Chapter 72
If Young Lord Bartorio truly considered his friend irreplaceable, he would gladly call off his marriage to a fiancée bound by political arrangement.
And no sooner had she thought this than Einar said exactly the same thing.
“Young Lord Bartorio will break off the engagement soon enough.”
“That must be what he’s aiming for.”
Still watching the three people trapped in suffocating silence, Riina suddenly thought of a way to make the friend reveal his true intentions.
“Before love.”
Einar picked up Riina’s seemingly random words completely naturally.
“Responsibility.”
This was something that all those with noble blood, all aristocrats, heard from their earliest childhood.
Because they were born into positions where they enjoyed many privileges, they had to bear responsibilities in equal measure.
That responsibility included marriages for the sake of their houses.
Nobles were human too, and could fall in love with someone.
So sometimes they did end up with those they loved, but most were destined to be with suitable partners through transactions between houses.
“We’ll need to arrange an engagement.”
“An engagement?”
“Yes.”
She continued while looking at Lione’s friend.
“Unless we corner him at the edge of a cliff, that man won’t open his mouth. He’ll continue removing people around Young Lord Bartorio in this manner, staying by his side until the young lord accepts him.”
“Ah. Not only Young Lord Bartorio, but if that man himself were to marry, it would be the end—hence the cliff.”
“Well, he could commit adultery, but Young Lord Bartorio doesn’t seem the type. To the friend trying to seduce him, it would feel like the end.”
“He’ll explode one way or another.”
“Yes. And if he doesn’t explode on his own, we’ll make him explode.”
Einar whispered with a sly smile.
“Then we’ll need to create an engagement he absolutely cannot refuse.”
While Riina was in Einar’s embrace with hazy eyes.
Jane was wide-eyed, processing documents.
Stained here and there with red ink like something bleeding, Jane ground her teeth as she corrected and re-corrected the papers.
Of course, she had made tremendous progress compared to the beginning, but naturally Jane couldn’t be satisfied at all.
What she wanted was a perfect result without a single red ink mark.
“Whew.”
Having barely finished one stack of documents, Jane sighed and rubbed her palm, which had gone numb from gripping the pen too tightly.
Once the numbness had somewhat subsided, Jane pulled out new documents and reached to her left.
-Clink.
Though it wasn’t always in the same position, whenever she groped for it, there was tea that had cooled to just the right temperature in a place where she could always grasp it.
These small details were proof of the attentiveness and perfection of the Bolshevik estate’s servants.
Which made Jane all the more irritated.
If even one or two of these people—no, even just one—would move as her hands and feet, work would be so much easier.
Jane had persistently tried to win over someone within the mansion to help her.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’m grateful that you like the tea, but I cannot accept such things.’
‘According to internal regulations…’
‘There are rules we must follow…’
Not a single servant had accommodated her proposals or gifts.
If they had at least dismissed her as a commoner or avoided her as a shadow, she could have written them off as lacking individuals, but…
“Sigh, and there’s no word from Hans either.”
The fool who was supposed to bring parts hadn’t even sent the occasional status letters or notes he used to send sporadically.
Well, he was probably just stomping around unable to find the parts.
After emptying her teacup, Jane picked up her pen again.
When she drove out the fake and stood proudly as the true master of this house, she couldn’t show herself to be inferior to that fake.
She glanced at the letter bearing the Third Prince’s seal.
The letter demanding her presence at court was not a proposal but a command.
“Let’s hear what you have to say.”
It was annoying that the fool, not knowing his place and caught up in past glory, was summoning her—a Bolshevik—here and there.
But he was still one of the few tools she could use right now.
No matter how foolish, if he had utility, she could readily extend her hand.
Tools could simply be disposed of after use.
Jane turned her eyes away from the Third Prince’s letter without regret and began concentrating on her documents again.
Meanwhile, the reason Jane couldn’t win over the servants around her wasn’t simply that the Bolshevik estate’s servants followed rules strictly.
At the small table where the annex servants gathered for lunch.
“Becky!”
“Becky’s here?”
“You came to eat lunch together.”
One servant grumbled at Becky, who was waving her lunch basket.
