Chapter 169. As a Secret
In an instant, the air above the table turned ice-cold.
It was a remark far too malicious to just laugh off like before.
However, the Bailey couple, who had no way of knowing the reason behind it, were merely bewildered by this situation.
On the contrary, those who knew exactly whom Raymond’s current words were targeting were completely frozen, not knowing how to react.
Only a single person.
Olivia, who sat to Raymond’s right, gazed blankly at her fiancé with an unreadable expression.
“What do you mean by that?”
At Olivia’s words that cut through the suffocating silence, Raymond’s gaze finally moved from the end of the table toward the right.
“A noble woman like you could never understand—but there is such a wench. A whore-like woman who, despite having a husband, openly climbs into another man’s bed.”
A sweet voice, completely contrasting with the content he was uttering, flowed from Raymond’s mouth.
Since this was the first time she had seen such a side to her partner, who had always been as cold as ice, Olivia’s pale cheeks soon became stained with a pink hue.
“Does such a… foul woman actually exist?”
Sometimes innocence serves as the most powerful weapon.
At Olivia’s naive inquiry, asked without knowing anything, a loud laugh burst from Raymond’s mouth.
“Of course she does. And yet, she doesn’t even know the meaning of shame, shamelessly walking around with her head held high.”
My goodness—at the sight of Olivia covering her mouth with startled, rabbit-like eyes, Raymond’s smile grew even deeper.
“That is why people say lowly things have no thoughts.”
Tsk. Raymond clicked his tongue as his gaze instantly shot rapidly toward somewhere.
This time, the gazes of the two people accurately collided in midair.
The blue eyes that once made her heart flutter so much now felt like nothing more than a sharp dagger piercing through her heart.
Feeling a sudden wave of nausea as if her stomach were turning inside out, Deborah stood up from her seat with her head bowed.
Everyone’s eyes suddenly focused on Deborah’s face as she stood up.
Without making eye contact with anyone, Deborah uttered her words in that exact posture with her head kept down.
“……I am sorry. I feel unwell…… so please, forgive my rudeness for leaving first.”
Words asking for permission.
Of course, it was a very grave rudeness for someone of low status to leave the dining table first, but there was always an exception to every rule.
Since she was requesting so politely while stating she was unwell, no one could really say anything about it.
Furthermore, the Dowager Duchess and Cecilia were also finding this seating arrangement quite uncomfortable.
However, the problem, if there was one, was that the person who had to grant that permission happened to be Raymond.
As if serving a punishment, just how much time passed like that?
Breaking the silence so quiet that not even a single breath could be heard, the sound everyone had been waiting for finally came from the head of the table.
“Do as you wish.”
An extremely ambiguous expression that was neither granting permission nor opposing it.
However, as if expressing her gratitude for those words, Deborah bowed her head even deeper and then quickly left the dining room.
And then, the meal resumed.
She was an opponent who was no different from an uninvited guest who had suddenly barged into today’s banquet anyway.
It was completely out of the question from the start that the meal would be disrupted just because one such person had disappeared.
Although a somewhat uncomfortable atmosphere lingered, the scheduled dining time continued to flow without a hitch regardless.
However, if there was one peculiar thing, it would be that from then until the very moment the banquet ended, a smile never once graced the Duke’s lips again.
As if the departed uninvited guest had taken it along with her, not even once.
—
Deborah organized her spot and left the cottage at dawn.
Her face clearly showed that she had not slept a single wink all night.
However, because there was something she had to confirm, she was hurrying her steps from early dawn like this.
Last night, after escaping that suffocating place, Deborah walked and walked aimlessly along the night path.
While walking, her stomach felt upset, so she threw up what she had eaten over and over again.
Only after repeating that process of walking and throwing up countless times could she finally arrive at the cottage.
By the time she returned to the cottage, her physical condition was already in a bad state.
Lying on the bed where she could barely rest her single body and covering herself with a blanket, she burrowed deeper and deeper into the corner to calm her trembling body.
By the time she had calmed down to some extent, it was already after dawn.
The very first thing she did upon regaining her composure was to re-examine this current situation.
How on earth this had happened, and what she should do moving forward.
While thinking about this and that, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
She realized that she had absolutely no idea what kind of conversations had taken place in the dining room after she left the area last night.
The mere thought that the Bailey couple might have mentioned her being pregnant made the blood in her entire body feel as though it were freezing instantly.
That was why she had left the cottage at the break of dawn like this.
Knock, knock.
