Chapter 8
…This wasn’t right.
“Why can’t you answer, Mrs. Henton?”
This… wasn’t right.
“I asked you what you did to Elizabeth.”
Bailey stood politely before Lady Leonette’s two brothers, her hands clasped together as she desperately tried to hide her confusion.
What in the world is going on?
She had explained what was happening in the capital and how Elizabeth was bringing shame upon the family. She had even added that she had advised Elizabeth to do everything in her power to preserve the family’s honor.
Naturally, Bailey had expected to receive praise.
Instead, she was met with the two young masters of the Leonette family glaring at her with murderous expressions.
“Is it true that you dared to make Elizabeth tell such lies?”
Andrick Leonette, with dark brown hair and golden eyes, looked like a gigantic brown bear. His face was stiff with anger as he interrogated Bailey.
“You told her to beg those bastards for forgiveness and bow her head, claiming that my father knew nothing about Ellie’s origins?”
“First Young Master, you’ve misunderstood! I…”
“Oh, look at her! Can you believe the excuses she’s making?”
Bernard, the wolf of the Leonette family, had silver-gray hair and golden eyes. He looked appalled as he urged his older brother on.
“Brother, there’s no need to waste any more time on her. Just fire her!”
“We can’t simply fire her. We need to restore discipline in the estate.”
“So you’re saying that simply firing her wouldn’t set a good enough example?”
At their exchange, Mrs. Henton swallowed hard, her face turning deathly pale.
W-What exactly are they planning to cut off…?
Various body parts flashed through Bailey’s mind, sending a chill down her spine.
She had never been particularly close to the brothers, who had grown up without her involvement, so appealing to their old affection was hardly an option.
In the end, Bailey decided to insist on her innocence—even though she had none.
“I’ve done nothing wrong, Young Masters! What on earth have I done to deserve this…?!”
“See? She’s talking back to us even now!”
Bernard interrupted Bailey with an indignant gasp.
“That alone tells us how insolently you must have treated Elizabeth.”
“Answer me. How did you bully Ellie? What exactly did you say to force her to lie?”
“If you don’t tell us the truth, I’ll throw you into the wolf enclosure.”
The wolf enclosure…?
Bailey’s face turned even paler.
The Leonette family actually raised several wolves that resembled Bernard.
Bailey, who now looked as though she might be thrown to the wolves at any moment, fidgeted nervously and darted her eyes from side to side.
How did this happen? Why am I the one getting scolded instead of that little Elizabeth?!
With the ominous feeling that something had gone terribly, terribly wrong, Bailey’s heart began pounding as though it might burst out of her chest.
Elizabeth was equally taken aback when things failed to unfold as she had expected.
She was kneeling on the floor, staring blankly at Marquis Leonette when he hurriedly bent down and helped her to her feet.
Still too stunned to react, Elizabeth rose without protest. The Marquis then looked at her with a serious expression and urged her to answer.
“Come on, just give me a number. Number one? Number three? Or is it number two after all? Which one would you like your father to punish first?”
“…Are you serious?”
“Of course. Would you like me to bring you their heads?”
“Um, Father. That would be treason…”
“I’m joking.”
Your expression says otherwise…
The Marquis looked as though he would charge straight into the imperial palace the moment Elizabeth named number two.
“…I…”
Elizabeth hesitated, her lips trembling slightly, before finally confessing what she truly thought.
“I thought… you would turn your blade on me, Father.”
“What?”
The Marquis stared at her in utter disbelief.
“What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?”
“Because I’ve tarnished the family’s honor…”
“What have you done wrong?”
Elizabeth was so taken aback by his interruption that she momentarily lost her ability to speak.
She slowly lifted her bewildered face and met the Marquis’s gaze. He genuinely seemed unable to understand what she meant.
“You’re the victim here. Your secret was exposed against your will. What, exactly, have you done wrong?”
A victim.
The moment she heard those words, a fierce, burning emotion surged within Elizabeth.
