“So you’re saying you won’t go in? Even when I’m begging you to come like this?”

“I told you, I want to stay a bit longer.”

In the end, the nanny sneered with a slightly sharpened voice.

“Do as you please. Whether before or now, I can never understand Miss’s heart. This is why they say those who marry for love don’t work out. You clearly needed more education but left without receiving enough.”

“Sorry, but those word games don’t work anymore. I’ve grown too much to cry at criticism, haven’t I? If you want to play games… go find some young ladies.”

“My, won’t you yield even one word?”

At the endless argument, the nanny turned her back like she was fed up and moved her steps. From the direction she was going, it seemed she was heading to where her mother was.

In the end, if she was going to leave like that anyway, why did she pick a pointless power struggle?

“Right, when you were going to leave anyway.”

Thea, who muttered softly, raised her head and blankly stared at the sky that had cleared brightly today.

When she wanted a spotless sky, it never showed itself, but today it was so clear and bright.

* * *

While Thea was sinking into gloom, the nanny came to the small garden where teatime would be held with quick steps. This garden too hadn’t existed before Thea married—it had just been built.

Lately, the Countess had been completely absorbed in the hobby of sitting in the garden and admiring the newly added plants and splendid chandeliers.

Other nobles pointed fingers behind their backs, saying they lived in luxury by selling their daughter in this extravagant situation.

The lady was well aware of this fact, but she simply held her head high, daring anyone to question her decision to improve her fortune by selling her daughter.

The nanny, who didn’t quite like that scene, spoke with faint displeasure showing on her face.

“My lady. I’ve returned.”

“You’re back? How did Thea… seem? Even when I tried to hold her back, she ignored me and left, so she must be quite upset inside.”

“As expected, she appeared engulfed in shock.”

At the nanny’s answer, the Countess showed some strange expression, but soon composed herself and threw the young flower in her hand to the ground.

“Yes, of course. It can’t be helped. I was quite shocked by the situation too. I didn’t know that child would look at me so coldly. She went to cold Winter and seems to have become chilly. This is why people should live in warm regions.”

“If she stays here, she’ll return to how she was before.”

“That’s true, but… now that the child knows I lived well with the money I received from Winter, her heart won’t soften easily.”

“It can’t be helped. But if Miss had known the Yut family’s circumstances, she would have nodded and accepted it. It was a situation that couldn’t be helped.”

“Right, it was a situation that couldn’t be helped. As time passes, Thea will have no choice but to understand us. Right now she’s just confused.”

The tone seemed understanding, but the expression told a different story—it was cold, dismissive of such a trivial matter.

It was plainly visible that she didn’t care about her child being hurt.

The Lady Yut that the nanny served was someone who valued appearances most. Even when she was young, she’d been problematic for only caring about herself, and whenever trouble arose, she always became selfish.

Even now she was anxious that Thea might tarnish her reputation. Others might think her a wonderful mother, but the nanny who had served by her side for a long time could tell.

How much of a thorn in her eye Thea was.

‘That vicious personality mustn’t be directed at Miss.’

The nanny tried to erase the unpleasant thoughts, thinking terrible things would happen just imagining it. Then she spoke to the Countess still looking around the garden.

“My lady. Your eyes look sunken—shall I have the servants bring a towel soaked in cold water?”

“Oh my, goodness. That sunken?”

“Yes, if we don’t treat it right away, you might not be able to attend the ball opening this evening.”

At those words, the Countess jumped in shock.

“That won’t do. I can’t miss my favorite ball! Quickly prepare the beauty tools.”

Lady Yut hurriedly returned the teacup that had been held out to its place and snatched the hand mirror from a young maid’s hands.

“Oh my, goodness… it’s true, isn’t it? Looking like this, the Count won’t love me tonight.”

“My lady. Do you like the Count that much?”

At the nanny’s question, Lady Yut’s eyes sparkled.

“Of course, I like him most in the world.”

“Then what about Miss Thea?”

“Thea? Thea is a jewel fitted on my pretty finger. She’s also a craft I poured my heart into making.”

The nanny couldn’t understand the lady treating her child like a jewel, but quickly recalled she was someone whose mind wasn’t quite sound to begin with.

People thought only the family Thea married into wasn’t mentally sound, but in the nanny’s view, this side wasn’t much better either.

Probably the result of mixing blood between old direct bloodlines.

When her mouth was closed she looked fine, but whenever they had deep conversations, this always happened.

When an injured child returned, normal people would have comforted them and tended to their wounds, but this Count and Countess were busy only protecting each other’s reputations.

Rather, the servants working in the mansion pitied Thea more.

‘The poor daughter of a mentally unsound couple.’

