Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 32
***
When you fear someone for a long time, you naturally come to resemble them to the bone.
This was the same as a daughter-in-law, who hated her malicious mother-in-law, becoming the same kind of monster in the end.
‘No matter how much I dislike it, I ended up arranging everything according to Elder Madam Electra’s taste.’
Despite crying so much because of Electra for three years, Freesia imitated everything Electra did.
The clothes she wore in front of others, her taste in tea, even her manner of speaking—everything, exactly. In fact, it was out of desperation, fearing that failing to mimic would lead to more beatings.
And this time, she was determined not to be faulted in any way.
No maids to assist?
Then she would run around herself, and find plausible precedents in the library.
Not serving grapefruit dessert would raise Electra’s suspicion, right?
Then changing just one person’s meal for a plausible reason was enough.
Thus, the tea party ended without any mistakes, though not warmly and amidst an awkward atmosphere instead.
‘By my standards, this is a success.’
It was a success if there was no one had broken out in rashes and that no one had started to wail.
However, what happened next caused Freesia’s eyebrows to twitch slightly.
Bang!
As soon as the event concluded, Electra called Freesia to her room. And as if hitting Freesia indirectly, she fiercely slammed her palm down on the nightstand.
“How dare! Who handled this without the supervision of the person who has been overseeing this household the longest?”
“…”
“Whose example are you following? That one time, especially when I did it, to mimic it like that!”
Instead of responding, Freesia chose silence.
‘Who was it that told me to handle it by myself?’
If she had come to ask for advice, undoubtedly she would have been beaten with ‘You don’t even know that? I cannot let this go’ as before.
It had been like that countless times in her previous life.
“Your father had just suddenly become the Duke of Antares, and now you think this household is a joke? Everyone here knows how you and your mother lived!”
“…”
“You dare be ungrateful for the care given to your mad mother’s corpse that was decaying and writhing with maggots, and now you dare to be insolent!”
Freesia bit her lower lip silently.
Although that person went mad and beat her every day…
She was her only blood relative.
And no matter how cruel her mother had been, Freesia didn’t think her mother deserved to be so miserably accused even after death.
Then, Electra gestured towards the window.
“That insolent attitude needs to be properly corrected by an elder, Duchess.”
There were several mature trees outside the window, but Freesia knew well what she was indicating.
“Pick a branch to be used as a cane yourself.”
“…”
“If you bring something unsuitable, you will be sent back to choose again.”
“…Yes, Elder Madam.”
Freesia politely bowed and concluded inwardly.
‘I’ll just let her beat me.’
Even though she looked like this now, she had been beaten her whole life, and perhaps because she herded sheep, she wasn’t frail.
That’s why Electra in her past life didn’t hesitate to ‘discipline’ Freesia as well.
Freesia took a pair of shears and a dagger from the gardener and went alone to choose a tree. She spotted a branch that seemed just right to be held in Electra’s grip.
‘It should be bearable to be hit with that.’
As she cut the branch, her mind grew increasingly numb.
Zzrr, zzrr, zzrr—
A sound she hadn’t heard in a while, yet not missed at all.
“…Tiresome.”
It was a sound she had heard too often during her marriage.
Electra would get angry with her, and in the end, would tell her to prepare a cane like this so that she could be beaten with it.
“Tiresome.”
It was always like this whenever her ‘husband’ was away.
Since the bruises were not visible, it wasn’t until their third year of marriage, after their wedding night, that he had even noticed them.
What had been his reaction when she showed him the scars on her legs that night?
He said nothing.
His golden eyes were just dimly clouded that night.
“Tiresome…”
Zzrr, zzrr, zzrr—
How long must she remain a being that only exists to be beaten at others’ whims?
Not just by Electra, but from birth by her own mother.
By Atria.
And by the Duchess of Antares.
Until she had her briar baby…
“…”
The light faded from Freesia’s eyes.
Slowly removing her hand from the cypress branch she was cutting, she moved on.
Towards the dense bush of wild roses blooming from the briars right below her room.
***
Even the haughty Electra had to admit.
This shepherd girl, who had entered as her stepson’s wife, was no ordinary person.
Just the fact that she found out what Madam Merriott couldn’t eat showed how cunning she actually was.
Moreover, she was a child who pretended to be docile but harbored venom.
“What… is this.”
“As you instructed, I’ve brought something to be used as a cane.”
Look at the expressionless face presenting the ‘cane’ she had broken off for Electra!
The shepherdess held out a branch still blooming with white, wild rose flowers.
While its fragrance could make one’s mind dizzy, wild roses undeniably came from thorn-filled briars.
“This…!”
Anger surged so fiercely in Electra that she thought her eardrums might burst.
This lowly creature was defying her.