She had never once thought of herself that way.
She had always believed she was a wicked perpetrator, someone who deceived others about her lowly origins.
She had been certain her father saw her the same way.
And yet… she had never dreamed that he would defend her as the victim in this situation.
Perhaps she was simply overwhelmed with gratitude.
Or perhaps his words had touched the wounded child within her, the part of herself she had hidden behind the sharp thorns she had painstakingly grown.
Large tears began rolling down Elizabeth’s eyes, one after another, without a sound.
“Y-You’re crying…?”
The Marquis was thoroughly flustered by his daughter, who was shedding tears without making so much as a sob.
Looking utterly at a loss, he hurried to comfort her.
“D-Don’t cry, Ellie. Did I say something wrong…?”
“I never thought you would say something like that…”
Elizabeth’s voice trembled with grief as she spoke through her tears.
One of the Marquis’s eyebrows twitched.
“What did you think I was going to say?”
“That a filthy mongrel had disgraced the honor of the Leonette family…”
“…What?”
“That I was ungrateful for everything you’d done to raise me, and that I’d brought shame upon the family…”
As the Marquis’s expression grew increasingly ferocious, Elizabeth cautiously glanced at him before trailing off.
“…Something like that.”
“When have I ever said anything like that to you?”
The Marquis looked utterly baffled.
“Illegitimate child, mongrel… Have I ever used such words? As far as I remember, I haven’t. Surely I haven’t dared to say such things to you?”
“N-No, you haven’t.”
Elizabeth hurriedly shook her head.
Her father had never once insulted her that way.
“It’s just…”
“Then someone else must have said those things to you.”
The Marquis immediately caught on.
“Who could it have been? The nobles who were busy tearing you down wouldn’t have gone so far as to frighten you with such specific threats. Who? Who would dare…?”
The Marquis fell silent.
He appeared to be narrowing down the list of suspects.
After a long pause, he suddenly asked, his expression one of disbelief.
“Could it have been Bailey Henton?”
The answer came so quickly that Elizabeth was too surprised to say anything.
Her expression alone was enough to confirm his suspicion, and the Marquis instantly looked ready to explode.
“How dare she…! How dare she say such things to my daughter! A mere maid, spouting such outrageous nonsense to a young lady of the Leonette family!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to apologize for? You’re the victim!”
The Marquis began pounding his chest in frustration.
He looked so threatening that Elizabeth was reminded of a gorilla beating its chest, leaving her somewhat bewildered.
After beating his chest in silence for a while, the Marquis asked another question.
“H-How long has this been going on?”
“…For a while.”
“…Damn it.”
Upon hearing her answer, the Marquis struck himself hard on the head, his face contorted with self-reproach.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened at his sudden act of self-harm.
“F-Father!”
“I failed to realize this sooner. I’m a worthless man who doesn’t even deserve to call himself a father.”
“No, that’s not… You probably didn’t know. It’s only natural that you didn’t.”
“Why? I’m her father, yet I allowed my daughter to be mistreated by a maid.”
“…Because I chose to let it happen.”
The Marquis’s eyes widened at her unexpected answer.
“I hid it very carefully. Bailey was always polite to me in front of you, Father, so there was no way you could have known.”
“Why on earth…?”
“Bailey was the late… Marchioness’s maid, wasn’t she? She was also the real Elizabeth’s nursemaid.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“…I didn’t want to reveal something unnecessary and cause you more pain.”
“…You.”
The Marquis’s expression grew troubled as he listened to Elizabeth.
“I’m truly grateful that you thought of me that way, but you worried too much. You can’t even begin to imagine how much pain I’m in right now.”
“…I’m sorry. But that wasn’t the only reason.”
“Then what was it?”
“I was afraid.”
“Afraid? Of what?”
“That I would be compared to the real Lady Elizabeth.”
“…What?”
The Marquis stared at Elizabeth, his mouth falling open in speechless disbelief.
