The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 38

“You’re joking, right? Do you think carriages can run in this kind of rain?”

“Huh? Ah… That’s true.”

Indeed, even if she paid extra to call a rental carriage, there was a high chance it wouldn’t come. Giselle frowned as she watched the rainwater streaming down the window.

She couldn’t call a rental carriage, and she couldn’t ask him to take her home in this weather either.

Unable to do either, she unconsciously stamped her foot and bit her lip hard.

At that moment, Lucas, still looking out the window, spoke in a calm voice.

“Stay the night.”

“…Huh? What? Whaat?”

Giselle, who had been looking perplexed and unsure of what to do, looked at him with wide eyes.

Swoosh.

The intensified sound of rain seemed to say that this rain wouldn’t stop easily anytime soon.

* * *

“Then sleep well, miss. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“I will. Thank you… cough.”

Giselle nodded in response to the maid who had checked on her sleeping arrangements, but coughed mid-sentence. The maid’s eyes widened, and she spoke in an exaggerated tone.

“Oh my, miss! Could you be coming down with a cold? I’ll call the doctor right away…”

“No, there’s no need. It’s just a small cough.”

Giselle waved her hands frantically. She had already caused trouble by suddenly asking for a guest room, and she couldn’t possibly call someone else’s house doctor late at night just for one cough.

Seeing her firm refusal, the maid reluctantly spoke.

“Then at least let me bring you some cold medicine. Would you mind waiting a moment?”

“…Yes, please do.”

Giselle nodded, thinking she couldn’t refuse even that. The maid finally smiled, seeming relieved, and went outside. However, instead of leaving the room immediately, she turned back and called out to Giselle.

“Oh! Miss.”

“Yes?”

“Please feel free to speak comfortably from now on. It makes us uncomfortable when the future mistress of this house speaks so formally.”

“Ah…”

Giselle blinked a couple of times at the maid’s careful words, then nodded awkwardly.

“I’ll try to do that gradually. It’s just… I’m not used to it yet.”

The maid thanked Giselle for her words, smiled again, and then left. The sound of hurried footsteps faded away as she went to fetch the cold medicine.

“…Phew.”

It felt strange. She took a deep breath to calm her fluttering heart.

Tthe future mistress of this house.

Although it wasn’t something she didn’t know, the maid’s words made her newly conscious of it.

Of this place…

“Huaaah… That’s something to think about later. Am I really staying here overnight?”

Giselle stamped her feet with her bright red face covered by both hands. The immediate situation was more embarrassing to her.

Of course, she tried to act nonchalant in front of the maid, but still.

“Am I really staying overnight here?”

She looked around the unfamiliar bedroom and asked herself again. As if answering Giselle’s words, the rain heavily pattered against the window.

The grand mansion of the Taylor family.

She stamped her feet a few more times, then finally calmed down and walked to the window. She placed her hands on the windowsill and brought her face close to the glass.

But what Giselle’s eyes saw was not the outside scenery, but her own reflection in the window.

Wearing a man’s large shirt as a substitute for pajamas.

“Oh my, what is this?”

Giselle’s face quickly turned red as she turned her back to the window. Staying overnight here was embarrassing enough, but what made her even more flustered was this shirt.

She flapped the sleeves that were long enough to cover her fingertips and frowned. Even after rolling them up several times, it was no use.

“I should have just asked for clothes that the employees wear.”

She grumbled while flapping her arms up and down like wings. Meanwhile, her face, which had turned as red as a ripe tomato, showed no signs of returning to normal.

「What should we do? We don’t have any suitable nightwear for you, miss.」

When she finally gave up on going home due to the heavy rain and decided to stay the night, it was the maids of the Taylor household who became busy.

But since they were skilled and experienced, they quickly prepared a guest room to welcome her.

Except for one thing: they didn’t have any women’s nightwear prepared.

