Translator: Nox

Chapter 5

Blair and Rosalyn endured the Southern social season with an incomprehensible, stubborn patience. Despite initial assumptions that they wouldn’t last three days, they seemed intent on staying at Gloucester Castle until the very moment their ship was set to sail.

Rumors that the Winchester siblings, high nobility from the capital, were staying at Gloucester Castle drove the Southern social circles to the brink of a frenzy. A relentless cycle of tea parties, balls, and picnics continued day and night. Rosalyn urged Vanessa to accompany them every time, but to Vanessa, the social scene was tedious, tedious, and tedious again.

Sitting across from the same faces every day sipping tea, clapping for men returning from hunts, visiting the racecourse, and reading new catalogs from the shopping district until she had them memorized—she could find no fulfillment in any of it.

She would much rather spend that time writing even a single extra word.

Of course, when moments arrived that she couldn’t refuse, Vanessa endured most situations with her characteristic diligence—even if her mind was halfway lost in other fantasies. Because those weren’t the things that were truly unbearable.

“Very good.”

The Baron’s damp breath brushed against her shoulder. It happened in the study, where she had gone at her uncle’s command. Suddenly seizing her hand, the Baron ordered her to show him a waltz. While the old man’s hand guided her body this way and that, Vanessa simply endured it, standing stiff and upright.

As if that were some proof of modesty, a satisfied light flickered in the old man’s eyes.

“You have raised your niece quite admirably.”

“Then shall we proceed as planned?”

“Well…”

At that moment, Wyatt glared at the old man as if he were a swindler. Sensing the hostility, Baron Howard waved his hand dismissively.

“It is nothing else, but I would like it if the bride’s purity could be proven before the marriage.”

“You are insulting me and my niece.”

“Isn’t that just the way boarding schools are? There is no way of knowing what sort of impudent things children might get up to inside those walls.”

Wyatt seemed uncharacteristically lost for words. The Baron did not miss that momentary flash of bewilderment and pressed further.

“I heard that the son of the Marquis of Winchester and the young lady of this house are close.”

“That is… because they have been together since they were children…. No, how on earth do you expect me to prove such a thing?”

“I know someone famous for that sort of thing. Someone who can tell with uncanny accuracy whether a woman has known a man or not.”

The Baron’s gaze slowly traveled down her body. Even though she was fully clothed, she felt stripped bare, and her fingertips trembled.

“As long as her purity is guaranteed, the Earl may ask anything of me.”

Demands, deals, proofs. The crude words were sometimes difficult even to hear. Such things happened several more times. Horrible, horrible…

Lately, her uncle’s favorite candidate was a nouveau riche man who owned several newspapers. He said that those flimsy papers, which could be bought for a single copper, were filled with all sorts of sensational scandals. Since he raked in money that way, he didn’t know how to be frugal with it. It was an introduction that made it sound as if that were the man’s only merit.

“Success is certainly worth striving for. To think I would meet Lady Vanessa, whose beauty the world raves about, in person like this.”

Thick cigar smoke billowed from between the newspaper mogul’s fingers. It was another night when she wanted to flee the moment she opened the study door and was hit by the pungent smell of strong whiskey. A strange envy and base sadism sparkled in the man’s eyes.

“Twenty years ago, someone like me wouldn’t have dared to even look at you.”

Whenever she stood before ‘them,’ she was reduced from a person to an object. The men each set a price, evaluated her, and calculated the utility of whether she was a proper purchase or not. It seemed they didn’t even consider that she was a human being with feelings.

Then again, in a land where a woman couldn’t even inherit her parents’ estate, what great expectations could she have?

“Ah…”

It was at that moment that the fountain pen she had been gripping tightly snapped. Vanessa looked down with sorrow at the paper and the pen, now a mess of spilled ink. It had been cracked for a long time, and she had been using it by applying glue and wrapping it in thin cloth, so she should have been extra careful.

She felt more regret over the broken pen than the manuscript she had been working on for three hours, which was now ruined in an instant. Especially since, along with her glasses, it was one of the few mementos her father had left her.

“My Lady. It is time to put out the lights.”

“I understand, Mary.”

At the maid’s urging, Vanessa hurriedly wiped away the spilled ink with a handkerchief. She wanted to continue working a bit longer, but if she wasted kerosene on useless things, she wouldn’t be able to avoid her uncle’s nagging.

Vanessa washed her face and hands in the prepared basin and changed into her chemise. After confirming she was in bed, the maid extinguished the oil lamp and closed the bedroom door.

It was a night when sleep would not come easily. Normally, she would have been lying side-by-side with Rosalyn, sharing quiet conversation, but it happened to be the day the Winchester siblings were away from the castle to visit relatives in the neighboring village.

