Chapter 32
V.
It had not been long since Duke Hermann Clausewitz—that is, Claude’s father—summoned me. It was the first time in ten years that I had been called.
The cautious Duke sent word suddenly, right after his son had left for a distant place, so I was forced to face him without any preparation at all.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. You’ve become quite the lady. Time really does fly.”
He still smiled with that kind-looking face, but unlike when I was an eleven-year-old snot-nosed child, I now felt an uneasy sense of foreboding from him.
“It feels like just yesterday that I brought you in as Claude’s playmate. But I hear you two have become quite close.”
The Duke, seated at the reception room table with me standing before him, did not take long to get to the point.
There could be no other reason for him to summon me. Unlike in the beginning, when he at least pretended to be cautious, Claude had lately been coming and going from my room as if he had no intention of hiding his actions at all.
If such a blatant fact had not reached the Duke’s ears, that would have been even stranger.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t foreseen this situation coming one day. The timing was just a bit abrupt, that was all.
Why, after three years of silence, so suddenly now? I couldn’t help but wonder.
“I’ve known about it for some time, and I thought I should talk with you at least once. And as it happens, there’s a need for it now.”
As he said this, the Duke’s black eyes slowly swept over me. His gaze, feigning kindness, was filled with nothing but contempt. It didn’t even require much scrutiny to see it.
Though he was only in his mid-forties, he exuded the air of a very seasoned noble.
Thanks to the nerve I’d built up from dealing with Claude, I tried my best not to shrink back, but before the Duke’s snake-like gaze, so unlike his son’s, I froze up like a cornered rat.
“I didn’t think you were a stupid girl. You don’t actually believe I wouldn’t know about my own son, do you?”
“No, of course not, Your Grace.”
I answered obediently. He nodded in satisfaction.
“The reason I haven’t dealt with you so far, even knowing everything, is because I considered you useful.”
His words were not hard to understand. In fact, it was something I’d thought to myself ever since I began that sort of relationship with the young master.
Whether I liked it or not, I was in a position to be quite a useful card to anyone targeting Claude. Whether the connection was deep or shallow, I was the one sharing a bed with the young master of House Clausewitz. On top of that, I was clever enough to read the room, knew my place, and was a lowly woman who didn’t provoke the touchy young master.
Whatever the Duke’s schemes might be, there was no way he would leave some fly clinging to his son alone for no reason.
In short, the Duke had grasped the situation long ago, and although he possessed the power and authority to quietly dispose of me at any time, he had tolerated our relationship until he could achieve his own ends, which I still did not know.
“I won’t beat around the bush. There is something I would like to ask of you.”
And, at the appropriate time, he was clearly planning to make very effective use of me.
Just as when I first entered this room, I felt my core tense and all my muscles tighten.
Faced with being used as someone’s tool, I instinctively felt a sense of rejection, but since I valued my life, I decided to go along for now.
“I have no intention of treating you harshly, either. I just hope you’ll do as I ask.”
“Of course. I may serve the young master, but I’ve never forgotten that my true master is Your Grace.”
Even to myself, it sounded brazen. Yet the Duke seemed satisfied with my answer.
“I’m glad we can communicate so well. Now, as for the task I have for you…”
But even before his request, his very first question left me speechless.
“Did you know that Claude has had a marriage arranged for him since childhood?”
…I had absolutely no idea.
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