Chapter 99
“That’s absurd.”
Rachel stopped brushing her hair and spoke as if she could not believe it.
It was already close to noon, the morning having long since passed. Because she had drunk more than usual the previous night, Rachel had only just managed to wake at this hour. And upon waking, complaints bordering on grievances from Mrs. Hudson came flying at her.
Rachel looked at her mother as if to say, ‘You must be joking.’ Her aunt was not a terribly bad person by nature, but there were times when she would bluster with boastful tales.
However, contrary to her expectations, Mrs. Works—her eyes meeting Rachel’s—shook her head with a strange expression.
“How on earth did this happen? It’s absurd. The atmosphere was fine until I left, was it not? Aunt must have run her mouth again. Right?”
“Rachel! Is there nothing you will not say to your aunt!”
Mrs. Hudson rose with an indignant face.
In the meantime, only Mrs. Works spoke with a calm countenance.
“If it is running her mouth, you started it first, Rachel. Perhaps Miss Grayson’s mood soured from that very moment.”
“……What did I do? I simply told the truth as it was. That she abandoned me and went off alone that day.”
“It is precisely telling it as it was that is the problem.”
To her daughter’s brazen reply, Mrs. Works spoke with a face that appeared nothing if not calm. As if summarizing another’s affairs, Mrs. Works pointed out the verbal slips of Mrs. Hudson and her own husband, Mr. Works, one by one.
Mr. Works, who had been smoking a cigarette at a distance while listening to the ladies’ conversation, snorted as if dumbfounded.
Rachel, who had been glancing toward her father, asked her mother again.
“You said you went straight to the Count? What was his reaction? He must have been dumbfounded. Right?”
“I am sorry, Rachel, but he behaved as though he were no longer the master of this place. Though she is the new mistress, it was a bit too much; I too followed Violet out, but it seems unreasonable to expect mediation from him.”
Mrs. Works spoke placidly. To Rachel’s eyes, she looked so calm it was infuriating.
Rachel’s face had now stiffened completely.
Even if she herself had fastened the first button wrong with a rash slip of the tongue, there were the other family members making one mistake after another, and then that woman, Miss Grayson, looking down on and insulting her family as though she had been waiting for it…….
Rachel muttered internally as if dumbfounded, then suddenly spoke with the expression of one realizing something.
“The Count said that……. Wait. What about Philip’s academy tuition? The new semester starts this September.”
“The Count, in his generosity, has already paid the first semester’s tuition. You need not worry about that.”
“What about next semester? What about next semester? We must get a firm promise.”
“Edmond promised us that in advance, did he not?”
Mrs. Works chided Rachel as if she were being unusually obstinate.
Rachel replied as if dumbfounded.
“……Edmond is already dead.”
It was a truly belated realization.
Amidst this, Mrs. Hudson let out a sob as if mortified.
“Good heavens. Even Rachel speaks such words. It seems we alone truly thought of Edmond, Lizzy. How can she think only of them?”
Whether Mrs. Hudson openly chided her to her face or not, Rachel’s face was rapidly stiffening at the reality that had struck so suddenly.
Just as Mrs. Hudson said, the only things that mattered most to Rachel were herself and her younger brother Philip.
Rachel groaned and pressed her temples. To some extent, Rachel had already anticipated that Isaac would marry sooner or later.
But she had not known it would happen so quickly. In the first place, her brother Philip was merely bait—something their family knew better than anyone.
Rachel had intended to use that to secure regular patronage from the Count for Philip and herself.
In any case, everything had gone awry. It had all gone wrong from the moment Isaac married far sooner than expected.
Since things between Isaac and herself were already ruined, Rachel intended somehow to secure Philip’s school fees at the very least.
Was that not why she had tried so hard to make a good impression on Miss Grayson?
Yet that family had ruined everything.
Rachel looked at her family members with a hard face.
“Fine. None of you intend to apologize.”
Rachel rose from her seat. Only young Philip sat on the sofa, looking up at his sister.
What an irritating household. She was likely the only one who truly cared for that young boy. Her father, still out of his mind with thoughts of business even now, and her mother, unwilling to bend her pride in the midst of all this because she too was from a reasonably distinguished family—in Rachel’s eyes, they all looked the same.
“I shall go and apologize myself.”
＊＊＊
Miss Grayson. No, Sasha, who had just become Lady Pinscher as of yesterday, was already terribly busy acting the mistress of the house.
“Lord and Lady Joseph are scheduled to depart this afternoon. They are especially close to my husband, so I would appreciate it if you would take care with the farewell.”
“Understood, young madam. As you instructed, we shall change the bedding to something bright that suits summer.”
“This time, do not select separate swatches; bring them directly to me.”
As soon as dawn broke, Sasha had summoned the servants first thing.
While encouraging them, who must have been exhausted from the wedding preparations and the reception, Sasha inspected the minor details of the estate that could be changed immediately and issued replacement orders one by one. There were still about two more days of reception schedules remaining, and the reason was that she wished the guests to see things in a better light even now.
The servants followed her orders without complaint. The events in the drawing room last night had spread by word of mouth, beginning with the servants who had waited up close, until everyone knew. If the stories were true, this woman from a noble house was unquestionably far more particular than they had thought.
