Chapter 171. How Many Months…… Is It
A day in Rosewick was generally on the monotonous side.
Of course, that was in comparison to when staying in Denver, which did not mean it was completely leisurely either.
Letters were rushing in swiftly as if they had been waiting for this exact moment.
The contents were all different, but the one that occupied the largest number was the request asking to accompany Raymond on a hunt, begging him to invite them at least once.
Since hunting was the very reason Raymond had hurried to move here as well, there was no reason to delay it any further.
Because he had completely wasted the entire day yesterday due to a hangover, today he had been up since dawn to look around the hunting grounds and was just returning.
Slowly moving along the hunting trail to check the types and traces of game, or inspecting the altered changes in terrain with his eyes.
Originally, it was a job for the gamekeeper, but Raymond occasionally went out to inspect it himself like this.
Since there was nothing quite like it to cool down a complicated head.
“Notify the farm well in advance as soon as the hunting schedule is decided. Do not make an absurd mistake like last time.”
“……Yes.”
Was it the year before last?
A child playing near the fence of the hunting grounds had chased a butterfly and entered inside, nearly resulting in a major accident.
His memory was certainly good; at the words pointing out the event of that time specifically, Robin watched his demeanor and bowed his head, saying he would do so.
Because one side of the farm happened to be in close contact with the edge of the hunting grounds, it was a part they paid attention to every year when the hunting season arrived.
Just because there had been no major accidents to speak of so far, there was no guaranteeing how long it would remain that way, after all.
While riding his horse and giving various instructions, before he knew it, they were passing in front of the farm.
Despite the midday scorching sun, the sight of laborers sweating profusely while working came into his view.
It would have been wonderful if it had just ended there.
At the end of his slowly drifting gaze, that face was ultimately caught.
The appearance of her wearing a large straw hat, sitting under the shade, and diligently moving her hands.
The moment Raymond pulled the reins he was holding and brought his horse to a stop, Robin, who was following behind him, naturally came to a stop in his place as well.
“……What is the matter?”
He looked at the profile of his face with a bewildered expression, but Raymond kept his mouth firmly shut without saying a word.
Only then did Robin’s gaze slowly begin to move in the direction Raymond was looking.
And, he ended up seeing it.
Exactly what it was that had captured the Duke’s gaze.
Mark Bailey, who was at a fairly distant position, ran over in a single stride toward this direction, wondering when they had arrived.
“Duke, what brings you here……”
Following Raymond, who stepped down from his horse with large strides, Robin also set his feet down onto the dirt ground.
“I am on my way back after looking around the hunting grounds.”
“Ah, I see. Even so, Mr. Sieg said that there are quite a lot of pheasants in the forest this year.”
“Is that so.”
It was a remark brought up intending to continue the conversation on his part, but the Duke’s reaction was extremely lukewarm.
Perhaps feeling embarrassed, Mark laughed awkwardly and scratched his head.
As if completely unconcerned with his counterpart’s reaction, Raymond’s gaze slowly drifted somewhere else again.
“It seems you still provide wages even if someone works in that manner.”
At the words spoken with a bitter smile, Mark’s brow instantly narrowed tightly.
Mark tilted his head and then turned his head to stare intently at the place the Duke was looking for a long while.
As if only then realizing what the Duke was talking about, an ‘ah’ sound escaped from his mouth.
“The weather today is a bit hot, isn’t it?”
Haha, at the boisterous voice loud enough to make one’s eardrums fall out, Robin frowned unconsciously.
However, the reason Raymond’s brow crumpled was not because of those words.
Raymond, who glared at Mark with a face that showed he could not understand, eventually spat out what was in his mind.
“The hot weather wouldn’t pour down solely on a single person’s head—”
Mark, who opened his eyes wide at the riddle-like words, understood the meaning behind those words a beat late this time as well and laughed out loud.
“No matter how much I employ people with money, I still can’t drive a pregnant woman out under this scorching sun. If I did that, Maria would probably chase after me immediately holding a ladle.”
Instantly, Raymond’s eyebrows twitched.
Haha, haha. Raymond’s gaze, looking at Mark who was laughing loudly, very slowly changed into a strange light.
A gaze that moved in all directions as if he had heard something bizarre.
It did not take long before that gaze plunged back down onto Mark’s face.
“What…… did you just say.”
“……Pardon?”
