Chapter 08
“……”
I couldn’t even form a reply.
Capturing the heart of a man who had once burned with the desire to kill me?
Impossible.
Just then, a knock came at the door, followed by the butler James’s voice.
“Your Grace, I’ve brought the physician.”
“Oh, good.
Come in, then.”
“Father, a physician…?”
“Yes.
You must recover quickly.
Once you do, you can finally be of use to this household.”
With that, the duke left the room.
“Lady Amelia, where is the pain most severe?”
The physician drew out his stethoscope, and I forced an awkward smile.
The Crown Prince’s palace.
“She hasn’t come out again today?”
“No, Your Highness.”
It had already been a week since Crown Prince Vincent began sending flowers to Amelia.
Each time, he instructed the page delivering them to observe the situation at the Wentworth estate and report back.
Not that there was much to report.
The page simply handed the basket of flowers to the butler in the foyer, and a maid with a sour expression would carry it briskly inside.
Each basket bore a card wishing Amelia a swift recovery.
Vincent hadn’t written them himself; of course, he merely ordered it done.
Yet not a single reply had ever been returned.
Still, considering how Amelia had treated him before, Vincent never even entertained the thought that she might not have seen the cards at all.
His conclusion was simpler.
She must be gravely ill.
So ill she couldn’t step outside her room or even lift a pen.
A little strange, perhaps, given how perfectly healthy she had seemed not long ago.
But what else could explain it?
Then what is to be done?
As her fiancé, Vincent reminded himself of the attitude befitting a man in his position.
He gave his order to the page.
“Send the Imperial Physician to the House of Wentworth.”
After all, his role was to move her, to impress her, to win her over.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
When the servant departed, Vincent pushed away the faint unease stirring in his chest and forced his mind back to the duties of state.
Two days later, I had no choice but to get up.
One could only feign illness for so long and now that the Crown Prince had gone so far as to dispatch the Imperial Physician, I could hardly remain abed any longer.
Honestly, who could have predicted he’d send a doctor?
Thus ended my act as a patient, after nearly ten days of playing the role.
Instead, I turned my mind to the real problem.
How to escape Amelia’s death.
How could I avoid becoming the target of the Crown Prince’s vengeance?
Should I just run?
No.
If I tried, the Duke of Wentworth would be the first to explode, hunting me down long before the Crown Prince could.
A sigh escaped me.
First things first let’s wash.
I hadn’t bathed properly in days, too busy pretending to be sick.
I headed into the bathroom.
Surprisingly, the facilities here were decent.
Not as simple as turning a faucet, of course I had to pump hard to fill the tub.
In the royal palace, or in the estates of the highest nobility, one could press a button set with a magic stone and summon hot water.
Not that I’d ever known that firsthand.
The memory was Amelia’s, something she had once overheard.
Either way, magic stones were far too costly to be in every bath.
Servants’ quarters used pumps, and so did Amelia’s bathroom.
That alone spoke volumes about her standing in this household.
“Ugh, my arms…”
At last, I managed to fill the tub with hot water and sank into it.
Noble ladies usually had their maids do the pumping, of course.
But Amelia had long since taken to doing it herself.
Whenever she relied on them, the water was either scalding hot, freezing cold, or smelled strange.
The maids tampered with it.
And though Amelia had raged at them and even struck them for it, she had always been the one punished in the end.
So she learned to do it herself.
This time, I bathed quickly and carefully, without drifting into a stupor.
Then I opened the door.
And froze.
Inside my room, Kate was rummaging through the drawers of Amelia’s vanity.
I knew exactly why she was doing it.
Quietly, I stepped closer, softening my footsteps until I was nearly upon her.
“What are you doing?”
“Wah!”
Thud, crash!
Startled by a single word, Kate gave a shriek, stumbled, and fell backwards in a tangle of limbs.
“Pfft…!”
I couldn’t help but laugh aloud.
She looked so utterly ridiculous.
From the floor, Kate glared up at me with wide, furious eyes.
Is that really the look a maid should be giving after being caught rifling through her mistress’s drawers?
“What do you think you’re doing?
Why are you going through my things?”
“I… I was just—”
At my calm but pressing question, Kate bit her lips hard.
Of course, she couldn’t possibly say what she was looking for.
Looking closer, I noticed a faint scratch on her cheek, probably from when she fell against the chair.
A faint sense of foreboding pricked at me.
And then, just as always, the door burst open without warning.
“Kate!
Are you in here?”
In the same instant, Kate flung herself flat on the floor at lightning speed.
“Miss, I was wrong!
Please forgive me!
Sob, sob.”
“…What on earth are you doing?”
I stared down at her, utterly baffled, when Aiden strode into the room, his red hair catching the light with every step.
“Kate, you went to fetch Amelia, what are you doing grovelling on the floor?”
“Master Aiden!
Uuuhhuhuhh—”
The moment Aiden appeared, Kate shot upright and practically threw herself into his arms, tears scattering like jewels.
Her pitiful sobs were so convincing that I nearly questioned myself as to whether I had actually done something wrong to her.
“There, there.
Don’t cry.
You’ll ruin that pretty face of yours.”
Aiden wrapped her in his arms with practised ease, stroking her as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
For a mere maid, the touch was far too intimate.
From within his embrace, Kate peeked out at me, her eyes gleaming with sly amusement.
Ha.
See this?
So she trusted Aiden implicitly.
How pitiful.
But I had no room for pity myself.
Not for a girl who bared her fangs at me.
My own situation was far too desperate for that.
Still holding Kate, Aiden turned on me with a snarl.
“Picking on an innocent maid again?
Some things never change with you.”
I forced myself to keep my gaze fixed on him, fighting the urge to glance at the withered flowerpot that tugged at my eyes.
“I didn’t bully her.
She was rifling through my drawers, so I asked why.”
My even explanation made Aiden flinch just slightly.
This was the second time I’d seen that reaction.
In a gentler tone, he asked Kate,
“Is that true?”
“Master…”
Kate dissolved into even heavier sobs and burrowed deeper into his chest.
Let’s see, what tale would she spin now?
“I was only cleaning the ladies’ room.
She hadn’t come out for days, so I couldn’t get into the corners.
I thought I’d take extra care, but… the lady misunderstood…”
Her voice trailed off, and then she turned her cheek, displaying the scratch to Aiden.
That was all he needed to decide.
“Ha.
Of course.
I almost thought otherwise for a second.”
“I didn’t hit her,” I said firmly.
“And you still dare lie when I can see the wound right here?”
His eyes blazed with fury as he glared at me.
And in that glare, I could see the truth he wouldn’t believe a word I said.
So this must have been Amelia’s life, too.
Perhaps sometimes she was truly at fault.
But other times… other times she must have been just as falsely accused as I was now.
And that was why she’d fought so viciously, screamed so desperately.
If I were destined to be framed anyway, maybe it would’ve been wiser to just strike her like Amelia would have.
“You accuse a maid who was cleaning your room of being a thief, and leave her in this state?
Your mother was a maid too, wasn’t she?
By blood, you’re half the same as her.
Shouldn’t that make you a little more understanding?
A little more generous?”
Yes.
That was the truth.
Amelia was the child born when the Duke took a maid to his bed.
As a child, she and her mother were cast out together, left to wander the streets.
It wasn’t until the
Duke realised Amelia’s looks could be of use that he took her back in and raised her as his daughter.
But of course, that title was only for show.
Within these walls, her treatment was nothing short of contemptible.
I lifted my gaze and met Aiden’s eyes as he drew closer.
His expression brimmed with scorn.
