<Chapter 22>
Although confused by the inexplicable situation, Lucien decided to postpone figuring out what had happened.
What mattered now was returning the pendant to Alfie.
But she came to a halt in the hallway.
‘What if he asks where I got this?’
That question would certainly come up. Probably the moment Alfie saw the pendant.
Lucien tried to think of a plausible answer.
‘When I woke up, ta-da, it was just there.’
That was the unembellished truth. But adults rarely believed a child like Lucien.
Even at the orphanage, there had been a few times when she’d woken up with a teacher’s belonging in her hand.
Lucien had genuinely had no idea how it happened and always insisted she hadn’t stolen anything. She’d even suggested maybe someone had put it there as a prank. After all, there were kids like that at the orphanage.
But in the end, she was punished as a thief. No adult ever believed her.
‘Being mistaken for a thief… is just too sad.’
The thought of receiving that cold suspicion from the kind people of the duke’s household made her heart ache even more.
That’s why Lucien decided to make it look like Alfie had found the pendant by chance.
Fortunately, that wouldn’t be too difficult. All she had to do was hang it on the doorknob of the steward’s room in the basement.
Pleased with herself, Lucien hurried down the stairs.
Luckily, the hallway was empty. Now she just had to hang the string with the pendant on the doorknob…
“Miss Lucien?”
But before she could hang it, a voice called from the kitchen.
“Y-Yes?!”
Startled, Lucien quickly hid the pendant behind her back and turned toward the voice. Juliet was peeking out from the kitchen.
“Breakfast will be a little delayed… Are you hungry because you’re still growing?”
“No!”
“Ah, I see. I’ll ask them to grill some more meat for you. Grow up strong for my sake, please.”
“That’s not it. I actually came to ask the steward something.”
“Oh, craving knowledge, are we? The rumors about your diligence must be true!”
Lucien flinched in surprise. How on earth had such a ridiculous rumor spread?
All she had done was memorize what Alfie had taught her, only to avoid getting a perfect score.
“No, it’s not true! I didn’t work hard!”
“Oh dear, imagine doing so well without even trying! You truly are a gifted child who will one day save me!”
Oh no! This was getting worse!
Determined to stop more rumors, Lucien decided to be honest about her shortcomings.
“I’m really bad at studying. There’s so much I don’t know that I had to come ask the steward lots of questions today. I guess I just can’t understand things after hearing them once.”
Surely, now word would spread throughout the mansion that no matter how much she studied, Lucien lacked the understanding to succeed. That would make potential adopters lose interest.
Lucien was very satisfied with her clever solution.
“Such admirable perseverance. But, oh dear. The steward left early this morning.”
“What? He’s not here?!”
“Yes, I heard he went to the neighboring village for a meeting. About the avalanche. If only we could catch and sacrifice a live parachute squirrel, the avalanche would disappear.”
“T-That’s awful.”
“Apologies. I was being serious.”
Lucien pouted.
She had assumed the steward was simply busy today. But he had actually gone far away.
‘Is it because today…?’
Maybe he didn’t want to be reminded of his mother by staying in the mansion.
“Do you know what time he’ll be back?”
“Not really. I didn’t pay that much attention. Why don’t you ask another servant? There are plenty who think well of you.”
“There… are people who think well of me?”
“Of course. I, a woman of great capability, have been actively promoting you.”
The only thing Juliet could say in her favor was probably that she had guessed most of the test questions right. How on earth did that make people think well of her?
“Uhm… I think I’ll just ask my nanny.”
Not wanting more rumors to spread, Lucien decided to retreat for now.
Just then, a knock came at the back door. It seemed someone had arrived early in the morning.
Juliet opened the door. The visitor was an elderly woman who looked even older than she was, likely from exhaustion.
She asked hesitantly for Alfie, and when told he wasn’t at the mansion, she looked deeply disappointed.
“I’m… that child’s maternal grandmother.”