“Just now, who did you say was pregnant……”
Looking at the eyes that slowly narrowed into a slit, at some moment, a sound of gasping for breath was heard from Mark’s mouth.
“No, that, I, just now, that, such a thing…… haha.”
At the face turning red while not knowing what to do, his suspicion gradually turned into a certainty.
Raymond’s head moved toward the right once again.
The woman wiping away the sweat flowing beneath the large brim, his gaze moved in front of her following the movements of that woman lightly tapping her waist.
Her, whose exact appearance could not be distinguished because she was hidden by a large skirt.
“…….”
Mark, who was standing beside him, could neither do this nor that and was merely sweating profusely.
From Raymond’s mouth, who had remained motionless like that for a long while, a low remark finally flowed out.
“How many months…… is it.”
“……Pardon?”
“I believe you said that woman is pregnant. Just now.”
“……Th-That is.”
“Then, you must also know how many months it has been.”
Therefore, Mark was suffering to death at that fierce command telling him to speak the truth.
-Do not ever let it out of your mouth that Deborah is pregnant.
-What? No, everyone on the farm knows she is pregnant, so what do you mean by……
-In any case, just do as you are told. Especially, be even more careful with your mouth in front of the people from the Cheister family. Understood?
-Well…… that isn’t hard, but…… why is that.
-Just don’t ask for the reason, and oh. Even if someone finds out she is pregnant and asks, never tell them the number of months. Never!
-I don’t really know that anyway, after all…… come to think of it, I am curious. Exactly how many months has it been? Since you are in your fifth month, let’s see, looking at Deborah’s stomach…… could it be it has only been two or three months?
-What did you say?!
As the face of Maria, who had strictly sealed his lips, came to mind, he thought this was a major trouble.
However, the most important thing had not been spoken anyway, so wouldn’t it be fine?
Mark, who rationalized it that way, quickly bowed his head in front of the Duke.
“Th-The exact detail is something my wife knows well, but…… from what I know, I understand it to be about two or three months.”
While answering, Mark suddenly had such a thought.
Although he had answered absentmindedly on the spur of the moment, he wondered why on earth the Duke would be curious about such a thing.
To put it bluntly, if Deborah were a woman without a husband, one might suspect the situation, but she clearly had a husband who was the child’s father.
What was even stranger was the Duke’s expression, which altered after hearing his answer.
It was difficult to pinpoint and express it in a single word, but in any case, countless emotions were rapidly passing over that face.
Despair, astonishment, and the vivid anger that followed at the end of it.
“Are you…… certain. Those words you just said.”
He had no idea why he had to struggle like this over the number of months another woman had been pregnant, but it was also somewhat strange to say no at this point.
And if he answered that way now, he felt as though the Duke might return holding a gun and shoot him right then and there.
He knew it was nonsensical, but it meant that the Duke’s atmosphere was just that unusual.
Gulp. Mark, who swallowed his saliva, quickly nodded his head.
“Ye-Yes! It must be certain. My wife Maria is at five months, so I, I roughly know when I look at it. I know it well.”
“…….”
The Duke, who remained silent for a long while even at Mark’s behavior of nodding his head several times repeatedly saying it was certain, soon turned his body around and nimbly mounted his horse.
An attitude that suddenly transformed in the middle of a conversation.
Mark let out a strange sound with a blank expression, saying ‘uh, uh,’ but the Duke had already disappeared into the distance.
While riding and shaking the horse’s reins rapidly, his chest throbbed as if he had swallowed a burning lump of fire.
-Th-Then that wench! ……May I take her with me now.
That was a mere three months ago.
The day she returned together with the man who was her husband was not thirty months ago, nor thirty years ago, but a mere three months.
-Th-The exact detail is something my wife knows well, but…… from what I know, I understand it to be about two or three months.
Yet, they say she carries a child in her womb.
Moreover, one that is not even three months old yet.
His own foolishness, which had momentarily harbored a glimmer of hope at the mention of her being pregnant, was utterly absurd and infuriating.
After putting on a fake smile as if she loved him, pretending to be happy while held in his embrace.
A woman who immediately threw herself into another man’s embrace afterward, conceiving the evidence of that act in her womb.
He could never forgive her.
No, it was difficult to forgive.
That shameless woman. And himself, who was still wavering like this.
He could not forgive any of it.
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