Translator: Nox

Chapter 25

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“It has been a long time, Lady Vanessa.”

The moment she opened the drawing room door at her uncle’s summons, Vanessa could not hide her bewilderment at the face greeting her. It was him. Lord Roden. The fiancé her uncle had unilaterally chosen for her.

He was a man followed by every sort of horrific and foul rumor regarding women, and it was considered an established fact that he had nearly a dozen illegitimate children in the capital alone. Moreover, their first meeting had been nothing short of a disaster….

“Lord Roden.”

Vanessa gathered her thoughts quickly and offered a slight curtsy. The old man, who had been scrutinizing her every feature with sharp eyes, soon let a crinkle of a smile form around his lids.

“It seems Lady Vanessa is not particularly pleased to see me.”

“…I was merely surprised, as I received no word of your visit. I have yet to hear why you’ve sought me out so urgently, either.”

“Sit down first.”

“Where is my uncle?”

“He stepped away for a moment to take a telephone call. Unless you plan on standing the whole time, do sit, Vanessa.”

His tone turned overbearing the moment she hesitated. Vanessa bit her lip and took the seat he offered. As soon as she did, the butler, Harold, who had been standing silently by, placed a teapot and cups before them.

“This tea was imported directly from Santra. I enjoy it often for its fine aroma. I gave the leaves to Harold and made a special request, and it seems it was prepared at just the right time.”

“…Do you enjoy tea often?”

“I am quite fond of it. They say people drink it cold with ice and lemon these days, but I find I prefer it mixed with cream like this.”

He stirred several generous spoonfuls of sugar and cream into the steaming tea and placed the cup and saucer before Vanessa.

“Here, have some.”

She cautiously lifted the cup and took a sip.

“How is it?”

“…It is fine.”

Black tea laden with cream and sugar was not to her taste, but the quality of the leaves themselves was excellent. Though, compared to the tea she had drank in River Ross’s shack, anything would have tasted fine.

The tea leaves that man used were military rations, and he had a habit of brewing them so strong to ward off sleep that they were practically medicinal—hardly fit for a civilian to drink. When she first tried it, it had been shockingly terrible.

‘How ridiculous.’

Even so, she would rather drink that terrible tea in that shed several times over than be here with Lord Roden. Vanessa returned her cup to the saucer. As if he had been waiting for that exact moment, Lord Roden spoke.

“When should we begin dispensing with formal titles?”

“…Pardon?”

“Are we not to be married this autumn? We cannot treat each other like strangers forever.”

Ironically, that question made Vanessa realize her situation all over again. If they were in a normal engagement, such a question wouldn’t even have been necessary. They would have naturally called each other by name and learned to close the distance between them step by step.

At least, if she weren’t in the position of being sold off like this.

“I think it would be best… after the ceremony.”

“I suppose so. Calling each other by name before the wedding is a bit of a frivolous trend, after all.”

Lord Roden grinned, baring yellowed teeth, as if her answer pleased him. Vanessa bit her lip, swallowing the nausea rising in her stomach. There were countless miserable marriages in the world. She was not the first woman in history to be sold to an older man. So perhaps, as Rosalyn said, enduring it was the answer closest to the truth, but she simply could not do it.

“When the day comes for you to marry, I’ll pass this necklace down to you.”

When she closed her eyes, the scene was still vivid. The little girl who was curious about everything regarding her parents’ first meeting, and the warmth of the embrace that held her tight, as if she were the most precious treasure in the world.

“Are you happy you married Papa, of all people?”

“‘Of all people’ isn’t the right way to put it. And of course, I am beyond happy.”

“I don’t want to get married. Boys are all dummies. They just pick on me all the time.”

“Then you just have to meet someone kind. To do that, you must develop an eye for recognizing a good person.”

“What if I can’t recognize someone like that? What if there’s no one like that in the world?”

She remembered the soft sensation of their noses brushing together and the sound of laughter.

“Then I suppose you’ll just live here with Mama forever.”

In those days, she was a daughter cherished that much. What she had to protect, even at the cost of her honor, was the girl from ‘that day.’ Not the woman she was now.

Clink. The sound of a teacup being set down snapped her back to reality. Lord Roden pulled a pocket watch from his coat and frowned.

“Your uncle is taking his time.”

Vanessa rose hurriedly from her seat.

“I will go find him.”

“Stay where you are. You were the purpose of today’s visit, anyway.”

“Me?”

“I intended to take things slowly, but it seems there is no time. I must return to Linden this evening.”

