Chapter 042: Olivia de Constant
A grand ballroom illuminated by a massive chandelier.
In the splendid center of it, the figures of the Cheister family were visible.
With the Duke of Cheister in the middle, on the right side stood his younger sister Cecilia von Cheivster, and on the left side his mother Eleanor von Cheister, standing side by side to greet the arriving guests.
“Oppa, when Lady Olivia arrives, you must treat her kindly from beginning to end.”
“……”
Raymond slightly turned his gaze to look down at his younger sister standing on the right.
Cecilia, who was gazing straight ahead with a picture-perfect smile on her lips.
It was so absurd that a hollow laugh nearly escaped him.
To be receiving advice on escorting a woman from his much younger sister.
But Raymond, as usual this time too, nonchalantly turned his gaze back to its original position.
“That’s already the tenth time you’ve said that.”
He hoped she would stop there, but Cecilia instead leaned in closer and whispered softly.
“Why would I do this? It’s because it’s that important. It’s our very first meeting, after all.”
Raymond’s brow finally furrowed slightly.
“Enough, Cecilia.”
Unable to bear it any longer, Eleanor spoke in a low voice from across the way.
She knew well how important this meeting was today, but even considering that, Cecilia’s persistence felt a bit excessive.
A mediation that drew a line at an appropriate boundary.
But Cecilia, as usual this time too, continued with what she had to say.
“Oppa is great in every way, but the problem is that he’s a bit cold to people, right? I’m worried that you might treat her the same way you do others—”
The endless nagging that was finally starting to grate on his nerves.
At that very moment, a voice announcing the arrival of the Constant Marquis family finally echoed from the entrance.
The attention of the bustling ballroom instantly focused in one direction.
Raymond, who had smoothed down the lapels of his frock coat once, slowly began to move his steps toward it.
As he strode forward with large steps and reached the entrance, the large door opened, revealing the figures of the Constant family between them.
The dazzling platinum-haired middle-aged gentleman, Marquis Constant, entered first, and two women, each linking arms with him on both sides, followed alongside him.
“Thank you for honoring us with your presence.”
“I am the one who is grateful for the invitation, Duke Chester.”
Starting with the polite and courteous greetings from the two, those around them exchanged greetings one by one in turn.
And at the end of that, Raymond’s gaze finally turned to Olivia, who stood on the marquis’s left side.
“It is an honor to see you again like this.”
As he slightly bowed his head in greeting, her white cheeks flushed a soft rose color.
Only then did Raymond begin to see the hazy afterimage from her debutante days gradually become clearer.
The girl who had shyly smiled and trembled incessantly in his arms throughout the dance.
The fact that this girl was now standing before him as a proper lady evoked a very peculiar feeling.
And that too, as a potential partner who might become his fiancée.
Soft platinum blonde hair just like her father the marquis, a small face, a straight nose, and red lips.
Her fresh appearance, like a flower just beginning to bloom, was more than enough to set the hearts of many men ablaze.
But—
The moment her shyly lowered head finally slowly lifted upward, Raymond’s eyebrow twitched sharply once.
“I’m happy to see you again too.”
“……”
Pupils rippling with clear golden waves.
At that distinctive hue that reminded him of someone, Raymond’s jaw clenched momentarily in a fine tremor.
The face of the woman who persistently followed him no matter how much he tried to shake her off, only to cling again at some point.
That face once again flooded through Raymond’s mind like a storm.
* * *
It had been about one or two hours since the ball began.
The waiting room, which had been bustling for a while, had now become quiet as people slipped out.
In the middle, she had been called once to the powder room where noble ladies took their rest to redo Lady Cecilia’s hair, and after that, Deborah had to stand guard in the waiting room as if she were being punished.
In a waiting room where she didn’t know a single soul, all she could do was sit still.
And that too, while enduring those stinging glances directed at her.
Well, in a way, it was natural.
A face they are seeing for the first time, and on top of that, the shabby uniform of a lowly maid.
—Ah, don’t mind her. She’s just an errand girl.
When someone asked in a lowered voice who she was, Lady Cecilia’s lady’s maid had spat out those words.
A voice spoken loudly as if intentionally for her to hear.
