Victor, having come to the office, wondered when Winston had begun preparing this contract without his knowledge.
It was because the paper he had passed over after adding only a few words, saying he had thought of a clause to put in the draft, was already no different from a completed contract. And yet, all Victor remembered was being attached to him the whole time, fighting piles of documents.
Thinking, as expected, that he was no ordinary person, Victor, having read the prose, set the paper down and looked at Winston, who was waiting for his impression.
“Do you think Miss Russell will accept this contract?”
“It should be enough.”
“No, no. I think this part is the biggest problem.”
Victor pointed to the middle of the paper.
There would be no desire for an heir between the two.
Victor looked at Winston as if asking whether he did not find this truly strange, but Winston merely blinked and did not say anything in particular.
“Why is that.”
For someone to inherit the position of Grand Duke, one could line up candidates just from the imperial family alone. It meant there was no reason to produce an heir through a relationship with someone he did not even have feelings for. Winston had no intention of backing down on this matter, at least.
“If you push a noble lady who was thrown out for having no heir into a similar situation again……”
“That is why I wrote it down. Instead, neither of the two shall create a scandal related to this. That scandal cannot be repaid even with death.”
“No, that’s not it—I’m saying this is no different from killing even the faintest possibility between the two of you.”
Why was even a faint possibility needed here? Winston quietly gazed at Victor and took a sip of his now-cold tea. Victor, immediately recognizing that this was a dismissal of his words, flared up and spoke.
“This is not something to ignore, I’m telling you?”
“Your Highness the Grand Duke. It’s Dale.”
“Come in.”
It was the appearance of the person he had been most hoping for. Winston changed his expression in an instant, and Victor, who welcomed Dale, shook his head. Dale immediately took out a folded document envelope from inside his coat and handed it to Winston.
“It is the document sent from Richard’s Bakery.”
“Huh? What about the cake packaging?”
Victor, who in truth had wanted the cake he had not tasted in a long while more than Dale, let the corners of his eyebrows droop. Dale, struggling to ignore that gaze, continued.
“There was a bit of a problem downstairs. On the way in, I ran right into Miss Russell, and……”
“Don’t tell me she took the cake?”
“I had no choice but to inform Miss Russell about the bakery, so I left only the document and handed the rest to the kitchen.”
Winston, having opened the envelope, looked at the document that was eight pages long and set it down on the table for a moment.
“It’s fine. Not mentioning the most famous bakery in Libien would be more suspicious.”
“Then I will instruct that the cake be brought up at afternoon tea.”
At Winston’s words to do so, Victor rolled his eyes, but no one paid any attention to Victor’s circumstances.
“Is Miss Russell still sightseeing?”
“Yes. Today it seems she will finish in the first-floor painting exhibition room.”
“I see. Anything else?”
“I heard Marilyn spoke to Your Highness about clothing yesterday.”
“Ah, that’s right. I said to call a designer whenever she wanted. Is Miss Russell refusing?”
“She said she wants to go out to the dressmaker herself. Moreover, she requested that I accompany her tomorrow, but……”
There was no need to seek his permission for something so trivial. Winston reminded them once more of what he had already told them.
“You refused to accompany her while letting her use the carriage as she pleases, correct.”
“Yes, but it seemed she had already noticed that Your Highness is avoiding her.”
Victor shrugged as if he had known this would happen and looked at Winston, who was lost in thought.
“See? As expected, she’s been waiting on her side too. I told you to go see her earlier.”
“There was nothing good to come from facing her without information, so I just left it. After reading this, I’ll have to face her whether I like it or not, so don’t look at it that way.”
Winston thought of several reasons she might want to meet him, and fixed his gaze once more on the envelope containing her information as he asked back.
“So was that the entirety of Miss Russell’s complaints?”
Dale, after thinking for a moment, shook his head and answered.
“Rather than complaints, it seemed she was simply probing. When there was a brief silence, I probably showed that I was awkward.”
“It’s fine. Miss Russell’s complaints will likely be resolved within a few days as well, so leave it be a little longer.”
