Chapter 16

Summer, seven years earlier.

- Duke Carlisle!

That day, Juliet's world turned upside down. She never forgot the summer of that year.

******

- Juliet! Are you listening to me?!

Hearing an indignant voice, Juliet stopped writing hard and raised her head.

The girl in the fitting dress looked at her, holding both hands in her sides. The dress she was in was stuck in a lot of colored pins.

- Oh, sorry. What did you say? Anything about the party?

Fatima frowned a little.

- I asked you which dress is the most beautiful!

- Oh, yeah.

Juliet looked over Fatima's shoulder, hastily folding the letter she was holding.

- Well, I think...

Tailors, who looked very tired, stood behind Fatima's back and quickly waved her dress, thus giving her a silent signal.

Shurkh-shurch!

- .... Pink?

- Are you sure?

It seems that was the right answer.

Fatima turned away from her with a triumphant look and ordered one of the tailors to prepare this dress for her.

- I'll buy pink. Can you fit him to my figure by tomorrow morning?

- Of course, Miss Glenfield.

- The ball starts at seven p.m., so you have to have time to deliver it to me by noon!

Tailors, who still had a chance to slip away from the living room of Earl of Glenfield three hours later, looked very happy.

They worked at the famous Camilla clothing store, which recently became very popular in high society, and visited the Glenfield House at Fatima's request. The young daughter of the Earl of Glenfield, Fatima, was the same age as Juliet and they had been friends since the age of 10.

After Fatima finally chose the dress, her mood improved, and she ordered the maid to bring tea to the living room.

When the maid brought the tray, Juliet put all the stationery she used and sat on the sofa in the living room.

- What about you? Aren't you going to choose a dress?

Taking the cookies off the plate, Fatima quickly asked Juliet a question.

- No, it's okay.

- Then what will you wear tomorrow?

- I decided to sew my mom's dress a little and put it on.

- Make a dress ... and put it on?

Fatima refused to believe what she had just heard. It was simply unthinkable to sew a dress, and even what someone had already worn it for her.

- Yes. That's exactly what I'm going to do. - Juliet answered carelessly.

It was a ball held to celebrate the end of the summer season.

Every girl who received an invitation to the summer ball for the first time after her 18th birthday wanted to look the most beautiful, as it was considered the end of her debut season.

When Fatima spoke again, sympathy was clearly heard in her voice.

- You can choose a new dress for yourself if you want. I'll ask my father to buy it for you.

Hearing her words, the staff of the store, who had previously hastily collected things, planning to leave this house as soon as possible, instantly shook.

Juliet smiled indifferently, and as if nothing had happened, she said:

- No, Mom's dress is very beautiful, too. I'll show you tomorrow.

One of the tailors packing the dresses in a suitcase interrupted and carefully asked:

- Tell me, isn't this a light-forced dress of Count Montagu's wife by chance?

- That's right. How do you know about him?

- The Countess has a great taste. I'm sure it'll look good on you, too.

"How boring..." thought Fatima annoyedly, who sat and listened silently to their conversation.

One day, Juliet turned from a funny friend into an incredibly boring one.

"But it used to be different."

Juliet became Fatima's first friend since she moved to the capital.

Fatima's father wanted to make friends with the old families of the empire, and the Montagu family was just one of the venerable families that existed since the foundation of the country. By a happy coincidence, he learned that the Earl of Montagu had a daughter who was the same age as Fatima.

After that, her father told Fatima to make friends with Juliet, so she often called the girl to her house to play together.

Although initially she did not want to see the daughter of a impoverished noble family dive through their luxurious house, when she saw Juliet, she did not regret her decision to invite her.

To be exact, while Fatima was choosing new dresses, she was really pleased to watch Juliet secretly mess with expensive jewelry and beautiful dresses, looking at them with jealous eyes.

But at one point, everything changed...

It was about three years ago, when Juliet started acting differently.

At the age of fifteen, Juliet had an accident in which she was seriously injured and almost died.

Juliet has become very strange since then.

At first, Fatima thought it could be due to the fact that she had been lying in bed for a long time and losing too much strength while she was being treated, but nothing changed even after a while. After that incident, Fatime even sometimes seemed that she was not in front of her friend Juliet, but a completely different person.

Since then, she hasn't been jealous of Fatima anymore.

When she invited Juliet to visit her, using help in choosing her dress as an excuse, she always sat stuck in letters or wrote something.

"All right, it doesn't matter, she's still the daughter of an almost ruined count." Fatima smiled mentally.

