Olivia, who had dozed off for a moment, dreamed of her last day at the ducal residence. She had not had nightmares for a while after the divorce, so it had been a long time.
“Did you wake up?”
“Yes. The scenery changed in that brief moment.”
From the South to the North was a full day’s journey by train. The train, running without rest, was already heading toward the center of the North.
Perhaps because they had not yet reached the city center, only the dense, uncultivated forest reminded her that this was the North. Coniferous trees rising endlessly. And the cloudy sky visible above them. Olivia quietly gazed out the window.
“Come to think of it, I’ll finally see a landscape covered in snow.”
“You’ll be seeing it until you’re sick of it. That’s what worries me.”
Masha, whatever she was thinking, ended with that and made a tearful face. She looked about to burst into tears at any moment, so Olivia took out her handkerchief and handed it to her.
“Why are you the one about to cry?”
“Because it’s so unfair, so unfair!”
Masha beat her chest and turned to Olivia. Olivia answered instead with an elegant smile free of any superfluousness. Masha realized once again that this was precisely what turned her stomach inside out even more.
“How can you be so calm, Young Lady? I’m so full of pent-up anger that sometimes I have convulsions in my sleep.”
Knock, knock. With a light knock, the cabin attendant of the first-class car opened one side of the door and left word that they would soon arrive at Libien Station. After he left, Masha’s eyes, checking outside the window again, grew a little wider.
“It looks like we’ve entered the city center!”
Olivia quietly gazed out the window following Masha. They had finally arrived in Libien. Olivia took out the luggage bag she had placed under her seat. It was a bundle with truly only the bare minimum, resolved to buy what she needed here.
“Oh, Young Lady, give it here. I’ll carry it.”
“You take care of your own luggage. I can carry this much.”
“If you do that, I’ll get scolded.”
Who would scold Masha outside the Count’s residence, she wondered, but Masha was very firm. Olivia, as the train stopped, briefly looked at Masha’s luggage bags, both hands full, then gave a slight eye signal to the attendant opening the door.
“Young Ladies, please give your luggage this way. I will escort it safely.”
“Masha.”
“Yes.”
Olivia quickly handed the luggage bag to the attendant and smiled slightly as she watched Masha pay the fee. She thought it was fortunate that at least orders in this area could overcome her stubbornness. Unaware of Olivia’s thoughts even in her dreams, Masha furrowed her brow and whispered to Olivia.
“So he was after a tip after all.”
“Hmm, that’s not it.”
“Please be careful, Young Lady.”
At the steps descending from the train, attendants on both sides extended their hands, but Olivia gave them only a light bow and took Masha’s hand to step down onto the platform. The attendant who had carried their luggage down earlier approached, loading the bags onto a cart.
“……So this is Libien.”
“Yes, Young Lady.”
The attendant who had departed with them from the capital had to part ways inside the station. Masha, having received the cart, tied the wool scarf wrapped around Olivia’s neck up over her head as they walked out of the station, against the freezing cold.
“I didn’t know it would be this cold. I should have brought a fox fur muffler,”
“It’s fine.”
When Olivia answered with flushed cheeks and a dignified air, Masha looked at her with a very worried expression. Right, once they got to the Grand Duke’s residence, this hardship would end anyway. Thinking that, Masha hurriedly looked around for the person sent from the Grand Duke’s household. The area in front of the station was nothing but a chaotic mix of cars and carriages.
“No, what is that carriage doing here?”
It was a sight rarely seen in the capital. It had already been nearly half a year since carriages were banned from the main roads with the dawn of a new era after the war. In ordinary old districts, carriages were still used, but this place looked exactly like the capital ten years ago.
“Look this way and that, one of them must belong to the Grand Duke’s household.”
The imperial emblem was painted large on the carriage door. At least with that emblem, the area around it was being controlled.
“To think he’d send just a coachman, ugh.”
This time Masha’s mouth clamped shut. Olivia’s gaze also turned to where Masha’s frozen eyes had landed. Winston was stepping down from the carriage. It was a moment when it felt as though time flowed slowly only around him.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
Despite Victor’s dissuasion, Winston endured the stinging, uncomfortable gazes around him and walked directly to Olivia.
