Chapter 040. How about holding a ball?
“Ray.”
At the gentle voice calling his name, Raymond’s hand, which had been raising a crystal glass, paused for a moment.
His blue gaze slowly shifted to the face of Eleonora von Cheister, seated at the table to his right.
Eleonora looked at her always splendid son and gave a bright smile.
“The Marchioness of Constant sent a letter.”
“A letter?”
“Yes, she wrote that she’s terribly sorry for how things turned out, and at the end, she mentioned that Lady Olivia has completely recovered and is back on her feet.”
As if delivering good news, Eleonora’s cheerful smile prompted Raymond to respond with a faint, light smile.
“That’s good to hear.”
His indifferent reaction, as if it had nothing to do with him, caused the smile on Eleonora’s lips to quickly fade.
In truth, the engagement talks, which had been proceeding smoothly, hit a snag not long ago when a letter arrived from the House of Constant.
The issue was that Lady Olivia, the bride-to-be, had suddenly fallen ill with a severe fever.
Both families had just finalized the marriage terms and were on the verge of conducting the engagement vows through their respective representatives, making the situation all the more awkward.
The engagement vows, held before the wedding, were to be conducted through family representatives anyway.
Since the parties involved wouldn’t even meet in person, they could have pushed forward, but Eleonora von Cheister had decided to postpone the schedule entirely.
It might seem cold, but considering the possibility of unforeseen circumstances, she couldn’t simply force things to proceed.
Fortunately, the House of Constant seemed understanding, and they agreed to resume discussions once Olivia’s condition improved.
But seeing Raymond’s lukewarm response, Eleonora couldn’t help but feel uneasy about whether this marriage should even go forward.
“Really, Brother, ‘that’s good to hear’? Is that all?”
At the sharp, scolding tone, Eleonora’s worried gaze shifted to Cecilia, seated across from her.
“How is it that all men are exactly the same?”
Cecilia, who had been snapping irritably, frowned slightly and shook her head.
Despite her pointed remark, Raymond’s expression remained remarkably calm.
“You do realize that Edward, whom you’re so infatuated with, is included among those men, don’t you?”
“…”
Cecilia shot another fierce glare at her brother, who had slyly brought up Edward with his annoying comment.
But knowing that pressing further would only lead to her own loss, she turned her head back with a huff.
‘Who could possibly outtalk him?’
Pouting, Cecilia tossed a square sugar cube into the teacup in front of her.
With her eyes lowered primly, tilting the teacup, Cecilia spoke again not long after.
*Clink.*
Setting the teacup down on its saucer, Cecilia turned her sparkling eyes toward Raymond, seated to her right.
“How about holding a ball?”
At the sudden suggestion, both pairs of eyes turned to Cecilia in unison.
Looking back and forth between them, Cecilia continued with an excited expression.
“The atmosphere in the mansion has been a bit off lately because of that incident, hasn’t it?”
‘That incident.’
At Cecilia’s words, Raymond’s eyebrow twitched momentarily, but no one noticed.
“Indeed, to think such a disgraceful thing would happen at Elfengreen…”
As Eleonora shook her head, she remarked that in all her time at Elfengreen, such an incident had never occurred.
For a guest to cause a commotion by assaulting a maid at the Cheister family’s main estate, Elfengreen—it was worrying enough to fear it might leak to the outside.
The next morning, all the guests left Elfengreen and returned to their respective estates.
Raymond had conveyed his decision, and given the circumstances, everyone agreed without protest.
As a result, the atmosphere in the mansion had remained gloomy for days, which Cecilia found displeasing.
But now, with Lady Olivia having recovered, wasn’t this the perfect opportunity?
“To lift the mood and invite Lady Constant, it’s a chance we can’t miss, don’t you think? Mother? Brother?”
Her jewel-like blue eyes sparkling, Cecilia looked back and forth between Eleonora and Raymond, seeking their approval.
Holding a ball required the consent of the matriarch, Eleonora, but above all, it also needed the approval of the head of the house, Raymond.
A strange silence hung over the table for a moment.
Breaking that silence was Eleonora, who had been deep in thought with a serious expression.
“Yes, now that I think about it, that’s a good idea.”
‘Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’
Muttering to herself, Eleonora slowly nodded.
With her approval secured, all that remained was Raymond.
Both pairs of eyes turned to him at once, but Raymond, seemingly lost in thought, remained silent for a long while.
Just as Cecilia, unable to wait any longer, was about to speak, Raymond finally opened his mouth.
“I’ll leave it to Mother.”
At his long-awaited permission, Cecilia clapped her hands in delight, as expected.
* * *
After lunch, Raymond headed to the second-floor study.
There was a pile of work to attend to, but more than anything, he needed a quiet place to clear his complicated thoughts.
‘The atmosphere in the mansion has been a bit off lately because of that incident, hasn’t it?’
Recalling Cecilia’s earlier words, Raymond tossed the fountain pen he was holding onto the desk with a *thud*.
‘It’s true that she had those symptoms as a child, but they hadn’t occurred for a long time as she grew up… She seemed completely unaware that such a thing had happened.’
The day after he had escorted that wandering woman to her room, Lady Charlotte had stood right in front of this study desk and said those words.
After carefully gauging Raymond’s expression as he listened silently, she cautiously added one more thing.
‘Perhaps, like with Miss Cecilia, extreme stress might be the cause… The change in environment, and going through such… unfortunate events…’
‘Like with Cecilia.’
Comparing a lowly maid to Cecilia, the young lady of the Cheister family, was unthinkable, and Lady Charlotte knew it.
But for some reason, neither she who spoke nor Raymond who listened seemed to register that fact.
Or perhaps, more accurately, they hadn’t even considered it.
Raymond had to admit that he couldn’t bring himself to drive the woman out of this place.
Despite resolving to do so three times already, he hadn’t been able to follow through, and there was no way he could do it now.
Especially not when he was so acutely aware of being helplessly drawn to her.
That dawn, as he left the deeply sleeping woman and walked away, her faint scent lingered heavily at the tip of his nose with every step back to his bedroom.
His body, reacting instinctively, grew heavy.
Raymond had to walk down the long corridor with an indescribably grim expression.
“So, what am I supposed to do about it?’
Acknowledging this unprecedented attraction didn’t change anything.
Whether it was affection, mutual trust, or something else entirely.
Since his youth, he had vowed to marry a woman befitting the Cheister family and remain faithful to her alone for life.
Even if Ruveyk’s aristocratic society tacitly condoned mistresses, he had sworn he would never follow that path.
The man who gave him his blood, who spent his life swayed by a lowly mistress, bringing misery to his wife and children.
He had vowed never to repeat the filthy disgrace of *Randall von Cheister*.
He believed this impulsive emotion would fade cleanly once spring passed and he left Elfengreen.
Perhaps by then, his fiancée might even be by his side.
That’s why he had agreed to something he would normally have considered more carefully, giving his approval on the spot.
It was a desperate attempt to find anything to distract him from these feelings.
How had Raymond von Cheister come to this?
The more he thought about it, the more absurd it seemed, and a mocking laugh slipped through his lips.
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By Anna 💓