Dale left, and now it was time to properly examine the envelope he had handed over. Normally, for a noble lady of Olivia’s age, information about her would be organized in about two pages. But eight pages. Winston newly felt that she had lived a life far outside the ordinary category. Winston handed the document, which he had quickly read to the end, to Victor.
“Wow, a borrowed name of a borrowed name of a borrowed name. This is really vicious.”
Victor, reading the document with interest, marveled.
“That’s why she could confidently say she would bring the Brown family’s assets as a dowry.”
After the property division, it was recorded that Olivia had immediately liquidated them, so the Brown ducal family would not think it had passed into her hands through Olivia. Even if they did, it would not matter much, but as the retainers’ voices grew louder, there was no reason to draw unnecessary attention.
“Would Miss Russell have calculated that far?”
“……She’s a clever person. It seems more than enough that she would.”
“But it is strange. Even if the Duke is a bit foolish, for the retainers to just hand over this land……”
“It was originally the previous Duke’s personal property, so few would have known the ownership itself. Miss Russell, though she lacked only voting rights in the council, was fulfilling all her roles as head of the household.”
“Not just the gold mine. Little by little, but all the businesses the Brown family had extended their hands into……”
“Are in Miss Russell’s name.”
“It seems she plucked them clean in one go.”
“Just the one gold mine that no one knows about would have been a successful division of property in itself.”
Victor, nodding, set the document down before Winston and smiled with the corners of his mouth pulled up.
“In any case, it’s certain that Miss Russell is the owner of that gold mine.”
Finding an investor comparable to Olivia was, for now, close to impossible. Winston finally realized he had to let go of his ideal, which had not overcome the wall of reality.
“No wonder I wanted to write the contract before even seeing the results.”
“You won’t die from getting married once, Your Highness the Grand Duke.”
Victor, seizing the rare opportunity to tease Winston, smiled comically and shrugged.
“If it really comes down to it, you can just divorce later, can’t you?”
Winston, who had been quietly staring at that sight, let out a hollow laugh and turned his gaze out the window.
“Victor. I didn’t take you for this, but you are utterly irresponsible.”
“Pardon? There is a nice thing in the world called divorce by mutual consent, Your Highness!”
* * *
The next morning, Olivia, having finished a light meal in bed, called Marilyn to her side while the other maids cleared the dishes.
“Did you enjoy your meal?”
“Yes, always tell the chef I am grateful. By the way, where is Masha?”
Though Marilyn was, in effect, keeping watch over her, waking her from her morning sleep was always Masha’s duty. But today, Masha was nowhere to be seen from the moment she woke, so Olivia raised a question.
“She is probably in the kitchen now. She stays there until lunchtime, teaching them the desserts you especially like, Young Lady.”
“Then call Masha for me after my bath. When I go to the dressmaker today, I will go with Masha.”
“As it happens, His Highness the Grand Duke conveyed a message on that matter.”
“What is it?”
“He asked how it would be if he accompanied you a few days later, if you are alright with it.”
Marilyn, standing before Olivia with a robe as she rose from the bed, delivered an unexpected message. Olivia, briefly at a loss for words, soon made up her mind and asked her back.
“After avoiding me all this time, he sends such a message through Marilyn?”
“Ah……”
“Please convey this to His Highness the Grand Duke.”
At Olivia’s gesture, Marilyn, suddenly coming to her senses, helped her into the robe.
“Four days is quite a long time, and there must be a reason for avoiding me.”
Olivia, adjusting her own appearance, slowly walked toward the bathroom.
“I will not go to the dressmaker today as he wishes, but if he avoids meeting me again today as well……”
At the halted footsteps as she avoided Marilyn’s supporting hand, Marilyn’s eyes began to waver helplessly.
“Tomorrow, I think I will ride in a carriage bearing the Grand Duke’s emblem, get off in the city center, and spur on the rumors. Of course, by then, they won’t be normal rumors.”
If one could see the Grand Duke overlapping in Olivia’s face as she asked her to convey that with a wink, would anyone believe it? Marilyn was inwardly appalled.