After a two-hour carriage ride, Alfie arrived at the neighboring village, where, surprisingly, everything was going smoothly.
“There’s no need to worry about our village. As you can see, we’ve followed the guidebook created with the late Duke to the letter and are fully prepared!”
When Alfie had first heard this, he assumed everything would be in shambles. That was usually the case when people claimed perfection.
But not this time.
The representative was telling the truth, and thanks to their thorough preparations, the meeting and inspection were over even before lunch. A far cry from last year, when things dragged on into the evening.
Climbing reluctantly into the carriage, Alfie wondered if there was any way to delay his return to Winfield.
Actually, it went further than that.
‘…Should I just run away?’
The urge to escape stirred again—like when he had once wandered far from Winfield for years.
He stared quietly out at the forest road as the carriage headed out of town.
Then he saw someone near the village entrance—someone peeking hopefully at passing carts and carriages.
A woman carrying a child was waving her bare, reddened hands at the drivers, silently pleading for a ride.
Alfie knocked on the carriage and asked the driver to stop for them.
“Mister, are you headed to central Winfield by any chance?”
A moment ago, Alfie had been looking for any excuse not to return to Winfield… but seeing the shivering mother and child, he couldn’t ignore them.
“Hop in.”
“Thank you so much. May the Lord bless you!”
As she got in with her child, Alfie gave a wry smile at her words.
If the Lord truly wanted to help him, wouldn’t He have made sure he didn’t return to Winfield on a day like this?
After all, his mother’s grave was in the chapel there.
‘Well, I’ll just drop them off in town and hide in a corner of the mansion.’
With that thought, Alfie asked the woman where exactly she was headed.
She loosened the scarf around her five-year-old’s face and replied,
“To the chapel in Winfield. I’m ashamed to say this child hasn’t been baptized yet.”
Ah. Clearly, the Lord had no intention of helping Alfie today.
Alfie dropped them off at the chapel entrance.
The kind coachman got out to fetch the priest, so Alfie remained in the carriage for now.
He watched the two of them walk into the chapel together. Their brief conversation echoed in his memory.
“You didn’t want to wait until the nice weather in spring?”
Alfie couldn’t understand why the woman would journey so far in such bitter cold.
She had smiled and stroked her son’s head as he looked out the window.
“My child is the only one in the village who hasn’t been baptized. I’ve been so busy, I couldn’t make time until now.”
“Still, it must’ve been such a hassle for you?”
Stopping carriages one by one at the village entrance couldn’t have been easy.
It would’ve been tough even in good weather—how much more so with this biting wind?
“He begged me so earnestly. And today was the only day I could manage it.”
Her gaze at her son was so full of joy that Alfie couldn’t say anything more.
“People say you shouldn’t grant every wish a child has… but it’s still such a joy when you can.”
Alfie couldn’t help but think of his own mother. Was she like that too?
Did she feel joy like that when she granted her son’s wish to visit the capital?
Suddenly overtaken by something, Alfie stepped out of the carriage.
He wanted to ask.
Whether he had made her happy.
Whether that happiness had been enough to forgive a son like him.
His footsteps quickened.
He thought he heard the coachman yelling something behind him, but Alfie didn’t process it.
Before he knew it, he was running.
Between the rows of graves with grey crosses.
His heart pounded painfully from tension, and his breath quickly grew shallow.
He’d never been there before, but he knew where her grave was.
It was like he had walked this path many times before—his feet didn’t hesitate.
But then, suddenly, his legs stopped moving.
Someone was already standing at his parents’ gravesite.
It was his maternal grandmother.
‘Ah.’
Snapped back to reality, Alfie turned and ran away before she could spot him.
It was only natural for a parent who had lost their child to hate the one responsible. Especially since Alfie hadn’t even protected the precious item that connected his mother and grandmother.
With limbs stiff from cold—or maybe shock—he stumbled several times as he retraced his steps.
And then, without warning, he collided head-on with a small figure.
