Chapter 41

Vivian’s eyes followed the direction Yvonne was looking up toward, to the top of the stairs, and wavered for an instant. Looking straight at Vivian, Yvonne opened her lips with a face so calm it was almost detached.

“Did you forget? That day, you killed my child.”

“What are you…”

Vivian released Yvonne’s wrist and took a step back. But that was where her visible agitation stopped.

“Did you have some kind of dream? Pregnant, really. As if anyone wouldn’t know the two of you hardly even shared a bed properly.”

“And who said that? Was it the butler Harold?”

Yvonne let out a small laugh and raised a possibility.

“Or the maids you work with by giving them extra money every month?”

How does she know that. 

Vivian’s face twisted with agitation before she could stop it. But even if Yvonne knew everything, it did not matter. As though she had nothing to fear because there was not a single person in this house who would listen to Yvonne’s words, Vivian squared her shoulders and curled her lips high.

“I almost got fooled by that sweet little tongue of yours. Don’t change the subject. Even after being humiliated like that, you still couldn’t give up the Polshared name? It looks like you’re planning to use your body not being able to conceive as an excuse and drag me into it, but you picked the wrong person. I’m not like a woman such as you. I’m not someone who lives like a doll with no will of her own the way you do.”

Yvonne’s eyes turned cold as she silently watched Vivian brazenly turn things back on her.

“So what you want to say is that you’re proud of what you did?”

“You…really…. Did you eat something wrong? Do you want to crawl back into a house where no one wants you and live like a ghost again?!”

It was the first time Yvonne had seen Vivian like this, unable to suppress her anger and breathing hard.

Vivian, active by nature, was also famous for her brisk and open personality. Because of that charm, people always gathered around her like bees drawn to honey.

By contrast, although Yvonne was the object of admiration among young ladies, she was often called a dull and old-fashioned noblewoman. In the first place, Yvonne had never enjoyed people’s attention and had always responded by ignoring it, but the more she did, the more society compared Yvonne and Vivian against each other.

And each time that happened, Vivian subtly looked down on Yvonne and behaved as if she were the winner, always picking a quarrel as though she could not rest unless she made some remark related to it.

At the time, Yvonne had wondered why Vivian seemed so determined to attack her, but as time passed and she untangled the knots in her heart one by one, it was no longer something she found as unbearable as in the past, when she had cried out of hurt.

“Why are you so angry? If a vulgar mistress is so proud that she can hold her head high before the lawful wife, then just spread it openly.”

“What…. What did you say? Since earlier, you keep…”

Vivian’s eyes flashed as she read the ease on Yvonne’s face, knowing full well Yvonne was provoking her with something Vivian could never dare to do.

“How dare a worthless woman like you…. insult me, Vivian Alois?”

It was just as one of Vivian’s hands, muttering darkly, was about to fly up.

“Vivian?”

At the sudden sound of a man’s voice from behind, the two stopped their quarrel. Vivian, who visibly flinched, recognized the unexpected owner of the voice and softened her gaze.

Yvonne too looked over in surprise when she saw Carlisle, who usually left at dawn and came back only late at night.

Carlisle, approaching them, looked not at Yvonne first but at Vivian, as if asking why she was here.

“What brings you here rather than the company? You know well enough I wouldn’t be home at this hour.”

“Oh, Carlisle, I came to see Yvonne. What a surprise to see her at the mansion at this hour.”

Vivian’s manner changed at once, and she smiled brightly, her voice warm and sweet.

“I was so shocked when I heard the two of you were back together. You could have told me in advance.”

“That’s how it happened.”

When Carlisle looked toward Yvonne, Vivian lightly laid a hand on his arm.

“What do you mean, that’s how it happened? If no one else, you should have at least told me. Isn’t that too much between us?”

At the sight of Vivian clinging to Carlisle more openly than usual, Yvonne turned away as though it was none of her concern. She neither wanted to hear their conversation nor to see them together.

Just as Carlisle was about to take a step toward Yvonne, who had gone into the dining room, Vivian asked again.

“Carlisle. We’re practically business partners, colleagues no different from that. Even if it’s a private matter, it’s troublesome if there are things we hide from each other.”

Vivian, who until just before had sounded playful, now spoke in the stern tone distinctive of a soldier, and Carlisle answered with something like a sigh.

“I need an heir soon enough.”

“An heir…? Really, that’s why?”

Vivian’s voice trembled slightly, having clearly believed Yvonne had been lying. At Carlisle’s flat one-sentence answer, Vivian’s expression nearly crumbled for a moment before she steadied it.

“Well, I suppose it is about time.”

Having answered that much, Carlisle ruthlessly removed Vivian’s hand from his arm.

“You should head back for today.”

“Head back? Are you telling me to leave right now?”

