Angela turned to Natasha.

“If you were away for about thirty minutes, what were you doing in that time?”

“Ha, do I really have to account for that?”

Natasha shook her head vigorously, as though the question were deeply humiliating.

“I used the lavatory! My stomach was terribly upset, something I ate must have disagreed with me! Making me say something so personal in front of all these people, Countess Maister, this is truly too much!”

“Are you certain that is what you were doing?”

“What reason would I have to lie? What reason would I have to hurt my own child!”

Angela let out a quiet breath and spoke to Natasha.

“Lady Barton, I take no pleasure in this situation. If anything, it saddens me. You must find it dreadful as well, having to keep lying in front of your child.”

A brief look of sorrow crossed Angela’s face.

“So please, just this once, tell the truth. If you speak honestly and acknowledge your mistake, I will do everything I can to settle this matter quietly.”

“You’re making me out to be the criminal in front of my own child? In the world, what a vile and despicable thing to do.”

“I clearly told you to have Castle wait in the room. You were the one who chose not to follow that. Please do not shift the blame.”

Angela’s face returned to its impassive state.

“Then let us hear from someone else.”

“There’s more?”

Natasha’s face contorted.

A small, girlish-looking maid stepped forward.

“I am a trainee maid. I haven’t been assigned a fixed post yet, so I help with different things as needed. On the day something happened to Young Master Castle, I was cleaning dust behind the cabinet at the end of the corridor. I heard hurried footsteps and looked out from behind the cabinet to see what was happening. Lady Barton was looking around and rushing into her room. I had just seen her heading toward the sitting room, so her sudden reappearance startled me, and I had no chance to come out from behind the cabinet. Her expression looked very strange, so I watched quietly. A short while later she came back out with a pale face, her hands clenched tight.”

“While you were behind the cabinet, did anyone else pass by before or after?”

At Angela’s question, the maid shook her head.

“No one except Lady Barton.”

“I told you my stomach hurt! I used the chamber pot in my room!”

“Was the chamber pot emptied or removed that day?”

At Angela’s question, the two maids assigned to Natasha’s room answered.

“No. Nothing like that happened that day. Lady Barton dislikes using a chamber pot in her room and rarely keeps one there.”

“So you sent the maids away on fabricated errands, arranged for the merchant to provide an alibi, and then gave Castle that……”

Angela paused briefly. Her eyes caught Castle, nestled in their mother’s arms, knowing nothing.

“Medicine. That is what the circumstances suggest, is it not? And then you deliberately left the bottle on the floor to make it look as though someone had come in from outside. Castle would have taken it without resistance, since it came from their mother.”

Angela’s violet eyes filled with sorrow.

“Without knowing what kind of medicine it was.”

“How would I even get my hands on that medicine!”

“James, our physician, said so himself. One of the medicines he kept separately due to its risk had gone missing, and it appears to be the one Castle consumed. Whoever chose this medicine likely thought that since it was a sleep aid, it would not be seriously toxic.”

Angela moved toward Natasha.

“Should I ask Castle directly? Whether their mother ever gave them medicine to take? Even a child who has just begun to speak can answer something like that.”

Tears fell from Natasha’s bloodshot eyes. Still clutching Castle, she screamed with raw fury.

“This is slander! You bribed all the maids, didn’t you! You’ve set this whole stage to drive me and Castle out! You’ve always seen us as thorns in your side! You’re throwing out a poor girl who may suffer lasting harm!”

“A girl?”

A murmur of bewilderment rippled through the room.

Natasha clapped her hands over her mouth, but it was already too late.

Everyone had heard her scream-like declaration.

So this is how it comes out in the end.

Angela lamented inwardly. It was the worst possible way.

The first to react was Phillip.

“Castle is a girl?”

Natasha responded like a woman half out of her mind.

“Lord Phillip, that, that was a slip of the tongue. Castle being a girl…… couldn’t be, could it?”

But Phillip no longer spoke to Natasha at all.

“James.”

“Yes.”

“Have you ever examined Castle?”

James, waiting nearby, answered.

“I have given medicine for mild colds and stomach upsets, but I have never examined the child directly. Lady Barton was so strongly opposed to it from when the child was an infant. She said she had a physician she knew well and would take the child out to be seen by that person.”

Phillip’s gaze turned to Natasha.

His frame was thin and aged, but his eyes were sharp and clear.

“This is strange. Natasha, if you are telling the truth, we can verify it right now. But before that, I would like you to answer the questions Angela has raised.”

Phillip continued in a heavy tone.

“I am hoping none of this is true. That Angela has made a mistake.”

“It isn’t! It isn’t true!”

“There is no other way. Bessie, take the child with a few maids and confirm it.”

At Phillip’s command, the head maid stepped forward with several maids and separated Castle from Natasha. Natasha fought against them desperately, but she could not overpower them all.

Castle, bewildered, burst into tears.

A short while later.

“Young Master Castle is…… a girl.”

At Bessie’s words, the room stirred.

“Passing off a girl as a boy…… even if you wanted the inheritance that badly……”

Phillip let out a pained sound.

Things having come this far, it was bitter, but Angela had to step in.

She also needed to confirm whether Castle had been given the medicine by their mother. She would be accused of going too far, even with a child, but there was no other way.

If she had to play the villain, she would play it.

That was her role.

But before Angela could ask, someone else spoke to Castle first.

“Little one, did your mama ever give you something from a bottle like this?”

Isaac dangled a bottle identical to the one Castle had consumed and asked. Castle froze in complete terror at the sudden question from such a large man.

Cyril stepped forward.

“The child is frightened. Lord Wilton would be better suited than Lord Galland. The child would respond to that face.”

“What’s wrong with my face?”

Ignoring Isaac’s protest, Cyril took the bottle from Isaac’s hand and passed it to Ashley.

Natasha immediately moved to shout, but Cyril looked at her.

His gaze was so cold that the sheer force of it silenced her for a moment.

Ashley knelt to meet the child’s eye level. With a face that mixed gentleness and concern, he spoke to Castle softly.

“You were frightened, weren’t you, Castle. Have you seen this bottle before?”

Castle hesitated at the gentle face, then gave a small nod.

“Did you ever take the medicine from inside this bottle?”

“……Mama…… gave it. Castle was sleeping, and Mama woke me up.”

That was enough. Phillip’s anger broke.

“I can no longer believe a word you say. After deceiving us about the child’s s*x, you grew so anxious that you went as far as giving medicine to your own child?”

“Hh, hhk……”

Natasha burst into tears.

“Lord Phillip, you never acknowledged me and my child! You treated us like guests, not family, and so…… that is why……”

“You lied, and now you are blaming others? You know better than anyone that nobles rarely take responsibility for children born outside of marriage. And yet were you not allowed to live here comfortably out of consideration?”

“You never gave Castle Charles’s inheritance! Castle is his child!”

Phillip answered with deep disappointment on his face.

“I cannot be certain this child is truly Charles’s child. I cannot trust the word of someone who lies and causes incidents like this.”

“Castle is Charles’s child!”

Angela stepped in.

“Were you put up to this by someone? If so, tell me, and I will do everything I can to resolve this matter as smoothly as possible.”

If Natasha had made a foolish choice on her own, it was deeply unfortunate, but there might be no further danger.

But if someone had put her up to it, everything changed.

The truly dangerous person was whoever had given the instructions.

Natasha fixed Angela with bloodshot eyes.

“It’s because of you! You have everything, and still you refuse to give anything to me and Castle!”

“We have provided support from the day the child was born until now without holding back. Where do you think everything you eat, sleep under, and spend freely comes from?”