Chapter 8
“Lady Fortguard!”
“Isn’t it so, Viscountess? It is grueling enough to be torn away from the family one loves, leaving the home one is fond of to adapt to a strange new house—but to then have all the work my mother used to do thrust upon me overnight? I’m just a girl of twenty who knows nothing of the world!”
“That is,”
“Lottie, do you know what a married woman’s most grave duty is? It is pregnancy and childbirth to continue the line. Do you know how a baby is made? Imagine pushing your thumb into your nostril. Then, with pain reaching his belly, your husband’s something enters your body…. Hup.”
Realizing that calling out her name was utterly useless in silencing her, Isabel clamped her hand over Eugenie’s mouth.
That act, though savage and direct, was clearly effective. Instead of continuing her lewd talk, Eugenie giggled in the same way she had in her youth.
“Lottie, when you find someone you want to be with even after enduring all of this, marry then.”
After the playful laughter subsided, surprisingly serious words followed.
“As you know, mine wasn’t a marriage I wanted. Because of what happened to my brother, I had no choice but to….”
“…….”
“The fact that our family estate would pass to a stranger I’d never met if I didn’t marry was ridiculous, but honestly, I hated the reality of having to marry a man I’d never met even more. So much so that I wanted to become a vagabond and run away anywhere I could.”
Eugenie’s situation before marriage was not much different from the one Lottie faced now.
Because there was no son to inherit the property and title, if a daughter did not marry and pass them to a son-in-law or grandson, the rights could pass to someone entirely unexpected or disappear altogether.
“But the funny thing is, even while I was planning to run away, I tried to take Lily with me. Because before I got married, I had never once gone out alone without a guardian.”
“…….”
“When I realized I was such an ignoramus that I couldn’t even manage to run away properly, it actually felt easier to accept the fate given to me.”
It was an era where inheritance rights, property rights, and freedom of occupation were extremely restricted for women.
Just as Eugenie had accepted her fate, Lottie in her past life had wandered in search of a second husband who could provide her with a comfortable life.
Because she knew all too well that she was an ignoramus who could do nothing on her own.
‘If I don’t marry my ex-husband, what comes next?’
A question that had never been answered rose within her once again. Since she was sitting down, she was glad she didn’t have to stumble back in surprise as she had in the past.
“What kind of person do you mean when you say someone you want to be with even after enduring everything?”
Isabel, who had been deeply immersed in Eugenie’s words to the point of her eyes turning red, looked at Lottie at her quiet question as if to ask why she was asking something so obvious.
“Well…. Someone who feels like me, and I feel like them…. So, a deep~ly connected person whom I wouldn’t regret giving everything to?”
“And? Are you happy now, unnie? That’s what’s most important to me right now.”
“Hmm.”
Isabel watched the contemplating Eugenie anxiously. It was clear even without looking what kind of words she was firing off with her eyes.
“Yes. I’m happy.”
“……!”
“It’s not a married life with the deep~ly connected person I mentioned. But still. I think I’m happy.”
“…….”
“So. Which one is it that captured your heart? The feather? Or the glove?”
“La~dy~ Fort~guard~!”
The relief from hearing the desired answer was brief; at the roar that erupted from Isabel’s mouth, Eugenie couldn’t help but burst into peals of laughter.
Looking at her maternal older cousin who answered yes to the question of whether she was happy in marriage, Lottie decided to remain forever silent about the sad future Eugenie would eventually face.
If that, too, was a fate she chose, she would surely shake it off bravely as she did now and find her happiness within it once again.
The meeting with Eugenie affected Lottie and Isabel in different ways afterward.
First, Isabel became less anxious than before, even when her grandniece acted blandly in front of men.
Although she still felt sudden surges of frustration toward Lottie, who couldn’t manage more than three sentences of conversation with young men.
‘Right, where is it easy to find someone you wouldn’t regret giving everything to? Indeed.’
Thinking that way made her feel much more at ease.
As if Isabel’s noble patience had worked, a man finally appeared who succeeded in moving past three sentences of conversation with Lottie.
His name was Andrew Thompson. He was the man who held the immovable top spot on Lottie’s remarriage list.
To the eyes of ordinary people living toward a future that hasn’t arrived yet, his handsome appearance and kind personality would seem charming.
However, in the eyes of a special lady who had glimpsed the future, something else was visible that she couldn’t help but covet.
His past—and future—of being a man who devoted himself to his family, looking only at his wife for a lifetime.
—When you find someone you want to be with even after enduring all of this, marry then.
Unnie. I’ve already met someone like that.
I loved him enough to give my life, and in the end, I was deceived by that love and fell into hell.
So, hearing Eugenie’s words, Lottie thought: If someone I want to give everything to appears again, I will absolutely never marry that person.
Meeting Andrew, Lottie wavered for that reason.
