Chapter 341
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
He swept his gaze over me from head to toe, then let out a short laugh.
“All dressed up. You look like you came to seduce a man.”
…Does he really not know my intentions? Or is he pretending not to? Either way, I decided to pretend as well.
“This is my house, isn’t it?”
“Get out.”
The Marquis glared at me coldly and pointed toward the sitting room door. I wasn’t being treated like a wife, just a trespasser. Like someone he never intended to see again.
My heart began to race.
“Are you planning to annul the marriage?”
“Me? And do anyone a favor?”
“Then how about widowhood?”
“…What? Are you threatening to kill me now?”
“No. I was just asking. Wasn’t dying like Godwin your lifelong dream?”
I’d forgotten, but the damned portraits of Godwin and Philomena were hanging prominently in the sitting room, so it came to mind.
“I was just wondering if you still wanted to die.”
“I can’t die anymore. How could I make you a widow?”
Who would benefit from that? I could practically hear the Marquis grinding his teeth as he spat the words out.
“Get out. Now.”
“Ah—!”
I was already on my way out, but he couldn’t even wait that long. He grabbed my arm and tried to drag me along.
Even though he walked slower than I did. And because of that, I had to endure his deranged rambling for far too long.
“Stay quietly locked up in that house until the end of this year. Starting next year, I’ll let you live under me. We need an heir, after all.”
Idiot. I’ll be gone long before that.
“Once you give birth to a son, I’ll lock you away in some back room in the Stamford countryside until you die. Don’t think begging on your knees will save you.”
“That won’t happen. Let go.”
“Think carefully over the next four months. Next year, you’ll meet me again as the old Dana. Understood?”
“That woman is dead! You killed her! Why are you still alive? You said you wanted to die together! Coward!”
“Shut your mouth!”
“Mmph—!”
“That con man really brainwashed you well.”
Maybe it was too much for him to hide his bad leg and drag me all the way down the stairs. He stopped at the top of them.
“Call the Loveridge servants.”
No, if that happens, escaping will be harder.
“I’ll leave on my own!”
I shook his hand off and started down the stairs, but the butler, obedient as ever, ran toward the front entrance, saying he would summon my attendants.
‘I need to get down and escape through the back door.’
I hurried down the stairs when the front hall suddenly erupted into noise. My heart dropped, thinking my attendants had already arrived. But the voice I heard belonged to an unfamiliar woman.
“Everyone knows Rupert is here. Move aside, now.”
“I can’t allow that, madam.”
Looking down, I saw the butler wrestling with a woman trying to force her way in, despite having just gone outside.
“I told you to move! How dare you lay hands on me! Do you think my brother, a judge, will let this slide?”
The woman brandished her parasol wildly, shoved the butler aside, and stormed in, shouting,
“Rupert! Come out here at once!”
This should have been my perfect chance to run, but I couldn’t move. I could see her face clearly now.
“How could you do this to us?!”
The elderly woman resembled the Marquis as if they were mother and son. Yet no servant of the Marquis’s household would dare treat the Marquis’s own mother as an intruder.
‘Which means…’
The moment I realized it, I ran down the remaining steps and called out to her.
“Are you Killian’s mother?”
The old woman, who had been threatening the butler with her parasol, froze and turned to look at me. She didn’t recognize me, her eyes full of confusion.
“You’re Killian’s mother, aren’t you?”
“Yes. I’m Kathleen Ackroyd. And who are you?”
I was about to introduce myself when an angry shout rang out from above.
“Throw that woman out at once!”
The butler hesitated, unsure which woman he meant. At that moment, the old woman’s eyes widened as she looked at me.
“Are you Dana Loveridge?”
“Yes.”
The instant I answered, another furious order came from above.
“Get my wife out…!”
He seemed embarrassed by his own words, trailing off awkwardly. The butler reached for me.
“Don’t touch me.”
I had no parasol, so I swung my bag at his hand instead, copying Lady Ackroyd.
“Do you know who my father is? The Marquis can always hire a new butler, but Dr. Loveridge has only one daughter.”
In my desperation not to lose this once-in-a-lifetime chance to meet Killian’s mother, I ended up making a threat she herself hadn’t even used.
Whether it worked, or whether Lady Ackroyd’s parasol tipped the balance, the butler backed off despite his master’s furious commands.
“I apologize, Marquis. I will summon the Loveridge household at once.”
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