhausting!" Oris cupped her head in her hands. "I don't think I can live like this."

When she staggered, Keziah had to drop the dresses to steady her. "You haven't eaten in a while, Mistress."

"Forget food. Do you think it worked?"

"Are you doubting your plan?"

Oris raised her head just to fix a glare on the girl.

"I think we succeded in making Lady Dianne very unlikeable to this group of women." Keziah relented. "At least when the hunt starts there will be a few arrows that aren't pointed at you. We might be able to find a complete body and give you a proper burial."

"Keziah, when did you start talking so much?"

"Life is short," was all she said.

Lady Yue—the most liked.
Lady Dianne—the least liked.
Lady Ria—most likely the mistress of the maid they had caught.

Right now Oris had forged decent relationships with Yue and Dianne. Lucky coincidence had provided her with a perfect opportunity—they didn't like each other. She couldn't see them working together to get rid of her unless they got rid of years of differences.

"Mistress, how were you so sure that they were cousins?" Keziah picked up the bundle of clothes and went to roll up their bedding.

"Dianne didn't deny it when I mentioned returning her cousin's dress. It might have been that she didn't care about what I was saying, but I decided to take a gamble."

"I don't think she'd appreciate the rumor mill you just started."

"Is that what I did?" Oris pressed her hand to her mouth to stifle a yawn. "When are you taking off my veil? It can't only be dresses you were bribed with."

"I got a considerable about of gold."

"Is there a list of that too?"

Keziah nodded slowly. "I'll hand it over with the list of who owned the missing, and extra, dresses."

"Pick out the best dress for me to wear once we get to the palace."

"And after that?"

"Return them to Lady Dianne and tell her that we miraculously found one of our dresses in our carriage," Oris said. "That would put her and her cousin on equal footing."

Keziah was about to nod then stopped. "No. If you wear the only dress Lady Yue brought then only one of the dresses Lady Dianne brought, Lady Dianne is clearly at a disadvantage. Are trying to start a war between them?"

"It is only when everyone else is fighting that they will forget how badly they want me to fail."

~

Keziah: You started the rumor that Lady Dianne threatened twenty women to stay away from you just so she could be the only one who ended up helping you.

Oris: iS tHAt whAt I diD

Just writing this made me exhausted, I can't imagine living it. Oris is sowing discord so well. One of the first things she did after the fire was confirm that all their jewelry and dresses were safe, but the first thing she said in front of a crowd was that all her belongings were lost in the fire [Chapter 92].