Chapter 121. Why Did You Do That?
It was around the afternoon, when the heat of the day was gradually beginning to cool, that Raymond arrived at Elphengreen.
According to the original schedule, it was expected to take another day or two, but the Crown Prince, unable to bear watching him any longer, ordered him to return.
After a single refusal for the sake of courtesy, Raymond immediately turned the carriage toward Elphengreen.
He had hurried along the road, urging the coachman.
It was from the moment he entered the entrance lobby that he felt a sense of unease.
The first thing that caught his eye was the suspicious expressions of those lined up at the entrance.
Even considering that they were always tense in his presence, the atmosphere was excessively rigid.
As if they were afraid of getting caught for something.
In an instant, a thin furrow settled between Raymond’s brows.
“Greig.”
At the voice calling him, the butler Greig, who was standing at the very front, quickly stepped forward.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Why is the atmosphere of the mansion like this?”
“…….”
He asked what the situation was, but for some reason, there was no returning answer.
Seeing the embarrassment surfacing on the face of the old butler, who never lost his composure under any circumstances, Raymond realized that something truly unusual had occurred.
“What is it.”
“That is…….”
His mouth did not open even though he asked again.
Robin, who was standing behind Raymond, was also watching his grandfather’s suspicious behavior with an anxious gaze.
“Greig.”
A voice much lower than before.
At that unspoken warning that he would no longer tolerate it, Greig finally began to open his mouth.
It went without saying that Raymond’s expression hardened terrifyingly at the few short words that came from his mouth.
“D-Duke.”
Charlotte followed Raymond, who was walking with long strides, almost running.
Having heard the full story from the butler Greig a moment ago, he quickly climbed the stairs to the second floor.
The place his footsteps headed was his bedroom on the second floor.
Bang—! Entering with a terrifying roar, the Duke looked around for a long time as if searching for someone who should be inside.
However, seeing the bedroom chilled cold without a single trace of warmth, he seemed to realize it then.
That those words were truly the truth.
That the woman he wanted to see enough to rush back in a single breath was no longer anywhere in this mansion.
“Tell me truthfully what on earth happened.”
Charlotte’s shoulders flinched momentarily at the words spoken in a gloomy aura.
Right now, in this situation, she knew very well that she had to report honestly as things were, and that it was her duty.
However, even so, her mouth did not open easily.
Because if she answered truthfully to the question, the story of the Dowager Duchess would inevitably have to come out, and it was as clear as day who the Duke would immediately go to see after that.
Charlotte knew well that the reason the butler Greig hesitated was for that very same reason.
“I am sorry, Your Grace…….”
—I leave it in your hands.
The request the Duke had made to her as his last words before boarding the carriage a few days ago.
Charlotte knew the meaning of that well.
At a glance, it sounded like a routine request made when leaving his post, but those were words he didn’t even need to say to her, who had protected Elphengreen for decades.
In fact, it was something he had never said even once, even when he left the mansion for much longer periods than this.
What he was asking for was the person who needed Madam Charlotte’s care.
Only Charlotte had noticed that it was a request for that one person.
That was why her heart was so devastated at this moment.
No matter how much she was in a position where she had no choice but to follow the Dowager Duchess’s instructions, it was an unchangeable fact that she had failed to keep his request.
Charlotte bowed her head before him and sought forgiveness.
But such an action from Charlotte seemed to further incite his anger instead.
“I am currently.”
“…….”
“Not in a position to receive that kind of apology.”
Words that flowed out as if chewing on each and every syllable.
At that chilling tone that was suppressing latent anger to the utmost, a suffocating tension settled within the bedroom.
If it were the usual Charlotte, she would have been overwhelmed by that fierce momentum and opened her mouth by now.
However, she did not open her mouth about what had happened until the very end.
Even though it was clear she was terrified to the point that her complexion turned pale.
The problem was that the incomprehensible behavior made Raymond realize who the instigator of this situation was.
Deciding there was nothing more to hear, Raymond began to move quickly back in the direction he had come.
Charlotte quickly followed behind him with a face that had turned almost ghastly.
—…I heard she is an orphan… who has no place to rely on due to circumstances.
Words he had heard once flashed quickly through his mind.
