Chapter 4

‘What on earth is wrong with me?’

But however suffocating it felt, how could she possibly tell anyone that, as a guest at the Grand Duchy, she was dreaming that the master of the house was doing such things?

It was enough to drive her mad. Eleanor wrapped both hands around her head.

She had lived at Saint Agnes Girls’ Boarding School, founded by nuns, seeing men as no different from stones and living almost like a nun herself.

And yet how long had it even been since she graduated and left the school, that she was already having such absurd dreams!

‘This has never happened once in my entire life before….’

Even if she felt uneasy that the connecting door might open, the door had remained firmly locked ever since she locked it, and after that one attempt to open it before she locked it, there had been no such attempt again.

And yet every night she had dreams like that, and it felt as though her mind might break. No, if she said she was having dreams like this, people might say there was something wrong with her head.

As far as she had observed over the past several days, contrary to the rumors that he was a rake, Kars Beaufort did not particularly do anything to women. Of course, perhaps that was only because she was a guest and he was minding his conduct.

He was simply kind to all women. He smiled well at every servant working in the Grand Duchy. Even to the lowest maid.

If there was one exception, perhaps because he had noticed that Eleanor felt uncomfortable around him, he kept a little distance from her. For Eleanor, that was fortunate.

And yet, for some reason, it also felt as though something lightly pricked at her chest, but getting close to him seemed far too dangerous.

Since it was still too early at dawn to rise, Eleanor closed her eyes again and tried to sleep. Hoping that this time, at least, she would not have another strange dream.

*   *   *

When Eleanor came down for breakfast, Kars and Marguerite were already there.

“Good morning, Ella. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes… did you sleep well?”

Eleanor forced the corners of her lips upward and tried to smile. In truth, her sleep had been disturbed for days because of her troubling dreams, but there was no way she could say that.

It was only a dream, yet because it had been so vivid, each time it repeated Eleanor found it harder and harder to face Kars.

In reality Kars Beaufort had done nothing at all, and yet for some reason seeing his face felt awkward and uncomfortable.

Because of that, she could only look elsewhere so that her gaze would not turn toward Kars, avoid being alone with him, and keep her conversations with him brief and clipped. Anyone could tell that Eleanor was avoiding Kars Beaufort.

At first Kars deliberately tried speaking to her and forcing smiles, but perhaps his feelings were hurt, as the number of times he spoke to her gradually lessened, and before long, only silence came to settle between them.

Even so, as the host, Kars tried to lighten the mood at the breakfast table.

“So then, how do you two plan to spend the day today?”

Ever since Eleanor came to the Grand Duchy, Marguerite had spent time with her every day. To someone who did not know them, it would look as though she had found a daughter she had lost.

In fact, despite the ten-odd-year gap between them, they were as affectionate as true mother and daughter. Even if Eleanor herself did not reveal what was in her heart, at the very least, Marguerite’s attitude toward Eleanor was just that.

“I am thinking of calling people in and buying some things Eleanor needs.”

“For Miss Eleanor?”

“She came in such haste that she seems to be lacking many necessities.”

“Again…?”

As the word ‘shopping’ came from Marguerite’s lips for several days running now, Kars asked without bothering to hide his displeasure.

It seemed that the rumor circulating among the servants of the Grand Duchy was indeed true. Though the butler had warned them to be careful, the rumor still reached Kars’s ears thanks to the informants he had planted among the servants.

“The Dowager Grand Duchess has become infatuated with a woman named Eleanor and is lavishing support on her in every possible way. Before long, that woman too may become part of the Grand Duchy.”

‘No wonder such talk is spreading….’

Of course, Kars too remembered that, unlike a lady who had only just reached adulthood, Eleanor had come with nothing but a single luggage bag in her hand.

At the time, when Marguerite looked over the meager belongings Eleanor had brought, she had been unable to hide her shock.

“Is this all your luggage?”

“Yes. There was not much to pack anyway. I can get what I need later in Richen.”

“You are twenty this year, so you should be having your debutante as well, and yet what is to be done if you do not even have enough clothes like this? It is a grave failing of mine that I, who should have cared for you as your godmother, did not do so.”

Strictly speaking, Marguerite was not Eleanor’s godmother, but she had taken it upon herself to act as one. No matter how many times Eleanor said she was fine, Marguerite was immovable.

Since it seemed discourteous to keep refusing and trying to stop her, Eleanor had let it be, and it had now reached the point where merchants came and went through the Grand Duchy every day carrying various goods for Eleanor.

“…….”

Eleanor felt Kars’s pointed gaze fixed on her. She stood behind Marguerite like a sinner, lowering her eyes.

At Kars’s gaze, which seemed to reproach her, Eleanor’s shoulders hunched in on themselves. Though it had not been her intention, she understood that it could not be helped if he looked at her with displeasure.

Marguerite, perhaps thinking Kars was about to do something unkind, stepped in front of Eleanor.

“My goodness, as if it matters how much can really be spent!”

“Who am I to stop you, Mother. Do as you please.”

Though Kars let out a long sigh, clearly displeased with the situation, in the end he could not stop Marguerite and only shook his head.

Since the riding accident of her husband, the late Lorenz Beaufort, who had now passed away, Marguerite had withdrawn from society and lived a life close to seclusion.

She had still kept some friendly relations with close ladies from time to time, but in the past few months even that had decreased as Lorenz’s illness rapidly worsened.

In a situation where people had been worried that Marguerite might continue living such a diminished life, it was fortunate that she had found a reason to become active again. Still, the fact that Eleanor was that reason somehow troubled him a little.

Recently, ever since Eleanor came to the Grand Duchy, Marguerite had visibly regained her vitality.

The problem was that anyone could tell at a glance how dearly Marguerite cherished Eleanor.

It was only natural that Eleanor, who had to join the Imperial Ballet, would leave the Grand Duchy and go to Richen, yet Marguerite fretted incessantly at the thought that Eleanor might leave.

Around a week after Eleanor came to the Grand Duchy, when Eleanor said she had to go to Richen to practice, Marguerite even had Kars’s indoor sparring hall turned into her practice room.

Marguerite gave Eleanor not the slightest opening to leave the Grand Duchy.

‘Why is Mother going this far for a guest who came only for a short visit?’

Kars felt vaguely uncomfortable with Marguerite’s somewhat abnormal attachment toward Eleanor, who did not share even a drop of blood with her.

To people who did not know the circumstances, Eleanor would look like an extra mouth in the household who had come to drain the wealth of the Grand Duchy. Thus, strange rumors began circulating about the Beaufort Grand Duchy.