The rumors naturally sent the Crown Prince into a fury as well.
“With the wedding almost upon us, she goes on some trip and ends up like that? Not some ordinary illness — smallpox?”
In his mind, a woman was a thing that must be without flaw. The woman who stood at his side had to be even more perfect — for he considered that a reflection of his own standing.
“What on earth was the Duke thinking, sending a young lady about to enter a state marriage off on a journey?”
The Duke of Lates, head bowed before him, had nothing to say for himself.
“She said it was her last wish before the wedding…… I have no excuse to offer.”
He bent his head lower still.
“You say you have no excuse — and that’s the end of it? Was it not your responsibility to bring my betrothed to me without flaw or blemish?”
The previous day, an envoy from the Kingdom of Elaise had come to the estate of House Lates. They had conveyed that given how things had turned——
— they had left a considerable sum as consolation money, and conveyed that unfortunately the smallpox scarring was extensive and would not fade. Furthermore, since she had fallen ill while on her way to the kingdom, they said she was still in great need of treatment and offered to take charge of her care themselves.
“The rumors say her face has been badly disfigured — is that true?”
“……I am deeply sorry to say that it is.”
The Duke answered without hesitation, for it never occurred to him that the Kingdom of Elaise would fabricate such a thing. He had long since forgotten how deeply they had mourned the loss of Aubrey, and how desperately they had wished to raise their granddaughter themselves.
“Her condition is now serious enough that she cannot move, and she has been unable to return home.”
Alexis let out a short, incredulous laugh at the absurdity of it all.
“The imperial palace is in an uproar preparing for my state marriage, and the bride’s place stands empty. What a fine state of affairs this is.”
A Crown Prince’s state marriage was no small matter. Invitations had long since been sent to rulers of other kingdoms, and the question of who would attend had already been settled.
As the Duke’s mouth went dry, a knock sounded and a woman entered, setting a tea tray on the silver stand. It was Delilah — unmistakable with her striking red hair.
“I present myself before His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“And who are you.”
“I am…… the second young lady of House Lates.”
Alexis turned a pointed look on the Duke, as if to say — explain.
“She is Annabella’s half-sister.”
“So she is equally a duke’s daughter?”
“That is…… true, however she is the child of my remarried wife, so——”
“Ah, I see it now. She was the child of a mistress kept outside the house — and when the first wife died, the mistress was brought in as the new duchess, making the girl a legitimate daughter.”
Neither of them said a word as Alexis prodded at the sensitive matter without the slightest compunction.
“Let me see your face. Lift it.”
It was a command, and so Delilah had no choice but to raise her head. Alexis reached out and tipped her chin higher with a finger, studying her face from one angle and then another as though appraising a work of art, before finally withdrawing his hand. Delilah, rigid with nerves throughout, had forgotten to breathe entirely.
“The Duke has a taste for beautiful women. All your daughters are lovely…… Are they not?”
“Ah…… what man wouldn’t feel the same, Your Highness.”
The easing of the atmosphere was unmistakably Delilah’s doing.
“I…… if it pleases Your Highness, I am prepared to offer my daughter to you at any time.”
That way, the wording on the wedding invitation need not be changed — the invitation still read “young lady of House Lates.” The Crown Prince had calculated as much himself. And on top of that, Delilah’s striking appearance had caught his eye in a way he hadn’t anticipated.
“I find myself rather tired.”
The Crown Prince threw out the remark without preamble.
“Would it be acceptable to spend the night at the ducal estate?”
The Duke understood his meaning perfectly.
“But of course. Please make yourself at home whenever you wish.”
At those words, Alexis smiled his arrogant smile and swept out of the sitting room ahead of them. That left only the Duke and Delilah.
“Delilah, listen carefully.”
Delilah was still dazed — what she had just experienced had left her equal parts frightened and trembling.
“Listen to me!”
The Duke gripped Delilah’s wrist hard, and she finally came back to herself.
“His Highness the Crown Prince may come to your bedchamber tonight.”
“What? But I——”
“Have you no wish to become Crown Princess?”
At those words, her red eyes lit up. Delilah had inherited her mother’s boundless appetite for more — and her father the Duke knew that perfectly well.
“Go back to your chambers early tonight, bathe, and wear a white nightgown — plain, without any pattern. Leave a single candle burning and wait. Do not fall asleep. Do you understand me?”
“Then…… if I were to find myself compromising my virtue…….”
“When the other party is His Highness the Crown Prince, it is an honor, not a transgression. So have no concerns about that. Are we understood?”
The word Crown Prince was intoxicating. For Delilah, who had spent her whole life as an illegitimate daughter nursing a sense of inferiority toward Annabella, this moment was all the more so.
