Olivia’s grand plan to climb the tower and watch the sunrise was shattered to pieces by third-rate journalists. While the guards who arrived late bound and dragged away the fallen men, Winston calmly wiped the bloodstains from his hands and approached Olivia.
“Are you alright.”
“……I’m fine.”
If someone said they were fine while looking not fine at all, who would believe it? Winston handed Masha over to Victor, who had followed behind him, and tried to support Olivia himself. That was, until he realized there was a problem with her ankle.
“Ah……!”
“Excuse me.”
Winston immediately lifted her into his arms and strode forward. In this situation, it would have been ridiculous to insist on walking by herself. Olivia, guilty of causing a commotion as a guest, obediently let herself be carried back to the residence after Winston handled the situation.
“Marilyn, call for Dr. Ramsey.”
“Good heavens! Understood!”
The servants, who had come out wondering what the commotion was about from the morning, could not hide their surprise at seeing Olivia in Winston’s arms. Olivia felt quite embarrassed by this situation, but now was not the time to think about that. She seemed to have given a rather troublesome impression to someone she needed to impress.
“Is Masha alright?”
“She has some scratches, but my assistant is seeing to her, so you needn’t worry.”
“……I hope they don’t leave scars.”
Dr. Ramsey, who had been summoned by Marilyn after the morning’s uproar, held the slender ankle in his hands and let out a deep sigh. He had been roughly told what had happened, but enduring this chilly silence while treating her was no easy task.
“For now, you should be worrying about yourself, Young Lady. If you twist the ankle like this……”
“Ah!”
The pain was considerable as the ankle was slightly bent to the side. At Olivia’s groan, Dr. Ramsey inadvertently checked the expression of Winston standing beside him. Because since a while ago, those sharp eyes had been glaring at the rumored noble lady’s ankle as if about to break it. Dr. Ramsey recalled the usual Winston and decided to take it as a sign of worry, then continued.
“It doesn’t show right now, but it will swell quite a bit before long.”
“……Hmm, I see.”
“You should rest for a few days and watch the progress. You must not walk excessively either, so please be careful.”
When Olivia nodded in understanding, Dr. Ramsey pointed to the high-heeled shoes placed nearby and warned sternly.
“Especially shoes like these are absolutely not allowed.”
At those words, a low-heeled velvet slipper was placed before Olivia. Until this moment, Winston had not said a single word.
“Thank you for your work, Dr. Ramsey.”
“Yes.”
“Marilyn. Would you leave us for a moment?”
“……Yes, I understand.”
While Dr. Ramsey packed his medical bag, Winston sent even Marilyn, who had been at Olivia’s side, out. Olivia, seeing Winston pacing a few steps away, dropped her gaze to the floor.
In an atmosphere where it would not have been strange for him to scold her immediately, she recalled the day she had been severely reprimanded as a child for playing in the dirt. If there was a difference from that day, it was that she was not in a position to be scolded by him, and he was not the kind of person to commit such rudeness.
“Do you have any thoughts in your head, or not?”
Was he that kind of person? Olivia, startled, raised her head abruptly to look at Winston. At some point, he had leaned against the opposite wall with his arms crossed, glaring at her firmly. At that gaze, a flicker of exasperation crossed her mind, and Olivia thought she might be thrown out without even a marriage, let alone sightseeing.
“……Though I may have caused a commotion due to my ignorance, I don’t think it’s something to be reprimanded for like this.”
“Miss Russell, look at your current state and say that. If I hadn’t appeared in time, can you imagine what would have happened?”
“Why couldn’t I? And it was Masha who was almost in more danger than me!”
Olivia, who had unknowingly raised her voice, clamped her mouth shut again. Who would have imagined such a thing would happen at this hour, and near the Grand Duke’s residence, no less? It was largely her fault for not anticipating that far, but the ones to interrogate were the bad men, not her to be treated like this.
“I’m already regretting it. If only I hadn’t said we should go out on our own, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“No. It was I who responded affirmatively to your question of whether you could freely look around.”
Winston swept his hair back and let out a deep sigh.
“I apologize for what I said earlier. It was largely my oversight for not informing you in advance when I knew something like this could happen.”
“It’s not something to apologize for. I’m sorry for raising my voice. I was angry at myself, too……”
“An article was published.”
At Winston’s words, Olivia finally recalled what the men who had threatened her had been saying.
“What article? As it happens, I heard those thugs earlier talking about articles and interviews.”
“A photo was taken of you getting into my carriage at the train station yesterday. It was published on the front page of Libien’s largest newspaper at dawn today.”
“……I see.”
“People’s attention will be focused on this. So for the time being, please avoid moving alone—or even with Masha, just the two of you.”
“I understand.”
A brief silence followed, and while Olivia awkwardly moved her bandaged ankle this way and that, Masha, having finished her treatment, came running into the drawing room.
“Young Lady!”
“Masha.”
“Hek, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
Not having expected Winston to still be there, Masha’s reaction came a beat late. Watching Masha bow deeply, Winston lightly acknowledged the greeting and looked at Olivia.
“Then, rest.”
At his gaze, which seemed to have softened a layer, Olivia answered with a nod. The moment Winston left, Masha returned to her usual self and, discovering the bandage wrapped tightly around Olivia’s ankle, screamed.
“Heeek, why is your ankle like this! Those bastards from earlier!”
“I’m sorry, Masha. If only I had cooperated……”
“What kind of thing is that to say!”
Winston shook his head at the sound of Masha’s voice pouring out the moment he closed the door. Victor, who had been waiting for him, also looked quite haggard, as if he had been through a lot.
“Whew. Those men?”
“Handed over to the police station. They’ll be locked up for a while and then released.”
He had handled things according to Olivia’s wishes, as she had early on expressed her intention to let today’s matter pass quietly if possible. Winston had said a word to her, but he considered his own failure to properly conduct himself after hosting a guest to be a large part of the problem, and instructed Victor.
“We must strengthen the residence’s security so this never happens again. Expand the patrol range and reduce the interval to once an hour.”
“Yes, understood.”
* * *
Leaning against the bed, Olivia looked at today’s newspaper Masha had brought and let out a small exclamation at the photo of her own face.
“So this is the article His Highness mentioned. An article like this already came out.”
“I thought it was a bit early too, but it wasn’t strange. You and His Highness ran right into each other in front of the crowded train station and got into the same carriage.”
Olivia nodded slowly. Thinking about it now, she should have anticipated this would happen.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s rather for the best. If I use this……”
In fact, a romantic rumor between her and the Grand Duke was something the other side would find far more unpleasant. Of course, that would be the case only if he did not know she held a gold mine. Olivia thought that since the water had already been spilled, if it came down to it, she could use the article to inflate the rumors further and make it so he could not back out without marrying her.
“Is that too cowardly?”
However, the problem was that Olivia’s conscience still existed somewhere in its proper place, making it hard to resolve to do so immediately. Masha shrugged with a baffled face.
“To say that, you’ve already come a long way.”
Having folded the newspaper and handed it back to Masha, Olivia pondered carefully. If it was the Grand Duke, there certainly existed the power to block unwanted articles. Yet if the Grand Duke, who had said he did not want a contract marriage, had not blocked such an unsavory article from being published, surely there was a reason.
“He must have known an article would be published. The fact that he didn’t block it in advance means he knows this news will be a shackle for me as well.”
Olivia was already someone who had been a victim of the press many times over. Articles like this, no different from the days when her every move became fodder for gossip, were burdensome for Olivia as well, but she could not be entirely displeased. It was content that left the possibility with her somewhat open.
“It seems ‘I will deliberate’ was at least not a lie.”
