Chapter 2
In the end, hands that had been clawing at her hair began violently raking through her silken golden locks. It was nothing short of a howl of despair. Looking as though she might slam her face into the desk and perish on the spot, Asha curled over the desk, tearing at her hair, and alongside her, the aide cried out in anguish too.
How long had they been like that—the aide flinched and jerked upright, leaning toward her with a voice charged with excitement.
“The Count, let’s appeal to the Count! With Count Bellstein’s assets, a business debt like Madam’s is nothing—he’d pay it off laughing! Surely he wouldn’t bring up divorce just to avoid paying off the debt, would he?”
“The Count, meaning… my husband?”
The hands tearing at her hair came to an abrupt halt.
The Count of Bellstein. Harriet Lehman Bellstein.
A merchant and businessman for the ages—it was no exaggeration to say he had swept up every gold coin in Peliche.
As a married couple, it was only right to ask her husband for help. But for some reason, the moment Asha recalled his soft chestnut hair and warm green eyes, her breath caught in her throat. Money demon, great magnate—the words used to describe him were thoroughly worldly, yet the man she had lived with skin-to-skin was nothing more than a courteous gentleman and a gentle husband.
A year and a half since their political marriage. How could she ask him—with whom she had shared a life of fitting closeness, as any aristocratic couple did—to repay fifty million Rublangs of business debt? Even shamelessness had its limits.
But her aide, who had poured his entire fortune into Asha’s business after being won over by her sweet words, had already lost his mind entirely.
“That’s right, Madam! We’re going! Right now, go and bring it up with the Count. No, no, this isn’t the time for standing around. Betty! Come help Madam get presentable!”
“What—!”
The aide hauled her up from her chair and smartly pressed a fan into her hand, then looked at Asha with imploring eyes.
“Madam, among the money flying away right now is my wedding fund. If that’s gone, Cecile will break off our engagement! And if word gets out that she broke it off over a business failure, I’ll spend the rest of my life as a bachelor! Yes? Heugh, of all the things to get involved in, why did I ever step into investing….”
His tearful plea ended with his voice trembling, eyes brimming with moisture. How could she ignore him—a man with a mountain of a body, crumpled small and pitifully clasping his hands together in supplication?
In the end, Asha found herself standing before the Count’s study dressed in a splendor fit for an imperial banquet. The result of the maids going overboard insisting that she had to look as pretty as possible if she was going to move the Count.
Befitting his stature, before the grandly carved door, Asha knocked with a feather-light touch.
Knock, knock.
“My lady?”
However lightly she knocked, his hearing was impeccable—the heavy door swung open immediately, putting her soft knock to shame.
Avoiding the curious eyes of his aide, who clearly wondered why the mistress of the house had come here dressed in such splendor, Asha quickly stepped inside the study.
“Asha. What’s the matter?”
A steady, gentle voice reached her ears.
Through the large window across from the door, a spring breeze drifted momentarily through. His soft, chestnut-brown hair stirred lightly in the breeze. Ah—where in the world was there a man who suited the beginning of summer more than this?
He was a gentle yet composed man who seemed unworthy of the fearsome title of Peliche’s gold demon. He held his wife in the highest regard, and he would have no idea what she was about to bring up. Asha felt a sharp pang of conscience.
As Asha hesitated and failed to continue speaking, Harriet—the Count who had been watching her—shifted his deep green eyes toward his aide. The green was the color of deep shade, settled and darkened.
“Bring tea.”
He issued a light but firm command, then gently guided his wife to the sofa set in the center of the study. Though this was clearly Asha’s first visit to his study, the maids moved swiftly and without hesitation to prepare a tea set that suited her tastes exactly.
The aides filed out alongside the maids, leaving only Harriet and Asha in the study. But Asha, every nerve strung taut toward Harriet, didn’t notice.
As if trying to ease her tension—for she was visibly rigid to any eye—he began lightly.
“Summer seems to be coming soon. It has gotten quite a bit warmer.”
“Yes.”
When summer comes, the seizure will begin.
“When summer comes, I was thinking we ought to renovate the manor…. What do you say we purchase one of the villas by the seaside and spend this summer there?”
“That sounds good.”
In summer, I’ll be sitting out on the cold streets.
“My lady?”
“Ah.”
Harriet smiled gently and leaned toward her, who had clearly drifted into her own thoughts.
“What are you thinking about so deeply? Hm… is it related to why you’ve come? Something to do with, say… your latest business venture?”
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