「It’s okay. It’s just one night. Anything comfortable to wear will do.」

Faced with the troubled maid, she didn’t feel particularly displeased or inclined to say anything. As she said, it was just one night, and she was in a position of receiving their hospitality.

Moreover, it wasn’t incomprehensible that women’s nightwear wasn’t prepared in advance.

After Lucas’s mother had passed away long ago, no other mistress had entered this mansion.

So she had asked for nightwear that the employees wore, but…

「Are you an employee?」

「Pardon?」

「I’m asking if you work here, Giselle Anticia.」

Lucas, who had appeared out of nowhere and had apparently been listening to her conversation with the maid, ruined everything.

「The future mistress of this house, wearing employee clothes.」

He looked at her as if he found it ridiculous.

「Then Senior should provide some other clothes! You told me to stay over, but there’s nothing to wear!」

「…Sigh, it’s my fault for blurting out whatever came to mind when I got upset.」

Giselle pouted as she recalled him immediately offering his own shirt in response to her words.

“He definitely did it on purpose. Just to tease me.”

She muttered to herself, puffing angrily, then blushed again.

Anyway, wearing a man’s clothes felt strange. Moreover, the thought of sleeping in this attire…

“No! What’s strange about it? He said it wasn’t something he had worn. I even saw with my own eyes him taking out a new shirt…”

As Giselle was muttering to herself and fanning herself with her hand, suddenly a strange sound came from the direction of the door.

Rustle rustle.

Scratch scratch.

“……?”

She tilted her head at the sound coming from beyond the door. It sounded like something scratching at the door.

For example, like scratching the door with nails or claws…

“Huh? Could it be Elizabeth?”

Giselle’s eyes widened, and she hurriedly approached the door.

* * *

“Meow.”

As soon as she opened the door, she saw exactly what she had expected: the cat, Elizabeth.

“How did you get here? How did you know I was here?”

She quickly picked up the cat, delighted, and asked various questions.

“Meow.”

‘Stop asking so many annoying questions!’

Somehow feeling like she understood the cat’s answer, Giselle smiled softly and was about to return to the room while petting the cat.

She would have done so if she hadn’t seen someone standing a few steps away.

“Se-Senior?”

She momentarily had a blank expression upon seeing Lucas. He too seemed to have not expected to encounter her, wearing a troubled expression.

“Why is Senior here… Wah! D-Don’t look!”

Giselle, who had been speaking blankly, belatedly realized her current state of dress and cried out in alarm.

She was outside the room wearing nothing but his shirt, wasn’t she?

“Kyaah! Aah!”

Perhaps because she had unconsciously tightened her arms holding the cat due to the shock, the cat suddenly meowed sharply and extended its claws.

“Ah! Giselle, be careful…”

Lucas, seeing the cat extending its claws towards her clothes, hurriedly reached out to stop it, but before he could, the cat forcefully brought its front paws down.

Riiip.

With the sound of tearing fabric, her shirt split open vertically down the middle.

And what was revealed through that gap…

Lucas’s usually calm gaze wavered. At the same time, footsteps could be heard approaching from the far end of the corridor.

“Ah, right. The maid said she was bringing cold medicine…”

Giselle’s words trailed off as her eyes widened. Then she looked down at herself. Her face filled with shock as she saw her clothes torn by the cat’s claws.

“Uh, th-this…”

In that split second, Giselle’s face went through a range of colors.

The torn clothes.

And Lucas, who was here with her right now.

“…Oh my god.”

Her face, which had been alternating between red and blue, turned pale white. There was no need to guess what kind of imagination the maid would have if she saw this scene.

And if that imagination spread from person to person…

“Senior! Come in here!”

It was pointless to continue that alarming train of thought. In her urgency, she reached out and grabbed Lucas’s wrist. Then she quickly pulled him into the room.

More precisely, into the bathroom that was separately prepared in one corner of the room.

“Meow.”

As Giselle breathed a sigh of relief after closing the bathroom door, she heard the cat’s meow of complaint in her ear. Lucas’s voice followed.