“It’s been so long. Come by more often.”
“Oh my, to someone as high and mighty as one who serves the Miss!”
Then a servant nearby playfully bowed, and the others all bowed toward Becky simultaneously.
“Ahem, now that you all know, you should treat me better.”
Becky, who had been strutting with her chin raised, immediately poked the side of a servant who was trembling with suppressed laughter.
“Ahahaha!”
The servants and Becky burst into laughter together.
Eventually, as they spread out their lunch and munched away, Becky asked casually.
“How are things lately?”
Though she didn’t specify who, there was only one person the annex servants served: Jane.
“Nothing much has changed.”
“The documents keep piling up though.”
“I see. Since she came in as a shadow, documents would naturally increase.”
This was how Becky mingled friendly with the servants working in the annex, occasionally mentioning to them in passing:
‘The Miss’s shadow is just a ‘shadow,’ you know. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.’
It wasn’t a warning, nor even anything special.
If you really examined it, it was merely encouragement.
But such subtly delivered words became a kind of mechanism for keeping the servants in line, serving as a constant reminder when dealing with Jane that she was a ‘shadow.’
Unfortunate for Jane, but fortunate for the servants.
Jane was a ‘shadow,’ and the servants absolutely had to maintain a certain distance from her.
“Well, a girl working at the Bartorio estate mentioned some interesting items at the auction…”
“How’s this ribbon? I bought it recently…”
Becky smiled brightly as she welcomed their words, chatting about this and that while sharing small snacks.
As their peaceful lunch was coming to an end, as always.
“Lunch time is almost over now. Nothing too difficult going on, right? Ahem. Who am I? Tell me.”
The servants knew how tight-lipped and clever the playfully laughing Becky was, so they casually opened up and shrugged their shoulders.
“Yeah. Well, she’s always smiling.”
“And she’s asked several times to spend time with us together.”
One servant’s comment had others nodding one by one.
“To me too. She asked to have tea together.”
“Me several times too. She even offered small gifts, which I declined.”
“You too?”
“Me too.”
The servants exchanging glances then shouted mischievously in unison, as if they’d planned it.
“Sorry, it’s against internal regulations!”
After that, as the servants burst into giggles, Becky perked up her ears and eyes sparkled.
The servants had mentioned it playfully and moved on, but Becky didn’t just let it slide.
There were more than one or two things that bothered her like thorns under her fingernails, too irritating to ignore.
Having gone through a harsh past, Becky never overlooked minor uneasiness.
“What about visitors?”
“Visitors? Oh, that big guy from before. He hasn’t come at all lately.”
“Yeah. That was just once.”
“More importantly, His Highness the Third Prince summoned her to the palace.”
“Oh, I remember that day. She asked to be dressed as usual.”
Listening carefully to the chattering servants, Becky stored exactly what she needed in her mind.
Jane. The blackmailer. The Third Prince.
It was certain that she was acquainted with the massive man who had threatened her.
Though the Miss hadn’t asked so she hadn’t bothered to mention it, she already knew from the servants that the big man had come looking for the shadow.
Probably that man freely entered and left the estate because he didn’t know that Becky had already escaped from all constraints.
If his threats were still effective, Becky would have to keep her mouth tightly shut no matter what he did.
And hadn’t that shadow, who was already behaving suspiciously, shown some questionable movements at the hunting competition too?
That same shadow had attempted to win over the servants…
Becky picked up her empty lunch basket, stood up lightly, and waved her hand.
“Everyone work hard today too, and if anything comes up, make sure to tell me!”
After his friend’s unexpected misdirected confession, Lione faced his friend for the first time.
“Hey there.”
Though his friend greeted him nonchalantly, Lione couldn’t bring himself to treat him as usual.
The friend approached Lione, who stood with a hardened expression, took his arm, and gently pulled.
“How long are you going to stand there? Sit down first.”
“I… suppose.”
Though they sat facing each other as always, only silence flowed between them.
Lione couldn’t readily open his mouth, and his friend didn’t speak first either.
Had the silence pressing down on their shoulders ever been this uncomfortable?
