Chapter 16

In his captivating voice, though with a slightly excited tone, Edric Bernhardt had said,

“To think I’d see you here, my lady. It seems being a good person really does pay off.”

“You mean you’re pleased to see me?”

“Very much so.”

Rowena swallowed the words Me too.

He was a man who made affectionate jokes with everyone, and she thought she would look a little foolish if she let herself get swept up in them.

Still, she was happy to see him.

And because of that, her heart kept beating helplessly.

Their happy reunion was not the only welcome event of the day.

When Rowena returned to the count’s estate, Louisa had come back from her lengthy, two-week assignment.

Louisa held out a small glass bottle.

She also had some extremely valuable testimony to offer.

“Every afternoon, Baroness Travil would bring tea to the dowager baroness’s bedroom.”

“Camillia? Did she bring the same tea at the same time every day?”

“It was always the same tea, but the time varied. Sometimes it was around two or three o’clock. On certain days, she would go out and bring the tea at around seven in the evening, after she returned.”

In other words, Camillia had made sure the dowager baroness drank the tea, even when it was not a normal time to serve it.

Rowena opened the bottle.

A bitter fragrance rose from the reddish-brown tea.

She immediately recognized the smell of the liquid Camillia had forced down her throat in her previous life.

The smell of death.

Rowena sealed the bottle tightly.

Louisa, who had been watching her, went on to describe what she had witnessed, becoming somewhat talkative.

“Apart from those visits, Baroness Travil never went anywhere near the dowager baroness. Melissa was left to care for her alone the rest of the time. You know her, don’t you? That young maid.”

“Yes. I met her briefly before.”

The small maid who had been clearing away the pieces of a broken teacup, her arms covered in dark bruises.

Remembering that pitiful sight made Rowena’s heart feel a little heavier.

“She’s only eighteen, and she’s so terribly thin… It was heartbreaking to see her trying so hard to look after her mistress all by herself. I treated her kindly, and she started following me around like a little puppy.”

Of all the servants employed by the Travil household, Camillia had specifically assigned a young maid to care for her mother-in-law.

If an experienced maid spent the entire day nursing the elderly lady, there would be fewer hands available for other work.

That was why households generally hired a professional caregiver skilled in nursing the sick.

But Camillia had not done so.

Not only that, she appeared to have drastically reduced—or perhaps entirely eliminated—the dowager baroness’s clothing allowance.

In short, she was being extraordinarily stingy toward her mother-in-law.

But even so, was she not taking it too far?

Does she have some other motive?

Just as Rowena began to wonder, Louisa parted her lips.

“Um, my lady. I’m not sure whether I ought to say this…”

“Tell me anything.”

“I think the Travil family’s financial situation may be much worse than it appears.”

“What makes you think that?”

Louisa looked distinctly uncomfortable discussing the matter.

Nevertheless, this excellent little spy faithfully reported what she had seen and heard.

“Baroness Travil usually spends her time outside, so I rarely crossed paths with her. But when she visited the dowager baroness every afternoon, I noticed that she was wearing rather worn indoor clothes.”

Rowena narrowed her eyes.

She could clearly picture Camillia in her mind.

For as long as Rowena had known her, Camillia had changed her clothes several times a day.

She did so to maintain the appearance of a perfect noblewoman, even indoors.

And yet she was now wearing somewhat worn indoor clothes?

“And while the baroness served the dowager baroness tea, she made Melissa and me stand against one wall of the bedroom.”

“She must have been discussing something she didn’t want others to hear.”

“Probably. But you know I have sharp ears. I could hear a little of what she said. She was complaining about how difficult it was to repay some debts. I feel rather embarrassed repeating what sounds like gossip, but she made quite a show of her troubles in front of a sick woman.”

Rowena’s eyes widened.

“Debts?”

“Yes. So I asked Melissa about it. I figured she must have heard quite a few things by now.”

“I imagine she has.”

“And she told me that the baron had secretly accumulated an enormous amount of debt. Apparently, he borrowed money from all sorts of places. But since the dowager baroness is no longer able to go about her affairs freely, Baroness Travil has taken charge of the family’s finances.”

“I see…”

Piecing together the fragments of evidence was hardly difficult.

Rowena nodded, quickly seeing through Camillia’s scheme.

