Chapter 18
Uncles (1)
“I’m going to get married, mother.”
He was the eldest son who was so blunt that it seemed like he would meet just any woman.
When Luke suddenly brought up marriage, Catherine was shocked and almost fainted.
She had heard rumors. Rumors that her eldest son, the Duke of Lysianthus, had fallen head over heels for a certain lady and turned into a marshmallow.
But she had never seen it with her own eyes. When Catherine was about to say something in shock, Luke spoke with fierce eyes.
“Don’t even think about opposing it. Of course, Mother wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, and I hope you treat her well when she comes. It’s none of my business if Mother harasses noblewomen, but not with her.”
The eldest son was a real brat even then. She laughed, thinking that he was threatening to go independent immediately if she made things difficult for Elodie.
“Hmph. Why should she have to deal with me? If she’s heard the rumors of her social circle, she’ll avoid me at all costs.”
Catherine had a bad reputation in social circles, long ago and even now. It was no wonder, after all the hair she’d torn off the heads of the social circle.
In fact, she was still willing to do that even now that she was older. However, those who knew Catherine’s temper would not invite her to parties, or even if they did meet, they would avoid her.
Catherine didn’t care at all about that. She didn’t care what other people thought of her.
She didn’t care… she thought.
“I was really worried at first, but you’re a really good person, Madam.”
“How would you feel if Luke and I had a child?”
“Mom! The weather is nice today. Would you like to go for a walk together? Just the two of us, without Luke!”
Elodie was a lovely person.
Pink hair that looked like a flower in bloom. Bright and round features. An innocent smile that occasionally appeared like a child.
Elodie, who had just become the Duchess of Lysianthus, looked more like a little girl than a woman.
Elodie approached Catherine, who was twitching, like a little puppy. Elodie, who had been loved since she was young, did not give in at all when Catherine pushed her away.
I thought she was a flower in a greenhouse.
“You, aren’t you afraid of me? I could hate you.”
“Yes?”
When Catherine asked her one day, Elodie said with a look of genuine incomprehension.
“No one hates me, right?”
Her confidence was truly amazing.
However, Elodie’s words were also true. Of course, the Count’s family, and the Duke’s family, all liked Elodie. It was impossible to hate her.
She was someone who always listened to her subordinates and smiled kindly. Even though she was the youngest daughter of the wealthiest family in the kingdom and the wife of the Duke’s house, she did not wield her power recklessly, and approached even shy people with a smile.
There was a saying that you can’t spit on a smiling face.
The old adage isn’t always true, but seeing Elodie’s face makes me think of it.
Oh, so that’s what it meant, I thought.
Catherine gradually fell for Elodie. She came to love Elodie more than her son Luke. It didn’t even take half a year for that to happen.
It was a love that came late in life.
So the sense of loss when that love left her was indescribable. The stillbirth of her granddaughter that she had been waiting for and the death of her daughter-in-law that she had cherished like her own child made Catherine run away from the Duke’s mansion.
And now, Elodie’s daughter appeared.
… Does that make sense?
Catherine remembered right after Elodie gave birth. She didn’t see the birth directly, but the baby that was born was bloodless. It was dead.
Elodie had never been pregnant since then. She passed away before he could even live a year after the stillbirth.
But considering my son’s personality, it was ridiculous for him to have had a child with a woman other than Elodie. If he was Luke’s biological child, then it must have been Elodie’s daughter. In fact, just by looking at her appearance, it was definitely her daughter.
‘How on earth?’
Catherine grabbed the hem of her skirt and straightened it. Priest Dominic, who sensed the ominous atmosphere, smiled awkwardly.
“Haha… Congratulations. Then, Duke, may we go back now?”
“Yes, please. Oh, and in the name of the temple, I would like you to announce that Bonita is my child.”
“Of course I will.”
“Yes. Then, we will go now.”
At Luke’s order to swear, the two priests quickly left the room. They sighed in relief as they went out the door. Leo grumbled, his red hair fluttering.
“I thought I was going to die.”
Dominic nodded with an exhausted expression.
“Yeah. Anyway, I’ll have to choose my job wisely next time.”
*****
When the priest left, Catherine stood up, slightly unsteadily.
Her purple eyes turned to the child sitting between Luke and Aria.
A small girl who looked like Elodie.
Bonita Lysianthus.
She looked like her. She really looked like her.
“Madam?”