In the first place, since the Count had permitted it, they could not raise objections. Sasha sat with the Count at breakfast and spoke casually about what had happened yesterday. And she said there were many things she wished to change in the breakfast room to suit her taste, examining every nook and cranny. The Count, rather than being displeased at Sasha’s behavior, which had changed as if overnight after the wedding, simply told her to do as she wished.
When Rachel had just arrived, Sasha and the Count, having finished breakfast, were taking a walk together toward the rear of the estate.
“I wish to make changes to the study that originally belonged to my husband as well. At the very least, I would like it filled with books he reads.”
“……Do so. There is a room where Isaac’s original belongings have been gathered separately.”
Rachel watched blankly as the two of them looked nothing short of harmonious and amicable, rather than awkward and uncomfortable. Behind the dazed Rachel, servants were busily taking down drab-colored curtains and diligently cleaning the windows. The gardener had climbed a ladder and was cutting away vines that had been left unattended for nearly half a year.
A renovation of the estate that had not even been done during the wedding preparations was now underway. After Edmond’s death, it was as if not touching certain things had been a kind of silent tribute; now all those stagnant things were being cleared away.
“That is a relief. And I would also like to meet the person who is to become my husband’s secretary.”
“He has gone to the capital on an errand. I shall inform him upon his return. Any other necessary handovers?”
The Count asked naturally, and Sasha was silent for a moment as if thinking, then answered, “I think that will be enough.”
Rachel merely blinked vacantly. Whether it was the woman’s attitude, brazen to the point of familiarity toward the Count, or the Count accepting it with a smiling face—watching them simply left her stunned.
Was this why Mother gave up? But even so.
……Even so.
“Rachel Works.”
At the low voice piercing from behind, Rachel jumped and trembled like a thief caught stealing. The moment she turned her head, her eyes met Isaac’s.
Her cousin, whose massive build was like a house, Isaac Pinscher—his countenance incomparably gloomy—looked down at her and gestured.
“Come out here without disturbing them.”
It was an imperative tone, as if it were only natural. His voice dripped with more hostility than usual.
Rachel’s vision went white. How could everything change overnight like this? It all felt like a lie. As if she were dreaming.
Rachel looked around at the busily moving servants and realized anew that she could no longer behave presumptuously.
The master of this place was no longer the Count but her cousin. That woman, Miss Grayson, was firmly establishing that fact from this very morning.
“Where are you going?”
Isaac called out again to Rachel, who was turning to leave with a dejected face. Rachel answered without looking at Isaac.
“……To Grandmother…….”
With things having come to this, her last hope was Caroline alone.
Rachel answered, suddenly overwhelmed with sorrow, sniffling before she knew it. She could not possibly ask Isaac now to do something about her brother’s tuition. Perhaps that Miss Grayson, but not him.
Rachel had always ignored Isaac. That made it all the harder to face him. Edmond, who had been no different from a true older brother and had provided her the justification to ignore Isaac, was already dead. She felt that reality acutely once more.
A low sigh came from above.
“Grandmother is busy now. Enough, come this way. I have something to say.”
With a wounded face, and yet with tears welling in her eyes, Rachel looked up at Isaac.
“I am sorry for speaking rashly about you yesterday.”
“…….”
“I am sorry for telling them everything—how you abandoned me and stupidly trudged off in the rain, forcing yourself every step.”
Isaac looked down at Rachel as if dumbfounded. It was a tone one could not tell whether it was an apology or a jab.
But Rachel had always been like this. Hopeless and proud.
“I will pay for Philip’s tuition, so that is enough.”
And when it concerned her brother, she would move heaven and earth.
Rachel, who had been forcing out the words with a wounded face, looked up in surprise.
Isaac sighed as he looked at her.
“……Because Edmond promised as if guaranteeing it in advance? However, it is only until your brother comes of age at sixteen. After that…….”
Rachel roughly wiped her tears and cut him off.
“……Thank you, Isaac.”
“…….”
“……Thank you.”
Isaac looked down at the sniffling Rachel with a blank face and finished his words.
“That is enough, so do not bring up any talk to my wife from now on.”
Their conversation ended there.
So he dotes on his wife thoroughly until the very end, Rachel muttered inwardly, even as she obediently turned and walked away.
In any case, it was a relief. That she had intended to somehow use the deceased Edmond’s promise to manage, only to have Isaac reach out first—she had not anticipated that.
Feeling a strange sensation, Rachel rubbed her face with her sleeve and sat down on a bench in the distance.
“Sister.”
While Rachel sat sniffing, Philip’s voice was heard. He had approached unnoticed and sat beside her.
“I apologized separately to Brother formally.”
Philip spoke brightly. And holding up a single flower he had roughly plucked from the garden, he said,
“I tried to apologize to Brother’s wife as well, but Brother said it was fine. He said I did not have to go that far.”
“……I was a fool to worry about you.”
“Yeah. I can handle my own affairs. So don’t worry.”
Rachel did not answer and rubbed her dried tears away.
Philip placed the stray flower, now without a home, upon his sister’s lap.