Chapter 9

Eveline’s face turned red in an instant. She parted her lips in embarrassment, then glanced at Gerard.

In situations like this, Gerard was always a bystander.

Sure enough, he raised his newspaper to cover his face, as though he had discovered a very important article.

That meant it was now Eveline’s turn to do something utterly predictable.

She began sniffling pitifully.

“I only said it because I feel close to you, Sister…… It really hurts my feelings when you react so seriously.”

This time, Camillia, who had been quietly drinking her tea, cast Eveline a look full of sympathy. A silent glance passed between them.

Whenever they exchanged looks like that, Rowena used to feel excluded.

But now, she felt nothing.

Surprisingly, once she realized that the alienation she had felt all this time had not been her imagination, a sense of freedom came over her.

She no longer wanted to be bound by this relationship, so Rowena rose from her seat.

Then she said indifferently,

“It seems my presence is only making things unpleasant. I should see the dowager baroness and return home.”

“Wait, Rowena.”

Just as Camillia set down her teacup with a clatter, a maid carrying a tray entered the drawing room.

“I’ll have tea another time.”

Rowena gave the tea set and the large chocolate cake a passing glance before walking out into the corridor, her shoes clicking against the floor.

“Rowena.”

Unexpectedly, Gerard followed her at once.

He quickly caught up with her in the middle of the corridor and seized her arm.

Rowena turned in surprise, her abundant black hair swaying gently behind her.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Because you seem to have been hurt.”

Rowena slowly shook her head.

“No. I wasn’t hurt.”

“Then may I say one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“…Your words were too harsh.”

Leaving out a few words doesn’t make you a kinder man.

Gerard often pretended to be a courteous husband in this way.

But instead of adding “I’m sorry too” to the apology he had deliberately offered first, Rowena decided to ask him directly.

“Are you saying I was wrong to speak to Eveline that way?”

“Eveline is still a child.”

“When I was her age, you proposed to me.”

“……”

“Eveline is now old enough for marriage proposals to be discussed. Shouldn’t she be taught how to speak and behave properly?”

In other words, she meant that his younger sister’s thoughtless way of speaking was his responsibility.

Gerard, however, apparently did not see it that way, judging by how persistently he defended his sister.

“Rowena, she is different from you.”

“How?”

Gerard frowned at Rowena’s unusually persistent questioning.

As though he wanted to bring the uncomfortable conversation to an end, he cleared his throat softly.

But Rowena asked again.

“How is she different? Is your sister more precious to you than I am?”

“You are my wife and an adult. I only said that because I hoped you would be generous toward your younger sister-in-law. More importantly, I don’t understand why you’re so angry. Is it because I missed the memorial service? Or because I slept at my family home without telling you?”

Rowena shrugged.

You know all that, and yet you’re still acting so shamelessly?

That was what she meant.

But she needed to make the point even more clearly.

Rowena parted her lips in a faint smile.

“That’s right, Gerard.”

Apparently, her husband was not shameless enough to press his smiling wife any further.

However, he did not possess enough conscience to apologize, either, so he returned to the original subject.

“…I’ll make sure Eveline behaves herself.”

It was obviously a lie, but Rowena nodded.

Once she separated from him, Eveline would become a stranger to her as well. She did not want to waste her thoughts on such a trivial matter.

And so Rowena answered with great elegance, as though she were addressing an unfamiliar gentleman.

“Please do.”

The tips of Gerard’s ears reddened slightly.

Rowena tried to guess what he was feeling at that moment.

Perhaps it was humiliation.

“Tsk. Is she my wife or my superior?”

Hadn’t he once said that she acted like his superior?

In her previous life, Gerard had also said this to Rowena.

“Stop acting so high and mighty.”

She had merely tried to maintain the dignity she had been taught.

Had he disliked that so much that he had an affair?

Had he found her so unbearable to look at that he had killed her?

If he hated the conduct Rowena had practiced all her life that much, then all the better.

She would behave with even greater dignity.

“You may go back now.”

Rowena gestured toward the drawing room, her eyes curving gently.

At the gesture one might make to a servant, Gerard rubbed his mouth with his palm, looking bewildered.

Nevertheless, he soon bowed politely and returned to the drawing room.

