It wasn’t meant to be bad.
The ability to lead the atmosphere with a melancholic impression was one of the talents highly valued in social circles.
What was not as good as imagined was the blatant attitude towards Carol as if it was his territory.
“You can relax since I’m paying attention to the treatment.”
“Of course, you will do well. The worry is separate from that.”
“Oh my.”
Margaret exclaimed, glancing at Carol. At the strange gaze, Carol responded with an awkward voice.
“I’m a person with a wide range of concerns.”
Should she have sat next to Margaret Chesworth?
Carol regretted it for a moment, but it was clear that it would look stranger if she got up late.
“Hehe. Is it a concern?”
Margaret laughed and asked back in a meaningful voice. The glance was strange. It was an expression as if she knew a secret and was holding back laughter.
“Yes?”
Carol, who couldn’t even imagine that rumors were spreading behind her, asked back.
The Duke, who had been watching the situation, cut off the strangely flowing atmosphere with a distinctly different, chilly tone.
“This Duke made sure to employ adults.”
It was as good as saying that since she’s not a child but an adult, she should take care of her own behavior.
“Of course.”
Mrs. Wells, who was standing next to the drape, also chimed in without answering.
“That’s right.”
Carol, who had faked her status, awkwardly spoke as she felt pricked. She sipped her tea to soothe her burning throat.
“The tea is delicious today.”
The tea usually drunk in the north was characterized by a bland but savory taste using dried roots.
But this was sweet, and the scent of flowers was strong. After transmigrating, life was hard, and sweetness was a luxury.
“It’s dried flower petals brought from the southern region.”
At Carol’s words, Margaret laughed and answered.
She seemed like a typical country bumpkin.
‘Young Viscount Walden’s taste is simpler than I thought.’
If she had shown an ignorant attitude in the social world, she would have been eaten up.
Margaret, who made a cool assessment different from her calm face, was relieved.
She thought that the servant at night might be the Duke’s wife.
But the noble Duke Winternox would never give his heart to a mere bumpkin.
“Oh, I see.”
Without knowing the fiercely ongoing thoughts, Carol enjoyed the tea with a relaxed face.
“It’s really sweet.”
“That’s right.”
Dylan and Kevin also agreed with Carol’s words, and the tense atmosphere naturally dissolved.
“You sprayed the perfume I gave you.”
Louis laughed as he lightly rested his head on Carol’s shoulder and then raised it.
“Oh, yes.”
Did he take some kind of medicine that made one cringey after going to the capital?
She answered while shrinking her neck because the distance was close.
“Your neck is red…Oh my.”
Margaret, who moved her gaze from Louis to Carol, saw the trace left on Carol’s neck and put down her teacup, fluttering her eyelashes.
“Huh? Why my neck…Ah.”
She remembered the scratch on the button when she wiped her neck unnecessarily.
“The young ladies who admired Young Viscount Walden will be deeply heartbroken.”
But Margaret, who interpreted the red neck differently, came to regard the rumor that had been half-believed and had been going around at noon today as a fact.
“I thought there was no such strange person in the social world.”
Louis spoke with a trembling voice. Since it was not a denial of Margaret’s words, Margaret added more confidence to her thoughts.
“Everyone just gave up because of the cold attitude of the young viscount.”
Isn’t dating the most interesting topic for young ladies?
Margaret’s eyes sparkled. The cold and gloomy weather was hard for a young lady who was born and raised in the capital.
It would be great if she could lead a light atmosphere like in the capital.
“But your heart is so strong. Your reunion last night must have been special.”
“No, this is…”
“Of course. It’s a reunion with a precious person.”
Carol, who was not familiar with the rhetoric of the social world, could not understand it right away and could not respond properly, and Louis answered, leaving room for doubt even though he knew everything.
Carol hit Louis’s side, but Kevin, who was absent-minded, added fuel to the conversation without thinking.
“Louis really cherishes sister.”
“Oh my. Is that so?”
“Has been treated special since young.”
“We were out of his sight.”
The Duke silently listened to such a conversation.
Regardless of the truth, it was rude to carry on a conversation like this with people in front of them.
“It’s not peculiar. It’s just because we’re of similar age.”
Carol answered, waving her hand, and her mood improved a bit.
Normally, the Duke would have mingled appropriately, but the other party was none other than Carol.
