Chapter 12
Catherine Monclair, too, had changed her personality to protect my children.
From a bold, hot-tempered countess’s daughter she became a dignified, cool duchess.
But it was rather sad that her daughter’s blade was turned against her.
“Why don’t you ever heed your mother’s words?” she asked.
“There’s never been a time I’ve won.”
“Then you couldn’t even fight back against Miss Crimson and only slapped her cheek.”
She spoke harshly on purpose. She wanted her daughter to steel her heart.
If her daughter’s resentment kept her alive, she could endure it without complaint.
Eloise stood silently with an expressionless face.
Catherine realized her daughter had been hurt.
“If you came to pick her up, then take her. What are you doing?”
Only then did Eloise move closer to the sofa and reach out her hand.
“Come on, Rizette.”
Rizette rubbed her head against Eloise’s hand.
Eloise gently picked Rizette up and bowed toward the duchess.
“Please rest.”
The parlor, emptied of daughter and cat, was silent.
If only she had kept Eloise safely hidden and simply loved her, would this have never happened?
Late regret and bitterness washed over Catherine and she went to her husband’s study.
“My dear, Serge.”
“Catherine.”
When she entered the study, she saw the butler clinging to her husband and attending to him.
He deliberately displayed his wounds as if to be seen.
“Butler, enough for today. Rest.”
“Ma’am, if it concerns the Duchy’s affairs, I should be informed as well…”
“So you manage the private life of the duke and duchess, do you?”
“My apologies.”
The arrogant butler had tried to seize the initiative ever since she married into the ducal family.
After she’d put him firmly in his place once in anger, he had been quiet for a while, but recently he had become stiff-necked again.
Once the butler left and only the two of them remained, Serge put down his pen and stood.
He looked quite tired; he embraced his wife and let out a deep sigh.
“She must have been hurt, right?”
“…What did you say to Ellie?”
“That she wasn’t ladylike enough to become Crown Princess. I said she’d need to be retrained from the beginning.”
“That was harsh, Serge.”
His arms tightened around her.
The prickly, blunt duke was quietly tender and in front of his duchess showed a vulnerable side.
“Did the butler give you some idiotic advice again?”
“Although I like your blunt words, please refrain from that with the butler. Sebastian—”
“Yes, he saved your life.”
When Serge had been the young duke he nearly got assassinated; the butler saved him, he said.
He was the savior of his life, and because of that loyalty Serge gave the butler much.
Wealth, rights, boundless trust. But those things only made the butler more presumptuous.
“…He said we should reprimand her more. So that when she becomes Crown Princess, she won’t be disrespected.”
That trust extended even to the children’s education.
As a father, the duke completely trusted the elder butler’s words.
She couldn’t complain when it came to strict education, since she also advocated thorough training.
However, after their daughter had taken an official awakening test, he became stricter.
If she hadn’t intervened, Eloise would by now have been growing alone and lonely in the estate.
“The butler should begin to retire soon, I think.”
“If Sebastian wishes to keep working, I don’t intend to stop him.”
“…No, it’s rather suspicious.”
“Catherine. I agreed to investigate after hearing your concerns last time, but nothing came up. Nothing has happened so far. I’ll keep watching, so don’t worry.”
“…Alright.”
Having spent long enough together, the duke’s trust in the butler was firm.
And that trust blinded his eyes and stopped his ears.
Proof, not suspicion, was all that would do.
“Myaong.”
Eloise’s hand trembled faintly as she left the parlor. Only I could sense it.
Eloise came into the room with Sophie, who had been waiting outside, and set me down on the floor.
“I’m going to rest now.”
“I’ll help you undress.”
Sophie took off Eloise’s dress and brought a fluttering chemise.
Dressed comfortably, she picked me up again from where I hovered.
Eloise sat on the edge of the bed and stroked my fur, while Sophie kept quiet by her side.
“Do you remember the sofa in the central parlor on the second floor?”
“Of course I do. It was designed by madam herself to celebrate the lady’s birth.”
…Why does everything I touch have that kind of significance?
