The Ugly Wife of the Shady Duke - Chapter 93
“…Did the conversation go well?”
“Your Excellency?! Were you waiting here all this time?”
“No, I was in the carriage and just stepped out for a moment.”
It was a lie. Benjamin had been standing near the door from the beginning to the end. In his hand was a small box of cookies.
He carefully handed the box to Grace.
“…Ah.”
“I thought you might not have eaten anything.”
In reality, Grace had only drunk tea while talking with Sireni, not even touching the cakes. She didn’t trust herself to control her consumption.
Benjamin knew her nature and her stubbornness.
“I asked for the least sugary item in this shop. It tastes quite good, though.”
Benjamin stood there, watching her, hoping she would sincerely accept his gesture.
“If I don’t accept it, will you just keep standing there?!”
“No, I would sadly eat the rejected cookies myself. Of course, it wouldn’t be your fault.”
“…”
Grace looked at Benjamin, who was making a sad face and playfully sulking. It was amusing how this didn’t feel burdensome to her.
“…Oh, really.”
As if she had no other choice, Grace took the box from Benjamin’s hand, unwrapped it, and placed a few cookies in his hand.
Looking at him with wide eyes, she said,
“It’s a fee, a fee.”
Grace spoke tersely, and Benjamin, alternating his gaze between her and the round cookie in his hand, chuckled softly.
“I see.”
⋆★⋆
A few days earlier.
Sireni Harpy’s secretary, Hermose, was uneasy.
Recently, his boss and the leader of the merchant guild, Sireni Harpy, seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood.
One might think a boss in a good mood is a positive sign, but this was a slightly different case. Sireni had been repeatedly reading a letter for the past few days, and ever since she scheduled a meeting with the sender, she seemed to be eagerly awaiting that day.
‘Now that I think about it, wasn’t that letter from that place?’
The anonymous friend.
Sireni had one friend whose identity was a mystery. She met a young girl from the Barony of Linden when she first left the Kingdom of Arsia with her wagon to start her trade. Sireni often bragged about this age-transcending friendship to her guild members.
“Do you know how smart she is? Huh? You all~ should learn from her. That kid is smarter than all of you~!”
While Sireni was usually formal and respectful in public, she was much more relaxed and informal in private settings. Her secretary was deeply curious if this ‘friend’ knew about Sireni’s true nature.
‘She must be unaware and being deceived, for sure.’
Sireni was so fond of that ‘friend’ that she continued to visit the Barony of Linden even after her guild grew significantly. When asked why, she said it was because the young friend had an excellent eye.
In fact, the representative product of Siren’s Song, the dye, was created following a comment from the young friend, who complained about her own hair color.
Anyway, as Sireni’s guild expanded and prepared to solidify its status as a major guild, she felt the need to rescue the Piscians.
Additionally, those playful, childhood-like meetings with her small friend were precious to her. Therefore, she gave a ‘fake address’ instead of Siren’s Song’s direct contact, to maintain their communication.
What Sireni didn’t know was that the small friend also contacted her under a fake identity.
Even after becoming a Duchess, this friend kept her identity hidden while offering gold to help Sireni. It wasn’t that Sireni didn’t try to find her small friend.
Around the time she received the gold, Sireni resolved to bring her small friend into her guild. But strangely, no matter how much she searched, she couldn’t find the ‘small friend’.
“Of course!”
Sireni exclaimed excitedly.
“That child is the Duchess Felton!”
Does this make any sense? She grabbed her secretary, Hermose, and shook him excitedly.
“All those rumors about her being incompetent and useless, they’re all lies. Those gossip magazines are nonsense. Just a little conversation with that child, and everyone would like her.”
Sireni was confident. She had the eye of a guild leader who knew value better than anyone.
⋆★⋆
“All done.”
Grace looked proudly at the beautifully wrapped box. After a few trials and errors, it was finally complete.
‘I’m so glad I had Omija berries. When I bought them, I honestly thought it was a bit extravagant, but look at this.’
Who knew they would be used like this? Money really is the best. There’s no harm in having plenty. Grace nodded in agreement.
