A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 15

This wasn’t what he’d meant to do.

The words he’d let out somehow sounded sharp, and Matthias was flustered.

He’d only meant to give it to her lightly. Just like he had with past lighthearted dates, it was a gift with no great meaning. How had his words come out this rough, anyway? He rubbed his forehead in embarrassment.

“…I spoke too….”

“If you treat me this well, what am I supposed to do?”

“….”

“I haven’t even done my duty properly, but if you treat me this well…. What if, a year from now, I don’t want to leave?”

The woman looked up at Matthias with watery eyes, as if that were something she truly worried about.

When those emerald eyes, full of moisture, turned on him so pitifully, Matthias’s heart softened. At the same time, the unpleasantness from just a moment ago seemed to wash away.

Of course.

“Thank you.”

Eleanor wiped away her tears and smiled as if she were genuinely happy. Matthias stared at her, feeling a little dazed by that smile.

What’s a good wife supposed to do in times like these? Eleanor recalled a passage from a romance novel she’d once read with Del, then rose onto her toes.

Peck. Her lips brushed the man’s firm, smooth cheek, then pulled away.

“….”

Matthias went still for a moment, only looking at Eleanor’s face. The face of the woman who’d just expressed her gratitude was flushed red like a daffodil, so ripe he couldn’t resist kissing her.

Those emerald green eyes that looked at him, flustered after kissing him, were like a midsummer lake that tempted him. In this moment, they were so clear he couldn’t help throwing himself into them.

As if surrendering to an irresistible force, he slowly tilted his head. When their lips met, he felt the familiar tremble from the woman.

He pulled back briefly and, as if soothing her, easily stroked her back. As if reassured by that gesture, the woman lowered her fan-like eyelashes, and his lips sought that sweet place once more.

Between their overlapping lips, their tongues tangled as if they’d promised to. Her lips, her tongue, and the small body in his arms pleased Matthias immensely. The words spilled out on impulse.

“…It seems today is the day I should perform a husband’s duty.”

At the man’s insinuating words, Eleanor’s cheeks reddened. Because she knew he was offering to warm her cold bed.

The two of them kissed again, each picturing the time that would follow after dinner.

But regrettably, their plan to warm Eleanor’s bed together was put on hold. It was because of a very old guest who barged in at dinnertime that night.

***

A summer skylark flew in and wandered around the terrace. In the early morning, with a cool breeze blowing, a sharp sound slipped out from behind the curtain hem, and it promptly flew away.

“I can’t face the ancestors.”

Matthias, who’d been unfolding the newspaper, lifted his eyes and looked at the person seated across from him.

Even early in the morning, Lady Jules, with perfect makeup and her white hair neatly arranged, wore a grave expression. She looked as if she’d just held a funeral, if you didn’t know better.

Last night, Lady Jules, the sister of the previous Duke Nielsen and the Lady of Skagen, Matthias’s aunt, arrived at the mansion. With a thoroughly displeased face.

Lady Jules’s insides burned.

She couldn’t understand her nephew at all, for setting aside the marriage talks he’d been having with Sorelson and then marrying a woman infamous throughout the capital, and at that, with the speed of a lightning strike toppling a tree.

Not even a single relative of the family, herself included, had been invited. He was a nephew who sometimes acted crookedly when something rubbed his temper the wrong way, but he’d never once done anything that violated propriety.

“If the late lord saw this, what do you think he’d say?”

“Since you won’t be seeing Father’s face while you’re alive anyway, you don’t need to worry, Aunt.”

“…You…!”

At the nephew who calmly lowered his gaze back to the newspaper, Lady Jules forced down the roar about to burst out. It was still early morning. Drawing on the patience and refinement ingrained in her, she slowly pressed her emotions down with a sip of tea.

“What are you thinking? Is that child you brought in after rejecting Sorelson truly what you wanted, Your Grace?”

“If it wasn’t what I wanted, then who do you think swore on the marriage certificate?”

“Why on earth… that kind of woman…?”

The scandal that drifted around the capital had even reached the ears of an old, seasoned noblewoman long since distant from society. Naturally, she didn’t approve of the new niece-in-law.

“Even so… how can there be any precedent for holding the ceremony without me, and without your mother in the territory present. I’m asking why you rushed into marriage so urgently.”

