“Go ahead and shoot.”
“What?”
“I brought the gun myself, so why can’t you do it?”
Glancing down at his hands, the man saw he was gripping something. A gun…
“N-No, I can’t…”
Shaking his head, he watched as the man slowly approached him, like a predator leisurely approaching its prey. The piercing gaze was chilling, like a sharp blade. Facing such an overwhelmingly dominant adversary was unnerving.
“Don’t… don’t come any closer!”
“It would be easier to just accept it.”
Accept what?
Danger.
His instincts were warning him. He wanted to drop the gun, but his grip tightened around it. And it felt as if someone was pushing him forward from behind.
“I told you not to come! Aaaah!”
Screaming in sheer terror, the man was met with the other’s composure. Before he could react, his index finger pulled the trigger. He felt a searing pain as the bullet grazed his skin, the sound of the gun, startled birds taking flight, the stinging recoil on his wrist. And then…
People came rushing in. His hands were swiftly twisted behind his back, and his face crashed to the ground.
“…He was smiling.”
“What?”
“That guy, he was smiling when he got shot!”
“My goodness…My lord, does that make any sense? He’s not a monster.”
The anecdote ended there. The guard had let out a derisive laugh, turned and walked away. A woman passed by him.
Jamie, who had been about to lie back down on the bed with a gloomy face, turned his head a moment later.
“What, who is it now…”
“It’s been a while.”
“You…”
Separated by the bars, Charlotte spoke to him.
“I came to ask you something.”
“What?”
“Did you come to Mistymoor Hall to see me, and that’s why you shot him? Or was he your target from the beginning?”
“No!”
Jamie hastily shook his head, surging forward to grip the bars.
“It’s true I came to see you. But I had no intention of shooting that bastard!”
Charlotte watched him silently as he continued his desperate pleas.
“I’m being serious. Why would I dig my own grave by shooting a Kensington?”
“There’s an eyewitness.”
“I did shoot, but it wasn’t of my own will!”
Unconvinced by his nonsensical defense, Charlotte lightly clenched and unclenched her fist.
“Then why did you have the gun?”
“That—it just ended up in my pocket somehow—”
Listening further was a waste of time. The man who had been so smooth-talking was now making claims that didn’t add up at all.
Satisfied that she had confirmed the facts, Charlotte turned to leave without a word. But his desperate voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Charlotte!”
She paused. Facing her retreating back, Jamie warned her.
“I advise you, out of our past acquaintance, to never get close to that man. He’s… not human.”
No response came. The hands gripping the bars fell limply. The sound of footsteps faded away.
***
In the week following the shooting, Ethelwood was once again in an uproar.
Despite the efforts of the accused’s mother and wife to find a lawyer, no attorney in Ethelwood was willing to take on Jamie Linton’s case, so the trial proceeded swiftly to the verdict.
As soon as the judge struck the gavel, reporters rushed out of the courtroom.
<Jamie Linton, the Kensington Family Shooter, Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison!>
For the gossiping aristocracy, it was a juicy morsel they simply couldn’t resist. The news of the verdict spread quickly from the heart of high society to the furthest corners. Some blamed the foolishness of Linton’s younger son, sympathized with his elderly mother, and criticized the ruthless speed of the proceedings from detention to sentencing, but they were in the minority. The overall public sentiment favored the victim, Richard, especially in Gredel Hill.
“In 25 years, he’ll be nearly an old man by the time he’s released.”
“Well, he deserved it. Sir Richard hasn’t fully recovered yet, either.”
“He had to take a temporary leave of absence to his office in the capital, so there must be financial losses as well.”
“But we don’t need to worry about that, with his estate being over 10,000 acres.”
“That’s true. Anyway, how are we planning our vacation this time?”
The maids’ conversation, which had briefly touched on the master’s affairs, smoothly transitioned into more personal topics. Unable to assist the invalid directly, Charlotte, who had been wiping her mother’s pillowcase with a detergent-soaked sponge, wiped the sweat from her brow.
Mary, sitting beside her, casually spoke up.
“By the way, Charlotte, how is your mother doing these days? She seems to be much better.”
“Ah…Yes, thanks to you.”
Charlotte replied hesitantly, as if someone had poked at her weakness. The half-lidded gaze briefly swept over her as she kept her eyes lowered.
For some reason, these days, there was a strange, unsettling undercurrent in the eyes that followed her. Feeling the uncomfortable atmosphere, Charlotte quickly finished her chores, about to get up first. But Dyna, one of the maids who had been displeased with Charlotte’s involvement in Richard’s affairs, suddenly blurted out.
“But is that rumor true?”
“Pardon?”
“That you were Jamie Linton’s mistress. Is it true?”
Mistress.
