Chapter 14
The style of piling up rich brown hair high and leaving a few curled strands at the back is the trademark of Duchess Horace, the celebrity of Dwan’s social scene.
“Catherine.”
Aster Horace called his wife softly. Catherine, who was elegantly slicing tender veal, slowly lifted her gaze.
With her sharp, long nose, she was called a classic beauty and had become popular in society. At the same time, her mysterious blue-gray eyes gave her a uniquely provocative aura.
“Ian is looking for a bride.”
Catherine’s knife stopped. She blinked her round eyes a few times and murmured as if to herself.
“…It’s about time, I suppose.”
The season she first stepped into society was during the heyday when Prince Ian would often appear at balls escorting his twin sister Charlotte.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every debutante’s first love back then was Ian. Catherine was no exception.
Now, with two sons and having fulfilled her duties as a noble lady, Catherine had gained a certain freedom. A high-born lady could now secretly keep a lover, and no one dared to openly gossip about her private affairs.
Still, just hearing that Ian was looking for a bride made her feel strangely unsettled. Even she hadn’t expected this. First love really was something special.
“Ian wants you to find him a bride.”
Catherine slowly set down her utensils. She frowned slightly and forced a twisted smile as she spoke.
“Oh my, you’re overestimating me. That’s not like you… are you joking?”
To be asked to find a bride for the man she’d once adored was not a pleasant request. More than anything, it didn’t make sense. Even she didn’t know any foreign princesses.
“Do you know any noble ladies of Grand Batten whose families are deeply in debt, or whose inheritance is about to pass to distant relatives, leaving them on the verge of being thrown out onto the street? Girls with terrible reputations?”
“…What kind of nonsense is that?”
Catherine’s beautiful face finally twisted in annoyance.
Aster didn’t want to spout such ridiculous things over a meal either. If Grand Batten really went under because of this, he would be the first to cry.
***
Tap, tap.
Light footsteps drew closer. In the middle of the day, Natalie, who had been lying on her bed as if dead, slowly opened her eyes at the sound.
There was only one person who would come to the most secluded room on the second floor. Natalie sighed in advance.
“Sis…”
Of course.
No sooner had she finished her long sigh than the door creaked open, and a small voice called her.
“Alex, you’re not supposed to come into my room.”
Natalie mumbled, covering her face with one hand as if annoyed. But Alex hurried over to the head of the bed, pressed his cheek into the sheets, and started whining.
“Are you sleeping again?”
“I’ll play with you next time, so go out for now.”
“Pfft, you always say next time. You just lie around all day doing nothing!”
Really, why did he keep coming to his sister’s room when she couldn’t even play with him properly?
Of course, she couldn’t blame him for wandering around the house looking for something fun. She’d been just like Alex at his age.
“Go out before Mother starts screaming again.”
But no matter how bored he was, her room was off-limits now.
After the David trial, the Baroness of Warfield considered her eldest daughter insane.
She worried that young Alex would be influenced by Natalie, and fainted at the sight of them together. Just a few days ago, she’d caught the siblings chatting and caused a scene.
Natalie kept her distance from Alex on her own.
But the boy, too young to understand his sister’s disgrace, just felt hurt and dissatisfied. Alex pouted and muttered.
“But talking to Natalie is the most fun for me.”
“……”
“And downstairs, Dorothy is throwing another fit. If I run into her, she’ll take it out on me again…”
At the mention of Dorothy, Natalie unconsciously pressed her lips together.
Dorothy, who had been the youngest and spoiled until she was nine, suddenly lost her place to Alex. Despite the age gap, she fought with her younger brother.
After making her debut in society last year, she started having hysterics.
“Alex! You little brat, are you ignoring me like the nobles in Dwan do?”
Whenever Dorothy threw a tantrum, clever Alex would avoid his now-demonic youngest sister.
“…Where did you even learn the word ‘hysteria’?”
Natalie tried to hide her agitation as she muttered, and Alex stared at her. His expression said, “Who else but you?” Natalie cleared her throat awkwardly.
“Anyway, Dorothy never comes to this room. Just hide me for a bit.”
This time, Natalie blinked as if she’d been struck on the back of the head.
It had been three years since the David trial. In all that time, Dorothy had only come to see Natalie once. As if she didn’t exist, or wished she didn’t.
Natalie Dawes’s world was still in ruins.
David, Natalie Dawes, the Baroness of Warfield.
Escaping prison hadn’t restored her honor. Her names, now synonymous with disgrace, might fade from memory, but the stain seemed permanent.
When Natalie fled Dwan after the David trial, there was one thing a bystander at the train station said that pierced her ears.
“The Dawes family will never set foot in Dwan again, right? No, if it were me, I wouldn’t step outside the manor!”
Just like that, Natalie hadn’t left the manor grounds in three years. No one had locked her in. She’d locked herself away to avoid people’s stares and judgment.
Most of the baron’s family did the same. Unless absolutely necessary, they never left the estate.
The doors of Warfield Manor only opened again last year. Dorothy, now eighteen, could no longer delay her debut in society.
Dorothy debuted in society last year, thanks to Bianca’s help and her husband’s permission. But the Countess of Rutherford’s influence only went so far.
Dorothy was a strikingly beautiful and lively young lady, but she was welcomed nowhere. People remembered the names Warfield and Dawes. She couldn’t find a suitor or even make connections.
Natalie remembered how Dorothy had come home in tears after the season, blaming her for everything.
“Do you know what I went through at the debutante ball because of you? Natalie, you ruined my life. You ruined it beyond repair!”
It was the most miserable and painful moment since her secret had been revealed.
Somehow, time passed, and the social season in Dwan returned as always. But the nightmare wasn’t over.
This year, Dorothy couldn’t even go to Dwan for her second season.
Last winter, Bianca announced she was pregnant with her second child and would stay in the country for the next social season. That ruined everything.
No one sent Dorothy an invitation. She had no connections to act as her chaperone, nor money to stay in Dwan all season. So Dorothy couldn’t go.
That was why Dorothy was especially irritable these days, and the mood in the house was so gloomy.
Natalie wasn’t the only one isolated again.
‘How can I make things better, at least for my family?’
Natalie felt like biting her tongue. She didn’t care about her own fall. Watching her family suffer was the hardest thing.
‘If only Dorothy could find a suitor and get married safely, I wouldn’t wish for anything more.’
It was clear the days were a nightmare.
“Natalie, you’re so pale. Does your head hurt again?”
The worried voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned reflexively toward the sound and saw Alex looking at her with anxious eyes.
Young Alex seemed to think his eldest sister was sick and couldn’t leave her room.
“Sorry.”
Natalie whispered softly.
It’s all my fault. I’m sorry for making the house like this, for making you worry.
“Alex.”
Even if it wasn’t the happiest family, it had been a fairly close one. The guilt of having ruined it was overwhelming.
“I’ll play with you next time. I promise.”
In this nightmare where she had nowhere to stand, Alex was the only one who treated her the same as before. But Natalie was most afraid of this innocence.
‘Once you learn what “the shame of a lady” means, you’ll hate me too. You’ll think I’m awful.’
She didn’t know when Alex would find out the truth. That fear made her keep her distance.
The kind little brother didn’t bother his sick sister any further. He wished her a quick recovery and left the bedside gently.
“Come to think of it, there aren’t any books left, are there? You used to have more books than Father’s library.”
As he left, Alex looked around the room and murmured.
Then the door shut with a click, and what looked like peaceful silence returned.
Books.
Now, books scared her. She couldn’t read them anymore, and of course, she couldn’t write them.
“…Maybe that kid knows everything, every time.”
Natalie genuinely felt her head ache.
