Chapter 36
After the commotion at Count Rachel’s estate, Rowena’s reputation and position, once openly looked down upon, changed completely.
It was not to the extent of the South, where people had competed to win Rowena’s favor, but the number of those who openly showed her goodwill began to grow.
The decisive turning point came when she attended Countess Rachel’s salon. The countess, who reigned at the top of society at just over forty, was an easygoing and candid woman. Once she opened her heart to the polite and affable Rowena, she readily poured out everything from trivial rumors to high-quality information that was difficult to obtain.
Among them, Rowena committed to memory the information that seemed somewhat credible and useful. Perhaps it might even help her escape.
Even now, when she thought back to the day of the banquet, her heart went cold. The word “illegitimate child” had made her heart drop, and she had stormed into the lounge without thinking, but she had never dreamed that such an impulsive act would bring about this result.
Even after she had gone and done it, she had inwardly worried what would happen if word reached his ears that a mistress had dared to bring up the royal family, but Killian’s reaction was unexpectedly calm.—Do that from now on, too.—Pardon……?
She doubted her ears, but instead of answering, he pulled her by the wrist. In an instant, Killian had laid her on the bed and climbed over her.—Don’t just stand there taking it like an idiot. Do it like you did just now. It’s better than sobbing behind people’s backs.—…….
At his indifferent words, Rowena’s pupils trembled. Not once, not a single time, had she ever cried in front of him. Except for that final night five years ago.—I suppose I should give you a reward.—How did you know I cried…… Ah!
Her question could not continue. After that, with the practiced touch and lips that approached her, she could not think at all.
“Normally, he would have said I’d done something presumptuous…….”
While she was relieved by Killian’s attitude, something about it felt strange. Even if it was the victor’s magnanimity toward her complete surrender, lately he had been almost excessively gentle. It was not as though he had given her sweet words of love, neither in the past nor now.
Unlike before, when being with him made her feel as if she were standing on a precarious tightrope without even realizing it, now she no longer felt suffocated even if they stayed in the same space for a fairly long time. The other day, she had even dozed off without noticing while sitting beside him as he read.
Just then, a knock awakened Rowena from her thoughts as she sat in the dining room.
“Hello, Miss Philone. You are here today.”
The person who entered with a bright smile was a tall gentleman.
Only briefly surprised, Rowena also bowed her head toward the man greeting her.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. You are Sir Felix, correct?”
“How did you know that?”
“Mr. Xenoc once told me you were close to His Highness. But I’m sorry—what shall we do? His Highness has stepped out for a moment……”
“Ah. Not at all. There’s no need to apologize. It’s my fault for visiting without making an appointment in advance.”
Felix shrugged, then subtly gestured with his eyes toward the couch opposite her.
“May I sit for a moment?”
During the past three years she had been his mistress, among Killian’s acquaintances, aside from his close aides Xenoc and Benedict, there had been no one she had personally greeted or conversed with.
Though it was Bianca who had opened the door of the townhouse, while Rowena hesitated over whether it would be all right for them to sit alone face-to-face, he shamelessly plopped down.
“My legs ache after walking around all over the place.”
“Ah…… yes.”
Hiding her bewilderment, Rowena barely lifted the corners of her lips and sat down. Soon, after the maid came in, set out refreshments, and left, Felix got to the point.
“Actually, the reason I came when Killian wasn’t here is because there’s something I wanted to ask Miss Philone first.”
“Something to ask me?”
It was an abrupt thing to say to someone she had never met. As she tilted her head in puzzlement, his words struck her like a bolt from the blue.
“Yes. Do you happen to know a woman named ‘Carol Bertimer’?”
“Carol… Bertimer…….”
Of course she knew her. It was a name she could never forget. An old friend who had called her to the capital, then saddled her with an enormous debt. A name she had given up on after finding no trace of her no matter how much she searched.
“How do you know that!”
The moment that name leapt from the mouth of someone she had never expected, Rowena sprang to her feet without realizing it.
“…
So you do know her.”
Unlike the horrified Rowena, Felix clicked his tongue as if he had expected as much, and this time, in reverse, offered her a seat.
“Sit down first.”
“…….”
“May I ask what your relationship is?”
“She was… an old friend from my hometown.”
Rowena sank back down and murmured with a half-dazed expression.
“Though she betrayed me horribly…….”
As the face she had tried so hard to push behind her memories came to mind, the bleakness of that time flooded back. Rowena rubbed her face dry and moved her lips in a low voice.
“But how do you know that name?”
“You will find that out later.”
With a faint smile, Felix rose from his seat.
