The second day after my argument with the Duke passes without incidents.
I have tea with Duchess Prim, and she takes the chance to boast about the new dress her husband bought her. She's treating me as an equal, which is actually an unexpected occurrence from when I moved to the Empire. In the end, it's still a compromise: I'm not a simple Duchess, but the wife of the second most powerful man here in the Palace.
Even though my husband isn't an Archduke anymore, he's still a member of the imperial family. I should make use of that, from time to time.
Not today, though.
On the other side, the Duchess is older than me. She would be closer to my mother, in age, than to me. Her children, though, are younger than the Emperor. In Polis, I would have to show her deference just because of that. I'm starting to understand how simplistic our caste system was.
