Lady Felice’s Secret Class - Chapter 113

Felice trudged back to the manor, her face clouded with gloom as she opened the door. The servants noticed her as she made her way from the hall to her room, but no one was brave enough to speak to her first.

She sank down on a chair inside her room and took a deep breath. She had asked Tom to get the cookies, and in the end, she’d managed to hear a little about the newspaper articles.

Tom had tried to soften the blow, but the truth was that Felice’s name was being dragged through the mud.

On the first day, the papers reported on the surprise appearance of her as a partner at the patron event. Soon after, rumors began to spread that Felice had deliberately approached Baron Racliffe because of the Kelton family’s debts.

Then, wave after wave of articles came out comparing Felice and Elise.

Day by day, as new stories came out, Felice’s reputation, as well as that of the Kelton family, suffered blow after blow. To top it all off, there were now speculative articles suggesting Felice had spoken ill of Lady Elise at the patron event.

Reporters were now swarming outside, eager to get a word from Felice. They had even tried to go to her father’s hospital, but fortunately, her father had made such a scene that they quickly backed off.

With a sigh, Felice buried her face in her hands. While she’d been drying dandelion flowers at the manor—trying to give back to the servants who had given her so much—her family’s reputation was crumbling all around her.

She’d thought that it would end in just a simple scandal. Now, she realized how naive that was. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Grandfather…”

Finally, Felice broke down in tears, covering her face with both hands.

* * *

The door opened and Claude walked in.

“How have you been, Mother?”

Nelleys, pleased to see her son after some time, quickly collected her expression as she remembered the flood of negative articles in recent days and her decision to summon him.

“Claude.”

She called her son sternly and gestured to the table with a tilt of her head. Unlike Viscount Barrot’s earlier suspicion, Nelleys did not hide her disappointment as she looked at her son.

“Sit down.”

“…Yes.”

Luckily, Claude seemed to understand why Nelleys had called him in the first place, and he sat down without argument.

“I assigned her as your tutor.”

Nelleys raised her eyebrows.

“I didn’t assign her for you to use her like this. However you choose to see the worth of that ten thousand francs, that’s your business—but I gave her to you as a teacher.”

Her voice was calm, but her words were clearly a reprimand. Even so, Claude didn’t answer. Nelleys stared hard at her son.

“Politics are all well and good, and so is public opinion. But if there’s no love in it, you should at least have the decency to keep it from becoming too cruel, don’t you think?”

Claude still said nothing.

“So how do you plan to resolve this? With money? Did you offer to pay her more?”

He shook his head.

“That’s not it.”

“Even if Lady Kelton is working like this now, she’s still the granddaughter of the late Admiral Paul Mellon and the legitimate daughter of the Kelton barony.”

“…I know.”

“And yet, how could you so easily drag down the honor of people who laid down their lives for the empire?”

For the first time, Nelleys truly raised her voice at him.

But Claude didn’t flinch. He met her eyes directly.

“I plan to make sure she never has to hear those things again.”

“What?”

Nelleys frowned at his unexpected response.

“At the next royal ball, I’d like you to make Felice the guest of honor.”

And then came an even more startling request.

“As Mother said, if we just let things go on like this, the Kelton family’s honor will only suffer further.”

“What?”

“If you introduce her as the guest of honor and speak a few words of praise for her—saying that it’s meant to quiet the current gossip—it will give you the perfect excuse.”

“Claude. I wanted to formally acknowledge you as my son to the world.”

Claude paused, taking a breath.

He looked as if in deep thought. But as always, his blue eyes never strayed from the queen’s gaze.

“If not Elise, it would be the same with any other lady. No matter who I choose, as long as I’m seen as a prince without legitimacy, it’s always going to be an uphill battle for Mother.”