ETKAD 13

Chapter 13

At that very moment, another carriage was heading toward the ducal residence.

The two carriages passed each other at the straight entrance leading to the duke’s estate.

Elin, who had been looking out the window, met the eyes of the person inside the carriage passing by.

“Ah……!”

The person wearing a beautiful hat adorned with flowers and jewels was Sylvia.

Unlike Elin, whose expression was startled, Sylvia’s face was extremely dark. Her eyelids were red and swollen, as though she had been crying.

The moment Sylvia saw Elin, her expression turned cold.

‘She must have come from the ducal residence. Well, she was close to the Duchess Dowager.’

Almost everyone who had attended even a single party knew how close Sylvia was to the Duke’s mother.

That was why no one had ever doubted that she would become the Duchess.

Elin let out a small, heavy sigh.

The dark expression on the young countess’s face that she had just seen continued to bother her.

A sense of guilt washed over her, as though she herself were the cause of everything that had happened.

“Would you please wait here for a moment?”

Elin had come expecting to meet the impressive butler she had seen before, but he was nowhere to be found.

Instead, a maid led her to the drawing room.

“Thank you.”

Once the maid withdrew, Elin was left alone and slowly looked around the room.

The drawing room was bright and elegant, with large arched windows covered by white lace curtains gathered into numerous folds.

The purple velvet sofa with golden legs was so beautiful that it almost made her smile.

Sitting in a drawing room that so clearly reflected the lady of the house’s taste made Elin feel warm and comfortable, yet her heart was beating rapidly.

‘Huh?’

As Elin looked around the drawing room, her gaze suddenly stopped on one wall.

Large and small picture frames had been hung there in an irregular arrangement, and one of them immediately caught her attention.

‘Wow…….’

Elin had loved drawing ever since she was young.

She had no idea who had painted the picture on the wall or what it was supposed to depict, but the moment she saw it, she became completely absorbed in it.

She even forgot how tense she had been just moments ago, staring at the painting as though she were being pulled into it.

“You seem to like that painting.”

Elin, who had been completely lost in thought, was so startled that an “Ah!” escaped her lips.

She had been so absorbed that she had not even noticed someone entering the room.

Still clutching her startled heart, Elin turned around.

A beautiful middle-aged woman was standing by the door.

The painting hanging on the wall was certainly beautiful, but the woman standing before the white door looked like a painting herself.

Her blond hair was elegantly swept up, and the navy dress that accentuated her silhouette was both old-fashioned and alluring.

Ruby earrings the color of pomegranate seeds made her flawless skin appear even more pristine.

Anyone could tell from her imposing bearing and atmosphere alone that she was the Duke’s mother.

Elin scolded herself for standing there dazed over the painting and quickly straightened herself into a respectful posture.

“Madam. My name is Elin Nilsson.”

Melissa approached Elin with a subtle smile.

“Pleased to meet you, Miss Elin. I’m Melissa Linderto.”

With a bewitching smile on her red lips, Melissa gave the young lady before her a quick once-over.

Although she wore a gentle smile, Melissa’s eyes were sharp.

It was almost as though she were appraising the value of an antique hidden beneath layers of dust.

‘She’s not as bad as I expected. No, she’s actually quite surprising.’

The young lady who had come before her for the first time could not hide her nervousness.

Her body was slightly stiff from tension, yet her face was clear and fresh, and even in her nervousness, she was trying her best not to make a mistake.

At the same time, her calm eyes showed that she was trying not to appear servile.

It had only been a brief moment, but Melissa noticed each of those things one by one.

She was different from the young ladies who had approached Melissa while pretending to be friendly simply because she was the Duke’s mother.

Melissa had heard so many bad things about the baron’s family that, honestly, she had not expected much.

If this was a young lady raised in such a family, there would be little point in looking further. She would inevitably be disappointing.

Perhaps she had simply set her expectations too low.

‘I’ll have to take some more time to get to know her.’

Melissa smiled as she approached Elin.

“I’ve heard quite a lot about you. I’ve been away from the capital all this time, so I’m only now getting to meet the woman who will become my daughter-in-law.”

“Please feel free to speak comfortably, Madam.”

“Should I?”

After Melissa sat down on the sofa, Elin calmly took the seat beside her.

As soon as Elin sat down, her eyes, just like Sylvia’s earlier, were drawn first to the black stone sitting on the table.

Unlike Sylvia’s reaction, however, Elin stared at it with interest.

“There’s something strange sitting there, isn’t there? I’ll call a servant and have it removed.”

At Melissa’s words, Elin looked up in surprise.

“Oh, no. It’s just that the shape of the stone is fascinating.”

Melissa’s eyes lit up as though asking what she meant.

Elin tilted her head slightly and spoke.

“It looks just like a mother holding her newborn baby tightly in her arms.”

A small shiver ran down Melissa’s spine.

Countless people had seen this stone before, yet not a single one had ever seen it the way she did.

And now, a young lady she had met for the first time today had had exactly the same thought as her.

It felt strangely unsettling.

“Did…… it really look that way to you?”

At Melissa’s words, Elin’s ears turned red with embarrassment.

She wondered if she had interpreted something precious to the Duchess Dowager too freely.

She had no idea what the stone meant, after all.

“I-I’m sorry. That was simply what came to mind the moment I saw it.”

