ETVEWHF 10

Chapter 10

She wants to humiliate me right now.

‘So that’s what this was about.’

Come to think of it, she was also the one who told the Rowina from before I possessed this body that Howard had a former fiancée.

“Did you change your target to Father because you couldn’t find an opening with my husband?”

“That’s—”

Just as Julia was about to protest, her face flushing red—

“Waaaaah!”

The child sitting on the swing burst into tears.

I bit the inside of my lip. A young child’s emotions were raw and impossible to hide. My chest tightened.

“Calm him down.”

With those words, I left.

I returned to my room and went to bed early.

‘Come to think of it, the actor in today’s performance…’

He was someone I had seen before I possessed this body.

More precisely, he was an actor who worked in the world outside the book.

Until now, I had assumed that only things like the country’s name and historical figures matched the world I knew.

But how was I supposed to explain the fact that an actor who had existed in my world also existed here?

‘Could my identity from before I became Rowina still exist somewhere…?

I think that was what I was wondering just before I fell asleep.

Something was hanging from a rope in front of my eyes, swaying from side to side.

A moment later, I realized it was a swing, and somehow I had become a young child sitting on it.

“Gasp!”

When I opened my eyes, it was morning.

“What was that?”

I felt like I’d had a strange dream, but I couldn’t remember it.

I soon shook the thought from my head and got ready for the day. I had just finished getting dressed and was about to go see Kristine.

“Madam.”

I ran into Julia Clearwater in the hallway.

“Here.”

“What is this?”

She handed me two photographs.

“I thought you didn’t believe me.”

One was a group photograph. The boys filled the right side, while the girls crowded together on the left.

“Pendleton Girls’ School and Gallerton College are schools under the same foundation, so there were many exchange events. You can see Howard and me here in the front row, right? And this one—”

The other photograph showed two women and one man.

Julia was pointing toward the camera, while Howard, who had only just noticed the camera, was looking into the lens with a faint smile.

And the woman speaking to Julia was—

“This is Miss Cassie Weatherville. Howard’s former fiancée.”

The photograph was blurry enough that it was barely possible to make out the faces, but Cassie herself had been captured surprisingly clearly.

With her round eyes and girlish features, Cassie had a bright, beautiful smile that made her look quite different from Rowina in many ways.

“So what?”

“What?”

She seemed to want to use Howard’s former fiancée to get under my skin.

“Miss Clearwater. It’s not that I don’t believe you.”

I raised the corners of my lips slightly.

“Whoever Howard partnered with at his graduation party or whoever his former fiancée was doesn’t matter anymore. I’m the one who married him.”

I placed the photographs back into Julia’s hands.

“I’ve seen the pictures. Thank you.”

I walked past Julia and entered Kristine’s room. Then I handed her the reagent I’d bought in advance.

“What is this?”

“It’s a reagent. They said it can detect most kinds of poison.”

“Why would you…”

“We don’t know what kind of tricks Julia might try in this house.”

I deliberately hardened my expression, as though I were worried.

“I saw Julia using the swing in the garden without permission.”

“I know. I was too careless. I can’t believe I thought that woman would obediently stay in her room.”

Kristine was furious, and after that brief outing to the garden, Julia and Tommy remained confined to their room.

“Anyway, you’re worrying over nothing. Julia is practically under house arrest in the guest room, and everyone working in this house except the youngest maid has been here since before Julia ever met Tom.”

Kristine didn’t seem to suspect that any of the servants might have been bribed.

But she must have been uneasy too.

It was simply that her desire to push back against what she considered my unnecessary concern—and her desire to show confidence as the lady of the household—won out.

“I think we should prepare for even the smallest possibility.”

“Rowina.”

A faint blush spread across both of Kristine’s cheeks.

“Hm. Very well. I’ll keep this.”

My efforts to show Kristine that my attitude toward both her and Julia was consistent were finally beginning to pay off.

Then I headed to the study alone.

In the book, Rowina discovers that Julia and Dr. Morgan are lovers, but she tells no one.

It was one of the parts that shattered the reader’s or audience’s expectation that the poisoning could be prevented now that Rowina had grown suspicious.

It was also one of the reasons I’d thought of Rowina as the villain.

“No matter how much I think about it, I still don’t understand why she did that.”

I muttered under my breath.

To have her period of confinement lifted, it would have been advantageous for Rowina to create a debt of gratitude with Kristine.

‘Wouldn’t Kristine’s death mean the restrictions on me would be lifted?’

I wasn’t sure.

Kristine had proposed the arrangement, but Howard had been the one to accept it and make it compulsory.

I recalled a conversation with Howard from Rowina’s memories.