Sally, with a worried expression, looked at the gift box prepared by Grace. Having seen the entire process, she knew the monetary value of its contents.
“Is it okay? Compared to what other ladies might bring, won’t yours seem too modest, perhaps even insincere? You worked so hard on it.”
“No, they’ll definitely love it.”
Grace smiled, looking at the boxes prepared not just for the Marchioness but also for all the guests.
“This has a value beyond its cost.”
As a lady from a small domain with nothing representative to boast of, Grace knew well what the Marchioness would appreciate.
“Could you move these boxes to the carriage quickly? I don’t want to be late.”
“Leave it to me!”
Sally clenched her fists with determination and hurriedly began moving the boxes with others. Grace watched them fondly when the butler in charge of the annex brought her a letter.
‘It’s from Sireni?’
The letter from Sireni stated that she had transferred the identities of everyone from the Birkin family and the textile workshop, including Tom Birkin, to ‘Siren’s Song,’ even creating a fake identity for Tom.
‘He’s a person I have to use… She did well, even without me asking. She must have thoroughly verified his identity right away.’
Even if the temple couldn’t dispose of Tom Birkin, it was likely they would keep an eye on him, so it was better for him to operate under a different identity.
‘And furthermore…’
The artisan had been found, and personnel for export negotiations had departed for the Kingdom of Arsia… The content was endless. Grace quickly read through several pages of the letter.
Her eyes then stopped at the last sentence.
“…?”
I will put all those baseless rumors to rest, so don’t worry.
‘What’s this about?’
Beneath the letter, a sentence was roughly crossed out with a pen, but it seemed to read something like this:
How busy must His Excellency, the great Duke Felton, be to not even stop such ridiculous and baseless rumors?
‘What in the world is this?’
Was there a need to send the letter like this? This was intentional. Not rewriting it and just hastily crossing it out meant there was no intention to hide it.
‘Anyway, I have no intention of showing this to Benjamin.’
It was fortunate that Benjamin wasn’t the type to snoop through other people’s letters, but what if he had seen it?
‘Is Sireni more reckless than I thought?’
Moreover, was Sireni always like this? She seemed quite composed that day… Grace sighed softly as she headed towards the carriage.
‘The position of Duke Felton isn’t exactly leisurely.’
There were only a handful of dukes in the empire, and among them, the Felton family was the most active in various fields.
Yet, Sireni’s remarks were enough to raise different questions in Grace’s mind.
Why hadn’t Benjamin quelled the rumors about her?
Grace remembered the ‘original’ story.
In the novel, Grace, ‘the Duchess of Felton,’ didn’t do much but was severely criticized.
‘Did he not feel the need to…?’
Just speculating about it made Grace’s heart ache.
“Madam?”
Sally’s voice, looking for Grace after finishing the preparations, reached her. Grace snapped out of her thoughts and looked up.
‘Ah.’
The sinister black mist that had been hovering around her, radiating a chilling presence, began to squirm again, attempting to engulf her.
As Grace instinctively stepped back, she felt a solid wall behind her.
‘No, this isn’t a wall.’
“Isn’t today the day?”
It was Benjamin’s voice.
Grace, seeing Benjamin inside the annex, found him strangely unfamiliar, causing her mouth to open slightly in surprise.
Noticing her startled expression, Benjamin cleared his throat awkwardly and made an excuse.
“I was worried because you didn’t come out for a while, even though the carriage is waiting. You did say I could come in before, remember?”
That permission was supposed to be for that time only, but since Grace hadn’t specified it was only for ‘that day,’ Benjamin was somewhat bending the rules.
The kidnapping incident at the Barony of Linden had been quite a shock for him.
“…….”
But as Grace silently looked up at him, he seemed to feel guilty and couldn’t meet her eyes.
“I’ll be more careful next time……”
“No, you can come in.”
“…!”
“Really.”
It was a strange thing. Just moments ago, thinking about Benjamin had made a corner of Grace’s heart ache, but seeing his face now, she felt reassured.
As if her feelings were a shield, the black mist that had been approaching started to recede and drift away.
