“Also, I will send someone so that you can take a look at the gardens. You will have to stay here for a while.”
“…”
“The second and third wives will be suspicious if you stay in the room, Edith. You can roam freely.”
Edith could see through Sophia’s intentions. It was evident that Sophia was making every effort to present Edith as just another wife of the Viscount.
⋙“Lady Sophia is the only daughter of a local noble. At one point, her family was quite powerful and influential in the region.”⋘
Those who were born into the nobility had a tendency to look down on those of lesser status.
Most people requesting a home visit at the already busy clinic used to have such a background. They lacked the money to act gracefully, but they couldn’t let go of their pride.
During the reign of the previous emperor, known for being promiscuous, he had many children. Many of the noble families of various regions, in their ambition to make some seemingly insignificant princes emperors, met their ruin by choosing the wrong path.
『 Who would have thought that the fourth prince, born between the previous emperor and a sick young woman, the last descendant of a family of barons, would go on to kill the crown prince and all the other princes, becoming the emperor?』
Those nobles who went through such a course became fallen nobles who usually denied their fall by acting too upright.
In Edith’s eyes, Sophia was no different from them.
『 She won’t see me as a person but as something necessary to achieve her goal.』
It was clear that Sophia didn’t even suspect Edith was planning to escape from her. Edith was pretending to be part of Sophia’s plan while being lured by her great wealth.
When Edith escapes from the manor, she will use the jewelry Sophia bought her as a secret fund. This will give her a chance to leave and find an opportunity to run away, so she had no intention of turning down Sophia’s offer.
“I will. Thank you for your consideration.”
“Well then, shall we get up now?”
Sophia rose from her seat with a satisfied smile.
When Edith got up from her seat, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t heard the important information.
“Um… By the way, how is the Viscount’s condition?”
“His condition? Ah…”
After hearing the question, Sophia replied as if she had remembered something she had forgotten since it was not important to her at all.
“He suffered a serious head injury and has not yet regained consciousness. According to the doctor, he’ll barely make it through Thanksgiving. It’s a pity.”
“…”
“That’s why you need to have a child as soon as possible. You must announce the pregnancy quickly so that others believe it.”
After saying those words, Sophia got up and left.
As Edith watched her, she couldn’t help but think that Sophia didn’t care at all for the Viscount’s well-being.
『 I heard that the Viscount’s first marriage was an arranged marriage in which they had not even seen each other’s faces. How did these two end up together like this?』
──────────✿◦•
Sophia sent some dresses and some jewelry to Edith’s room, items she no longer wore.
『 Even though the Fortrion Family has fallen, I guess she is still a viscountess.』
The dresses and accessories that Sophia handed over to her were quite fancy. To Edith, who was used to the everyday simplicity of the clinic and study, this opulence of hers was unfamiliar.
Vivian came in with a jewelry box.
“There are also some outdated jewelry. You can use them however you want.”
Though tempted by the beautiful gems, Edith responded calmly after examining the items.
“Then, Vivian, could you call the maids as I asked?”
“Sure. Since there are a lot of clothes to arrange, it’s a good time.”
Soon, Vivian brought two maids. Both matched the conditions Edith had mentioned earlier.
“My name is Anne, M’lady.”
“I’m Marie. Please feel free to call me.”
Edith looked at the faces of Anne and Marie as if to memorize them and then said.
“Could you both help sort the dresses? Vivian will pass you the dresses and you can both organize them inside the dressing room.”
Edith was not very old, but she had been working since she was very young, so she often had to deal with people who started later than her. Thanks to this, it was not too difficult for her to adopt the attitude of a superior.
The dressing room was located in the innermost part of the bedroom.
Anne and Marie sorted out the dresses and jewelry that Vivian delivered, out of the master’s sight.
As per Edith’s plan, the two maids naturally took note of how much the fourth wife possessed.
Vivian was curious as to why Edith specifically requested maids with certain conditions while she was hanging the dresses inside the dressing room.
⋙ “I want those who have worked in the manor for a relatively long time and have families. Of course, they should not be among Sophia’s closest helpers and should be discreet.” ⋘
It didn’t take long to figure out what those conditions were for.
“Shall we take a short break?”
Edith asked Vivian to make tea using the tea utensils in the room.
Hearing the Fourth Lady’s order to put out enough tea leaves for four people to drink, Anne and Marie guessed about her temperament.
『 It seems that she might not be a noble like the rumors say. She is trying to hide it by acting upright.』
『 According to Jane, she’s very bossy, but she doesn’t seem to. Seeing that she even is giving us tea, she still doesn’t understand the relationship between a master and a servant?』
In the eyes of Anne and Marie, Edith was friendly.
