“That wretched woman. How dare she dismiss me like that.”
‘Thud. Thud.’
Loren Hansworth climbed the stairs with a fury that shook each step beneath her.
She had returned to her own estate in a towering rage. She had just come from the Florence household, where Jane Florence had treated her with casual, imperious contempt.
‘”I wasn’t going to say this — but do you know what humiliation my son suffered when he came to your estate while you and your husband were away?”‘
‘”I don’t.”‘
‘”He was attacked by the duke. And thrown out. And Ivelina just stood there and watched.”‘
‘”Did he.”‘
It hadn’t been an outright declaration of disrespect — but Jane’s words and manner had been unmistakably dismissive. Those hollow, half-present eyes. The way she answered without truly listening, offering nothing more than the bare minimum.
Loren trembled from head to toe and let out a sharp cry.
“Honestly. I never liked either of them from the beginning. Scheming pair, mother and daughter both!”
‘Bang!’
Loren threw open Edwin’s bedroom door.
“What is it? No knocking?”
Edwin stirred irritably from sleep. It was nearly three in the afternoon, but he had drunk himself senseless the night before and only now was coming around — and only because his mother had made such a commotion.
“Do you have any idea what I just had to endure on your behalf?!”
‘Bang, bang.’
Loren, who lived and died by propriety on any other occasion, was currently making sounds that would not have been out of place coming from an orangutan. She charged at Edwin with the energy of someone spoiling for a fight, and he recoiled with an irritated scowl.
“What is it, first thing in the morning? I’m exhausted.”
He rolled over and turned his back on her, signaling an end to the conversation. Loren lunged at him and began beating on his back.
“Wake up, you fool! It’s already three o’clock! What kind of grown man lies about until this hour? And every day it’s alcohol — again and again! All this spectacle over one girl!”
“Will you ‘stop’? What do I do is my own business. Men meet people and sometimes they drink. Since when did you become such an unreasonable woman?”
“Unreasonable?! Do you know what I had to endure today — the humiliation — all because I’m your ‘mother’?!”
Loren latched onto Edwin’s collar like a leech. He pried her hand away with undisguised annoyance.
“Just say it plainly. Stop going around in circles. Do I have to extract it from you piece by piece? What happened?”
Edwin hauled himself upright with considerable effort and raked a hand irritably through his hair.
“I went to the Florence estate!”
“What? Why? What did Ivelina say?”
Edwin’s eyes went wide. An instant ago he had been making his boredom abundantly clear — but at that name, his gaze sharpened.
“I didn’t see that girl at all! She was nowhere to be found — not a single hair. I had to deal with the mother instead, and it was thoroughly unpleasant!”
“…Damn. What did the countess say?”
“That her daughter had done nothing wrong. Ha! As if she hasn’t been carrying on with another man right under my nose — and still has the nerve to act like she’s in the right!”
Loren had convinced herself entirely that Ivelina was the one who had behaved improperly. What sort of girl carried on with another man while engaged to her naive, trusting son?
“Calculating little creature!”
“Did you explain things properly to her? That Ivelina misunderstood what happened that night?”
“Misunderstood? ‘Misunderstood?!'”
Loren’s eyes went wide and wild. She ground her teeth and raised her voice again.
“Do you expect her to believe that? Why were you rolling around in the garden with a woman in the first place?! If you’re going to have an affair, at least be discreet about it — and you got caught immediately!”
“I told you! She came onto me first! She threw herself at me half-undressed — what man in my position would have done any differently?”
Edwin was starting to lose his temper as well.
He had thought that, since his mother had visited the Florence estate, perhaps there was some useful outcome. Instead, he was being subjected to a scolding he didn’t particularly want.
“Was this really the first time for you? Hmm?”
“…Ha.”
“Do you know how much trouble I went through to sort things out because of that other girl? And you haven’t learned a thing!”
“Why are you dragging up old history again?”