“Maybe I fell for her.”

“…What?”

At the careless answer, the white-haired noblewoman looked as if she’d heard something strange and doubted her ears. As far as she knew, her nephew Matthias Nielsen had never once fallen for anything. Not even in boyhood, when everything should’ve been new and interesting.

Only when she saw the smooth lift of the corner of his mouth did Lady Jules finally realize he’d made a ridiculous joke.

“Don’t ask only me. Why don’t you ask the other party directly?”

“Greetings, Aunt.”

The old woman’s eyes and Matthias’s blue eyes met the gaze of the one who approached the table in quick steps, quietly, bringing the scent of green apples with her.

This morning, Eleanor Brynhill looked fresh and bright. The summer dress scattered with blue floral embroidery suited Eleanor’s youthful age well.

But to the old woman’s eyes, even that youth felt like haste, and the furrow between her brows deepened.

“Did you sleep comfortably? I couldn’t even ask yesterday whether your journey was comfortable. Please forgive my inadequacy.”

It had been a road from a provincial territory to the capital, one she’d taken the moment she heard about her nephew’s stolen marriage. In that moment, it had been such an urgent matter that she couldn’t think of dignity or anything else.

How could anyone remain calm at the flimsy letter her nephew had sent? ‘I’ve broken off the engagement with Sorelson and I’m marrying Brynhill.’

Lady Jules swept the young woman in front of her with a picky gaze. With her wrinkled mouth drawn tight, she measured something in silence, then slowly opened her mouth.

“It’s good to meet you like this… Young Lady Brynhill.”

As a daughter of Nielsen, she had lived at the center of society for a very long time. She knew better than anyone how the nobles’ world and their way of speaking worked.

To address her as Young Lady, attaching her maiden name, despite the fact that she was a proper mistress of the house who had already married and completed the marriage rites, carried an obvious meaning.

I don’t acknowledge you as a Nielsen.

It was a method sufficient to embarrass a newly married young mistress without any direct expression.

After tilting her head in brief confusion, Eleanor cautiously opened her mouth.

“Aunt, it seems I’m still immature and lacking in etiquette. May I ask for your guidance?”

“What guidance?”

The woman gathered her hands together and hesitated. She looked as if it was truly awkward to say such a thing. Matthias’s eyes turned to Eleanor, filled with puzzlement.

“As far as I know, for a married woman, one should properly call her by the surname and title she has newly acquired. I’m the Lady of House Nielsen, and also… since you, Aunt, are the Lady of House Skagen, you’re a guest here. I have a duty to treat a guest with the utmost care, and as a guest, Lady Jules, you should properly treat me as the lady of the house.”

“….”

“However, I might be mistaken, so why don’t we look over an etiquette book together and share a time of instruction?”

A lukewarm breeze blew in through the terrace window and filled the small parlor where silence had settled.

Not only the three of them were here. There was also the butler, the head maid, and three maids standing by to attend them. In front of all of them, Eleanor, newly married, had urged a noblewoman who had lived her whole life with pride and confidence as a descendant of the Nielsen family to learn. That her form of address was wrong, so shouldn’t we study etiquette together again?

“…Hah!”

Matthias had never seen a sight like this. The elderly noblewoman, who had always been stiff-necked and elegant as long as he could remember, her expression severe, now flushing red from her neck upward.

Something spread from deep inside him, a hot sensation. Unlike the temperature of this summer morning, it was closer to coolness. Matthias couldn’t hold back and let out a snort.

“Duke Nielsen!”

The old lady, now red even to her face, burst out in anger, but Matthias couldn’t rein in the laughter once it had broken free.

Turning her gaze away from the tactless nephew, she fixed her eyes on her niece-in-law. Without a hint of softness, she spoke with hard emphasis on every phrase, her tone stern.

“Yes. It seems we have a great deal of instruction to share.”

Matthias lightly folded the newspaper he’d been reading and rose from his seat.

It seemed there would be quite a long lesson from his aunt about the conduct a lady of House Nielsen should have. His aunt could be so strict it bordered on cruelty at times. She would probably harry the lady of the house until she was satisfied.

But Matthias didn’t particularly care. To be exact, he had no intention of caring at all. It was Eleanor who had said she would bear all duties.

His steps as he left the small parlor were light.