Charlotte’s eyes widened. It was the first time she had heard of this. At that moment, the meaningful glances of the past few days made sense.
Her heart began to race, and her mouth went dry. She felt as if she had been doused in filthy water. Without even realizing she had dropped the laundry in her hands, she took a moment to compose herself.
Stay calm.
“What are you talking about?”
“You went to visit him, didn’t you?”
She had visited in secret. No one, not even her mother Cynthia, knew about it. Sensing the questions in Charlotte’s eyes, Dyna added.
“My cousin is a guard there.”
“That’s…”
She couldn’t honestly confirm it, nor could she simply deny it outright. Hiding her trembling hands in the folds of her dress, Charlotte tightly closed her eyes.
“Lady Janice asked me to.”
“What?”
“As you know…Everyone’s been quite busy lately. So she asked me to run an errand.”
Once the lie started flowing, it kept going smoothly. It was just a temporary expedient, as she would have to explain the real reason later.
A brief silence swept over them. Silently observing the two, Mary interjected.
“Ah, I see. So that’s how it was.”
The tense atmosphere instantly dissipated, like a taut string snapping.
“I made an absurd misunderstanding. I’m so silly.”
“Dyna, you should apologize to Charlotte.”
Dyna’s face flushed at the sudden shift in mood. As the blame turned on her, she momentarily faltered, but then stubbornly glared at Charlotte.
“No way! My cousin said the woman with the teal eyes and long dark hair is definitely his mistress, and the name matches too. If it’s just an errand, why hide it?”
It was a fair point. With Charlotte at a loss for words, Dyna seized the opportunity, gripping her wrist.
“To be sure, let’s go and confirm it with Lady Janice.”
Just as Charlotte was about to be dragged inside, the relatively neutral Mary stepped in.
“Hold on, what if Charlotte is telling the truth?”
“Then I’ll do the entire central hall floor cleaning all by myself for a while.”
“Alright. I’ll go with you. We can’t all barge in together.”
Sighing, Mary reached a conclusion.
Dyna took the lead, with Charlotte and Mary following behind. Charlotte tried to stop several times, but felt trapped, unable to break free. A tangle of scenarios swirled in her mind.
It made the situation worse. It would have been better to be honest.
Regardless of her regrets, the three of them soon arrived at the housekeeper’s office. Without a chance to intervene, Dyna stretched out her arm and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock.
“Madam Janice, are you in? I have something urgent to ask you.”
Charlotte had hoped she wouldn’t be there, but a response came immediately from the other side.
“Come in.”
As soon as the doorknob turned, the door swung open. Beside Janice, there was one more person in the room.
“Ah…”
“What are you doing? Come in and greet us properly instead of standing there.”
“You’ve returned, Sir Richard.”
The violet eyes swept over Dyna, then Mary, and finally lingered on Charlotte for a brief moment. Though fleeting, it felt eternal to Charlotte.
He’s…awake.
Heat rushed to the corners of her eyes. To conceal the burning sensation, she quickly bowed her head. A whirlwind of indecipherable emotions surged violently within her.
Even after hearing Jamie’s explanation, she still felt like a culprit. Whether or not the shooting incident was directly her fault, there was no doubt that her presence here was the root cause.
Closing her eyes, the image of the blood-stained white shirt flashed in her mind. The anxious, uneasy days. Now that she knew he was safe, a tingling sensation rose from her fingertips. Relief, jubilation, and something unsettling deep within her chest.
Seeming displeased at the interruption to their conversation, Janice stood with her arms crossed, coldly addressing the newcomers.
“Well, what is it? Why have the three of you come?”
No, this can’t be. Charlotte hastily lifted her head, about to say something, but unfortunately, Dyna was a step faster.
“We came to confirm if you had sent Charlotte on an errand to the temporary prison a week ago.”
“What?”
Janice raised her eyebrows at the unexpected question.
“Did you, in fact, ask Charlotte to visit Jamie Linton?”
“Hah…”
Letting out a derisive chuckle, Janice’s gaze fixed on Charlotte. This was the worst-case scenario. Feeling all four pairs of eyes on her, Charlotte clenched and unclenched her fists.
“Charlotte, what is the meaning of this?”
It’s all over now. Because of petty suspicions and curiosity, she had ruined herself…
Holding back the heat welling up in her eyes, Charlotte trembled as she parted her lips.
“The truth is…”
“I asked her to go.”
The words left Richard’s mouth before Charlotte could finish. All eyes turned to him.
“It was a secret errand, but I suppose it was too much to ask.”
Unfazed by the frozen gazes, Richard stepped forward in front of Charlotte and smiled gently.
“Did you have a safe trip, Charlotte?”
Like a clever rabbit that had willingly stepped into an expertly crafted trap.
🍉🍉🍉
