Chapter 20 – The Whereabouts of the Missing Woman 

Just then, Angela stepped out to take care of the baby who was fussing for food. Gérard, for a moment, recalled all the men who had been at the clubhouse.

He couldn’t immediately tell whom Jeremy was referring to.

“That man, Duke Hystein de Vallière.”

“Why that fellow… Well, yes, he was there, but according to the other gentlemen, even when Rosalie went missing, he didn’t budge.”

Gérard clenched his fist. He could no longer resist the urge to smoke a cigar.

With Theo taken by Angela, he asked Countess Aloua for permission, then cut and lit his cigar. His reddish-brown hair, usually neatly waxed, now fell untidily over his forehead.

“That, that can’t be. I saw with my own eyes how he looks at Miss Rosalie…”

“Hm? What did you say?”

Smoke drifted out with his sigh. Gérard leaned back on the sofa, tilting his head, then glanced at Jeremy.

Jeremy kept muttering to himself. His voice was so quiet, and he was chewing his thumb so much that his words were all muffled.

He looked almost eerie, so Gérard decided it was better to pretend not to see him and turned his eyes away.

“M-mother.”

After glancing around hesitantly for a while, Jeremy cleared his throat and called Countess Aloua. She turned to him with a loving gaze, and Jeremy, looking tense as if making a big decision, spoke.

“I-I need to go somewhere with the private soldiers. Please wait at home, Mother.”

“…What do you mean? Where do you think you’re going in that condition?”

“I-I don’t want to cause a scene, so I’ll only take three or four. Only the most skilled ones.”

“Jeremy! Absolutely not! I’m sorry, Earl Malève, but we must take our leave.”

Countess Aloua approached Jeremy and firmly led him away. Even as he left the townhouse, Jeremy kept talking fervently.

“Listen, Mother. Maybe it’s just my m-mistaken hunch…”

“No. This matter has nothing to do with that family.”

“You may think so, Mother, but…”

But, what comes after that?

Gérard stood by the entrance, quietly watching Jeremy walk away. He was forcibly put into a carriage by knights summoned at Countess Aloua’s command.

To think that the man Rosalie would marry was in such a pitiful state. Gérard wiped his dry face and closed the door.

***

And the next morning, precisely at 9 o’clock.

In the wealthy neighborhood of Rodin, where only the mansions of powerful nobles stood, everything was still asleep. A carriage bearing the crest of the Earl Aloua family stopped in front of Duke Vallière’s ducal residence.

Inside the carriage, Jeremy, who had snuck out of the mansion late at night with the private soldiers without his mother’s knowledge, sat shivering.

“…I-is the Duke here?”

Jeremy, looking pale as if he might faint at any moment, asked the returning soldier. Sir Eliot, a knight of the Aloua family, answered angrily.

“He hasn’t come out yet. It’s been two hours. No proper noble would sleep this late unless he was a real wastrel.”

“He’s toying with me.”

“Obviously. Even the servants here are tight-lipped about the Aloua family’s visit.”

He’d been waiting endlessly in the carriage for two hours. Jeremy gripped the cane lying across the seat.

The more Duke Vallière acted this way, the more convinced Jeremy became.

Rosalie was here. That’s why they wouldn’t let him see her.

“Ah, this won’t do. I’ll go myself this time.”

“But, Young Master! That would be improper!”

“This isn’t the time to worry about that…”

Jeremy remembered his mother, who had insisted all day that he not go out, scolding him, “Do you realize how precious you are, why must you go yourself?” He fell silent.

He loved his mother, but even he felt she was sometimes excessively overprotective.

Despite being crippled and suffering from social anxiety, she insisted on seeing him as the perfect son of a prestigious noble family.

But reality was harsher than her ideals; in the marriage market, Jeremy was not favored by any family.

He was at the bottom, so to speak. If only he could give up on marriage and live happily with just his mother.

Of course, there were some families who did want to marry him.

Usually, those families had their own mental or physical issues, were low-ranking rural nobles, or wanted to remarry after an early widowhood.

But Jeremy lacked the confidence even to look up at those women.

His mother, however, wanted desperately to connect her beloved son to a family lacking nothing and refused all initial proposals.

Eventually, she found the Malève family.

Compared to the Aloua Earldom, which had royal connections, Malève was much lower in status, but still a reputable, historic Earldom.

The former Earl had ruined the family, the only daughter had tried to elope with a commoner but was caught, and they were looking for someone to solve their financial problems.

Malève and Aloua made a good match in terms of interests.

His mother had enthusiastically recommended Rosalie, saying, “She may have a shameful past, but her circumstances are faultless.”

But Jeremy, who had never even spoken properly to a maid, doubted he could marry Rosalie.

He was skeptical, but their first meeting wasn’t as bad as he’d feared.

Rosalie had taken him to a quiet place when he was panicking among crowds, forgiven his embarrassing mistake, and even shared the same hobby.

That was enough.

Jeremy realized, for the first time, that he was drawn to a woman. And he was surprised.

Participating in auctions, going to the opera—those were possible if he tried.

But maybe that was because Rosalie had been by his side. At some point, Jeremy grew grateful and admiring of her.

So even after ten years, her troubled past didn’t matter to him. He truly didn’t care.

If only he hadn’t realized that the kidnapped Rosalie was staying at Duke Vallière’s mansion.

Jeremy gripped the carriage door handle, staring determinedly at the entrance. In the distance, a servant in black was running toward him.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve just received word from the Duke.”

Just as Eliot tried to stop him, Jeremy was about to get out of the carriage when a soldier guarding the mansion’s entrance approached and bowed.

“You are invited inside the residence as a member of the Aloua family, but only by yourself.”

Beside him, the servant who had delivered the message was wiping sweat from his brow. Eliot, seeing Jeremy stunned, stepped forward.

“What do you mean? We’re Young Master Jeremy’s attendants; we can’t let him go alone!”

“As you know, there’s a murderer loose in the city. Our Duke strictly controls entry by outsiders.”

“How dare you compare the Aloua family’s knights to such lowlifes!”

Eliot scowled at the insulting remark, but the mansion’s soldier didn’t flinch. As a tiresome argument was about to start, Jeremy stopped Eliot.

“It’s fine. I don’t want to waste any more t-time.”

The tightly closed entrance to the mansion was slowly opening. Jeremy tapped his cane toward the coachman.

“No, Young Master Jeremy de Aloua, the Duke has only permitted you to enter.”

But just as the coachman reached for the reins, the soldier firmly intervened. Jeremy was left speechless, blinking in confusion.

“B-but the distance from here to the mansion…”

With Jeremy’s slow gait, it would take at least thirty minutes. He looked at the soldier with resentment, but nothing changed.