Annabella — who had always put on such airs, always been called the greatest beauty — had contracted smallpox and was set to be left a ruined face. And here was Delilah, catching the eye of the very Crown Prince who had lost all interest in that afflicted fiancée.
This was the chance of a lifetime.
‘I cannot let it slip through my fingers.’
Her resolution made, Delilah spoke to the Duke as though making a vow.
“Father — I will see it done. But in return…… I do not wish to live as Mother did.”
“Very well. Say it in your own words. What is it that you want?”
“Promise me you will give me the glory of becoming Crown Princess.”
The Duke smiled with deep satisfaction at a daughter who had inherited every one of his most contemptible qualities, and answered with a hearty laugh.
“That I will! I will pour every ounce of my influence into pushing you forward. But you must do your part as well. Only you can whisper into the Crown Prince’s ear from within his bedchamber.”
At those words, Delilah gave a resolute nod.
Meanwhile, the Crown Prince, having issued orders for his overnight stay at the ducal estate to be arranged, was sitting alone with entirely different thoughts.
“The audacity — trying to foist a mistress’s child off on me…….”
Alexis had always had a keen interest in gossip. Rather than honing his martial skills or immersing himself in scholarly pursuits, he had always been far more absorbed in the talk that circulated among noblewomen in their salons. Naturally, he had heard about the half-sister at the ducal estate as well.
‘While the Duchess was confined to bed, unable to move because the pregnancy was at risk, he couldn’t even wait——
‘They say he’s been meeting a woman at the salon.’
‘My, he took a mistress while his wife was with child?’
That sort of story was common enough to leave no lasting impression. But there had been one peculiar detail.
‘And in the end that mistress became the new Duchess. They say he brought her in a few years after the first wife died — but the girl she had in the meantime is only a year younger than the original duke’s daughter, which means……’
‘While his wife was wasting away, he was out carrying on a love affair, fathering a child, building an entire second life.’
At the time, young as he was, Alexis had thought the Duke rather impressive — and that was precisely why it had stuck in his memory.
‘However much she may be called a duke’s daughter, who would treat her as one? She’s nothing more than the child of a woman who was barely a lieutenant’s mistress — that’s not something you can change by fixing the title later, is it?’
‘Quite right. Birth is something one simply cannot escape.’
That was something Alexis himself would have liked to say out loud. Everyone who knew anything knew that his father had seized the throne——
— had usurped the throne. However forcefully that voice was suppressed, it was inevitable that those outside the palace walls would go on mocking them and proclaiming that they had done what no man ought to do.
“Perhaps that young lady and I will make fine companions.”
What did birth matter, or the manner by which one came to occupy a certain position? Things were as they were — what did the circumstances before that change?
“A little early, perhaps — but I may as well retire to the bedchamber.”
At the Duke’s prior instruction, the servant attending him quietly let slip which room was the young lady’s.
“I would prefer no interruptions.”
“Of course, Your Highness.”
The servant bowed his head, and Alexis walked with unhurried steps toward Delilah’s bedchamber.
The servant watched until he had passed through the door, then set off toward the Duke at a near-run.
“How did it go?”
“He entered the bedchamber without incident.”
“Ha…….”
Only then did the Duke sink heavily onto the sofa. He had been worried that Annabella’s situation might have brought the Crown Prince’s wrath down upon him — but Delilah had wandered in with the tea tray, oblivious, and the outcome had shifted entirely.
“……Wait.”
Had Delilah truly appeared there by chance? This was no ordinary guest — it was the Crown Prince. Miranda would have been meticulous in her preparations to receive him, and yet today of all days it was Delilah who brought the tea?
“Ha, honestly.”
Just then Miranda entered the Duke’s study, and the servant slipped out with practiced discretion.
“How did it go?”
“Well — Delilah is your daughter through and through.”
At those words, Miranda curved her red lips into a smile.
“That’s a compliment, I take it?”
“Well…… given that I fell for it myself, I suppose it is. But what nerve you had, sending our girl in there.”
“I had heard rumors that His Highness the Crown Prince enjoys the company of many different women. A man of such free-spirited tastes — I thought perhaps our girl might catch his eye.”
“And so she did — it saved me today. The tongue-lashing I received…… But with Delilah there and tonight’s arrangement falling into place, it’s turned out rather well.”
“We cannot rest easy yet. It is only when she secures the position of Crown Princess that we can breathe.”
Miranda’s red eyes burned with n*ked ambition.
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bluemoon238
It’s precisely because of how the current leadership took over that his marriage partner should be without flaw to the nobility and other kingdoms. He’s barely holding on to the cliff’s edge and he already decides to disqualify the qualifications of his future offspring…