Could it be that the teacup I sent flying at the Crown Prince was also a gift from the royal family, or an heirloom passed down through the house?
Duchess Catherine, maybe I really am an accident-prone thing.
“Rizette tore it to shreds.”
“What?”
Sophie’s voice rose sharply.
How would I have known it was that sofa? I just assumed it was something dear to the duchess.
That sofa in particular smelled strongly of magnolia—Catherine’s scent.
“Miyaang…”
Just like I did to my parents in my previous life, I wanted to ruin what the duchess treasured.
On the day I secretly decided to leave and run away, I snapped my father’s beloved golf clubs in two and splashed ink over my mother’s expensive paintings worth tens of millions. I deliberately displayed those ruined items in the living room and ran away.
Tearing up a sofa is nothing but a cute prank. If something precious gets ruined, they’ll suffer in the same way.
Her shallow breath skated across my fur.
“Miss, are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m fine, so go on out.”
“…Yes. Rest well, and call me if you need anything.”
Sophie quickly left the room and Eloise lay down with me at her side.
“Seeing the ruined sofa made me feel lighter.”
She spoke in a bright voice as if refreshed.
It was strange that she seemed pleased after having shredded something that carried special meaning.
“Myaong?”
“You know, the night I heard there was no longer any hope for me, I fell asleep there. I was so furious I bit my lip in my sleep and the blood soaked into the sofa. There were tear stains too. Every time I saw those stains I got angry and didn’t want to go back into that parlor again. Rizette, you tore exactly that part.”
Eloise muttered a long monologue to herself.
Well then, I did the right thing, didn’t I? This time it wasn’t me causing trouble, right?
I rubbed my head against Eloise’s hand with a purring sound.
“You did very well in many ways. To the Crown Prince, to my mother. Oh, and to the butler too.”
I straightened my head proudly, no longer shrinking back.
Eloise tickled my chin with her fingertip.
“We’ve only been together a few days…”
“Miyaong.”
“You’re so much better.”
Her whispering voice trembled.
Tears gathered in her blue-tinged green eyes and silently ran down her pale cheeks.
“Nyaong…”
Eloise bit her lip and swallowed back her sobs.
I didn’t know what to do with her sudden tears, so I simply stayed where I was.
I remembered Eloise standing straight and firm in the greenhouse against the duchess’s cold words.
It overlapped with my own childhood: so many times I stood speechless at my mother’s sharp words.
So this was my way of doing the defiance she couldn’t. I wanted to give her some small comfort. I licked Eloise’s colorless cheek.
“Are you comforting me?”
“Mya…”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.”
Eloise, as if brainwashing herself, muttered “I’m okay” repeatedly and slowly fell asleep.
She unclenched her fist—hands that had been gripping as if nails dug into palms—and smoothed them with her forepaws.
“Myaong.”
‘She’s cold-handed already; her blood probably doesn’t flow well.’
Come to think of it, she hadn’t been able to take her medicine today—would she be all right?
As I worried, by the time the moon hung in the night sky a groaning sound came.
Startled awake, I looked over and Eloise’s forehead was covered in a cold sweat.
Her limbs trembled in small spasms.
“Nyaong! Nyaong!”
What should I do? What should I do?
The pull string was too high to reach, and I was a cat who couldn’t even open a doorknob.
If only I were human!
“Myaoong!”
I cried out loudly and ran back and forth, pressing down on Eloise’s limbs.
Though my fists were little, I hoped they would help.
Just as she had stayed by my side all night when I collapsed after being poisoned.
“Hek. Hek.”
I must have moved around a lot. Perhaps in recognition of my fussing, the convulsions gradually subsided and her breathing steadied.
Still, just in case, I kept kneading and massaging her limbs.
Because I moved so much, I fancied that her body temperature felt warmer.
After a while the labored breaths quieted.
‘I should keep going a little longer.’
But the moment I relaxed my arm muscles and touched her hand, it felt like an electric shock ran through me.
“Nyaang!”
Ouch, that stings! Wh—what was that just now?