As that emotion felt in that moment resurfaced in her mind, Deborah’s face darkened once more.
Why, in that instant, had she felt such unbearable shame and misery?
She had endured far greater contempt and insults up until now without issue.
Why had she felt that way from those words that were nothing at all……
“……”
The answer to that wasn’t far away and could be easily found.
She just needed to find one thing that was different from yesterday.
It was the existence of ‘Lady Olivia de Constant,’ who was to become the duke’s fiancée.
A person of such noble status that she couldn’t even compare to herself.
Her existence was making Deborah’s heart feel so shabby and miserable right now, in this moment.
Because while she had to hide the emotions she realized the moment they surfaced so as not to be caught, that girl could freely reveal them all under everyone’s blessings.
Had the reunion with her childhood first love taken root so deeply before she knew it?
In that instant, something hot surged up in her chest, and Deborah pounded it firmly with her fist a couple of times.
Click.
At that moment, the sound of the door suddenly opening rang out.
Her gaze turned inadvertently, and a familiar face came into view.
“Now you can go, so head back.”
“……”
With those curt words, she opened the waiting room door and left.
“Ha—.”
The outdoor garden where darkness had settled thickly.
Deborah deliberately sought out a secluded corner where people wouldn’t come often.
Since permission to leave had been granted, normally she should return straight to the servants’ quarters, but in this state, it felt like her chest would burst, so she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
In the end, after hesitating for a long while, Deborah finally moved her steps this way.
Just for a very short time, just a little while, it should be okay.
She thought that even if she were caught, she might be forgiven for that much.
Deborah tilted her head back and took a deep breath, as if inhaling the cold air.
She repeated that a few times.
Of course, not entirely, but still, the stuffiness seemed to ease just a little.
Having been confined indoors in that oppressive space for hours, the cool night air felt especially refreshing.
‘How much time has passed?’
By her senses, it felt like less than 10 minutes, but even so, she couldn’t stay here forever.
Today, everyone would be busy with ball cleanup until the early hours past midnight, so she couldn’t waste time here alone.
She had just decided to stay just 5 more minutes and then go, when—
Rustle—
In that instant, at the presence felt from behind her right, Deborah’s movement froze solid.
‘What…… is it?’
Her heart, tensed up at the thought that maybe someone was there.
Clutching her pounding heart—thump, thump—she slowly turned her head toward the direction of the sound.
Meow— .
“……”
At the yellow flash visible in the darkness, Deborah let out a sigh of relief, whew.
She knew that because it was such a large estate, they kept several cats to deal with rats or other pests.
Deborah slowly stood up and approached the source of the meowing.
“It’s you, Spotty.”
Seeing the one she often spotted around here, with a white base dotted with brown spots, a grin unwittingly formed on her lips.
With its plump body, and not running away even when a person approached, this cat’s appearance was so mischievously formed.
—This one, sometimes when you look at it, it doesn’t seem like a cat but a person, right? Look at the shape of its mouth when it yawns. Doesn’t it look just like it’s sneering? Huh? Look at that! That sulky smile just now, that one!
Hanna’s absurd words came to mind, and Deborah unwittingly chuckled.
“You’re really not a cat but actually a person, aren’t you?”
Even as Deborah gently stroked its back with her hand, the creature yawned languidly with its mouth wide open.
That nonchalant behavior was both funny and cute.
“You’ve got it good. You seem to have no worries or cares……”
A place with no one around, and an opponent that wouldn’t relay her words even if it heard.
“Today was really a hard day for me……”
So, unwittingly, words like a grumble naturally spilled out.
Unlike her, holding a cat in this remote corner of the garden and pouring out her woes, in the not-so-distant mansion, pretty and glamorous people would be spending a happy time.
“Let me vent a bit more—”
She intended to continue that venting just a little longer. But—
Rustle—
The sound that shattered that moment’s peace came again from right nearby.
She flinched in reflexive surprise, but just like before, she thought it was probably another cat.
So, she turned her head absentmindedly.
Without even dreaming that someone might be standing there.
“……”
The moment she saw those eyes gleaming blue in the darkness, the man who shouldn’t be here, Deborah’s heart dropped—thump—with fear.
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By Anna 💓