After checking his watch, Lord Roden whispered something into Harold’s ear. The butler stepped out for a moment and returned with a woman who looked like a gypsy. She was an old woman carrying a steel-tipped cane, dragging one paralyzed leg across the floor.

“This person is…”

“Madam Luther. She is a renowned specialist in ‘these matters.’”

A smell of unwashed fabric clung to the old woman’s layered clothes. As she reached the sofa, she bowed politely.

Unlike typical gypsies, her composure—refusing to act cringing or servile before nobility—was quite striking. Vanessa turned her gaze from the old woman back to Lord Roden.

“What do you mean by ‘these matters’?”

“Did Somerset not mention it? I thought the matter was settled.”

“Nothing…”

Lord Roden let out a sigh as if he had a headache and fell silent for a moment. An expression similar to Wyatt’s when he was forced to tolerate cheap whiskey flickered across his face before vanishing.

“This is a necessary procedure for a marriage between people of our standing. It is for the sake of marital fidelity and the future heir of the house.”

Vanessa slowly steadied her breathing, which had turned hot in an instant.

“You mean you require proof of my virginity.”

“I am glad we can communicate so clearly.”

Lord Roden gave a cryptic smile and leaned back deeply into his chair again.

“It is better to be certain about these things. Wouldn’t anyone be disappointed if a product they paid a high price for turned out to be defective?”

Marital fidelity and virginity. From the moment those words left Lord Roden’s mouth, her stomach began to churn. The news that Lord Roden was obsessed with a young actress at the Linden Grand Theatre was notorious even in the south.

And virginity, of all things. The man chasing a phantom that was already gone was pathetic, but at the same time, she worried for River Ross. Usually, ‘this’ was a barbarity demanded on the wedding night. She had vaguely thought it would be something that happened at least after River Ross had left Gloucester….

“I see you attended a boarding school.”

Vanessa lifted her gaze from the table.

“Yes. That’s right.”

“To think that putting young men and women together at an age when their blood is boiling would result in no issues… I am not so naive as to view the world that way.”

She bolted upright from her seat.

“If you have doubts, then break off the engagement. My uncle will respect your opinion.”

“Sit down, Vanessa.”

The mirth vanished from the face of the man who had been pretending to be a gentleman.

“Shut up and sit down. Spread those damn legs of yours for that woman.”

The verbal abuse, the likes of which she had never heard in her life, left her dazed. Her eyelids felt hot, as if coals had been placed upon them. She could not believe her fiancé was such a monstrous man.

She tried her best to breathe calmly. To no avail, something trickled down her trembling face. She reached up instinctively to wipe it away and realized it was a tear. She was weeping without even knowing she was.

“Oh, dear.”

Donning his hypocritical mask once more, Lord Roden pulled out a handkerchief.

“See, wouldn’t it have been better if we had just settled this through conversation from the start?”

Vanessa flinched instinctively as his hand suddenly approached her head. Satisfied by her frightened reaction, the man’s expression relaxed as it had been at first.

“Now, now. Don’t cry…. I forgot that you’re still young and have a childish side to you.”

“Forgive me, My Lord, but my methods are different from that.”

It was then that the old woman, who had been standing still as a statue, finally spoke.

“Spreading legs and peering inside is not the method I use. Doctors would be better at judging such things than a woman like me. You need only offer me your arm.”

“Ah, I see.”

Lord Roden gave a thin smile as if he had only just realized.

“Now I see why the virtuous matrons spoke so highly of Madam Luther. Indeed, it would be quite unseemly to suddenly demand a well-bred lady spread her legs….”

The Earl watched them with a twisted smirk, as if the conversation were amusing. Looking at his expression, she finally realized. Lord Roden’s behavior was no different from poking a frog to see how it would react.

From the beginning, what he wanted wasn’t the old woman’s proof, but her reaction.

“Such pleasures should rightfully be enjoyed by the husband on the wedding night, after all.”

“What am I to do with my arm?”

Vanessa turned toward Madam Luther, cutting off his nonsense. As she extended her arm, the old woman snatched her wrist as if she had been waiting.

“I shall drop a mixture of lamb’s blood and holy water onto your skin. The lamb used for this is a young sacrifice, less than three months old, knowing no evil and raised only on grass touched by the first dew of dawn. If the body is virtuous and has never known a man, the blood will bead upon the skin. If the body is not pure…”

The old woman’s eyes glinted with an eerie light.

“It will not bead; it will flow.”