The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke - Chapter 74.1
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Grace dropped to her knees, tapping the floor.
“What are you doing?”
“Just a moment.”
After a brief pause, a lighter sound echoed from a spot on the floor.
‘Here it is.’
As she lifted the tile where the distinct sound had come from, a small, worn-out box revealed itself.
Before she knew it, Benjamin had crouched down beside her, looking down with interest.
“It’s like a treasure hunt.”
“It does feel like that.”
“What’s inside?”
“Um… a greenhouse diary?”
Inside the box was a small booklet detailing information about the plants Grace had grown, records of where each was planted in the greenhouse, and a bookmark made of dried flowers, neatly packed.
“There’s a bookmark.”
‘That’s odd, now that I think about it.’
She remembered the Duchess had been fond of flower pressing for quite some time.
Wouldn’t that mean she would naturally know a little about the types or characteristics of flowers? The question bubbled up again in her mind.
‘How can she not know?’
But even with that thought, Grace explained to Benjamin in a gentle voice.
“It’s a bookmark made from the first pressed flowers I ever did as a child. I made one for each type of flower.”
Grace explained without much thought, but she felt an unexpected warmth from somewhere. She didn’t bother trying to pinpoint its source.
“…you can do as you please.”
“Thank you.”
Benjamin, a little shy yet diligent, pocketed the floral bookmark.
‘I wonder why he likes that so much.’
“So, can you tell what was there?”
“Just a moment, this diary is a bit tricky to navigate.”
Grace had experimented with planting various intriguing things, encountering numerous failures along the way. Due to her constant experiments, the types of plants she documented were not consistent, leading her to repeatedly make corrections and annotations on the pages.
As she traced the lines and revised notes while looking over the greenhouse map, a knock interrupted her concentration.
“Master, madam dinner is ready.”
Had Sally already familiarized herself with the mansion’s layout? She managed to find them and announced that dinner was prepared.
“Already? That was quick.”
Grace looked out the room’s window. The sky was pitch black, suggesting that a fair amount of time had passed since sunset.
‘It’s closer to nighttime rather than evening.’
Wondering how time had flown by so quickly with their task, Grace felt a bit awkward, sensing the Linden family’s consideration for the two of them.
“We should hurry. The others must be hungry.”
“Indeed. Time flew by so quickly; I was having so much fun that I hardly noticed.”
Currently, there were three members in the Linden household: the present Lord, Lady Linden, and the heir apparent, Gilbert Linden—Grace’s elder brother.
‘Grace’s sister had married and left the household.’
However, to her surprise, Grace encountered an unexpected face when she entered the dining room.
“Sis?”
“Gracey, it’s been so long!”
Gloria greeted her using the affectionate nickname from their childhood and smiled warmly. Although she looked older than Grace remembered from the portrait hanging in the center of the room, she was still stunningly beautiful.
“Come sit here, right by me. I’ve missed you so much. Not hearing from you for a year had me so worried…”
“Gloria, refrain. The Duke is present. It’s not proper.”
“It’s quite alright. It’s heartwarming to see.”
Benjamin grinned warmly, nodding his head. After sneaking a glance at him, Grace took a seat beside Gloria. And when she sat beside her, Gloria took her hand, as if she really missed her
“What brings you all the way out here, sister?”
“Well, I heard you were coming back after a long time, so I came too.”
Not long after Grace married into the Felton family, Gloria had a successful love marriage with a gentleman from another notable family.
Thanks to connections formed with the Felton Duchy, Gloria managed to secure a slight advantage in her position.
‘Of course, none of this was in the original story.’
It was a memory of Grace that was slowly coming back to her. It hadn’t surfaced before, but as time passed, it became clearer.
‘Was it triggered by that fever dream I had?’
In the dream, the village children ostracized Grace, and Gilbert, her brother, seemed to turn his back on her. Grace uncomfortably recalled the contents of the dream and glanced at Gilbert, who was sitting near the Viscount and Benjamin.
“…It’s been a while.”
Despite seeing Grace, he didn’t exactly exude warmth.
‘It’s just like I remember.’
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