After tossing and turning for a long while, Vanessa finally got out of bed and draped a shawl over her nightgown. She crossed the room with a sense of urgency and opened the firmly locked terrace doors.

As it was the beginning of summer, the night breeze was still cool. Only after taking a deep breath did she feel as though she could breathe again.

So, what would become of her? Would she be paraded around here and there before being sold to the highest bidder? To a man who wanted only her youth, her pretty face, and her family name, without a single shred of respect for her will?

“As long as my value in the marriage market doesn’t plummet, my uncle won’t give up on the trade.”

The words she had once uttered herself returned as a suffocating echo. With every breath in and out, she felt as if she were being whittled away. Just as she felt she could no longer bear the silence, footsteps sounded from the far side of the dark garden, near the path leading to the Rose Garden.

‘Who is it?’

Vanessa straightened her body, which had been leaning against the railing. The approaching presence stopped right beneath the terrace where she stood. Then came the smell of acrid tobacco smoke. Even she, who knew nothing of tobacco, could tell the smell was strong enough to know it wasn’t a gentleman’s cigar, but a hand-rolled cigarette of poor quality.

Squinting through the stinging smoke, she looked down from the terrace and saw a dark silhouette.

It was him. The very man who had appeared and vanished like an illusion a few days ago. The man’s face, caught in the light of the garden lamps, was cast in soft orange shadows.

“Sometimes, she becomes strangely brave.”

Was it a premonition? Above the man’s beautiful face, Rosalyn’s voice drifted like old dust.

“You need to be more cautious, Vanessa.”

Well. Vanessa thought cynically, tightening her grip on the railing. If no one could save her, she had no choice but to save herself.

---

“May I use the motorcar tomorrow afternoon?”

Wyatt, who had been hunched over his desk busily writing something, looked up with a frown at the sudden request. Vanessa smiled and clasped her hands tightly together to keep him from noticing her nerves.

“I have an errand to run in town.”

“In town?”

“The fountain pen I was using broke, and I want to see if it can be repaired.”

Wyatt stared at her intently for a moment before shaking his head firmly and dipping his pen into the ink again.

“No.”

“But, Uncle…”

“This is an important time. Do not wander outside if you can help it until your marriage is settled. It becomes tiresome if unnecessary rumors crop up.”

“……”

“If you understand, return quietly to your room. And do something about that expression.”

Wyatt frowned as if to crush the faint signs of defiance rising within her. Vanessa turned away, biting her trembling lip. She could feel her uncle’s cruel gaze following her back. As soon as she closed the door, she could faintly hear Wyatt muttering.

“I’ll have to assign more people to her. She’s starting to talk back all of a sudden…”

Vanessa trudged back to her room. Since permission to go out hadn’t been granted, she wouldn’t be able to fix the fountain pen immediately, but that didn’t mean there was no way to send her manuscript at all. Fortunately, among the errand runners who frequented the manor, there were a few who handled small favors like the mail.

Vanessa glanced at the clock and pulled the manuscript paper and pen she had left on the desk toward her.

It had already been three months since she began serializing a novel in a weekly magazine under a pseudonym. It was a somewhat dangerous pastime for a lady to enjoy, but the joy of writing always overwhelmed everything else. At least while she held the pen, she didn’t have to think about anything complicated.

“I’m coming in, My Lady.”

The bedroom door swung open without a knock. Mary’s cold face, her personal maid and overseer, appeared abruptly from beyond the door. The maid looked at Vanessa’s ink-stained hands and let out a sigh of exasperation.

“How can you still be doing that? The dinner banquet is soon.”

“I’ll clean up quickly. Just a moment.”

Vanessa hurriedly scribbled a few more words onto the manuscript paper, then carefully placed the pages she had spent several nights writing into an envelope. Meanwhile, Mary poured scented oil into a basin of washing water and pulled out the dinner dress she had pre-selected.

“Sit here. I’ll brush your hair first.”

As suggested, Vanessa sat obediently in front of the vanity, and Mary began to untangle and brush her hair. Her movements were not delicate, but they were fast and efficient.

“And tomorrow’s lunch will be prepared a bit late. All the kitchen maids are being mobilized to prepare the hunting grounds and the banquet hall.”

“That many?”

“There’s a frenzy because of the lack of capable workers. They hired a few more temporarily, but three of them ran away right after eating lunch on the first day.”

Workers. Hearing that story made her naturally think of a certain person. Vanessa looked up at Mary through the mirror and spoke.

“Mary. Do you happen to know that man?”

“Who?”

“The handsome man who was with the head gardener. He looked like a new gardener’s assistant. Is he also a worker hired temporarily?”

That handsome man. At Vanessa’s words, Mary’s hand, which had been busily brushing her hair, stopped for a moment.