Watching Elin, Melissa pressed her lips together in amusement.

“Everyone sees things differently. Even when looking at the same thing, our feelings toward it can change depending on the circumstances we’re in. Perhaps that’s the charm of art in the first place.”

Elin nodded in agreement.

Although Melissa’s gaze was gentle, the fact that the woman was watching her so closely made Elin’s heart tremble even more than it had when she was with the Duke.

Her hands had grown cold.

Melissa took another close look at Elin.

Her clothes were not particularly extravagant, but there was something distinctive about her.

Even if she were standing among other young ladies of the same age and did not immediately stand out, there was something about her that made the eye linger.

“If I had seen you at a party, I would have taken an interest in you. So why don’t I remember you?”

Melissa’s words sounded half like a question and half like she was talking to herself.

Elin’s cheeks grew slightly warm.

She had not attended many parties, but if the Duchess Dowager knew what she had looked like at the few parties she had attended, she would have understood.

To her stepmother and family, Elin was someone they desperately wanted to keep hidden. She was never supposed to attract anyone’s attention.

“I had a sick relative, so I spent a lot of time away from the capital taking care of them.”

Elin gave a safe answer that was not a lie.

She knew very well that insulting her family would only be like spitting on her own face.

“Oh dear. They were unwell? How are they now?”

The Duchess Dowager asked in a concerned voice.

Elin remembered how her great-aunt had repeatedly begged her not to mention her.

“She’s much better now and has come to the capital. She came all the way here from Castia because she wanted to see my wedding.”

A gentle smile appeared around Elin’s lips as she answered.

“I see. That’s a relief. But…… did you say Castia?”

Melissa emphasized the name Castia, her expression becoming somewhat peculiar.

Elin could not tell whether the place evoked good or bad feelings in her.

Thinking that she might have made a mistake, Elin’s voice grew quieter.

“Yes.”

“We have a villa in Castia as well. There was a rather unpleasant incident there some time ago. Still, it’s a beautiful place.”

Only then did Elin’s tension begin to ease.

Fortunately, it did not seem to have anything to do with her great-aunt.

“The Duke likes that place very much. I can’t understand how he can still like it after going through such a ridiculous incident, though.”

Melissa rubbed her temple as if merely thinking about that time gave her a headache.

At the mention of the Duke, Elin tensed again.

The unpleasant incident the Duchess Dowager was talking about somehow sounded like the very incident Elin knew about.

Her heart began pounding violently, as though the secret she had kept hidden all this time had suddenly been discovered.

“Perhaps you and Dominic happened to pass each other there once or twice. It isn’t a very large place.”

At Melissa’s words, Elin gave an awkward smile and nodded slightly.

“Perhaps.”

“How did the two of you first meet? If you decided to marry, there must be some incredible romance that only the two of you know about.”

Melissa asked with a knowing look, as though she were trying to peer into Elin’s innermost thoughts.

‘An incredible romance? There couldn’t possibly be anything like that.’

The unexpected question made Elin’s mind go blank.

And then, without realizing it, the familiar romance she had imagined over and over again every day began spilling from her lips.

The tender romance of secretly loving someone for a long time, watching him from afar, and suffering alone with her feelings was not a lie.

Because it was not a lie, Elin could feel the woman listening to her gradually soften her gaze.

“……And that was how I came to receive a marriage proposal from the Duke.”

By the final sentence, Elin felt as though there was even a slight glimmer of tears in the Duchess Dowager’s eyes.

Apparently, her answer had gone rather well.

“I never knew Dominic had such a romantic side.”

Melissa gave a small shrug and smiled.

Elin broke into a cold sweat, and after that, she could barely remember how the conversation had continued.

The Duchess Dowager might ask the Duke the same questions.

The thought that she would have to tell this story to the Duke herself terrified her.

‘I’d rather die.’

How could she possibly say such a thing to him?

It was even more humiliating than confessing her love.

Her first meeting with the woman who would soon become her mother-in-law seemed to have ended rather successfully.

But the encounter itself had been so mentally exhausting that Elin left the room completely drained.

When she left the ducal residence by carriage, she felt as though she had finally completed one enormous assignment.

“Please let me off here, Charlie.”

She stopped the carriage on the way home.

“But Madam told me to return immediately once you finished your business, Miss Elin.”

“I heard that Mother has somewhere to go this evening, too. Leave me here and go back home.”

“But……”

“Don’t worry. I can return by myself once I’m finished. Could you tell Father that I went to visit a friend who was sick?”

Only after Elin asked did Charlie finally nod and continue driving the carriage.

The place where she got off was the central shopping district.

Campbell Street was two blocks away from here.

She hurried along the street, recalling the contents of the letter Charlotte had given her yesterday.

‘I’m not feeling well, so I haven’t been able to leave the house at all.’

Charlotte loved going out, so for her to send a letter like that……

Elin worried about how bad her condition must be.

Since she was already out, she had decided to go see if Charlotte was all right and keep her company for a while.

As she walked beneath the warm afternoon sunlight, the words Melissa had said earlier came back to her.

‘The Duke likes that place very much. I can’t understand how he can still like it after going through such an incident, though.’

‘Hearing that really surprised me.’

Elin cautiously brought out the secret she had kept buried deep within her heart.

A memory from Castia that she could never tell anyone about.