The dress, fortunately, turned out to be one piece. If winter dresses usually consisted of many matching elements, then summer outfits for hot days were simpler.
Having put on a petticoat and taking off the trousers from the knight's uniform, Adi threw a dress on top. Since the crinoline was less voluminous than those worn in winter, putting on the outfit alone was not very difficult.
Of course, it wasn't easy either. Adi, who literally pulled the dress over herself, threaded her arms into the short sleeves. Shemiz looked outside, but nothing could be done about it. The buttons of the dress were located at the back, so it was impossible to fasten them yourself.
As soon as she left the waiting room, Billy nodded approvingly.
— Does a chemiz look good under a dress? And the shoulders are not bare, and the arms are covered.
It looked a little unusual, but letting the shemiz out was better than showing off his forearms, strengthened from wielding a sword; besides, it even looked like some kind of sophistication. First, it was worth finishing the image, and if later it looks strange, you can add some accessories.
- So, Sir Adrian Grimaldi.
Billy sat Adi down on a chair.
— Now we will put on the wig and apply makeup.
Addressing Adi, who was sitting on a chair with a confused look, Billy said decisively:
- Close your eyes.
Putting a brown wig on his tied hair and trimming the strands with scissors, Billy began styling his long hair this way and that. Although he said he wouldn't do a high hairstyle, he seemed to be trying to decorate it in his own way.
Then he began to apply cosmetics that came from nowhere. The feeling of something sliding across the skin was unusual. This awkwardness made feelings worsen. Billy, repeatedly repeating: “close your lips,” “don’t move,” touched his eyelids and cheeks with his fingers, after which he ordered him to open his eyes.
Adi opened her eyes. The feeling wasn't as bad as she expected.
- Usually in secular society they apply a little precious dust to the eyelashes, but since it is night, we will not do this.
-......
The very idea of using precious dust for such purposes seemed absurd. After all, jewelry is stones. Stone chips will inevitably get into your eyes, and this is impossible to tolerate.
If not, then the aristocrats were clearly much more seasoned creatures than Adi had imagined until now.
- Now let's put on the necklace. Perhaps it’s still better to tuck the shemiz inside.
When Billy, having said this, reached to unbutton his buttons, Jules grabbed his hand and stopped him. Adi also pulled away.
- Oh, will you do it yourself? - Billy asked calmly.
Deciding that she was just a typical northerner and did not like to be touched, Billy took out a pearl necklace and asked: “Are you going to wear this too?” Adi nodded, unbuttoning the buttons of her shemiz.
Billy tilted his head. Adi's hands were graceful in shape. However, they had too many scars. He didn't know how he could have been so injured, but his forearms and the backs of his hands were covered in marks, and his knuckles were bruised and rough callused.
The image itself would have been quite passable as a woman’s, but her hands could still give her away. However, her hands were small, so if she put on Gloves, it wouldn’t be noticeable.
— You will need elbow-length gloves. I will prepare them to match the Dress or perhaps a little darker.
Adi took the Pearl Necklace that Billy handed her. Looking at her confused face - she didn’t know what to do with the long string of pearls, and simply wound it in several layers - Yuls extended his hand.
- Give it here.
— Do you know how to wear necklaces?
- I saw it a couple of times, I can handle it. This is certainly simpler than the Military Knot.
-......
The Duke turned the decoration over in his hands and gave it the desired shape. Adi could not understand how, by twisting the thread in this way, one could achieve such a result. She knew one thing for sure: the Military Knot was much more familiar to her.
The Duke seemed surprisingly adept at lying. It is impossible to create such a form just by seeing it from the outside a couple of times. It was unexpected that a person who was accustomed to being courted himself was capable of such a thing.
Juls said, “Hair.” Adi brushed her long brown locks aside. She had once had such long hair, but now it seemed like a nuisance. Even though it was a Wig.
Juls looked at the back of Adi's head. He knew this before, but the neck was very thin. The line that went into the shoulder seemed especially fragile because of the Dress.
When Juls touched her to fasten the necklace, Adi involuntarily pulled her head into her shoulders. Reacting so unconsciously, she glanced at him for a moment and immediately looked away. Ignoring the sudden dryness in his mouth, Jules fastened the necklace.
Billy then brought out a lace shawl to drape over his shoulders. He saw Adi holding her hair to one side and Juls putting a necklace on her. Perhaps it was due to the difference in height, but they truly looked like a man and a woman.
- Does it look much better than I expected?
Billy did not hide his admiration. His taste was truly impeccable. But he had no idea that his makeup skills would be so high.
- You had a twin sister. Probably, if she had been alive, she would have turned the entire secular society upside down.
Billy gave the best praise he could muster, thinking that if she could do something like this out of her twin brother, then if she were a real woman, it would be something beyond belief.
