"Then are you saying that something caused it?" asked Julietta, recalling the story of Marie Antoinette whose hair was white with intense fear.

"I don't know that either. I was just wondering if it was the same symptom that someone I knew went through."

"Was it bad?"

When asked by Julietta, Paulo answered after a short pause. "Yes. Suddenly her hair became white and she died in less than a week."

Surprised, Julietta pressed the doctor without realizing it. "So are you saying that the person in there is going to die in a week?"

"Oh, no. Other than having white hair, there are no symptoms like that. Just in case, I looked at the color of the tongue and the ends of her fingernails, and fortunately, I found no abnormalities other than trauma."

"Then why didn't you ask the patient about the color of her hair? I'll go ask her right now. What if there's something wrong?"

Dr. Paulo stopped her when Julietta turned around and tried to run into the house. "No. Let her rest for now. She looks fine on the outside, but she is very unstable. If it's true that the color of her hair has changed suddenly, the impact will be very severe, so you'd better not irritate her."

Dr. Paulo added a moment of hesitation, "I don't have to keep coming to examine, her back wounds and bruises will actually heal with only medication. But if you don't mind, I'd like to visit tomorrow. Of course, I will charge the cost of treatment only for today's examination and a prosthetic leg. If the color of her hair suddenly changed, this time I want to find out!"

"It must have been someone close to you. I'll be relieved if you visit often." At the pained eyes of the doctor, Julietta agreed.

"Thank you. I'll be back by this time tomorrow."

------

Julieta saw off the doctor and then moved to the main house to help Sophie.

Of the rooms on the left side of the second floor, the three bedrooms facing the street were used as a doll room, a sewing room, and a tailor's room, while the right-side bedrooms on the other side were all locked. Sophie looked at Julietta as she tried to clean up one of the innermost bedrooms on the right. "I'm afraid she can see people coming and going in and out of the annex, but I can give her this bedroom."

"Yes, we can't give the patient a noisy bedroom on the street. Besides, if she looks out the window... I'm worried if she can show up. I'm sure she's had a bad thing happen to her, so I think it's better to stay out of sight of other people. Well, the people who come and go should be careful. It's better if he doesn't come here this time. I'll tell the Prince to refrain from going in and out of the annex.

"In fact, it doesn't matter now that it's less than two weeks to the end of the social season."

Amelie and Sophie had been told by Maribel about the future of Julietta and the Prince. They didn't hear the details, but just by looking at the frequent visits of the Prince to the small annex, they could infer the situation. Sophie was just hoping things would go smoothly.

"What do you mean it doesn't matter?"

Julietta didn't understand what she was saying, but Sophie was busy changing the new bed sheets. The two began to skim and clean the clothes covering the furniture in the bedroom, which had been empty for a long time.

------------------

Phoebe was not able to move to the second-floor bedroom of the main house until evening, when the cleaning was finished. Julietta came downstairs after watching Phoebe lay in bed and fall asleep with a strange yet happy face.

After changing into the maid's suit Gibson brought from the mansion of the Duke, she asked Amelie and Sophie about Phoebe.

"Taking care of her is not difficult, but I can't help but wonder what she went through and what caused her to be abandoned."

Julietta murmured sadly at Amelie's concern. "I don't think it's anyone's business if I think that what happened to Phoebe might have been me. I'll be back in a couple of weeks as a normal Julietta without a guardian. Because of this dressing shop, I'm not as grim as I used to be, but it's still disturbing. I could have been in a bad situation... take good care of Phoebe."

Sophie was stunned at Julietta's words. "Why are you saying such an unlucky thing? Your future must be solid. We won't talk nonsense, so don't even mention such ominous things. Do you understand?"

Julietta smiled at Sophie, who was anxious about her unnecessary words. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. See you tomorrow, then. I think Vera's worried because Gibson brought me the maid's suit, so I've got to get back to the mansion."

----

The next day, Julietta went to the dressing shop and checked on the clothes for the fas.h.i.+on show. When Dr. Paulo visited, she took him to Phoebe's bedroom. Phoebe was lying in bed, and greeted the two with a much better face than yesterday.

After simply treating her back and checking her tongue and fingernail ends again, Paulo asked a serious question a moment later. "Miss Phoebe, this is a doctor's question, so I hope you won't feel bad."

When he carefully asked for her understanding, Phoebe nodded with anxious eyes.