Chapter 76
“Welcome, Miss Grayson. I was quite surprised myself to hear the news!”
It had taken a full two days by carriage to reach the ducal estate, exactly as written in the letter. Even though Sasha had prepared and left immediately after writing her reply, she had barely managed to arrive on time. Since she hadn’t expected anyone to come out and greet her upon arrival, Sasha was slightly surprised to see a young woman greeting her as if she had been waiting the moment she stepped down from the carriage.
Sasha recognized at a glance that she was one of the lady’s maids cherished by the Duchess. Recalling that the Duchess had once personally introduced her to Sasha, she barely managed to remember her name.
“Miss Lytton.”
“The Duchess is waiting over there. She has been waiting this whole time for Miss Grayson to arrive.”
Fortunately, the surname she had remembered seemed to be correct. Seeing Miss Lytton welcoming her with suitable warmth, Sasha nodded in slight relief and soon followed her into the interior of the mansion. The head butler overseeing this grand mansion stepped forward first, and Miss Lytton and Sasha followed side by side behind him.
Miss Lytton was someone who could read the atmosphere to some degree, and she was not hostile toward Sasha. When she brought up the news she had heard through the newspaper once again, she quickly noticed Sasha’s discomfort and stopped mentioning it any further.
Instead, she changed the subject appropriately by mentioning how long the Duchess had waited for her and how worried she had been. Worried about me? Sasha shook her head as she listened to Miss Lytton’s words.
‘She was worried, no doubt. But strictly speaking, it wasn’t worry about me.’
It was worry for her own child, if anything. As Sasha was about to continue that thought, she suddenly stopped walking in surprise at the booming gunshot ringing out nearby.
“Ah, she couldn’t wait and has already started.”
Unlike Sasha, who flinched in surprise at the gunshot, Miss Lytton immediately pressed against the window to look outside, muttered to herself, and then began walking quickly as if hurrying her along. Though Sasha had been startled despite having listened to gunfire day and night at the shooting club not long ago, she soon followed behind her with a composed expression.
The place they arrived at was an open lot located behind the ducal mansion. Sasha was greatly surprised to see the garden looking so different from when she had come before. Yes. It was literally an empty lot. The magnificent garden she had last seen had vanished without a trace.
“Your Grace, as you instructed, I have come to greet Miss Grayson in your stead.”
Sasha turned her head toward where Miss Lytton was speaking with a thrilled expression. Amid that bleak scenery, the Duchess holding a long musket came into view.
Just as Isaac had shown her not long ago, Sasha watched the Duchess loading a bullet and gunpowder into the musket with the help of a maid. Soon after, another ear-splitting gunshot rang out.
Since Miss Lytton covered her ears with a familiar gesture and signaled to Sasha beforehand, Sasha was able to follow her lead and cover her ears with her hands before the gunshot. Faint smoke wafted from the muzzle of the musket. Then the Duchess set down the musket, removed her earplugs, handed them to the maid, and only then turned to look this way.
“Welcome, Sasha. I’m sorry for calling you to such a distant place. It’s just that the thought of staying in that cramped townhouse for the rest of the summer is rather suffocating.”
“Which is why you come down here from time to time. To relieve your stress through hunting as well!”
Miss Lytton interjected appropriately after the Duchess’s words, subtly implying that the Duchess had not called Sasha to this distant place with the intention of deliberately putting her through hardship.
“I was surprised by how much it has changed since I last came.”
“What? The garden? Oh, yes. I meant to tidy it up little by little, and before I knew it, it had come to this. Had she known, I would have heard her nagging for days. Isn’t that right?”
She clearly referred to Lady Rosalyn. Sasha nodded in agreement with the Duchess, who spoke to her in a friendly, joking manner.
The Duchess then took her cigarette from the servant holding it, took a drag, and exhaled. Just as she was about to speak again, Sasha spotted another servant approaching from afar, carrying something black.
It was a dead bird. As Sasha stared blankly at the servant holding the wing of a large bird and bringing it over as if showing off his mistress’s trophy, the Duchess personally told Sasha to go inside.