She wondered if she should inform the lady of this fact, but soon shook her head and dismissed the concern. The nanny was Thea’s wet nurse, but she was also the loyal servant of the inadequate lady.

“My lady.”

“Why do you call?”

“By the way, Miss Thea came in with divorce—what will you do? If they really separate, the family will have to return the money.”

At the nanny’s worried question, the lady opened her eyes wide and tilted her head innocently.

“What’s the problem with that?”

“Pardon?”

When the nanny became flustered at the confident tone, the Countess stuck out her lips like a duck, truly not understanding.

“We already gave our daughter, and didn’t that child say so herself? That she nursed her father-in-law. Rather, it wouldn’t be strange to extract more money. What noble would nurse their father-in-law?”

“That’s true, but still, aren’t you worried? She’ll become a divorcée. Everyone will surely point fingers at the young lady.”

Nobles looked unfavorably upon women who’d been married once before. Even if the problem arose from the husband.

She didn’t know how the Winter family and its territory would take it, but this place and the central nobles wouldn’t.

That’s why even ladies who didn’t get along with their husbands lived quietly and kept things under wraps. There would surely be a big commotion later when she remarried someone else. 

Seeing the nanny’s increasingly grave expression, the lady waved her hand lightly.

“Why are you worrying so much?”

“I can’t help it. If by any chance she returns as a divorcée, this family won’t be intact either. We already have no reputation—what if it falls even lower?”

“Don’t worry about that. Those two can never divorce. Because… there are more things Thea doesn’t know than you’d think.”

“Things she doesn’t know, you mean…”

Seeing the nanny swallow nervously, the lady smiled brightly.

“Our son-in-law loves Thea so much, far too much, that he’ll never let her go.”

“Count Winter loves our lady? The rumors don’t seem like that at all.”

According to rumors, he was busy sleeping alone every night while wandering outside and playing with other women.

She’d also often heard he didn’t look after the territory, so Thea racked her brain dealing with work every day.

Yet such a person loved Thea? Very much, at that.

As the nanny could only move her lips at something she couldn’t understand, the Countess spoke with her eyes curved like a bow, seemingly delighted.

“Count Winter seemed to be making his own efforts to eliminate the family’s madness.”

“How did you know that?”

“How could I not know? My son-in-law occasionally sent me letters.”

The lady hummed and rose from her seat, heading toward a pile of letters placed to one side.

She still didn’t use the study much, it seemed.

Or she might regard them like trophies.

She’d heard that Lady Yut, the mother, often boasted to visitors about letters from herself or from Winter.

That appearance seemed to be the result.

The lady reached out and pulled out several of the most shabby-looking letters, all stamped with the seal of the family Thea had married into.

“Do you know what the contents of these letters are?”

“I naturally don’t know.”

“Every single one says Thea is lovely and he likes her so much he could die, but he can’t live because of this damned madness.”

“Count Winter said all that? I can’t believe it.”

At the nanny’s implication that he wasn’t that kind of person, the Countess blinked her large eyes and replied, “Of course he did. So for our daughter’s sake, I paid expensive money to invite a priest to that mansion. Naturally, Winter paid that money.”

“Oh, that famous Sun Priest? The one who can resolve any curse or poison?”

“Right. As a mother, isn’t doing this much enough? What more should I do? I did my best to help that child. Yet she ungratefully came to talk about divorce!”

The lady said she’d done enough and brought the cool wet towel a maid had brought to her eyes.

How senseless it looked—the surrounding maids and nanny sighed deeply, but the lady never noticed in the end.

* * *

Returning to her room, Thea looked around the surroundings filled with silence. Unlike during breakfast, the bedroom was organized, so she could tell a maid had already been by.

It was perfect for resting. That didn’t mean she wanted to rest, though.

Thea felt the dress hem brushing her ankles as she looked around the room in a circle. Then she came to stand in one corner, where an unfinished cross-stitch lay.

More precisely, it should be called an embroidery frame much taller than herself.

It was something called Eastern embroidery brought from the Orient, and she remembered being lost for quite a while because it was very different from the embroidery commonly used in the territory.

“Should I try some embroidery after so long?”

She’d planned to complete this embroidery before marriage and give it to her husband Acel. Back then, it had been truly enjoyable.

“Now… it’s all a story of the past.”

Thea gently stroked the clumsily placed stitches with her fingertips. After stroking for quite a while, her hand stopped at a deeply sunken spot.

“This is…”

It was the part she’d cut out with tears in her eyes because the thread had been tied in a mess. 

At that time, she didn’t even know the method of patching with thread, so cutting it out had been the best option.

But now it was different.

She began filling the hole with the skill she’d gained from handling her father-in-law’s and husband’s fabrics.