When she knocked on the door carefully, Maria came out from inside before long.
“Deborah.”
She seemed even more startled by the dreadfully ruined face rather than the fact that Deborah had visited at such an early hour.
Toward the counterpart who could not close her agape mouth, Deborah finally opened her lips.
“Maria, I am truly sorry…… for coming so early. There is something I urgently need to ask of you…….”
Unlike her usual self, that anxious and impatient appearance must have naturally looked very strange.
Maria firmly grasped Deborah’s ice-cold hand and nodded her head.
“First, let’s go inside. My goodness, look at your hands……”
Led by Maria’s hand, Deborah took a seat on the sofa inside the living room.
Despite Deborah’s protests, Maria went to the kitchen and returned to the living room holding a warm cup of tea.
“Here, take a sip. What is wrong with the hands of a pregnant person?”
In truth, her cold hands were not the issue right now, but since she felt that doing so would make Maria listen to her story, Deborah swallowed a sip of the tea Maria handed over into her mouth.
Marvelously, as the warm liquid flowed down her esophagus, the cold sensation truly faded away, and her mind seemed to gradually grow calm.
Deborah sipped the tea a couple more times and soon set the teacup down on the table.
“Could it be…… that the favor you want to ask is related to what happened yesterday?”
Before she could even open her mouth, the topic of yesterday flowed out of Maria’s mouth first.
Deborah nodded her head immediately.
“……Yes, Maria.”
Maria let out a long sigh, saying she had a feeling it might be so.
“Tell me. What is the favor you want to ask?”
“Before that, there is something I want to confirm. Yesterday…… by any chance, after I left the room, did any conversation regarding me take place?”
After Deborah’s question ended, Maria fell into thought as if recalling something.
And then, she soon shook her head.
“No, there was none.”
As if losing all her tension at those words, Deborah let out a sigh of relief.
“Just what on earth is going on for you to be like this?”
It was around that time.
Maria noticed that something was quite unusual.
No, in fact, it was something she had been feeling ever since they went to Chambrin last night.
Even if she did not know exactly what it was, something unusual was definitely happening over that banquet table yesterday.
“Maria, I said there was a favor I wanted to ask, right?”
“Yes……”
“I really, truly hope Maria will grant it for me.”
Just how difficult of a favor could it be for her to act like that? Such a thought arose for a moment.
Still, if it was something she could help with, she wanted to help.
Even if it wasn’t because of Lea’s request, that was a feeling arising from her sincere heart.
However—
“The fact that I am pregnant…… I would like you to keep it a secret. No, even if it inevitably becomes known, just how many months along it is—that aspect, at the very least, I truly wish for you to keep it as a strict secret.”
Upon hearing those words, Maria’s brow furrowed in an instant.
In that short moment, Maria had also drawn up several predictions in her mind.
However, the words from just now were completely unexpected and did not even fall within that range of predictions.
It was that absurd of a remark.
Asking to keep being pregnant a secret.
Well, while the exact number of months might be a fact known only to her and her husband, the fact that Deborah was pregnant was something known not just to her, but to most people on the farm.
If it were just her alone, or rather just her and her husband, it might be possible, but there was no way to silence everyone’s mouths.
Knowing that she couldn’t be ignorant of this, Maria was curious about the inner thoughts behind making such an unreasonable request.
“But Deborah, that is a fact everyone already knows, so……”
As if understanding the meaning behind those words of difficulty immediately, Deborah nodded her head.
“I know, Maria. What I am talking about…… is the Cheister ducal family.”
The Cheister ducal family.
Ah, only then did a short groan burst from Maria’s mouth.
However, her mind immediately became even more complicated.
What on earth could be the reason for asking to keep the fact of her pregnancy a secret?
No, rather, what kind of connection did Deborah and the Cheister family have for her to make such a request?
She momentarily suspected that Deborah might be carrying the Duke’s child, but having already seen her husband, she thought that couldn’t be it either.
Therefore, she became even more curious about what the circumstances were.
However, along with the thought that Deborah wouldn’t have made such a request if she intended to talk about it, Lea’s urging not to pry suddenly pierced through her mind.
Right, it was a desperate request to the point of making her look this haggard overnight, so she felt there was no reason she couldn’t grant it.
To put it bluntly, all she had to do was keep her mouth shut, so what kind of difficult favor was that?
Having thought that way, Maria nodded her head deeply once.
“Very well. I will do so.”
At those words telling her not to worry, a faint light of relief finally brushed across Deborah’s face.
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