Loren brought up that incident again, voice rising to a shrill pitch. Edwin’s face tightened with something sour and unpleasant at the unwelcome resurgence of the past.
A year ago, Edwin had attacked a young maid while drunk.
He had not thought to take any precautions.
The maid had fallen pregnant. Countess Hansworth had turned her out.
The maid had insisted Edwin was the father of her child. But there was no evidence, and under the rules of the Hansworth household, a servant who became pregnant could not remain in service.
And so the countess had had the maid flogged for the offense of defaming her son. The girl had been driven out covered in blood.
Loren had assumed that particular episode had been put well behind them.
And then, before the dust had even settled, her son had gone and created another scandal.
“Do you have any idea how alarmed I was? Our family nearly suffered utter disgrace because of that woman!”
“And what would you have me do about it now? Is it really such a crime for a man to sleep with a maid?”
“What — what did you just say?”
“You told me yourself, didn’t you? That it’s the women who are the problem — throwing themselves at wealthy men without any shame.”
“That — I—”
Loren’s voice dried up in her throat.
She had said exactly that. Those were her own words, and she could not take them back.
Edwin had been reprimanded by his father on more than one occasion over women. And every time, Loren had defended her son — not wanting his spirit crushed.
“…It’s my own fault. All of it.”
Loren pressed a hand to her forehead. Her face had gone ashen from all the shouting.
“Regardless — I’m going to marry Ivelina. So do something about it, Mother.”
“You idiot! Do you know who you’re dealing with? This is Duke Hardeion! What on earth am I supposed to do about ‘him’?!”
“Then I’ll ask Father to help.”
“……”
Count Hansworth was a man who valued honor and the dignity of his title above nearly everything else. He had always regarded his unruly son with thinly veiled contempt. And since Edwin was the one who had behaved badly first, the count had remained entirely removed from the situation.
“What did the Countess Florence say, in the end?”
“It was like hitting a wall. I even made threats, and she didn’t so much as flinch.”
“Then do ‘something’! Are you just going to leave things as they are? What if they actually get married? Then what?”
Edwin’s voice climbed.
Loren stood there, mouth agape, as her son raised his voice at her.
“Are — are you shouting at me right now?”
“Am I supposed to stay calm? If threats don’t work, try persuasion! All you did was irritate Countess Florence and come home empty-handed!”
“I — it’s because of that girl Ivelina that I had to — and here I am, enduring this from the child I carried and gave birth to—!”
“Forget it. I’m going out. Don’t follow me.”
‘Tch.’ Edwin clicked his tongue in irritation.
He grabbed his coat and walked out without another word.
Loren Hansworth stood there, emptied of everything, watching her son’s back disappear.
* * *
Edwin made his way to the capital’s main square.
His destination was a residential lane tucked into one corner of it. Camilla, who had recently run away from home, had nowhere else to go. For the time being, she was living in a row house Edwin had rented for her at his own expense.
One day, out of nowhere, Camilla had shown up at his door with news.
‘”I’m carrying your child.”‘
‘”Do you have proof it’s mine?”‘
Camilla had demanded marriage. Edwin, of course, had no intention of taking responsibility.
‘We both enjoyed it. What does she expect? How greedy.’
Still, there was a simple reason Edwin had kept supporting her.
He needed to keep the situation quiet — at least until he married Ivelina.
‘The last thing I need is her turning up and causing a scene at the wrong moment.’
Edwin turned the problem over in his mind with practiced efficiency.
So he played along with Camilla — keeping up the appearance of caring, behaving as though marriage was a possibility, dropping in when he felt like it to pass the time.
For now, marriage to Ivelina had to come first. Once the ceremony was done—
‘Taking her on as a mistress wouldn’t be the worst arrangement. The physical compatibility is there, at any rate.’
Edwin strolled along, whistling to himself, privately constructing his future according to his own preferences.
And then he noticed something.
Down the street ahead of him sat a large black carriage. And beside it—
‘…Ivelina? What is she doing there?’
* * *