The claim that Baron Travil secretly accumulated an enormous amount of debt is probably a lie.

What sort of people were creditors?

Rowena clearly remembered the debt certificates and demands for payment that Gerard had received in her previous life.

The figures and the heavy sentences composed of threatening words had made too strong an impression to be easily forgotten.

If even Gerard, a count, had received such fierce demands for payment, there was no reason Camillia would have been spared.

She, too, would surely have faced similar pressure.

That was, if those creditors actually existed.

And if they truly did exist, Camillia would never have been able to flaunt her luxurious lifestyle in the Royal Gazette.

Doing so would have earned her a lawsuit rather than another demand for payment.

After all, a debtor who was both lazy and extravagant would eventually find herself placed upon the Scales of Truth made of walnut wood.

So this story about enormous debts is nothing more than a scheme to wrest control of the family’s finances from the dowager baroness.

Rowena let out a faint sigh.

As expected, villains were terribly predictable.

The lies they struggled so desperately to conceal would always reveal themselves somehow.

Camillia, what shall I do with you, then?

Rowena went out for a walk.

She had visited the temple early that morning and cried her eyes out, leaving her utterly exhausted.

She needed a little quiet time alone.

Yet once she began walking through the peaceful garden, the embarrassing things she had said earlier started swirling noisily through her mind.

“No! No, Father! When someone else holds that quill and writes with it, the ink flows perfectly well. It only has trouble when I hold it.”

A quill with ink flowing out of it in torrents…

Looking back, the comparison had been rather excessive.

The tips of Rowena’s ears grew hot as she remembered the incident.

“…Confession is supposed to be embarrassing. It’s perfectly natural.”

Pressing both palms against her round cheeks, Rowena quickened her steps.

Only after entering a woodland path filled with white cherry blossoms did she manage to calm her embarrassment a little.

The soft sound of her footsteps echoed beneath the cherry trees, whose branches spread overhead like a roof.

Cheerful birdsong drifted from among the fir trees planted nearby.

Rowena closed her eyes.

Just then, a wave of wind swept toward her, carrying the faint scent of roses.

The deep fragrance suddenly reminded her of the Marquis of Windervane.

It was almost as though his affectionate voice were hanging from the sound of green leaves rustling in the breeze.

“I’d like you to like it. You’re going to become its mistress.”

What on earth had he meant by that?

“That’s all right. I have enough imagination for both of us.”

And what had those words meant?

Rowena was confused.

The marquis looked directly into people’s eyes with his beautiful gaze whenever he spoke to them.

He had always been that way.

Whether speaking to a man or a woman, an elderly person or a child, he made jokes with an expression that suggested he genuinely adored the person before him.

His pleasant words were as soft as feathers, carried away by the wind.

That touch of lightheartedness was precisely why Rowena had always found her encounters with Edric Bernhardt so enjoyable.

But things were different now.

Whenever she thought of him, her heart grew restless.

A strange excitement rose within her, as though she were floating in midair.

And the instant Rowena realized she was experiencing such feelings, she shook her head.

“Get a hold of yourself.”

Now was not the time to indulge in dreamy thoughts about a famous man.

Had she not already spent enough of her girlhood blushing at actors on the stage and feeling her heart flutter while reading love poems?

She needed to face the harsh reality immediately before her.

Having made up her mind, Rowena caught one of the cherry blossom petals fluttering down around her.

Then she clenched her fist tightly and forced herself to recall Louisa’s report.

“Yesterday, my lady, Baroness Travil ordered us to dress the dowager baroness in a new gown. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because her younger son, Baron Germain, was coming to visit.”

“Is Baron Germain staying at the Travil estate now?”

“No. He’s staying at a nearby hotel. He said he would be leaving Erisvale early tomorrow morning, so he came to say goodbye to the dowager baroness in advance.”

Apparently, as Camillia dressed the pitiful dowager baroness in new clothes, she had said,

“Your son has come such a long way from another city. Shouldn’t you make an effort to look your best for him, Mother, even if it’s a little difficult?”

Of course she had.

Baron Germain must not find out about the lie that the family was struggling under the weight of those supposedly enormous debts.

“…Then I suppose I’ll have to tell him.”

Right now.