The Glenfield family did not belong to the aristocracy in the beginning, but Fatima's father was a good businessman and was able to make a decent fortune, thanks to which he eventually just bought a count's title.

Fatima used to love to boast about her family's wealth and title, but when she grew up, she realized that high society despised people like them by calling them nouvorish behind her backs. However, at the same time, the same secular society favored the impoverished Count of Montagu, continuing to invite them to all balls and parties, although they did not often accept these invitations.

However, in her heart, Fatima was not worried about it.

- Tomorrow a very important guest will come to the ball. The nephew of Emperor Priscilla himself is going to visit him.

- Really? Princess Priscilla? - Juliet asked without much interest, collecting letters.

In fact, Priscilla was only the emperor's niece, but in society she was treated like a real princess.

Fatima inflated her lips angrily, as Juliet seemed completely uninterested in the news.

- You don't care who's going to be there, don't you?

- Hmm?

- Well, you already have a beautiful groom.

At that moment, Juliet stopped and looked at Fatima very cunningly.

- Do you think so?

- What are you talking about?

- My fiancé. Do you really think he's handsome?

Juliet's groom was the Duke's second son, Vincent, who, due to his beautiful appearance, was very popular in secular society, despite the fact that he was very young.

- .... You know, you've been just unbearable lately! - Fatima snapped, looking outraged at Juliet.

In any case, she couldn't believe that her friend didn't consider her fiancé a worthy party for herself.

Juliet noticed Fatima's discontent and tried to calm her friend down.

- Fatima, later you'll marry a more decent person than Vincent. - She said decisively.

- How do you know that?

- Just, I know.

- Hmm.

When Juliet confidently said these words, without the slightest shadow of ridicule, Fatima felt better for an inexplicable reason.

- Do you want me to lend you my carriage?

******

Returning home in the carriage of the Earl of Glenfield, Juliet looked at her reflection in the window.

In fact, Juliet knew a lot about the future. Much more than she told Fatima.

Fatima will become a princess in the future, but Juliet will die when she is only 25 years old, at the hands of a man she desperately loved.

"No, I'd be lucky if I just died."

It wasn't her first life.

Juliet returned to her childhood with memories of her unhappy past life and how she died.

Juliet's first life was just terrible.

When Juliet's parents died, her life turned into hell. Her uncle, Baron Gaspard, who became her guardian, was guilty of this.

"I'm doing all this for you Juliet." - These are the words he told her then.

In her first life, Juliet was married five times.

The first thing Baron Gaspard did as a guardian for his orphaned niece at a young age was to marry. No, or rather, I sold it to someone who offered a big price for a young girl.

Juliet, who had no idea of anything, put on a wedding dress and a veil, as her uncle told her.

Her first husband was an old man over eighty who could die at any time.

Naturally, that's exactly what happened soon.

After his death, Juliet became a rich widow, but Baron Gaspard did not let her go.

Convinced that Juliet's beauty and origins can bring good money, he seriously started the marriage business.

Juliet later got married four more times.

Of course, those who paid money to buy a young bride from a noble family and get a ticket to high society thanks to her could not be decent and kind people.

While her uncle, Baron Gaspard, was selling his niece to enrich herself and become even more powerful, Juliet was completely devastated and exhausted, constantly repetitive forced marriages with people with no idea about moral principles.

Her natural beauty became a poison for her, which eventually broke her mind and body, depriving her of the opportunity to think normally.

And at the moment when she was already close to ending her unhappy life, an arrogant nobleman finally appeared before her.

Most likely, he had no intention of saving Juliet, but Baron Gaspard and her fifth husband died for disturbing the Grand Duke of the North. And although it was a pure accident, he saved her.

"Perhaps it was quite natural for me to fall in love with the man who pulled me out of that hell."

But now Juliet didn't live in hell. She never met him in this life, unlike the past, which she has memories of.

- We're here, young lady.

- Thank you.

Juliet opened the carriage door and went out.

She lived in a cozy old mansion outside the capital.

In her first life, Juliet lost her parents in the year she was fifteen. This event marked the beginning of her suffering.

- I'm back. ... - Juliet said when she entered the living room.

- Welcome, Juliet. How did you spend time with your friend? Have you had fun?

An elegant woman with red hair in a beautiful high hairstyle smiled radiantly as soon as she entered the living room.

It was Juliet's mother, Countess Lilian Montagu.

- Yes, it was fun. - Juliet answered with a slight smile on her lips.

Juliet came of age last winter and celebrated her 18th birthday, but both of her parents were still alive and well.

She managed to change the predetermined future.