“I’m embarrassed to receive you while lying in bed. I broke my ankle, so it’s become difficult for me to reach the tea table. That’s why I had the tea table brought here……”

The dowager Baroness Traville rambled in a gloomy voice.

She used to be such a confident and dignified lady.

Seeing the dowager baroness so dispirited made Rowena feel terrible.

And so she answered more gently and affectionately than usual.

“I’m simply grateful that you agreed to see me despite my sudden request.”

“I’ve been feeling particularly lonely lately……”

The elderly lady smiled bitterly.

She looked as though she were drowning in sorrow.

It was the same expression Rowena had worn every morning after her grandfather passed away.

Feeling a sting at the tip of her nose, Rowena spoke in a bright voice.

“Then you must recover soon and come to social gatherings. Everyone is waiting for you.”

“……My daughter-in-law told me that unpleasant rumors are circulating about me.”

“Unpleasant rumors? Not at all, my lady. Everyone feels sympathy and understanding toward you. After all, you’re facing the prospect of registering your son’s death after postponing it for years.”

For the first time, a clear light returned to the elderly lady’s eyes.

She answered slowly but distinctly.

“No, Countess Libroth. I believe that my son is alive. My younger son has been trying to persuade me to register his elder brother’s death, saying that his brother’s soul must be allowed to find peace. It seems his words have been distorted as they spread. Could you correct the rumor for me?”

Rowena nodded.

“I will.”

Afterward, Rowena said a few more things and received feeble replies.

Their conversation came to a halt when Rowena’s gaze fell upon the elderly lady’s arm as she held her teacup.

The edge of her sleeve, which had slipped down to her elbow, was slightly frayed.

Compared with the fashionable dress Camillia had been wearing, wasn’t it astonishingly shabby?

Rowena narrowed her eyes.

The Traville baronial family is wealthy. No, more importantly……

The old dress was not what mattered right now.

The mottled bruises covering the elderly lady’s arm from her wrist to her elbow were a much more urgent concern.

Sensing Rowena’s gaze, the elderly lady hurriedly offered an explanation.

“The day I tumbled down the stairs, I broke my ankle and injured my arm as well.”

The dowager Baroness Traville spoke as though it were nothing serious, but her cheeks reddened slightly as she tried to pull down her sleeve.

In the process, the teacup that had been resting precariously on the edge of the tea table fell to the floor.

With a sharp crash, porcelain fragments scattered in every direction.

Just then, a young maid who had arranged the lilies Rowena had brought in a vase came hurrying over.

“Please be careful, my lady. You could hurt yourself. I’ll clean it up right away.”

Speaking briskly, the maid rolled up her sleeves.

As she did so, the distinct purple bruises on her arms were fully exposed.

At this, the dowager Baroness Traville offered yet another pitiful explanation.

“Melissa has been working so hard to look after me. I fall over so often that she has sometimes ended up tumbling to the floor with me.”

The situation was so terribly familiar that Rowena felt her mouth go dry.

She recalled the times in her previous life when her arms and legs had grown stiff, her movements had slowed, and she had fallen over at all hours.

One day, she had sprained her ankle. On another, she had broken her wrist.

There had not been a single part of her body that was free of dark bruises.

The dowager baroness was undoubtedly experiencing something similar to what Rowena had endured in her previous life.

But I still have no evidence that Camillia gave the dowager baroness that medicine.

If so, she needed to gather evidence actively.

If she assigned a trustworthy maid to the elderly lady, wouldn’t she be able to help her while also obtaining evidence?

But doing so would clearly be overstepping her bounds.

It might even wound the dowager baroness’s pride.

After all, it could be interpreted as suggesting that the Traville household did not have enough servants.

Nevertheless, Rowena could not leave someone in such a difficult situation without helping.

“My little flower, helping others is ultimately a way of helping yourself.”

Hadn’t her grandfather said those words?

“Um, my lady……”

Rowena put down her teacup and carefully wrapped her hands around the dowager Baroness Traville’s bony hand.

She felt the exceptionally thin skin beneath her fingers.

Then a faint warmth passed from the elderly lady’s skin into hers.

The moment Rowena felt that frailty, she no longer hesitated.

“If you wouldn’t mind, may I send you one of my maids? As it happens, we have an experienced servant to spare at the count’s residence. I would be grateful if you could give her some work, even if only for a few days.”