Vivian blinked, doubting her ears at Carlisle’s words, since never once until now had he ever driven her out after she came to the mansion. But even to her question that asked how that could possibly make sense, Carlisle merely opened the dining room door without once turning back and muttered,

“It would be best if you refrained from coming to the mansion for the time being. If you have business, come to the company.”

* * *

When Yvonne took her seat, Jane, who had been silently following her, covered her mouth with both hands and laughed.

“Madam, you did wonderfully. I can’t tell you how relieved I felt just now.”

“I only said a few words.”

“Didn’t you see how that woman Vivian turned pale with frustration? Madam, you have always been kind to her, so she was always acting as though she were something special.”

That was true. Once, Yvonne had felt almost compelled to win the favor even of Vivian, Carlisle’s friend and business partner. At least until she learned that the Vivian who had acted warmly toward her in the early days of the marriage had in fact been the one spreading slander about her through society.

After that, Yvonne had quietly kept some distance, but Vivian was the sort of person who loved being noticed and could not bear being ignored.

The moment Vivian realized Yvonne was keeping her distance, she immediately showed her true nature, saying things that subtly scraped at one’s feelings and twisting the atmosphere around them to her own advantage.

And that was true not only in society, but in this mansion as well.

‘She’s a woman sharp enough to rise to the status of the Marquisate herself despite the opposition of her retainers. I would prefer it if you didn’t indulge in such ugly jealousy over the fact that she has no choice but to stop by because of work.’

That had been Carlisle’s answer to the first complaint Yvonne had ever voiced. Responding coldly, as though he were looking at her like some woman with delusions of infidelity, he then left as if he had nothing more to say.

Even though Yvonne knew that Vivian, who came by every other day, not only slandered her to the servants but spread absurd rumors as well, all the effort she made to swallow it down because she did not want to become the wicked wife who drove away her husband’s friend had been useless.

Even after that, the biggest source of arguments with Carlisle was always Vivian.

‘No matter what you say, I hate that woman wandering freely through my house. I hate that she goes into your office too.’

‘Yvonne. Don’t think every whim you threw around before the Earl and Countess will work here. This is Glade Hills. I have no intention of indulging even your fussy sensitivities.’

The man who was colder than anyone else showed endlessly lenient behavior only when it came to Vivian. Every time Yvonne saw that, while Vivian wore the smile of a victor, Yvonne’s own feelings plunged into the depths.

It pained her that her husband listened only to Vivian and never to her, and she voiced that hurt again and again. But every time, he rejected any further conversation with an expression of weary annoyance.

Whenever her feelings were dragged through the mud like that, she hated him. Beside Carlisle, in whom not even a trace remained of the kindness he had once shown in childhood, Yvonne grew more exhausted and more isolated by the day.

Even so, she believed Carlisle when he said there was absolutely nothing between him and Vivian. At least until she heard those words from Vivian, who thr*st photographs in front of her as proof.

If only she had learned a little earlier the reason for his behavior, which she had never been able to understand at all, she would never have stood against the Earl six months ago.

Yvonne cut off that now-pointless line of thought.

“I understand the reason you had no choice but to come back,Madam. But having to see that fox-like woman again is t*rture. So what if she’s Master’s colleague. She comes to someone else’s house and struts around as though it were her own every single time.”

Yvonne drank a sip of water and held back her words, while Jane, realizing the maids still had no intention of coming in, shot a sharp glance toward the door.

“Why is the meal taking so long? Don’t tell me those girls again.”

“Even if I’ve come back, they’re not girls who would suddenly change, are they. They’ll waste time somewhere, then show up and serve careless food without even a word of apology.”

Partly because of Vivian’s influence, but also because from the beginning the servants had looked on Yvonne with unwelcome eyes under the butler’s influence, they were negligent in attending to her. It showed even in the handling of her meals. Unless it was a meal shared with Carlisle, they had never once properly kept to the right mealtime for Yvonne’s own meal.

“They’re awful. Truly. They need to be taught a proper lesson.”

Jane rolled up both sleeves as she strode off, looking ready to give the maids a piece of her mind, when someone unexpected entered through the open door. It was Carlisle.

“Master.”

Startled, Jane stepped backward and made way, and Carlisle walked in with long strides and sat in the seat facing Yvonne.

Behind the seated Carlisle, the flustered maids bustled in confusion. The maid who had just been about to push in the cart saw the Duke, jumped in surprise, and hurriedly pulled the cart back out.

In the oddly changed atmosphere brought by the unexpected appearance of the Duke, the air between the Duke and Duchess was nearly silent.

When Yvonne saw Carlisle settle himself as though he meant to eat as well, she asked like someone seeing something she ought not to be seeing.

“What brings you here?”

“I haven’t eaten yet either. Let’s have it together.”