< 11>
‘To make such a beginner mistake!’
A mistake even Miller, who always has a runny nose, wouldn’t make!
And right in front of someone she’s meeting for the first time!
This is unbelievable. She had completely tarnished the name of Townsend’s top student with black paint.
Rowena made excuses in a voice that shrank inward.
“…Normally, I eat without getting it on me. Really.”
“Of course. All children are like that at first.”
“I’m not a child.”
This much was really, truly true.
But Airi didn’t seem to believe it at all.
Airi laughed as if finding it amusing, then finished wiping Rowena’s cheeks and held out her hand.
“Then shall we go wash up properly? I’ll prepare your bath.”
“Yes!”
Rowena took Airi’s hand and stood up energetically.
Airi led Rowena straight to the bathtub and carefully washed her.
While sitting in the warm water, the maids gently cleaned her body with fluffy bubbles and soft sponges.
‘If baths are like this, I could do it three times a day.’
Though she had followed along obediently and energetically, in truth Rowena didn’t particularly like baths.
At the orphanage, bath time meant cramming a bunch of children into a large tub, pulling them out one by one, and roughly splashing water over them to wash.
Because there were so many children to wash, the teachers were bound to get tired, so their touch was inevitably rough.
The children, soaked like drowned rats, would shiver together until their names were called and they were scrubbed clean — that was the “bath” Rowena had known until now.
‘Here it’s so warm. And soft.’
Her hair wasn’t stiff but smooth, and the water in the wide tub — big enough to splash around in — carried the scent of roses.
“You were very well-behaved. Since you bathed nicely, here’s your reward.”
And on top of that, she even received a lollipop after the bath!
By the time she finished bathing, night had fully fallen.
While the maids dried her hair, Rowena rolled the tangy cherry candy from one cheek to the other and thought,
‘This place really seems like a good place.’
There’s hot chocolate, the older sister maids are kind, and you even get candy after a bath.
The Somerset ducal residence was so vast that she hadn’t even explored half of it yet, but Rowena already liked it here.
If this were her home, she felt she would be happy every single day.
‘Of course, I know.’
That she can’t live here forever.
Rowena had come here solely because of the cure.
If she couldn’t obtain the cure, she wouldn’t even last the five years Madam Hayworth had mentioned, let alone the ten.
‘To do that, first I need to make the Duke happy.’
That way, the Duke’s business will thrive, and that will advance the timeline for obtaining the cure.
But how can she make the Duke happy?
While Rowena was deep in thought, she overheard the maids talking among themselves behind her.
“Did you hear Sir Hugo earlier telling us to tidy the master’s bedroom? It looks like the master will be staying at the mansion tonight.”
“Then tomorrow we’ll have to clean up the liquor bottles again.”
“If there’s no alcohol, he can’t sleep at all. He hates sleeping pills because they make him sleep too deeply.”
“Still, lately it’s been a bit better. Last time, the master was in the middle of the night…”
One of the maids started to continue absentmindedly, then realized and quickly glanced at Rowena before clamping her mouth shut.
But even that was enough for Rowena to understand how Seymour usually lived.
‘The Duke usually has trouble sleeping.’
That must be why his face is always covered in layers of exhaustion.
Rowena turned her gaze to the darkening window.
It would soon be bedtime.
‘In that case…’
A bright smile bloomed on Rowena’s face as she came up with something.
I’ve got a great idea!
* * *
Late at night, in the study of the Somerset ducal residence.
“I heard the family has grown while I was away, Your Grace.”
A young man with slightly drooping eyes and light brown hair handed Seymour a document.
“It feels like it’s been three months since I last came to this study. And half a year since I last saw it without liquor bottles scattered around.”
“Everyone’s been especially noisy today…”
Seymour, with a tired face, furrowed his brows as he took the document.
His sharp expression — now practically his default — stemmed not so much from a bad mood as from accumulated fatigue over a long period.
Flipping through the pages, Seymour continued cynically.
“My mother-in-law said to stay at the mansion today because she brought the child. I don’t understand what bringing the child has to do with me staying here.”
“Isn’t she asking you to keep an eye on the young miss so she can adjust?”
“Does the world stop turning if I don’t? She’s asking nonsense.”
Seymour clicked his tongue.
He detested children.
A polite child, a quiet child — to Seymour, everything about them was bothersome.
No — it wasn’t limited to children.
Somerset, Hayworth, everything only gave him headaches.
So whenever he recalled the things Freya had said while thrusting the child at him, he could only feel exasperated.
“I don’t know what my mother-in-law is thinking. I already have more than enough to deal with, and now a child?”
She said the child is good-natured, so just raise her? Does that even make sense?
Of course, as Freya said, the child was good-natured.
No — her friendliness went beyond what that word could describe.
But…
“…How bothersome.”
“But in the end, you still brought her here.”
Though Seymour’s words sounded harsh enough to be called cold, the young man was accustomed to his way of speaking.
His name was Axel Portman.
He was Seymour’s secretary and aide.
Because he had been out handling matters when Madam Hayworth arrived with Rowena, Axel had learned of the child’s existence a little late.
And he had been quite surprised.
“I heard you gave the young miss the sunniest room in the mansion? When I came back, the whole place was already buzzing about it — I was shocked.”
“There are plenty of empty rooms in the mansion. Airi just gave it to her on her own.”
“Come on, Your Grace. You know as well as I do that nothing gets assigned without your permission. I also heard you’ve already started looking for a tutor.”
Instead of answering, Seymour removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
It was a sign he was too tired to keep talking.
“…What do you want to say.”
“I’m saying you should stay at the mansion for a while. Keep an eye on the young miss too. After all, didn’t you bring her here to raise her as the heir? There’s no harm in paying attention.”
Axel came from a vassal family of Hayworth.
Originally, he should have served Hayworth, but he had followed Seymour to the Somerset ducal family.
That meant he understood better than anyone how complicated and troublesome Seymour’s heir problem truly was.
From Axel’s perspective, the “solution” Madam Hayworth had brought was incredibly groundbreaking.
Sponsor a child, raise her as the heir, then have her marry the nephew and pass on the title!
‘That way, no one would be able to say a word against it.’
It was highly efficient.
The only one problem — aside from the fact that Seymour was currently in no state to care about anyone.
“I grew up just fine without anyone paying attention to me.”
“Of course you did, Your Grace — you could probably survive even if thrown into a wasteland. But from what I’ve heard, the young miss doesn’t seem like that kind of person.”
Axel recalled the chatter among the maids.
‘Have you touched the young miss’s cheeks? They’re so soft — like a baby’s!’
‘I accidentally brushed her hair while drying it, and she giggled because it tickled. She’s like an angel…’
‘What? I haven’t touched them yet! I wanted to help with bath time too!’
Axel, who hadn’t seen the “young miss” in person, couldn’t fully relate to the maids’ words.
And the fact that they were fighting over who got to help with bath time was even more unbelievable.
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