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Had it been a coincidence that she was hunting at exactly the time Sasha arrived? Perhaps because she had been entangled in various matters in a short span of time and her nerves were on edge, such things grated on her. The very person who had produced an ear-splitting gunshot the moment Sasha arrived chatted about hunting with a nonchalant face as they walked together.
“It’s a hobby I’ve had since I was a maiden. My husband still doesn’t quite approve, but he’s busy with work in the capital right now.”
The Duchess continued walking, casting a glance at Sasha as if to ask if she didn’t already know. They soon entered the largest drawing-room in the ducal mansion. The ducal mansion itself was so large that it could not be compared to Dilton Manor. The drawing-room was no different.
Only after confirming that the Duchess had sat down and gestured with her chin toward a seat was Sasha able to sit properly.
Before long, maids entered pulling a cart and set down tea and refreshments on the table. In the meantime, the Duchess exchanged trivial pleasantries. Unlike Miss Lytton, she acted as though she had never even heard of the incident that had occurred just days ago.
But the moment the maids pulled the cart out of the drawing-room, she brought up the matter as if she had been waiting to do so.
“Mr. Butler has long served as my husband’s secretary. He was good at his work, of course, and tight-lipped, making him a good person to have around for a long time. His son was around Jeffrey’s age, so they played together here when they were young.”
“I see.”
“It’s a real shame things turned out this way. I was surprised to hear the news myself after some time. I had only thought of him as a rather shy child.”
The smile Sasha had been forcing crumbled completely at the Duchess’s seemingly nonchalant, yet unmistakable, defense.
“You must have been frightened, Sasha.”
“……Yes. I felt truly helpless and terrified at that moment. If the maid hadn’t noticed the situation beforehand and intervened, I don’t know what might have happened.”
Sasha spoke calmly, and she could sense the Duchess, who had taken out a fresh cigarette from atop the table and lit it, staring intently at her.
“……Yes. I suppose so. I know all too well what that feeling is, Sasha.”
After having acted so protective of the other side, now she adopted a tone that seemed to sympathize with Sasha’s feelings. Whether Sasha looked at her with a bitter expression or not, the Duchess continued smoking and began asking this and that with an indifferent face.
It was an attitude that cut things short quickly, as if to say that was enough consolation.
“You needn’t worry about the reporters. I’ve already taken measures on my end to ensure that sensitive information doesn’t leak. People always have a tendency to focus on the victim rather than the perpetrator. All the more so if that person is someone who normally stands above them.”
It was as if she spoke from experience. Yet her expression was impassive. The mask of feigned concern that Sasha had expected was nowhere to be seen.
The Duchess here seemed like a completely different person. She was nothing like the amiable lady who had visited Dilton Manor without fail after Lady Rosalyn’s death to teach Sasha various things and introduce her own people.
Just as Sasha was looking at the Duchess with questioning eyes, the Duchess tapped the half-burnt cigarette against the ashtray and continued.
“Sasha, you did well blocking the reporters on your end as well. But I’m sure someone of a sort you’ve never seen before has approached you.”
It was just as Sasha had guessed. She was referring to the person presumed to be from the Intelligence Bureau.
“How far did you let him in?”
The Duchess asked, and Sasha answered honestly.
“Only as far as the hall. He tried to follow the constable in naturally, so I blocked him myself.”
“You did well. Since the young mistress of the house herself blocked him, there was little they could do.”
“Are they truly such formidable people?”
The Duchess nodded at Sasha’s question.
“Indeed they are. Moreover, they are very tenacious. Once they bite, they rarely let go.”
“……It happened decades ago, before I was even born.”
At the muttered words Sasha let slip, the Duchess’s hand, which had been taking out a fresh cigarette, stopped. Her black eyes silently stared at Sasha for a moment, as if gauging something. After gazing intently at her, she moved again a beat later and nodded.
“……Yes. Why they still latch on so persistently to something that happened so long ago.”
“…….”
“I simply cannot fathom it.”