—”I don’t understand. Don’t you need a wife who can participate in social activities?”

—”Who told you to do that?”

—”You couldn’t even do it properly anyway. From what I’ve heard, you made another woman uncomfortable too.”

…I’m sorry.

—”Don’t try to be useful to me. Instead, just live quietly at home like a mouse.”

Not long afterward, Howard left for an overseas front as a military officer.

The remaining Rowina truly lived like a piece of furniture in the mansion.

Saving Kristine was important.

Of course, I wanted to improve our relationship, but more than anything, I didn’t want to stand by and let her die when I had the power to save her.

“Rowina, there you are.”

Nigel approached me as I stood in front of the bookshelf.

My expression hardened instinctively.

“What are you going to read?”

“I was just looking.”

“Want me to recommend something?”

“No.”

There’s a saying that you shouldn’t entertain a crazy person.

I was just about to end the conversation and leave the study when—

“My brother’s back. He came in early this morning.”

“Howard?”

I pretended not to know, and Nigel replied as though it were nothing important.

“With that whole mess at the exhibition hall, word must have reached him too.”

Apparently, he’d come back while I was asleep.

I left the study, avoiding Nigel, who followed after me like a puppy.

“Howard, it’s been a long time.”

Julia’s voice came from the hallway.

“Why are you here?”

Howard asked coldly.

In front of him stood a young child holding Julia’s hand, his stomach sticking out as he stood there.

It seemed they’d run into each other by chance.

“What are you scheming?”

“That’s harsh. Don’t worry. If you just accept Tommy, I’ll leave without causing any trouble.”

“…Tommy?”

“He’s your half-brother. Come on, Tommy. Say hello. He’s your big brother!”

“Big brudder?”

Howard’s face twisted with displeasure.

“Are you still in touch with Cassie? I haven’t heard anything from her since graduation—”

“Rowina!”

Howard’s eyes met mine, and his face immediately brightened as he came toward me.

“Have you been well?”

He smiled softly, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners, as though he didn’t want to let on that we’d seen each other yesterday.

“Come to think of it, that was a silly question. You couldn’t have been doing well with an unwelcome guest here.”

“I’m fine. Are you back for good?”

“I think so. There are some things to deal with at home, too…”

Just then, the sound of a cane tapping rhythmically against the floor echoed down the hall.

A moment later, Kristine Blackwood appeared.

“Howard.”

Kristine sighed.

“So you found out after all.”

“Mother.”

“Yes. You two need to know what’s going on as well.”

Kristine led Howard and me into the drawing room and instructed a maid to bring us tea.

“Julia and the child will stay for a few days, and then I’ll send them away.”

“That woman is cunning. She chose a public place where I couldn’t possibly refuse her request.”

Kristine clicked her tongue.

“Nigel told me Julia had come here before.”

“Yes. But I find that strange.”

Kristine answered Howard.

“If her purpose was to get money by using the child as leverage, what happened at the exhibition hall would have been enough. Coming to the mansion before that crossed a line, and there was no benefit to her in doing so.”

I had wondered about that too.

In the book, Julia’s first appearance was at the exhibition hall. When she’d come to the mansion before under the pretext of returning the brooch, I’d simply assumed that was a reference to her having visited the mansion previously.

“She might have approached someone in the household.”

Howard murmured.

“Or perhaps she was trying to provoke someone…”

Just then, a maid brought in the tea.

Three teacups, each filled with a different kind of tea, were placed before us.

“Mother.”

I stopped Kristine just as she reached for her cup.

“Don’t drink that.”

I pressed down on the teacup in Kristine’s hand and set it firmly back on the table.

“What do you mean by that?”

Kristine seemed too dumbfounded to even get angry.

Howard watched the situation with a bewildered expression.

“Why aren’t you using the gift I gave you?”

I decided to push my luck a little.

“You mean the poison-detecting reagent?”

“Yes. I gave it to you because I was thinking of you, Mother. It hurts my feelings when you don’t use it.”

I wanted to look dejected, but all I could do was struggle not to burst out laughing at my own insincere words.

As expected, acting really wasn’t my thing.

“Hmph. You make it sound as though you actually want there to be a reason to use it.”

Kristine’s prickly attitude was about what I’d expected.

‘I knew she wouldn’t simply go along with it.’

Ever since the day after Julia arrived, small amounts of poison had been added to Kristine’s tea.

It was an attempt to slowly poison her by giving her small doses over an extended period.

Even if there wasn’t any poison in the tea right now, it didn’t matter.

I could plant suspicion in Kristine’s mind, and after that, all I had to do was expose the relationship between Dr. Morgan and Julia.

“Mother. Do as Rowina says.”

Howard said it.