Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Does the fact that I’m unmarried displease you?”

“It neither pleases nor displeases me.”

I glanced at Iris, who was following us. Frankly, it was unfortunate. If Daniel had children, they could have befriended my daughters.

Noble daughters did not attend school. Usually, governesses came to the house to teach girls at home. As such, it was difficult for them to meet friends of their age.

Iris and Lily were close since they were siblings, but Ashley wasn’t. I wished they knew noble sons their age too.

“But...” Daniel was about to say something when he stopped to look behind us.

Ashley came running in. I was surprised; he had apparently heard her from a distance. He had sharp ears.

While I admired Daniel’s hearing, I wondered how to stop Ashley from running.

Daniel leaned toward me and spoke quietly. “I thought just the two of us would look around.”

Why? I looked at him with confusion.

The house was huge. There were two basement floors and three floors above ground. Though I intended to show him only a few rooms on the upper floors, I had no intention of walking around this massive house alone with a man.

I did my best to not sound rude. “I must set an example for my unmarried daughters.”

Daniel didn’t seem to know what I meant. This is new. It was the first time he had failed to follow a conversation.

With the instructive tone of an elder, I asked, “Have you ever been alone with a young woman?”

He probably had not. No parent would leave him alone with an unmarried girl.

I had seen the way Lily blushed at the table just talking to him. Even if Daniel just sat there and winked, girls would blush.

“Young... women? Ah.”

After a moment of confusion, comprehension dawned, and he turned toward the girls. An unmarried woman should not be alone with a man. They had to be accompanied by an older or married lady. In my opinion, it was a stupid custom, but it had to be followed in noble society.

“I understand what you are saying.” Daniel stopped walking. We stood before a painting hanging in the second-floor hallway.

Is this a decent painting? I looked at it with my head tilted to the side. I’m not sure.

It was just a landscape. The painting depicted the view of the town from the hill on which this house was built. It was obvious that the people who lived here had been wealthy at one point in time. I imagined them inviting a painter over to capture the sight.

“Is this a decent painting?”

“I think I must see more. It could be an imitation.”

“An imitation?”

Daniel surveyed the painting with a grave expression. I didn’t even know what kind of style of painting it was, let alone whether it was fake or not.

I glanced behind us. Lily had a strange sparkle in her eye. Wait a second. That’s a very clear sparkle.

Lily’s look was almost that of admiration. Oh, crud. I held my forehead. I really hoped that Lily had not fallen in love with Daniel. I prayed that this wasn’t the case.

Lily was only eighteen. Daniel was... Wait, how old is Daniel?

“Hmm. I must come back during the day.” Daniel drew back, unable to conclude whether or not it was an imitation. I knew that he could do appraisals, but I feigned ignorance.

“You know how to judge paintings, I see.”

“A little.” Daniel looked closely at the paintings hanging in the hallway.

Hmm. This isn’t so bad. Many nobles purchased paintings and resold them later once their value rose. They employed appraisers to verify that the paintings were authentic.

But every field had its villains.

There were instances in which appraisers schemed with buyers and lied, telling them a painting was a forgery. This sometimes even led to bloodshed. If you yourself knew how to do appraisals, you couldn’t be deceived.

Of course, Daniel probably did not earn money for doing appraisals alone.

“Lord Wilford,” said Iris, “do you teach the man you were with how to do appraisals?”

Daniel hadn’t seemed to realize that Iris was there. “I have been thinking that I might teach him someday.”

I had been wondering the same thing. I glanced at Iris before asking, “Who is he?”

Daniel looked at me once more and said in an emotionless voice, “He is a decent fellow, though he has a stubborn side.”

“You don’t want to tell me anything, do you?”

Daniel stopped walking. The second-floor hallway was dark. Only the lamps in my and Iris’ hands lit the way.

Daniel’s body seemed to melt into the darkness. I raised my lamp higher, wanting to see what sort of expression he had on his face.

“My lady.”

Daniel took my hand that held the lamp, as if rejecting its light. If I had a runaway imagination, or if I were younger, I would have thought he was a monster in the darkness trying to eat me.

However, he was only trying to hold the lamp for me. In Daniel’s hand, the light diffused from higher up, revealing more. “You seem quite interested in him.”

Of course. My goal was Iris’, Lily’s, and Ashley’s happy endings. My happy ending too.

A happy ending in this world meant not getting one’s eyes pecked out or your legs cut off or exiled somewhere, and instead living a peaceful life with a decent amount of money.

