What I Gained by Giving My Body - Chapter 2.21

* * *

Three days after visiting Sabina’s Boutique, Leslie burst into the Hardick Baron’s estate in person.

“My goodness, Cathy! You didn’t even tell me you were engaged to His Grace the Archduke?”

How hurriedly she must have run over; her brown hair, which was always well-groomed and glossy, was completely disheveled.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to tell you.”

At the answer, which even Caitlyn herself thought was quite pathetic, Leslie showed her disappointment openly.

“Of course you should have sent a letter! Can’t you even do that much? We are friends…….”

“I’m sorry.”

Leslie shot her a look.

“Speak honestly. You aren’t sorry at all, are you?”

“……Yes.”

Caitlyn answered honestly. She didn’t want to bother lying even to Leslie.

“Ugh.”

Leslie shook her head.

“Fine. I think I know why Cathy did that.”

“You think you know?”

“Of course.”

Leslie spoke as if it were nothing, but her voice was thick with hurt.

“You probably couldn’t trust me. I understand. It seems you wanted to hide it in your own way, but for the rumor to spread so instantly like this……. But Cathy, if you wanted to stop the rumors, you shouldn’t have gone to Sabina’s Boutique yourself!”

Caitlyn bit her lip. It was because she only now realized Archduke Akbar’s intention.

“……It was His Grace’s wish.”

“Truly?”

Leslie’s eyes went wide.

“Yes. It was my side that wanted to hide it.”

“So that’s how it was.”

Leslie spoke slowly as she examined her. In her clear blue eyes, devoid of a single point of selfish motive, only worry for Caitlyn could be felt.

“Are you okay, Cathy?”

Caitlyn hesitated to answer for a moment. It was because if she said she was okay, she didn’t think Leslie would believe her, and if she said she wasn’t okay, she felt like she would be interrogated.

“…….”

“Yes, Cathy. I think I know.”

Leslie let out a sigh.

“Cathy, you didn’t want this engagement…….”

“It’s not an engagement that will last long.”

The words she had intended to hide burst out of their own accord. Even while feeling puzzled by herself, she continued her words.

“So I just thought there was no need to make a fuss. Since His Grace the Archduke will only keep me by his side for as long as he needs me.”

“…….”

Leslie Sufferd was silent for a while, then she pulled Caitlyn into a tight embrace with all her strength. The innocent Count’s daughter, who had always poured out interest and questions, did not ask anything this time.

“It must have been very hard for you…….”

She had only heard a single sentence, but her eyes became stiff.

‘I shouldn’t be like this.’

Caitlyn squeezed her eyes shut to hide the moisture that kept gathering. But Leslie made Caitlyn cry even more with another sentence.

“No matter what happens, I will be on Cathy’s side.”

“…….”

Her throat felt tight. She felt as though tears would overflow at any moment and she would end up sobbing unsightly in front of Leslie. But Caitlyn desperately composed her mind.

Likely, to the naturally kind Leslie, these were words that meant very little. They were the kind of words she would purely offer even if someone other than herself were in the same situation. Recalling those thoughts with effort, Caitlyn, who barely regained her composure, expressed her gratitude to Leslie.

“Thank you, Leslie.”

Leslie stared at her intently for a moment, then spoke abruptly.

“Then you wouldn’t particularly want something like a congratulatory party.”

“Yes.”

Caitlyn shuddered. An engagement party; she hated the mere thought of it.

“It would be better to have one.”

“Why?”

Even while asking, Caitlyn actually knew the reason. Once the floodgates of rumors are opened, they become uncontrollable. If you want rumors to spread in the direction you desire, you must move first. Before enemies can use the rumors. Leslie laughed out loud.

“Why do you ask when you already know?”

* * *

Leslie’s visit was only the beginning. Various famous figures of high society sent servants to her, inviting her to tea times and banquets, and when she sent polite rejection replies, gifts arrived this time. They were gifts of such high value that a major problem could arise by etiquette if she did not return the favor.

Instead of exhausting her little remaining private funds to send them return gifts, Caitlyn went to see Archduke Akbar. The servants welcomed her as soon as they saw her and guided her to the glass greenhouse where the Archduke was.

‘……As expected, even the archduke’s greenhouse is on another level.’

She had been to greenhouses several times before, but this place was on a different level. It wasn’t just because of the scale, which was larger than the house of a fairly well-to-do commoner. Unlike an ordinary greenhouse where maintaining a spring-like climate was the best effort, this was a bizarre space where a sweltering heat could be felt even in this season as autumn was ending.

And what about this humidity. Caitlyn surveyed the surroundings quickly, feeling utterly repulsed. Her only desire was to meet Archduke Akbar quickly, finish her business, and leave.

‘Where on earth is he?’

It was no easy task to find Archduke Akbar among the exotic plants that grew densely enough to threaten the ceiling of the greenhouse.

“Your Grace!”

Caitlyn called out for Archduke Akbar, but her voice was buried in the muffled air that felt like water-soaked cotton.