Even if the inside of the drape was cleaned up, the object itself was old and had a stale smell.
Want to go back.
Into the room where the two of them could be without any other worries.
The burning firewood and the faint scent of herbs ending with a soft fragrance calmed him.
When did he start to feel comfortable again in the room he thought was like a prison?
The beginning of the end of what seemed like eternal darkness was entirely due to Carol.
‘No matter how much they are lovers, even if they don’t like working for the Duke, but they can’t help it during the contract period.’
The subtle check of Viscount Walden meant nothing less than that the relationship between the two was not complete yet.
So far, there seemed to be a gap.
Before thinking about why he was happy about such a gap, the Duke did not miss the gap and dug into it.
“I heard you’re close friends.”
“Ah, yes. That’s right!”
At the Duke’s words, Carol nodded her head greatly. Carol seemed to notice a bit late that the atmosphere was turning strange.
“Childhood friends are always precious.”
“…”
The Duke spoke the word ‘childhood friend’ with a mocking emphasis.
At the Duke’s unexpected attitude, Louis was quite flustered.
Although his expression was not visible beyond the drape, Louis quickly noticed that the Duke was uncomfortable.
He was a high-ranking nobleman with the blood of the royal family flowing in him.
People who knew nothing said that the North was just a land with nothing, but the reality was different.
This place was prime land.
Although it was a harsh land and it was difficult to solve the food problem at first, there were huge diamond mines and iron mines in the North.
Northern nobles generally received higher taxes as their income increased to fatten their own bellies.
Although the lack of food made it difficult for the territory’s people to easily overcome poverty, Cardiff was different.
Cardiff has been lowering tax rates and focusing on the food of the territory’s people for decades.
Although it did not solve all the poverty, Cardiff had created a territory that was good enough to be proud of.
People who go back and forth in the North were usually only designated merchants, so in the capital, the fixed notion of the impoverished times about Cardiff was still maintained.
And the one who was trying to solve all that was the current Duke of Winternox.
He was a high-ranking nobleman who suited the title of Duke as he imagined.
And he had just repressed himself?
‘No way.’
It must be his delusion.
Even if he entered the Walden family as a foster child and his circumstances improved, it was nothing compared to the Duke’s family.
“Do you mean just friends?”
“Yes. But why?”
“Then that rumor…?”
“Rumor?”
Rumor? Carol looked at Louis with a surprised face.
Louis also shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know well.
For a high-ranking nobleman to sincerely deal with a commoner was a story that a dreamy girl who enjoys reading romance novels would dream of.
She felt it painfully in the capital. How different are the thoughts of people who have held power from birth?
But it started to flow in a different aspect from Louis’s thoughts.
“Lady Margaret.”
The Duke quickly cut off Margaret’s words.
“Yes?”
“Let’s talk about us rather than other stories.”
“That’s right. Because that’s more important.”
Margaret Chesworth agreed with the Duke’s words, blushing at the word ‘us’.
The reason she came this far was not political, but pure goodwill.
No matter how cunningly she acted in the social world, she was still young.
Objectively speaking, she belonged to the side that showed courtesy to the common people.
The Duke rubbed his forehead.
Static electricity occurred in the well-combed fur.
Suddenly, he felt that this dinner time was a waste.
What’s the use of all this?
While they were being polite to each other, the important words were not actually spoken.
‘I don’t like to lighten the atmosphere using the teacher.’
He didn’t like that only Carol’s story, who had the lowest status, was on the anvil.
He knew how maliciously rumors could spread.
After all, the real business would be with him.
When the Duke put down his teacup with a sound, everyone turned their attention to the drape.
“Since it’s a story of family against family, it’s naturally important, isn’t it.”
When the Duke drew a line firmly, Margaret frowned.
“If it was just a family story, I wouldn’t have braved the snow to get here.”
The Duke added a back word in a colder voice.
“I should have sent a letter earlier. I made you take a pointless step.”
At the Duke’s words that there was nothing between them, Margaret blushed.
“Duke!”
“I’m not fully recovered yet to have such a superficial conversation, young lady.”
“I didn’t consider it fully. I’m sorry. Then next time…”
“No.”
“Yes?”
“It’s better to talk straightforwardly since I can’t rob Lady Margaret of her time.”
The ruthless voice was colder than the winter wind when she first arrived in the North.
