CHAPTER 57………………………………………..
. Trace
Upon returning to her room, Anje took off her necklace first.
She fiddled with the pendant adorned with a black diamond for a while, then pressed a small groove on the back. With a soft click, the pendant opened.
“I knew it.”
She had thought it felt oddly light for its thickness — sure enough, the inside was hollow.
Setting the necklace down, Anje went to the dresser and rummaged through the coat she had worn when she first entered the mansion last winter.
When she found a small medal engraved with an eagle, a faint smile crossed her lips.
That small, insignificant medal was the only thing her parents had left her.
According to her mother, it had once hung from a sturdy gold chain, but when times grew hard, they sold the chain and kept only the medal.
The medal itself was made of gold, but her father had wanted to hold on to it — it was the only remaining trace of his days as a noble.
For that reason, even when things got difficult, Anje had always refused to sell it. She would rather go into debt than part with it.
Anje gently scratched the medal’s surface with her fingernail, then sighed deeply.
An invitation to the Marquis of Crow’s tea party.
She couldn’t begin to imagine what was going on.
She had thought she could handle things easily, since she remembered the contents of the original story — but that had all been a mistake.
Her ability to see people’s destinies wasn’t entirely useless, but it didn’t reveal everything either.
Like with Viscount Algernon, for example.
The first time she saw him, she thought he looked like a walking corpse, yet now that he’d completely recovered his health, he came and went from the mansion as if it were his own home.
The more the viscount, who had strong wanderer’s fortune, traveled and did good for others, the healthier and luckier he became.
Though the Duke still found him very displeasing.
‘Is that why he’s been giving me such a hard time lately?’
Anje pouted as she pondered why Duke Side seemed to hate her so much these days.
It wasn’t her fault that Viscount Algernon was constantly around. If anyone was to blame, it was because of his relationship with Lady Mariana — though even that was hardly a real reason. A royal with legs could go wherever he pleased.
If there was a reason, it was probably just that she was the easiest target to take his frustrations out on.
Knock knock.
A short knock sounded, and Duke Side opened the door and stepped in.
Caught in the act of mentally cursing him, Anje jumped to her feet. She hadn’t said anything out loud, but still felt guilty.
“I was just about to get to work!”
As she stood up too quickly, the medal she had resting on her knee rolled onto the floor.
The duke, half-listening to her, picked it up and turned it over in his hand.
“Is this yours?”
“Yes, well… yeah.”
She hadn’t meant to sound curt, but the sullen tone slipped out anyway.
Was it so strange for her to own a small piece of gold? It had fallen from her lap — obviously it was hers. Did he think she’d stolen it?
Even as she chided herself for being self-conscious, her thoughts kept drifting to dark places.
“It’s really yours?”
A deep frown formed between Anje’s brows. Her lips tightened as she glared at the duke.
“Are you implying I stole it?”
“No, that’s not it.”
The duke denied it firmly, still rolling the medal in his palm as if deep in thought.
“It’s the only thing my father left me,” she said quietly. “So even when things were hard, I tried my best not to sell it.”
“Your father’s name?”
Anje hesitated for a moment. But her father — and she herself — had been abandoned even by their blood relative, the Marquis of Crow. What did it matter if the name was known now?
“Everyone called him Jed.”
Her father’s real name, Lloyd, had sounded too noble and haughty, making it difficult for him to find labor work. So he had asked people to call him Jed instead.
Being raised as a noble, he had been clumsy at everything — it wasn’t just the name that had been the problem.
Thinking back, Anje let out a quiet sigh.
“I see.”
The duke nodded, then held out his hand. The small medal looked almost comically tiny resting in his large palm.
“If it’s your only keepsake, you should take better care not to lose it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And don’t show it off to others.”
“Huh?”
The odd remark made Anje frown in confusion.
“It’s your only keepsake, isn’t it? It’d be terrible if you lost it.”
“Well… yes, that’s true.”
Still feeling a vague unease, Anje nodded.
“You’re going to the Marquis of Crow’s next week?”
“I was invited along with Lady Mariana, but I have so much work piled up — I was thinking of skipping it.”
The idea of attending still made her uncomfortable.
“No. If you don’t go, they’ll end up criticizing Mariana as well. That’s the real reason they invited you both. So I’ll take you there myself.”
That couldn’t happen. There were already enough rumors from the last time they’d attended a party together.
That time she could excuse it as being because of Lady Hildegard, but what excuse could she make this time?
“That’s not a good idea. People will get the wrong impression.”
“What impression? I’m simply accompanying my sister to an event. Surely you don’t think people will imagine something improper between us?”
Anje blinked, frowning. She didn’t — but others clearly did.
Rumor had it that the duke and she were lovers — that she was his mistress.
When Gray first told her that, she had been so dumbfounded and indignant she’d nearly exploded.
“What? I thought you were trying to change your fate by getting close to the duke!”
“You—!”
Of course, her fists and feet had flown before any curse words did.
Gray, having lit the fire under her temper, had promptly escaped through the window.
“My mother personally requested it, so don’t argue,” the duke said, cutting her off before leaving the room.
Even after he was gone, Anje sat there in a daze for a long while.
Only later did she notice the medal still in her hand — her father’s keepsake. She tucked it safely inside the pendant locket she had been given.
‘If I keep it here, no one else will see it.’
Then she fell back into thought.
If the duke escorted Lady Mariana himself, no one would dare treat her carelessly again. Still, the fact that she would be going along like some unnecessary add-on left Anje feeling uneasy.
“Do you think Lady Beaufort will come?”
At someone’s question, Grace snapped her fan shut with a sharp sound and placed it on the table.
“She was invited, wasn’t she? Of course she’ll come. When else would that country bumpkin ever get a chance to see the Marquis’s greenhouse?”
At Grace’s words, the young ladies exchanged knowing glances behind their fans.
The newly renovated greenhouse of the Marquis of Crow’s estate was several times larger than before.
It housed exotic plants said to be difficult to acquire, as well as a variety of fruit trees. A small stream even ran through its center.
With the lush scent of greenery all around, it almost felt like being on a countryside picnic.
The problem, however, was that it looked exactly like the greenhouse of the Duke of Side’s estate. Rumor had it that the same builders had been hired to recreate it.
So even if Anje Beaufort was a “country bumpkin,” she was unlikely to be impressed — though, of course, none of the ladies were tactless enough to say that aloud.
“Oh, I agree. It’s truly impressive,” Dolores said smoothly. “It looks so much like the duke’s greenhouse that for a moment, I thought I’d gone to the wrong house.”
Wisely, she swallowed the last part of that sentence.
“These days, it’s nearly impossible to find a skilled gardener,” Grace continued. “The butler apparently struggled for quite some time to find someone suitable. In the end, they had to hire the very people who built the duke’s greenhouse.”
“No wonder it looked a little familiar,” said Miss Amber, smiling. “But, um… actually, I saw something strange the other day.”
“What did you see, Miss Amber?” Hildegard tilted her head curiously at the freckled young lady, who blushed and glanced around nervously.
