Chapter 05
The man who had remained motionless all this time stood up. All eyes were on him.
Both Elaina and Diane could tell he was getting closer and closer. Diane’s body tensed and stiffened. Elaina focused her hearing and waited for Lyle Grant to get close enough.
When he was only a few steps away, Elaina spoke up.
“Ah! I’m suddenly thirsty. Diane, do you think you could fetch some water for me?”
“W-Water? I was thirsty too. Come with me, Elaina.”
Diane wanted to run away from Lyle Grant as fast as she could right now, but she was also worried about Elaina. Didn’t Elaina have a weird fight with that scary guy last time?
But Elaina shook her head at her words.
“No, no. I just need a glass of water, please.”
“But.”
“Come on.”
Diane hesitated, then nodded.
Elaina glanced away.
The Marchioness of Redwood was with Countess Setemba, and she was watching Diane as she went to fetch water.
‘As expected.’
The fierce way the Marchioness glared at Diane convinced Elaina. That Diane’s presence at this event was no coincidence.
Elaina shook her head inwardly as she spotted Lyle Grant sitting off to one side, sipping his drink.
Probably because she’d interrupted them at the last ball. Apparently, this time the plan was to set Diane and Lyle Grant up with each other.
But Elaina wasn’t foolish enough to fall for the ruse so easily. She’d been exchanging letters with Diane, keeping track of her movements.
Diane spent most of her time at home, and if she went out at all, it was to social events with the Marchioness.
For Elaina, finding out which social events the Marchioness was attending was no problem. The look on the Marchioness’s face when she’d barged into Countess Setemba’s charity bazaar uninvited was something to behold.
‘By the way.’
Elaina turned around casually. She finally made eye contact with the man whose gaze had been piercing her back to the point of stinging.
Tanned skin, red eyes. Lyle Grant, the man who made her shiver just by looking at him, stared at her from a mere five feet away.
“Hello, Your Grace.”
Elaina greeted, gently lifting the hem of her dress with a graceful gesture.
“….It’s you again.”
“Yes. It’s me again.”
Elaina replied, her eyes narrowing, but her interlocutor was in no mood for laughter. The two stared at each other in silence.
This time, it was the same as the last time.
“That wasn’t a coincidence,” Lyle muttered to himself.
He’d been waiting for quite some time, hoping for an opportunity to approach Diane, but Elaina hadn’t left her side.
No coincidence ever repeats itself twice. At the last ball, he assumed it was just an illusion, but his instincts were right.
Elaina Winchester was clearly trying to prevent him from seeing Diane Redwood.
Lyle felt a flash of irritation. How many times did he have to walk through this? He wasn’t in a position to take the time to deal with one woman.
He glanced in the direction of the Marchioness. The Marchioness was looking at him with exasperation, as if she were dealing with a debtor.
‘Damn it.’
Lyle balled his fists.
The word “fuck off” seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, but he held it in. He had no choice, for he desperately needed the funds promised by the Marquis of Redwood.
Lyle Grant turned away without another glance at Elaina. He had wasted too much time. Nor did he feel like doing this again.
He should do as the Marquis and Marchioness had told him, meet their daughter, dance with her properly, ask her out, and then he would be out of the way for a while.
But he couldn’t quite get his feet moving. Elaina, who had been standing behind him, blocked his path.
“What are you doing?”
“Where are you going, are you busy doing something?”
Her eyes sparkled with a determination that she would never let him go where Diane was.
Just then, a slow waltz in three-quarter time played in the ballroom. Elaina held out her hand to him.
“It’s a good time. If you’re not too busy, would you like to dance with me?”
“……What?”
Lyle asked, not understanding what she was talking about. Now, what?
“Oh, my God. I kept thinking about the way you were looking at me. You wanted to ask me to dance, didn’t you?”
“Lady.”
Lyle called her in a low, growling voice.
It meant to stop joking around.
But Elaina smiled naturally and held out her hand to him.
“You haven’t danced at a social event yet, have you? I’ll be your first dance partner, Your Grace.”
The corners of Elaina’s eyes curved upward as if in delight at the angry looks on his face.
***
Dancing to the slow music, Elaina seemed to be in a very good mood. She didn’t seem to realize how much her satisfied smile was ruining her dance partner’s mood.
“You seem to be in a good mood, lady.”
“Oh my. Is it so obvious? I don’t think you are in a very good mood, Your Grace.”
Lyle’s expression hardened further at Elaina’s teasing tone.
“Why do you keep interrupting me?”
“Oh, my, was that too obvious?”
“I asked why.”
“Well. If you asked why, I guess I should give you an answer.”
Easily taking the next step, Elaina said, “Don’t approach Diane.”
“Approach? That’s a pretty direct way of putting it.”
“What else do you call getting close to someone you have no feelings for solely for the sake of marriage?”
This time, there was a word he couldn’t let go of easily.
Marriage. Lyle’s expression turned fierce as he looked at Elaina.
“Ouch. You’re not popular with women if you hold a lady’s hand that tightly. Well, it’s your first dance, so maybe you don’t know any better.”
“How do you know?”
Elaina’s teasing tone didn’t seem to be getting him anywhere.
“Oh? You just took a rough guess, but did you really?” he asked, looking like he was going to strangle her at any moment.
But Elaina paid no heed, unperturbed by Lyle’s suffocating glare.
“Of course not,” she said, “because the way you’re looking at me and Diane, there’s only one thing that would make Your Grace look like that, if not love and affection.”
An obsession with a ruined family name.
It takes money to rebuild House Grant, a lot of money, to be precise. And the Marquis is the one who can provide it.
Elaina’s tone as she said that was vague, as if she were guessing at something she already knew.
“Love and affection?”
“I understand your love and affection for your family, but don’t drag Diane into your selfishness. I don’t know what deal you made with the Marquis of Redwood, but I’m not going to let it happen.”
Elaina’s expression, which had been smiling a moment ago, turned fierce, but it didn’t intimidate Lyle in the slightest.
‘Annoying.’
Not threatening. Just annoying.
Even if she found out about his dealings with the Marquis, it wouldn’t change anything. No matter how she tried to interfere, it was already decided that the position of Archduchess belonged to Diane Redwood.
What he needed was funds for his failing family. The tickling warmth of love and affection had long since been erased from his mind as he headed off to war at the age of fifteen. His wife, who would be by his side for the rest of his life, was just a position he could sell for money.
“If you won’t let that happen, what can you do?”
“Well, you don’t seem to realize that there are quite a few things I can do as a duke’s daughter. You’ve only just returned from the war, so it’s not surprising that you don’t know much about the social world.”
With a gentle turn, the music ended shortly afterward. The two bodies that had been pressed together slowly pulled away.
Elaina smiled softly. “Don’t feel too bad about it. Diane doesn’t attend many social events, I’m sure I’d have been a better first dance partner than she would have been, and I’m a pretty good dancer.”
Before taking her bow, she added a final, sarcastic remark.
“Ah. Your Grace really needs to work on your dancing, now that I think about it, your steps are pretty bad. I’ll expect you to do better next time, because I’m sure you’ll be dancing with me a lot in the future.”
“Ha.”
Lyle chuckled at the absurdity of the comment. For a moment, his stoic expression cracked, if only slightly.