Or I could return to my world, but I didn’t know how possible that was. Frankly, I didn’t even hope that it was possible.

While I didn’t know how I would return, I didn’t think that my former life was necessarily better than my current one. I had been a full-time worker renting month to month. To purchase my own house, even one in the countryside, I would have had to save every penny of my salary for twenty years.

Sure, I used to have the internet and a phone, and I could order fried chicken at two in the morning, but I was still living hand to mouth.

At least I had a house here. And do you have any idea how cheap food is? And I was a landlord! A land! Lord! You see what I mean?

Even if I had three daughters and was obligated to hand wash all our clothes because there was no such thing as a washing machine—or even a fridge—this life might be better as long as I was still alive. I didn’t need to move every two years anymore.

My mind returned to my amazing idea. I should invent a washing machine after getting Ashley married to the prince.

I puffed out my chest. “Of course. I have daughters around his age.”

“Is your interest for your daughters?”

What a strange thing to say. I frowned, not comprehending what he meant. What other reason could I have for being interested in him?

“He is too young for me to be interested in him, isn’t he?”

Daniel smiled. He continued walking. “Age has nothing to do with love, does it?”

“It does,” I said firmly, walking by his side with my hand on his arm.

Of course age had to do with love. To fall in love, one had to consider the other person an equal first. An adult would not see a child as an equal. You couldn’t fall in real love without that.

“Lord Wilford, are you suggesting that you could fall in love with a girl who is not yet nineteen?”

I was surprised to see a smile appear on Daniel’s face. It made me realize that his earlier smiles had all been fake.

He lowered his face toward me and answered with a gentle voice.

“Never, my lady.”

A Clean Snap of the Bone

Gary endured his guilt for exactly one week. Standing next to him, I sighed.

Exactly one week after he’d said something about my standards at dinner, he sent a letter inviting me to attend a party with him. Party? Yeah, right. He probably wants to introduce me to men.

I don’t need a man. Two marriages are enough for me. Grumbling, I sent a letter back saying I would accompany him.

I only assented because of how much he groveled. It was a party he absolutely had to attend, but Sandra could not go with him, so he wanted me to go in her stead.

“Thanks for coming with me, Mil.” Gary patted my hand. His chubby hand made a heavy slap against mine.

Despite his apparent gratitude, I was sure he was congratulating himself for being the ideal older brother, trying to find a third husband for his younger sister. If he truly were an ideal brother, he would not be straining to find a third after Mildred had already lost two.

Use this time to make some more money instead, why don’t you?

“It’s such a shame that Sandy is ill,” I said with sympathy. “I will come by to visit her tomorrow.”

“N-no. There’s no need. It’s just a mild fever.”

“But it must be quite grave if she is unable to attend a party at the castle. Fevers these days are so harsh. It would put me at ease to see her.”

Seeing how aggressively Gary tried to dissuade me, I could tell my suspicions were justified. I feigned ignorance and went on.

“Sometimes I feel like Sandy is more family to me than you, Gary. Do you get what I mean? When you were at the academy, Sandy was the only one I had.”

Gary looked displeased but said nothing.

I grinned and turned away. What a selfish man.

If I didn’t get married, Gary would have to support me financially. After all, he was the head of the Murphy family. He had a duty to support his younger sister.

However, if Mildred got remarried, she would rely on her husband. And thus this selfish man had sent a carriage over to Mildred’s house to take her to a party.

I considered telling him I didn’t have any dresses to wear to any other parties. While I turned the idea over in my mind, Gary greeted the people around us. If he really wanted Mildred to get married a third time, he should be willing to pay for a dress or two.

“Long time no see, Lord Murphy.”

“Hello, Lord Jennings.”

A man who appeared to be about the same age as Mildred’s father approached us. He was a friend of her father.

I smiled and dipped my head to him. “It has been a long time.”

“Ah, Mildred.” The old man, just shy of sixty, grasped my hand and greeted me with pleasure.

Hmm. I suppose Lord Jennings is quite wealthy. I smiled and removed my hand from his.

“Lady Vans,” I corrected him.

Both Gary and Lord Jennings looked at me in alarm.

How dare you call me by my name? Even if they had met before Mildred’s marriage, he was supposed to call her Lady Murphy. It was rude for him to feign intimacy with me.

“O-of course. Lady Vans. I do apologize.”