Bonita asked Catherine with an awkward expression. As if the realization that she was the Duke’s biological daughter still didn’t sink in.
Looking at her face, Catherine suddenly realized.
Bonita looked just like Elodie, and she was definitely her daughter. But the two were very different.
If it had been Elodie, she wouldn’t have looked at Catherine’s face in this situation. She acted like she had nothing to fear in the world. The beloved youngest daughter of a wealthy count. She was even the niece of a queen who controlled the social world.
On the other hand, Bonita?
She was raised by a woman named Aria Hilton, I think.
Catherine didn’t know how Bonita had grown up. However, she could guess that Bonita had not grown up as a noble.
The door to Baron Hilton’s mansion had been firmly closed for a long time, and the only heir, Aria Hilton, had been in hiding for six long years.
Was it a difference in their upbringing?
Or was it just an innate disposition?
Catherine stared blankly at Bonita. Then, a worried voice came from beside her.
“Madam Lysianthus, are you okay? Your complexion is pale.”
Catherine, who was looking at Bonita’s face, flinched. When she turned her head, she saw Aria’s worried expression.
“I think it would be best for you to go to your room and rest. You can talk to Bonita later, right?”
She smiled.
“You…”
Catherine opened and closed her mouth. She couldn’t say anything else.
She looked at Bonita one last time, then staggered out of the living room. It was a completely different attitude from before, when she had rushed at her like a swarm.
Bonita’s eyebrows drooped.
“I, do you think madam doesn’t like the fact that I am your daughter?”
“How could that be?”
Luke said urgently.
“My mother is just flustered. You are truly nothing short of a miracle…”
Luke gulped as he looked at Bonita, who was holding Aria’s hand tightly.
Swallowing back the various situations, he simply said this.
“Really, welcome home, Bonita.”
*****
The temple, which had received the duke’s request, immediately sent information about the lady to several noble families and the royal family.
The letters stated that the girl who had come to the Duke’s house was undoubtedly the Duke’s biological daughter, and that the temple could vouch for this fact. It also said that an official letter from the Duke would arrive soon.
Each noble family was in an uproar over this unusual event.
Paternity tests were usually the exclusive domain of the nobles. However, the reason why noble families usually conducted paternity tests was to find out if their husbands were having extramarital affairs or if they were illegitimate children.
It was not common to lose a legitimate child.
Especially a Duke!
The nobles who knew Luke Lysianthus’s personality generally thought that he would never have any children, and that when he died, the Dukedom would go to his younger brother, the Delphinium Viscounts.
But then the Duke’s only daughter
suddenly appeared. In the Kingdom of Aleph, the eldest son of the legitimate heir inherited the family, but there were also cases where a daughter inherited the family if there was no son. If the lady was definitely the Duke’s biological daughter, even if she was an illegitimate child, there would be no major problem in inheriting the title.
It would be a bit of gossip, but who could say anything? In any case, the Duke’s only child was that child.
And of course, the news reached Elodie’s family, the Counts of Rottweil. But it wasn’t the arrival of an heir to the Dukedom of Lysianthus that interested them.
“What, now?”
The eldest son of the Counts of Rottweil, Dylan Rottweil, asked back, unable to hide his discomfort. The second son, Lennon, answered with a calm expression.
“The daughter of the Duke of Lysianthus has appeared.”
“Daughter? How could a daughter appear? Did he adopt a child?”
Dylan snorted and turned the page of the document.
“I thought the Viscount Delphinium had two sons, but a daughter? Did he really not want to give up the title to his younger brother? I don’t understand you, brother.”
“You know that’s not true, brother.”
Lennon retorted at Dylan, who was trying hard to deny it.
“There’s a letter from the temple. The Duke of Lysianthus and his daughter are definitely father and daughter, and the temple guarantees it.”
The quill Dylan was holding stopped. He asked quietly.
“How old is she? Five? Four? Younger?”
“Older.”
“Yeah. The Duke of Lysianthus couldn’t help it. Even if he didn’t take a wife, it’s natural for a great noble to want to pass the family line down to his own bloodline-”
“Seven.”
Crunch.
Dylan clenched his fists at Lennon’s words. The fragile documents were crumpled in his hands. Dylan raised his head with a sinister expression.
“Seven?”
“Yeah.”
“Seven. If it’s seven, then it must have been eight years since they had sex. It couldn’t have worked the first time, so it must have been before that.”
Dylan chewed and muttered.
“That bastard, how dare he cheat on our Elodie?”