“Since my business is finished, I should be going now.”
Before she could stop him, he left as suddenly as he had appeared. As Rowena stared at the closed door with stunned eyes, Melissa approached and spoke to her.
“Lady Rowena. A messenger just came. I think His Highness sent him.”* * *The telegram Melissa handed her had a single address written briefly on it. As Rowena read down the address without much thought, she inhaled despite herself.
Throughout the ride to the address in the duke’s carriage with Melissa, she said nothing. After the unexpected visitor, Melissa too was flustered by the sudden trip.
“Lady Rowena. It feels like we’re going somewhere more and more secluded… Is it just me?”
“…
This is the right street.”
With a sigh, Rowena cast her gaze out the carriage window. The street the carriage had entered was a slum lined with shabby, crumbling buildings packed together like matchboxes. Beggars who had set out tin cans to beg, and men in shabby clothes gathered in clusters around makeshift brazier drums, passed by like scenery.
A short while later, after passing through narrow, complicated alleys tangled together like a spiderweb, the carriage stopped in front of a building.
“Lady Rowena. Something feels strange. There’s no way His Highness would send you to a place like this.”
As soon as they stepped out of the carriage, Melissa huddled her shoulders under the sidelong glances stealing toward them and trembled.
“If you’re that scared, you can stay here.”
“Lady Rowena!”
Without fear, Rowena turned around and immediately flung open the building door. Melissa, who had been hesitating and looking around, also hurriedly followed behind her.
Clutching tightly the telegram delivered by the messenger, Rowena took the lead and climbed the old stairs that creaked with every step. They were the stairs she had climbed on her first day in the capital, when she had arrived half in expectation and half in anxiety. The moment she had felt an instinct that something was going wrong, yet it had already been too late to turn back, and she had stubbornly climbed the stairs.
It felt as though the ominousness she had felt then was being reenacted. That ominousness soon rose all the way to her throat when she reached the top floor and grasped the doorknob.
The moment Rowena took a deep breath and flung open the door with a resolute face, a sobbing voice rushed over her.
“Mmmph!”
A woman whose hands and feet were bound to a chair was crying with a gag in her mouth.
“Ca…
rol……?”
“Lady Rowena!”
As soon as Melissa recognized the tear-soaked face, she was horrified and blocked Rowena.
“It’s all right. Stand back.”
Rowena shook her head, sent her behind her, and slowly approached Carol. It was the traitor she was meeting again after nearly ten years, in the house that had been reduced to ruins after the creditors had swept through it long ago.
As soon as the gag was removed, Carol panted and pleaded.
“S-save me…, save me! Rowena!”
“What……?”
“What happened in the past… I was wrong. I, I shouldn’t have done that…….”
Her head rang at the sudden apology and plea. When the stiffened Rowena unconsciously took one step back, Carol begged as though screaming.
“Please! Please save me, okay? I did something truly unforgivable to you…, forgive me. I’m really sorry… sob…….”
“Ha…….”
The bare minimum apology she had wanted so badly all these years poured out as if a dam had burst. Dizzy, Rowena took another step back.
“Rowena! Please… sob!”
Carol was filled with terror, shock, and desperation, as though something had been done to her. On the other hand, there seemed to be no visible external injuries.
As Rowena stepped forward again to examine her more closely, a man emerged from a darkened corner.
“Rowena.”
“……
Killian.”
The one who called her was the duke, as neat and cold as ever. The dark shadows under his eyes made him look a little tired, but that was not the issue right now. Calming her agitation, Rowena moved her lips.
“What on earth is going on here?”
“It is the reward I mentioned last time.”
“…….”
“I said I would give you one. Do you remember?”
His tone was calm, as if he were handing over a birthday present a day late. At the headache that surged in, Rowena steadied her breath.
“Carol… how did you find her? I never told you her name.”
“Eight years ago, there was only one woman who used your name to work as a courtesan.”
“What…
did you say?”
“It seems you didn’t know even that.”
Clicking his tongue softly, Killian turned his head toward the opposite corner. Likewise, four burly men who had been hiding themselves in the corner came forward into the light.
At the sound of their approaching footsteps, Carol, who had been shaking violently, screamed.
“I was wrong! Please! Spare me!”
At that wretchedly pitiful scream, Rowena glared at Killian.
“What, what on earth did you do!”
“I dislike being in debt, Rowena.”
“Pardon……?”
As Rowena froze at the unexpected answer, Killian came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Whether it’s a favor or a betrayal, one must return what one has received in kind. Only then can others never dare to come at you again. It seemed you had finally come to understand that as well.”