Because she knew that if she were with this man, she would live a life where she only had to receive.
Lottie met Andrew a few more times after that and enjoyed dates.
Although it couldn’t be called a completely romantic date as Isabel followed along for both protection and surveillance, the time spent enjoying boating, watching sports, and savoring fine dining at restaurants was certainly pleasant.
It was pleasant, and yet a corner of her chest felt constantly stifled. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.
“Lottie. Do you see the crowd gathered over there by the riverbank?”
Andrew, who was walking through the park with her on a leisurely afternoon, said as he pointed toward the crowd.
Andrew, who had become close enough to call Lottie by her nickname, was also a favorite of Isabel’s; the two had recently been given tacit permission to spend time together without a guardian.
“Come enjoy a special amusement! Gentlemen to the left, ladies to the right! You can be partners for the day with the person who picks the same number as you!”
“Oh dear. It’s an unwholesome event encouraging promiscuous meetings between men and women. I should report this to the constable….”
“I think it sounds fun, don’t you?”
“Pardon?” Andrew asked back, but Lottie had already skipped lightly into the crowd to pick a number.
“Aren’t you curious? Whether our connection is fate or coincidence?”
When Andrew, who followed behind, hesitated with a troubled face, Lottie gave a wide grin. Eventually, Andrew gave up halfway and joined the line on the left.
‘Fate and coincidence.’
Since she was betrayed by a fateful love in her past life, she thought she might bet on coincidence in this life.
If, by an extremely slim coincidence, she picked the same number as Andrew, wouldn’t she be able to shake off this uncomfortable feeling of unknown origin and start anew with Andrew gladly?
Lottie smiled softly as she met eyes with Andrew, whose turn had finally come.
The two picked their numbers almost simultaneously.
“Ah.”
On the red paper Lottie picked, the number 25 was written, and on the blue paper Andrew picked, the number 340 was written.
The moment they confirmed their numbers were different, Lottie couldn’t clearly distinguish whether she was disappointed or relieved.
“I knew it was nearly impossible to pick the same number out of hundreds of tickets simultaneously…. But seeing as I feel hollow now, I suppose I was expectant and nervous the moment I picked it.”
Andrew said with a faint laugh.
That she felt the same way, that even if the numbers weren’t the same, their hearts were, so wasn’t that enough?
A few sweet and useful words like that hovered in Lottie’s mouth, but somehow they wouldn’t come out, as if caught like a thorn.
After hesitating a bit, Andrew offered his arm to Lottie.
A man and woman walking down the street arm-in-arm was a symbolic act announcing that the two were a couple who had promised to marry.
After a conflict that reached the very end, Lottie decided to take his arm.
As a result of that decision, she dropped the red number tag she was holding in her hand onto the ground.
The ladies and gentlemen wandering around looking for their partners while holding red and blue number tags were noisily shouting out their numbers. Number 412, number 81, number 103, number 341, number 57….
“Number 25.”
It was a voice that felt as if a hand had reached out and grabbed the back of her neck.
The owner of the voice stood where she turned to look.
A man with reddish-brown eyes was looking this way with a relaxed expression, having picked up the red number tag that had fallen to the ground.
“It seems the one who gained a day’s worth of connection isn’t that fellow over there, but me.”
It was neither fate nor coincidence, but an ill-fated relationship by the name of Calyx Valdea.
Lottie, who doubted her eyes several times, realized that this was by no means a dream. The moment she confirmed the vivid number 25 on the blue number tag, a sense of self-loathing washed over her.
‘I should have just stayed still when Andrew tried to stop me, instead of making such a fuss for nothing!’
No one would have thought that out of hundreds of number tags, she would pick the same one as someone—and of all people, the man she second-least wanted to meet in the world—but she felt pathetic for not even considering that obvious fact.
The agitation of her emotions was so vivid that Calyx, standing opposite her, could read her light green eyes as if looking into transparent water.
‘She’s blaming herself.’
The probability of picking the same number as someone out of hundreds of tags—especially the woman he aimed to lure—is extremely low.
Calyx Valdea, who was not ignorant of that fact, used a despicable trick befitting a villain covered in all sorts of infamy.
To ensure that no matter which of the hundreds of numbers that woman picked, she could not avoid picking the same number as him, he held all the matching number tags in his hand beforehand.
Befitting a meticulous villain, he didn’t forget to bribe the proprietor in advance.
So he could have offered some tender words, telling her not to blame herself, that no matter what she did, she was bound to be entwined with him, but he did not.
As one knows, he was a rogue who knew nothing of a gentleman’s manners.
“…….”
And even in this situation, that hand tightly clutching the arm of the man standing beside her was strangely bothersome.
“If you wish to be considerate of the event organizer and the participants, it would be best to respect the rules for now, Miss Number 25.”
