Chapter 51
It sounded like Cecile’s husband hurriedly stood up and pulled her into an embrace. Cecile let out an irritated groan, “uugh,” her voice muffled as if her face were buried against him.
“What am I going to do now? With Julia?”
“Cecile.”
“Idiot. Moron. If this was how it was going to be, I should’ve just let Julia live quietly. The moment her husband died, he sent me a telegram like his life depended on it!”
The conversation took another strange turn. Julia stared blankly, her mouth slightly open as she blinked. The moment her husband died, ‘he’ sent Cecile a telegram like his life depended on it? Then that means…
Duke Drexton?
‘No, then…’
That would mean Julia going to the Drexton ducal manor as a private tutor wasn’t because a position just happened to open up, and it wasn’t because Cecile just happened to write a letter of recommendation.
‘It was all intentional?’
Cecile kept talking.
“He kept someone watching over her ever since she got married. Just to see how she was living. For over ten years!”
“And then, when Mister Devel died—”
“That guy roped me into it!”
Julia thought back to the time after her husband’s death. Cecile really had contacted her with perfect timing, as if she knew Julia had nowhere to go.
She had been so grateful.
But that timing wasn’t divine providence or mere coincidence?
Duke Drexton, who had been watching her, contacted Cecile and arranged for Julia to be brought over?
“The private tutor idea was also Duke Drexton’s, remember?”
“Of course, Wife. You even got angry at first.”
“Right. Do you think I felt comfortable suggesting a position like that to my friend?”
“But… Missus Devel is very rigid by nature.”
“Exactly.”
Cecile’s voice drifted a little farther away, as if she had moved toward the window.
“I thought that unless she got pregnant, she’d never remarry.”
“That’s right…”
Cecile’s husband kept siding with her and chiming in. It seemed like an attempt to stop Cecile from exploding, though it was hard to say whether it was working.
“I took that risk to make Julia the Duchess!”
Cecile, having mulled over the situation, had truly lost it. As Cecile began to boil over, her husband sensed danger and hurriedly tried to placate her.
“You’re not mad at me, right? I don’t like it when you raise your voice.”
“Of course I’m not mad at you. But listen. What is all this? This situation is so frustrating.”
“That’s how it turned out.”
“Julia left without even completing the contract period. What on earth happened? I was so frustrated that I looked into it, and I heard there was some kind of ball? A ball with all the women invited.”
“That was…”
“That bastard’s insane.”
At Cecile’s increasingly harsh words, Julia felt the hair on her scalp prickle.
‘That’s not it… that ball was something Marchioness Alleguleur decided on her own, and Duke Drexton opposed it vehemently.’
As Julia thought that, she flinched. Even after hearing such shocking things, she was instinctively defending Duke Drexton.
‘No. This isn’t the time to be eavesdropping.’
Julia couldn’t endure it any longer.
She opened the door. At the sound of the door opening without a knock, Cecile yelped.
“WHAT?!”
Then, seeing Julia, her face turned awkward.
“Ah, J…Julia.”
Cecile broke out in a cold sweat and darted her eyes around.
Cecile’s husband hurriedly pulled away from her. Julia’s hands trembled. She clasped them together and asked Cecile.
“Cecile, what was that just now?”
“Um, uhh…”
This had become terribly awkward.
“…How much did you hear?”
“That you told Duke Drexton to get me pregnant.”
Cecile covered her face. She had heard the one thing she absolutely shouldn’t have.
“Dear, bring me my fan.”
Cecile’s husband quickly picked up the fan from the floor, likely something she had thrown in anger, and handed it to her.
Cecile covered half her face with the fan, leaving only her eyes visible as she looked at Julia.
“That’s…”
“……”
Julia looked at Cecile with calm but stern eyes.
‘The baby who’s going to be born will have to grow up well. With a mother that strict.’
Fortunately, Cecile wasn’t Julia’s daughter.
“…Hear it directly from Duke Drexton.”
That was why she could respond like this.
“Directly?”
Julia’s shoulders flinched. She reflexively covered her lower abdomen with both hands.
She had planned never to meet Duke Drexton again. Until thirty minutes ago, she had firmly resolved never to appear in his life again. To not even brush past him in the future.
But what Cecile had said to her husband was far too bewildering. There was clearly a need to hear Duke Drexton’s explanation.
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