Chapter 83
* * *
I was drinking tea when I looked curiously at the head maid who had come to my room.
She rarely came to report to me in person.
Unless it was something absolutely necessary, she practically avoided me altogether.
“What is it?”
At my cold question, the head maid bowed with a stiff expression.
“It’s a letter from Lady Highland.”
Highland was the most powerful of Baldomer’s vassal houses.
I looked down at the letter curiously, then accepted it from the head maid and opened it.
The letter said that she regretted not having seen me since the banquet and that the wives of the other vassal houses were also looking forward to meeting me.
I couldn’t tell what her intentions were from the letter alone, so I simply stared down at it.
The head maid added an explanation.
“Normally, once a new lady of Baldomer takes her place, it is customary for her to regularly hold tea parties and other gatherings with the wives of the vassal houses. This occasion has actually been unusually delayed.”
A tea party…
“Do I really have to do something like that?”
At my indifferent question, the head maid’s brow stiffened slightly.
“As the lady of Baldomer, you should naturally know how to preside over the wives of the vassal houses.”
Well, that would be true for an ordinary lady of the house.
I had no attachment or ambition regarding this estate anyway.
I didn’t particularly care if the wives of the vassal houses mocked or disregarded me.
But.
Thinking of Kallion, I frowned and sighed.
Just imagining him growling about the duties and responsibilities of the lady of the house while looking for some weakness to tear into was already enough to give me a headache.
If the alternative was arguing with him over something like this, I almost preferred sitting face-to-face with the wives of the vassal houses and being openly ignored.
“Fine. Send invitations for a tea party to the wives of the vassal houses. Set the date for four days from now.”
At my dry words, the head maid gave a perfunctory bow and left.
* * *
Four days passed quickly.
It had also been four days since I last saw Kallion.
I took a sip of tea while indifferently looking over the wives of the vassal houses gathered around the luncheon table in the garden.
Then one woman glanced around and asked curiously.
“Lady Schultz isn’t here?”
“You didn’t hear? House Schultz was expelled over that confidential information leak.”
“My goodness, is that true?”
The wives of the vassal houses, who had completely excluded me, were busy whispering among themselves.
I pretended not to notice, but I knew perfectly well how they saw me.
A daughter of Heister, Baldomer’s sworn enemy.
A woman practically sold into marriage through a transaction between the houses.
And on top of that, the lady of Baldomer in name only, who had recently even been implicated in rumors about leaking Baldomer’s confidential information.
That was how they saw me.
I had no desire to win their favor or explain myself.
No matter how they looked at me or what they whispered behind my back, I simply remained calmly in my seat while pretending not to see or hear any of it.
Growing bolder at my silence, the ladies eventually began openly disregarding me even while I sat before them.
“I hear Lord Kallion cares for Miss Layla very much. You must be pleased, Lady Sorento.”
“Layla has always been exceptionally capable and good at her work.”
One woman spoke to Lady Sorento in a voice clearly intended for me to hear.
After Kallion’s behavior at both Baldomer’s banquet and the Schultz banquet, it was already widely known that he cared more for Layla than for me.
I merely drank my tea with an indifferent expression, as though none of it were new.
“Well, Lord Kallion and Miss Layla have always been especially close since childhood. If Lord Darkin had only given his permission, the two of them might have ended up together. What a shame.”
“Oh my, Madam Baldomer is sitting right here. How could you say such a thing? Hohoho.”
As I wished for this tedious gathering to end as quickly as possible, Lady Highland, the first woman who had sent me a letter, addressed me.
“Madam, if it isn’t rude, may I ask you something I’ve been curious about?”
At her deliberately pleasant smile, I replied indifferently.
“Go ahead.”
“What kind of place is Heister? There are so many rumors about it that I’ve always been curious.”
I stared quietly at Lady Highland, whose intentions were painfully obvious.
She met my gaze directly and smiled with her eyes.
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