Chapter 72
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 72
Blair swallowed a low groan. He reached out, slowly pulling his sobbing sister into his arms. The steady beat of their hearts, pulsing in perfect unison, offered a melancholy comfort.
“Don’t think about anything. Just rest, Rosalyn.”
Whenever he closed his eyes, the memory of that day returned with vivid clarity. The girl of summer with her hair tied up high in a white dress. Her small face looking back at him with a smile from beneath the leafy trees, her cheeks flushed from the heat, the beads of sweat on the nape of her neck, her plump lips, and the scent of wild strawberries that followed her every breath…
It was the very first moment he had ever wanted to protect someone.
Blair.
He snapped his head up, startled by the vivid hallucination. A laugh as clear as a ringing bell echoed in his ears, as if she might leap out of the darkness at any moment.
Staring blankly into the empty air, a bitter, hollow smile crept onto his lips. The end of a relationship so warped it could never be mended was a miserable, desolate thing. Like ashes left by a wildfire, like the bare, frozen branches of a bitter winter.
Perhaps they should never have met. Even at its best, their friendship had been nothing more than a deformed imitation of the real thing. Rosalyn had followed the mother she both hated and loved; Vanessa had acted out of a gnawing loneliness; and he…
A self-mocking laugh escaped him. It had been a long-standing deception. He had never, not for a single moment, regarded Vanessa as just a friend. Not even in those innocent childhood days when they first met. It was a feeling he had harbored deep inside, hidden even from his twin sister.
He had believed that one day, all her firsts would be his, and all his firsts would belong to her.
There are moments when you must give up what you would rather die than surrender. When you are swept away by a tsunami, crushed by a landslide—pushed by forces far beyond human control.
A single tear rolled down his dry cheek. Perhaps, only now, could he finally…
* * *
“How unexpected. I had assumed the Duke was the one who orchestrated the scandal.”
He was in a private room at the third clubhouse he’d visited that day, trying to evade the hounding reporters. Theodore stared coldly at the seat opposite him. The person who took the empty chair was not his scheduled appointment, but a woman whose face had become all too familiar. She handed her rain-soaked coat to an attendant with practiced ease.
“I won’t take up much of your time. I know you have another appointment.”
“Miss Morton.”
He let out a heavy sigh. It had been an exhausting day. His nerves were already frayed from a succession of press conferences, and now he had to deal with Hailey Morton. Just looking at her was draining.
“I believe I’ve made myself clear. I do not welcome meetings of this nature.”
“I decided the method was irrelevant. Even if I had been more polite, I doubt Your Grace would have welcomed a meeting with me. So, I chose the one that was guaranteed to work.”
The woman stared straight at him, her lips curving into a soft smile. He let out a dry laugh at her appearance. Her makeup was simpler than last time, almost bare; her attire was stiflingly modest; her hair was styled half-up.
She was diligently imitating Vanessa.
“So, did you blackmail the club owner again?”
“Oh, dear. That wasn’t blackmail, it was cooperation. And this time, the Dowager Duchess helped me.”
A flash of venom flickered in Hailey Morton’s pretty eyes.
“Since Your Grace utterly refused to see me.”
“I should inform my grandmother that you are entirely incompatible with her grandson.”
“Is that really necessary? I would think I am your best option as well, Your Grace.”
Theodore set down the quill he was holding and leaned back in his chair. His posture suggested he would at least hear out whatever she had to say. Even if he avoided her now, she would undoubtedly find another way in.
“I am here to propose a contract. Or rather, a deal.”
Theodore let out a low chuckle.
“A deal requires an exchange of equal value. I fail to see what you could possibly offer, Miss Morton.”
“What if it concerns Lady Vanessa?”
“That is none of your concern, Miss Morton.”
“You will need a shield.”
That single word stopped him from calling the attendant to have her thrown out. A shield.
“That scandal is far too filthy for an unmarried woman to bear. At this rate, no one will associate with her. She will be exiled from high society.”
“……”
“An affair with a commoner would be one thing. But rumors of selling her body for money… No matter what you’ve prepared for, the reality will be far more horrific. In newspapers, weeklies, and every social gathering, she will be torn to shreds like the most wicked witch of the century. How many people could endure that without being scarred for life?”
“You are exaggerating.”
“If Lady Vanessa were to become the Duchess soon, they might reluctantly pretend to include her… but tell me, do you intend to unite with Somerset? With that family?”
Hailey’s lips curved up slightly. She acted as though she already knew the answer.
“There is no reason to suffer unnecessary damage. I’m sure you’ve already made that calculation.”
“……”
“There is only one way to restore Lady Vanessa’s honor: convince everyone that the scandal is nothing more than a malicious lie. Announcing our engagement would be the perfect solution. It would be even better if we appeared to be very close.”
“Do I look like the sort of man who would marry simply to protect a woman’s honor?”
“You do, if you’re sincere enough to give away the ‘Mermaid’s Tears’.”
“And why you? Why not some other woman?”
“You will have to choose me.”
There was not a shred of hesitation in her hand as she pulled the brandy glass on the table toward her.
“Because I will not care whom you take as your mistress.”
“Is that because you love Edgar, Miss Morton?”
For a moment, Hailey Morton’s smooth delivery faltered. The pale face staring back at him finally looked like her own, a stark contrast to the confident mask she wore—an imitation of someone else.
Her breath lost its composure, and her gaze dropped for the first time since he had met her.
“…Love is a luxury. I wish to rise to a higher station. And I want that position to be permanent.”
“……”
“I heard you are infertile.”
Theodore leisurely raised the glass in front of him. The rumor Hailey Morton spoke of so lightly was one that had quietly spread through high society. Gossip about a twenty-three-year-old duke who wasn’t even engaged was bound to be rife.
However, very few knew the truth—that the Duke himself had spread the rumor. He had done so to discourage the Dowager Duchess from demanding he marry, to avoid a royal match, and to use it as a convenient excuse to sever the Battenberg bloodline he’d inherited from his wretched parents.
Although the world had not gone according to his plans, it seemed someone whose interests finally aligned with his was standing right before him. A way to sever the bloodline—a highly legal and discreet one at that.
“I only need one child, which I will conceive in the future. That is the only thing you will have to tolerate. Since you and Edgar are cousins, the lineage won’t even be altered.”
It was a calculation so absurd it was almost laughable.
“After that, I wouldn’t dare care where you go or whom you desire. I can live quietly in a villa and be your Duchess in name only. Or I could hide your lovely mistress from the cruel eyes of high society… I will do whatever it takes. As long as Your Grace passes the Battenberg name to the child I will bear with Edgar.”
Her gaze, clear once more, locked onto him.
“And that, above all, will be the most secure shield to protect Lady Vanessa for the rest of her life.”
* * *
As summer raced toward its end, the heat didn’t wane. Instead, it grew fiercer. Though a brief coolness lingered in the early mornings and late nights, midday brought intense sunlight pouring down over the lush gardens of Gloucester.
It was so hot that sweat beaded on her skin even as she sat perfectly still. Vanessa sipped her iced apple juice, resting her cheek against the cool wood of the round table.
“I’ll be back soon.”
It was River Ross’s voice, a voice she hadn’t heard in a long time. Only then did her heart start beating again. She could breathe, could feel the muggy summer breeze on her skin. What on earth was it about those words?