The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 32

As if she had been holding her breath, Giselle exhaled deeply right after the car started. Lucas glanced at her while turning the steering wheel. Giselle flinched and started to make excuses.

“No. It’s not that I didn’t trust your driving skills, Senior.”

“You didn’t trust me.”

“…I’m sorry.”

She answered a beat late when he stated it matter-of-factly. It was an affirmative answer, not a denial.

“Ha… You didn’t trust me, you say.”

“Well, you must have always ridden in cars driven by others, so how could I trust a novice?”

Giselle’s words were ruthlessly cold, as if she had never hesitated. Lucas let out a hollow laugh at her boldness in daring to call him a ‘novice’.

“Haa… Novice, right, a novice you say.”

He repeated the word ‘novice’ several times. Giselle, feeling uneasy, rolled her eyes around and then cautiously called out to him.

“Um, Senior?”

“I’ll properly show you the driving skills of this novice.”

“Wh-what? Whoa, Senior!”

Just as Giselle’s eyes widened, Lucas stepped on the accelerator.

…Of course, he stepped on it moderately, keeping safety in mind.

But for her, who had never ridden in any car other than this one and was sitting in the passenger seat for the first time, it was a terrifying speed.

* * *

“Huuuh…”

“Oh my, Miss!”

As Giselle collapsed face-down on the bed, her nanny rushed over in surprise.

“Miss? Are you sick? Or did something happen? Don’t tell me that man, I mean, the President, tried something improper before the wedding…”

“It’s not like that. Just… Pfft.”

Giselle, with her face buried in the bed, just waved her hand towards the nanny and then burst into laughter. Then she turned over to lie on her back and laughed even louder.

“Puhah, hahaha!”

“Miss?”

“It’s nothing. It’s just… something exciting happened.”

After leaving the Taylor family mansion, Lucas and Giselle drove around various parts of the capital.

「Ahhh, Senior! Stop it! I said stop!」

Clearly, when they first left the mansion, she was busy screaming with her eyes tightly shut.

But it didn’t take long for Giselle to start enjoying it.

「Wow, this is exciting! Can’t we go a little faster?」

It didn’t matter that her hair was getting messed up by the strong wind coming through the open window. She didn’t mind the cold night air hitting her face hard.

Giselle realized for the first time that she had such boldness in her.

The boldness to enjoy the fast ‘speed’ of a car.

“…Maybe I should ask him to teach me how to drive later?”

She muttered to herself, rubbing her flushed cheeks with her palms. The nanny, not having heard clearly, asked her,

“Pardon? What did you just say?”

“Nothing, it’s nothing. Just…”

Giselle, responding to the nanny, chuckled again. The nanny’s eyes widened at this sight.

Although the young miss had always been cheerful, it was the first time she had seen her this bright.

If usually she had put on a brave face to cover up her hard days, now she seemed to be truly savoring happiness.

There was no need to ask what had happened during the date.

Just looking at her flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, one could tell how many ‘exciting’ things had happened.

The nanny, finally relieved, let out a sigh and then spoke again with a fond smile.

“Did you enjoy your date with the President that much?”

“Huh? Ah… it wasn’t a date. As I said this morning, Senior and I met to catch a cat.”

Giselle, who had by now sat up on the bed, shook her head at the nanny’s words, pausing her imagination of herself driving.

But she couldn’t hide her reddening face. The nanny looked at her quietly and smiled gently.

“Our young miss, who I thought was just a child, is now going on dates…”

“I told you it wasn’t a date.”

“And with a wedding coming up too. Miss, I really have nothing more to wish for now. Even if I were to close my eyes right now, I’d have no regrets…”

“Nanny! That’s not right!”

Giselle, her face reddening with embarrassment at the nanny’s words, quickly cut her off.

“Don’t say things like that. You have to keep living with me, what are you talking about?”

“But Miss.”

“After I get married, you’ll come with me to the Taylor mansion.”

“…Pardon?”

The nanny opened her mouth in surprise at Giselle’s words. Her attitude suggested she hadn’t expected this at all.

“What’s this, Nanny? Were you not planning to come with me? Were you going to just send me off and keep living here?”

Giselle looked at the nanny, pouting with a hurt expression. The nanny shook her head in denial.

“No. Why would I stay in a place where you’re not, Miss?”

“Then…”

“Of course, I was planning to return to my hometown. I’m old now, and there’s not much for me to do here anymore.”

“Now of all times, what do you mean return to your hometown.”