What Charlotte had said when he asked about her background.
And his thoughts led back to the things the woman had said.
—The fact that you allowed me, who has nowhere to lean on…… to stay here, I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.
—You may not believe it, but I have never once thought of exchanging the warm bed and meals given to me now for vain greed that does not suit my station.
—So please, those words about firing me…… please, take them back…… please…….
She had said those things to him when he suspected recurring coincidences.
That she had nowhere to go, and that the provided bed and meals were more precious to her.
The woman who would snap back for a moment, yet would quickly become terrified the moment he mentioned firing her.
The moment he thought about where such a woman might be wandering right now, his fingertips turned cold.
That was why.
The reason he changed his steps, which were headed toward the drawing room.
“Prepare the carriage, right now.”
Robin, one of the tails following behind, was surprised for a moment, but soon nodded and ran quickly toward the entrance lobby.
“Your Grace, where are you…….”
Charlotte barely managed to get those words out while calming her ragged breath.
It was because his sudden change of direction while heading to the drawing room where the Dowager Duchess was felt strange.
However, what came from his mouth was a question, not an answer.
“Where did she say she was going?”
It was a sudden remark with the beginning and end cut off, but Charlotte understood immediately.
But this time, too, there was nothing else she could say in response.
She had asked where she was going, but Deborah had only smiled and said nothing until the end.
At the sight of her biting her lip tightly, a fierce anger flared in Raymond’s eyes.
“Ha, you don’t even know that?”
“…….”
If he had rather shouted and pressed her with great anger, her heart would not be this heavy, but her heart sank at the sight of him laughing coldly with a lowered voice.
Even though she had prepared for all of this to happen when the Duke returned, her mouth seemed frozen as she faced that fierce energy, and nothing would come out as if her speech was paralyzed.
“I seem to have misjudged you all this time.”
At the words that cut more sharply into her heart than a reproach, Charlotte’s expression hardened quickly.
At that moment.
“There is no need to say anything to Charlotte.”
At the voice that suddenly cut in, the gazes of the two naturally moved in the direction the sound was heard.
The people walking toward them from a few steps away were Eleanor and Cecilia.
Charlotte quickly bowed to the two approaching and then retreated behind them.
An unknown chill flowed between the two who had been a mother and son close enough to be envied by those around them.
“Instead of coming to see this mother since you are back.”
At the sight of her smiling brightly as if nothing had happened, a similar smile spread across Raymond’s mouth as well.
Raymond slowly bowed his head and offered her a greeting.
“……I am sorry, I was just out of my wits.”
“Yes, you must be exhausted from traveling a long way, so you should relieve your fatigue first.”
“…….”
“Charlotte, go quickly and prepare warm water—”
“Why did you do that?”
Thud, the words were finally spat out.
Eleanor’s face, as she turned her head toward Charlotte, hardened stiffly in an instant.
“Until I returned—”
“…….”
“I told you I hoped you would not call that woman separately.”
“…….”
“Was that truly so difficult?”
A voice so cold that a chill could be felt.
Because he had never once shown such a cold reaction toward his mother, everyone listening took on a look of extreme tension.
Whether she sensed the seriousness of it, Cecilia, who was standing at the back, took a step forward.
“Brother, everything Mother did was—”
However, neither Cecilia nor anyone else in that place knew.
With what superhuman strength he was currently suppressing the boiling anger.
“It would be best for you to shut that mouth.”
At the sharp warning, Cecilia’s blue eyes widened greatly in horror.
Raymond, who glared at Cecilia fiercely once more, immediately looked back at Eleanor standing beside her.
“I have many things to say to you, but first, I will speak to you after I return.”
“Return…… where on earth are you going at this hour…….”
Eleanor looked at the face of her smiling son with a bizarre expression.
Could it be that he intended to bring that lowly child, who left of her own accord, back here again…… Raymond lightly tilted his head toward Eleanor, who could not bring herself to ask.
“I will go and return first, and then I will speak with you again.”
Whether he had no intention of telling her now, before he turned his body around, Raymond finally added one more word.
“Because I must hurry if I am to find her before the sun sets.”
At those words, it was only natural that Eleanor’s expression, which she had been barely holding onto, crumbled completely.
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