“Madam Brown.”
“Ahem, Your Highness.”
Victor, seeing Masha’s eyes looking as if she might bite someone at any moment and Olivia’s smile whose inner thoughts were unknowable, broke into a cold sweat in this freezing weather and whispered. Only then did Winston realize the mistake he had made.
“It has been a month. Has the news not yet reached the North?”
“Ah……. I apologize.”
No matter how one looked at it, it was clearly a slip of the tongue. Nevertheless, Olivia, equipped with the smile she had honed over the years, devoted herself to what needed to be done.
“Let me introduce myself formally. I am Olivia Russell.”
“I see. It is a pleasure to exchange greetings with Miss Russell after so long.”
Olivia, seeing Victor silently aghast behind Winston, wondered why the wrong person was the one taking the hit. As she followed him, Olivia spoke lightly.
“They said the cold of Libien is harsh, and it was true.”
“A Young Lady of a Count’s family born and raised in the South will find it hard to endure.”
“It hasn’t even been ten minutes since I set foot on Libien soil. Have you been scheming to send me away all along?”
“I haven’t taken that much interest. Let’s just say my curiosity was piqued because you went so far as to impersonate someone to meet me.”
Olivia looked at Winston, whose face was as indifferent as her own, and felt slightly tense. She had a premonition that things might not go as smoothly as she thought. Before getting into the carriage, Olivia, having received his help, whispered softly.
“Thank you.”
When Olivia took her seat, Winston, whom she had assumed would head to the other carriage, sat down across from her. Olivia, busy untying her wool scarf, only confirmed that the person seated before her was Winston when their knees lightly touched.
“I didn’t know we would ride in the same carriage.”
“I apologize. There are only two carriages available.”
“……I know it’s rude, but I have no choice but to ask.”
Winston gave a light eye signal as if telling her to go ahead.
“Is the Grand Duke’s household in such difficult circumstances?”
To think that a young lady would worry about the Grand Duke’s household finances, even if the North was said to be less prosperous than the South. Looking at Olivia’s utterly serious face, Winston let out a small laugh and answered.
“It’s just that I rarely have occasion to use a carriage.”
“Then that’s a relief.”
“May I ask one thing as well?”
At Olivia’s words that she would gladly answer, Winston went straight to the point without a moment’s delay.
“Why have you come here?”
“Do you intend not to even give me a chance to sit in your drawing room?”
“Isn’t the proper order to first determine whether Miss Russell is worth receiving as a guest at the Grand Duke’s residence?”
“I see.”
Olivia intended to make the most of everything she could use. The only hope she had to cling to now was Winston Greenwood, this one person. And Winston treated her in a manner befitting that hope.
“I have come to propose marriage to Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
“Marriage?”
“Yes.”
“To whom?”
“To us.”
The carriage fell silent for a moment. Winston let out a hollow laugh as he looked at Olivia, who had brought out such an enormous statement and was staring blankly at him. At his semblance of mockery, Olivia’s eyebrows rose and fell slightly.
“Let me hear the reason.”
“To erase the label of Brown, I need Your Highness the Grand Duke’s name. I still lack the courage to step out into the world completely naked.”
“A person who was a Duchess until not long ago has the courage to come all the way to the North to propose to the Grand Duke.”
“Even I think it’s a rather shameless thing to do. But,”
“No. Your courage was admirable.”
Olivia had her words cut off by this cold-blooded businessman before she could even bring out the negotiating weapon she had prepared. It was the first time she had been treated this way, but since the other party was who he was, she could not even show any sign of it and had no choice but to wait for Winston’s words.
“But what shall we do? As much as you need me, marriage is not a very urgent matter for me.”
Winston, saying that, looked utterly at ease. But how could that be? The Grand Duke who had jumped into business and received the glares of countless nobles, giving up on marriage, the greatest business of all? Olivia, who had been struggling to maintain her composure while waiting for his next words, finally had her face crumple.
“Miss Russell, I have no intention of entering a marriage without feelings.”
That a fool spouting nonsense about love was her only savior. Olivia, who had never imagined such an answer would come from Winston’s mouth, let out a small sigh.