Giselle’s voice became choked up with emotion at the nanny’s words.

“I told you this place is as good as your hometown. That I’m your family.”

She said she had left her hometown and come to the capital in her youth. Although she hadn’t heard the details, Giselle could guess that the nanny’s life hadn’t been very smooth.

The nanny had once told her, as if recounting an old tale, about how she first held Giselle as a newborn in a strange place with no family or friends.

That was when she finally put down roots, she said.

That she found a hometown and a family.

She said that nurturing the young miss like her own daughter was her purpose and meaning in life.

…While comforting her as she sobbed alone in a dark room.

“That’s what you said, Nanny.”

Giselle grabbed the nanny’s hand. The desperation was palpable in her grip, as if she couldn’t let go of the wrinkled hand.

The nanny looked down at Giselle’s hand holding hers, then raised her gaze. Her misty eyes took in her young miss’s face.

Pouting and not hiding her hurt feelings.

“…Would it be alright if I followed you, Miss?”

“Of course!”

Giselle nodded and answered the nanny’s question. The nanny couldn’t help but smile at her unhesitating response.

Such a kind young miss.

Even though she knew well that her old self would be of no use, the thought of wanting to go together was so kind and grateful.

“Then… hmm, I should prepare some more blankets.”

“Blankets?”

“Yes, of course, the Taylor family’s would be much better, but still, nothing beats handmade ones, right?”

“That’s true. Ah, right! I should make more quilt blankets too.”

“Quilt blankets?”

“Yes. I thought since I don’t have anything else to give Senior, it might be nice to gift him a blanket I made myself. He didn’t say he disliked it either.”

Giselle, her mood improved again, started chattering away. Thanks to this, the nanny learned about her entire day in detail.

About how beautiful the Summer Palace was.

How it felt to see Raoul Puhenna’s paintings in person.

Why the stray cat was named Elizabeth, and so on.

“…Come to think of it, Senior didn’t mention it.”

Giselle, while telling various stories to the nanny, suddenly voiced a thought that occurred to her.

“Pardon?”

“No, about his father.”

Lucas hadn’t talked about his father. Except for saying that he resembled his father, he had barely said a word about him.

“But he did talk about his mother…”

No, perhaps even that was only because she had brought it up while looking at the portrait.

She recalled the man standing in front of his parents’ portraits.

So indifferent and cold.

No, the emotion felt too heavy to be described by such simple words.

That’s why she had deliberately spoken more cheerfully.

Saying he resembled his mother, even joking a bit.

Of course, it wasn’t a lie that he and his mother looked alike. Not only did they share strikingly beautiful features that drew admiration, but more than that, they shared a kind aspect.

No, she thought they must have looked alike. She couldn’t be certain about someone who was already dead, as she knew nothing about them.

At least the Lucas Taylor she knew was a kind person.

‘Well, …although he sometimes catches people like mice due to his meticulous and thorough personality.’

But that’s how he is as a workplace superior.

Giselle suddenly turned her head to look towards the window. Moonlight was softly filtering in between the curtains.

She got up from the bed and approached the window. He must have already left after dropping her off, but nevertheless, Giselle’s gaze moved beyond the main gate.

Wondering if he might still be there.

“Hmm… Of course, he’s gone.”

It was natural. They weren’t ‘real lovers’ who couldn’t bear to part even for a moment, so why would he stay here without leaving?

It was already surprising that he had driven her home himself.

Knowing this, but still feeling somewhat regretful, Giselle kept peering out the window.

* * *

“If she’s gone inside, she should just wash up and go to sleep, why does she keep peeking out the window?”

Lucas, leaning against the car, muttered to himself with a hollow laugh.

A small shadow kept flickering in the direction of her bedroom. He thought he could even glimpse her pink hair between the curtains.

“What on earth is she trying to see…”

He clicked his tongue with a displeased expression.

Lucas stopping the car not far after dropping off Giselle and turning back was an action born out of simple impulse.

There wasn’t any particular reason, nor was he expecting anything.

He just felt like it.

There was no need for a special reason to act unlike himself.

‘But I didn’t expect to end up stuck here like this.’

Because it was just a momentary impulse, he intended to start the car again after a short while. If only he hadn’t seen that small figure moving in the direction of the second-floor bedroom of the mansion.

…And yet here he was, still.

Even though he knew well how ridiculous his behavior was, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.

“Go to sleep, Giselle.”

Lucas said in a low voice towards the second-floor window. But the small shadow, unable to hear those words, remained near the window for a long time after.