To put it nicely, it meant she wasn’t authoritative, but to put it negatively, she seemed confused about how to treat the servants as the Fourth Lady.
“And this… If it’s alright, would you both accept it?”
When Edith offered them a pair of damaged pearl earrings that looked difficult to wear, they were half finished with their tea.
“For us?”
“Yes. A maid named Jane who came by yesterday seemed to disapprove of me, but you two didn’t.”
Anne and Marie exchanged subtle expressions as they looked at the pearl earrings in her hands and Edith’s sweet smile.
『 Perhaps she felt lonely since she doesn’t know anyone here?』
『 It’s a bit difficult, but… well.』
They both gratefully accepted the pearl earrings, just as Edith had anticipated.
“Jane is Lady Sophia’s most favored maid, so perhaps she must have made a mistake as she is not used to serving other ladies.”
“We’ll apologize on her behalf.”
Vivian sensed Edith’s intentions as she watched Anne and Marie’s attitudes become friendlier.
The Viscount’s financial situation is not so good that often the servants ran away at night, as many of them also had families to support.
『 Indeed, giving away a pair of pearl earrings wouldn’t be burdensome, and it’s easy to sell them too.』
Furthermore, Anne and Marie confirmed with their own eyes that Edith had quite a bit of outdated jewelry and could be considered for disposal.
Edith seemed to have chosen a method of gaining information through small rewards rather than risk betrayal by buying them out with a large sum of money.
“I heard that if I don’t eat, I’ll be locked in some kind of tower and punished… Is that really true?”
Edith hinted at what she was curious about, and Anne and Marie, whose guards were a bit down, responded without issue.
“It’s just a saying. There is no tower in the viscounty at the moment.”
“Now it’s only used by long-time servants to threaten new hires.”
Edith carefully weaved the conversation between those two.
“I see. Well, even if there was a tower, there would be no one to lock up since the Fortrion Manor is short of people.”
“No, M’lady. It’s just that you still don’t know the manor’s servants well.”
“Didn’t Walter, who works as a stableman, once charge at the Viscount with a sword?”
“And even after doing that, he’s still working as a stableman?”
Edith asked casually, pretending not to be very curious. Thanks to the warm tea and the pearl earrings, Anne and Marie comfortably chatted away.
“Yes. That is why there are countless speculations among the servants. Some say that he was brought in after discovering the previous viscount’s illegitimate son, while others claim that he was kidnapped to be used as a bodyguard, being the son of a mage.”
“How peculiar…”
“Still, he has a subtle sense of justice, so when servants face unfair treatment, they tend to side with him. Everyone knows that the Viscount doesn’t punish him.”
Authoritarian but fair, with a presence that captures the attention of others, this was Walter, the man in Edith’s memories. Edith gradually added the information provided by Anne and Marie.
──────────✿◦•
That evening, Edith’s schedule was to tour the vast garden of the Fortrion, as Sophia recommended.
When it was time to leave her room, Vivian, who had been in the garden at Edith’s request, knocked on the door.
“I brought the flowers you asked for, M’lady. Are you planning to decorate your room with them?”
Edith examined the bouquet Vivian was holding.
Bluish petals and thorny stems. It was undoubtedly an Ilibicus flower.
“Vivian, the name of this flower is Ilibicus. It’s used to make the empire’s most widely used contraceptive pills, it’s extracted from the stem of this flower.”
“Really? It’s a common garden flower…”
“Because everyone is looking for the finished product, not the raw material. And it only works if you submerge it in very hot water for about 2 minutes. So, it’s a flower that is usually planted for ornamental purposes, so most people didn’t know it could be used like that.”
Vivian sighed as she watched Edith dunk the flower in hot water and drink it all at once.
Watching Edith pick flowers with contraceptive effects, it was clear that this intelligent young woman knew why Sophia was recommending her to go out.
“Shall we ask Lady Sophia to postpone the walk? I looked at the sky and it seems that it’s going to rain…”
“Vivian, don’t worry. Could you help me press the remaining Ilibicus stems between the pages of a book?”
Edith spoke calmly and then got up from her seat. It wasn’t that she had given up without any countermeasures.
『 With this, even the man ordered by Sophia will change his mind for a day or so.』
She brought some gold coins that Sophia gave her.
She had heard that the salaries of the estate servants and the clinic attendant were similar, so if she gave them half a year’s salary in gold coins and told them not to lay their hands on her, they would surely back down.
『 Sophia would have given the man another order besides giving me a tour of the Viscount’s estate.』
As Edith walked down the stairs with a heavy heart, she saw a man who was waiting for Sophia’s command.
He was holding the reins of a white horse, but his figure and face were not visible due to his raincoat.
『 Is that man…』
Edith hurried down the stairs.
❀.°• ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ •°.❀
she is adapting well. smart