Unfortunately, Jules was not at all interested in the servants' comments, so his subordinates never became skilled in the art of flattery, and Billy's compliment came out artless and devoid of any etiquette. Fortunately, Adi herself didn’t care much about this either. Besides, his words were not a lie.
Juls looked down at Adi, full of concern. As Billy said, with such an appearance, she really could turn the heads of the whole secular society.
“She’s much more beautiful than I thought.”
- Is it true?
- Yes. People will remember her.
“If I continue to hone this skill, then when your lordship decides to acquire a wife, I will, with all my diligence...
Billy suddenly stopped. Come to think of it, even though he knew it wasn't true, there were rumors that the two shared a "special" relationship. And now, looking at how feminine she looks after all the preparations...
—…….
Billy froze with a face like he didn't know how to express his current feelings. Bert and Roy followed him in.
- Your Grace, have you finished your preparations?
“The guards are heading here too...
Roy, who had been talking as he walked, stopped short. He definitely knew these people. The Duke and Billy were the ones he saw all the time. But this was the first time he had seen the woman sitting there. The face seemed familiar. It couldn't be any other way. After all, it was Adi Grimaldi.
Just changing the hair color to brown was enough for the atmosphere emanating from the person to become different. But that was not even the point - the shoulders and figure, no matter how you looked at it, did not allow one to believe that this was a man. Whether it was the makeup, her flushed cheeks looked like crushed rose petals. Combined with the pale skin characteristic of a northerner, this liveliness was simply amazing.
-...Adrian?
Whoever looked, it was a woman, and there was no doubt about it.
While Roy was amazed at Adi's transformation, Bert was amazed for a different reason. In front of him was a real woman.
- Wow, you won’t recognize it at all. Billy, you really are a master!
Did they really have such familiar relations? It seems that during this time Roy managed to become close to Billy. Billy was also delighted, answering: “Isn’t that true?” When he added that he himself did not know about his talent, and who would have thought that he would be able to pass a man off as a woman so flawlessly, neither Jules nor Bert said a word.
After all, she was a woman, and since she was preened like a woman, she looked like one.
- Adi, where is your knight's notebook? - asked Bert.
Adi took out a notepad from her shirt. The knights do not part with him until his death. Since they even prepared a body for her, this thing should also be with him.
Noticing that Bert was waiting for her to hand it over, Adi thought for a moment, and then opened the notebook and tore out several pages.
-...
- Here, take it.
- What about the torn sheets?
“Whoever is looking for me, whoever is conducting the investigation, they will not believe that I acted alone.” If they find me dead, they will think that the client killed me.
Adi folded the torn paper and hid it under the chemiz, behind the bodice of the dress.
“And such a person would never leave traces behind.”
“That makes sense,” Bert said, accepting the notebook.
He will pass it on to Ivan, and then Ivan will make everything as believable as possible. Meanwhile, the Duke will go to Palesa with Adi.
- Roy.
- Yes.
- Give this to Ivan. If he's not there, then it's Gavin. Let them act as quickly as possible. We'll be heading out soon too.
- I obey.
Roy quickly left. Bert, following him with his gaze and deciding that they would not be heard at such a distance, called quietly: “Adrian.”
- Yes, sir.
- I want to ask only one thing.
- I’m listening to you.
“His Grace the Duke ordered the body to be prepared.”
Adi raised her head and looked at Bert. Looking at her now, he saw that she really looked like a girl... no, she was a girl. How could he not notice this before?
- A woman's body.
-...
“I decided it would be better to ask you personally.”
At that same moment, the thought flashed through her head that she, being a knight among equals, allowed herself to walk around in an inappropriate manner. And why did she do this? Who would have even thought that there could be a woman in this knightly order?
— Count Grimaldi’s late son’s name was Adrian?
-......Adrian was in poor health. I think this is no secret to anyone.
Bert nodded. Everyone in Dalcatir knew that Adrian Grimaldi was a sickly child. Therefore, people believed that he was about to die, but in reality Adrina died. It was said that Hadrian's Curse disappeared with her death, and he finally gained the power that was due to him from birth.
But that was not the case.
- And now you.
He wanted to ask if she was happy with this arrangement. But did Adi have any choice? And this Count Grimaldi...
……As long as he considered her a son, he could still understand the Count’s motives. Adi's actions must have been a serious problem for him. But if she is a daughter.
How could you treat her like that?
- I'm listening to you, sir.
— Do you have any special marks on your body? A scar or mark that only family knows about.
— There are traces of the count’s beatings, left recently, and also a scar from a puncture wound on the ankle.
- Ankle. It must be because of that Killer.
Adi nodded at Bert's words. But even from those wounds only scars remain now.
- Yes. I understand, Adrian.
Having said this, Bert paused. Can we call her Adrian? The name Adrian did not suit the woman in the blue dress at all. Especially if this name did not originally belong to her.
-......Adrina?
- You can call me Adi.
That's right, both Adrian and Adrina. In both cases the name Adi could be used.