<16>
At that time.
“There’s no other way. The Duke and Airi will understand.”
Rowena was making a very solemn resolution.
Until a little while ago, Rowena had been playing a poorly timed game of hide-and-seek.
And she was staking her destiny on it!
The reason was simple.
‘Where on earth did Dante go?’
Dante had completely vanished after leaving the tearoom.
Rowena chased after him, but even when she asked the servants, few remembered seeing him.
Everyone was so busy being scolded by the Dowager Lady Hayworth that they had no room to pay attention to a child.
Searching for the vanished Dante, Rowena wandered through every corner of the Somerset mansion.
If she followed her heart, she might have said she didn’t want to bother socializing, but this was a vital matter concerning Rowena’s survival.
‘If Dante dislikes me, I might get kicked out!’
The only reason Rowena could come here was that she was the solution to Seymour’s succession problem.
And since that solution involved Rowena marrying Dante and passing down the title.
‘If Dante says he doesn’t want to marry me, I’ll become a useless child!’
No matter how many memorandums she wrote for the Dowager Lady Hayworth, they would just become scraps of scribbles at that point.
‘I thought I only had to make the Duke happy.’
To think there was such an unexpected ambush.
Besides, this boy was incredibly good at hiding. Forget a shadow, she couldn’t even see the tip of a hair!
Perhaps it was natural.
Dante had likely visited this mansion many times, while Rowena was essentially a newcomer. It was an environment where she couldn’t win.
The only fortunate thing was that Freya had left Dante behind.
‘My part is just to introduce Dante. Who am I to take him away? Strictly speaking, Somerset is no different from Dante’s home. I shall be going now, so get along well.’
Thanks to that, the opportunity to get close to Dante still remained.
‘But if it keeps going like this, it’ll be hard to find Dante.’
Rowena was too small, and the mansion was too large.
If she knew the structure of the mansion well, and if Rowena were the one hiding, this would have been an advantage. But since it was the opposite, those factors became weaknesses that tormented Rowena.
Thus, after circling the Somerset mansion fruitlessly.
Rowena made a very momentous decision.
“I guess I need to get taller.”
If I get very, very tall so the mansion is visible at a glance, it’ll be easy to find Dante!
But no matter how much milk she drank, it was hard to get taller right this second.
So Rowena decided to use the terrain. Specifically, she decided to climb a tree!
“Hehe. You picked the wrong opponent, Dante.”
I don’t know who you’ve dealt with before, but I’m someone with 10 years of experience at Townsend.
Places where children gather are usually like that, but things tend to turn into a mess as soon as the adults disappear.
It becomes like that when groups of three or four roll around the floor, climb trees so high you wonder how they even got up there, or go up the back hill to pick wild berries only to return crying after being pricked by thorns.
And as someone who lived among them for 10 years, Rowena could climb a tree like this even with her eyes closed.
Of course, she got scolded severely by the teachers every time she did.
‘I can just climb up and down quickly while no one is looking!’
Her tree-climbing skills were as sharp as ever. Rowena quickly settled at the top of the tree.
As expected, with a higher vantage point, the Duke’s estate was visible at a glance. A high wind tickled her cheeks and tousled her hair, and Rowena looked down at the peaceful ground with a broad smile.
‘There’s Louisa hanging the laundry!’
And the people struggling over there seem to be moving sacks of flour.
In the wide garden, a gardener hummed while picking flowers for vases, and beside that, a luxurious carriage was entering along the main gate.
What a picture-perfect scene…….
……Wait.
‘A carriage?’
For such a luxurious carriage to enter the Duke’s mansion…….
Could the Duke have returned already?
Rowena’s face turned pale white.
‘Oh, no.’
I might actually get in trouble this time.
While a nervous Rowena clung tightly to the tree, the carriage, which had been driving smoothly, came to a halt.
And exactly in front of the tree Rowena had climbed.
The carriage door opened, and Seymour stepped out with a frown.
Did he get out because he knew?
No way, how could he know? Of course he wouldn’t know…….
“I know you’re there, so come out.”
“……Hehe, how did you know?”
“I’m the one who wants to ask. How could I not know when you left your clothes behind like that?”
“Ah!”
Rowena let out an exclamation as if she just realized.
When climbing a tree, clothes inevitably get scratched and dirty.
Until now, it didn’t matter because they were just tattered orphanage clothes, so she would ignore it and climb.
But no matter how she thought about it, today was problematic.
Rowena recalled what Airi said while helping her dress this morning.
‘It’s a truly beautiful dress, isn’t it? It was made with precious fabric. Even the Dowager Lady Hayworth would like this outfit. Of course, the young lady is more precious than anything else.’
Kind Airi.
Rowena didn’t care if the teachers got angry about tearing clothes.
‘But I don’t want the kind Airi to be
upset because of torn clothes.’
So Rowena had taken off the layered skirts. It was out of the thought that the muslin dress underneath was cotton, so it would be fine if it got a little dirty.
‘Even if it gets a bit dirty, no one will know if I put the clean skirt back on over it!’
She thought.
But to think that would actually become a trace!
Seymour, beneath the tree, had a face that looked like he had a significant headache. To put it another way, he looked even scarier than usual.
“Come down, I have something to say.”
“Are you going to be angry?”
“We’ll talk about that later—”
Just then.
Another person stepped out of the carriage.
This time, it was someone Rowena was seeing for the first time.
A man with a very unique hairstyle, with his already curly hair rolled even rounder.
“Your Grace! May I ask for what reason you stopped the carriage? I tell you again, work is still piling up in my studio! To suddenly call me like this and waste time…….”
Complaining with a face full of irritation as he approached, he stopped dead in his tracks with a shocked expression upon seeing Rowena hanging in the tree.
Rowena felt a bit embarrassed, though she didn’t know why he was so shocked.
Do these people see a child in a tree for the first time?
‘Hehe. This is embarrassing.’
Rowena waved her hand, using her trademark move: ‘Smile brightly when embarrassed.’
Then, the man who had been in shock spoke with an even more astonished face.
“Yo-Your Grace, surely you brought me here to show me this……?”
“I did. Although it’s a bit different from what I expected—”
“My goodness! It is absolutely perfect!”
The man, Ober, let out a single shout and began to pour out admiration.
“Your Grace’s foresight brings tears to my eyes! That’s it! The simple yet pure and lovely noble child I wanted! How did you find such a model! I would believe it if you said you brought a forest fairy here!”
“Can you proceed with the work if this is the model?”
“Can I? No, I feel like I want to beg you to let me do it! It is truly a scene where inspiration gushes forth! This lighting, the temperature, the humidity!”
The beautiful mansion, the clear afternoon sunlight, the gentle breeze blowing, and the swaying leaves.
The image of a young child waving her hand with a pure laugh from atop that tree was truly no different from a masterpiece painting.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
