Chapter 4
“Young Master, may I ask a favor?”
Anne and Gray were currently in a relationship where neither owed anything to the other. The time for favor and interest to turn into affection was still ahead.
Anne asked the thirteen-year-old Gray with a clear, innocent tone.
“Sure!”
The energetic boy nodded his chin.
Anne relaxed her tense and rigid expression and flashed a bright smile. Gray, like a young bird imitating its mother, opened his mouth wide.
Watching him, she reflected.
Since her parents had died in a fire at the barn when she was seven, her only family had been her younger brother.
To make a living, Anne had to leave her brother with her aunt and join the Duke’s household as a maid, parting with her heartbroken self.
Back then, she had believed that earning money would solve everything. But that wasn’t enough to protect her remaining brother.
This time, she wanted to prevent her brother’s death, which she had let pass unnoticed before.
She didn’t want to remember her brother as just a child forever.
Jamie was estimated to have died in the winter of his fifteenth year. That meant time was running out.
“I’d like to recommend my brother to become your attendant.”
“I’d like you to do it.”
Anne showed a sad expression at the direct response. Noticing her demeanor, Gray hesitated, nibbling at his fingernail.
“Where is your brother now?”
“He is staying with my aunt, but if possible, I would like him to be with me. Since he is the same age as you, he could be a good companion if made into an attendant.”
Unlike Anne, who had to start working immediately to support her brother, Jamie had not been subjected to immediate labor despite facing discrimination and neglect.
But now, he was thirteen. It was time for him to become independent, and receiving training as an attendant in the Benton household wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Moreover, if he worked here, she could keep him close and also teach him to read, which would help prepare for his future.
“Alright. I’ll talk to the Duchess about it—”
“I’ll speak to her myself. So, if she asks about my request, please support it.”
Anne interrupted him, worried that Gray’s advance might make things worse. Thankfully, he didn’t seem offended.
“I’ll do that. But—”
The white sheets hung in the backyard fluttered in the wind. Gray’s face was brightly illuminated by the sunlight reflecting off the white cloth.
“I’d like you to join me for meals from now on.”
Watching the young Gray, Anne was reminded of the past when they used to sit side by side on an old, small sofa, chatting away.
He would tease her with a mischievous expression and, on days when tears would gather in her eyes, he’d look at her with puppy-dog eyes, seeking to comfort her.
“Maids can’t sit at the same table as their masters.”
But that would no longer be the case.
You’ll become the Duke of Benton, and I’ll still be a maid.
“I’ll eat in my room anyway, and you just need to bring your share of meals up with you.”
“However.”
“Only until your brother arrives. This is my request.”
No girl could have resisted the beauty of a boy who smiled so brightly. How could the innocent seventeen-year-old Anne not have fallen in love with him?
Yet she tried to steady herself, searching her memory.
Nothing has happened yet. Nothing will happen in the future either.
***
Duchess Elizabeth Benton, having lost her husband and biological son in the war, had to urgently bring Gray in to maintain the title of Duke.
When she brazenly accepted Gray as her own blood, as if she had never hated him, the woman he loved still seemed nothing but lowly to her.
She was unreserved in belittling Anne, even in the presence of her attendants.
Still, Anne trusted and loved Gray.
Even if she faced isolation at the parties he called her to.
Even if she couldn’t touch a single penny of the budget that fell before her and had to endure the supervision of the late Duchess.
Anne was okay with it.
The reason she could endure it all was because of Gray’s love.
She did not become pregnant until a little over a year after becoming the Duchess of Benton.
As soon as she announced the news, her husband, who had been too busy to meet her after becoming the Duke, came to see her every night.
Thanks to him visiting the Duke’s residence every day, the time she had to secretly endure the bitterness and harassment of the late Duchess melted away like snow.
She also became more confident and her voice grew a bit louder, having the Duke’s child.
“You, lowly thing, not even knowing your place.”
The late Duchess’s scoldings were no longer as painful as before.
Anne was now the official Duchess, carrying Gray’s child, the heir to the Duke’s family.
Was it a problem that she had been so joyfully assertive?
Or did the late Duchess always wish that Anne would not bear Gray’s child?
“Ugh, my stomach—my stomach hurts!”
I have a child. Our precious child with Gray—
“Help me—!!”
Thunk.
A spoon fell, and Anne writhed on the dining room floor, clutching her stomach. Pain pushed her into darkness.
When she opened her eyes, she was in bed, and her body felt light.
What did I eat wrong? She had no mental strength to analyze the cause or assess the situation.
“Your body was weak. It’s always risky to miscarry with the first pregnancy.”
Anne looked at her husband, tears streaming down her face.
“Anne, it’s okay. We can have another child next time.”
He comforted her, placing his palm on her forehead.
But for Anne, the child was not just a symbol of bloodline and succession.
In the difficult and hidden years, there was no room for a child, but now, living in the Duke’s residence, every day felt like sitting on a bed of thorns with nothing to do.
She always had to wait for her husband’s return while being cautious of the late Duchess’s gaze.
Even then, the Duke was often held up in his study and the living room until bedtime by the late Duchess’s summons.
So, how relieved and happy she was when she became pregnant.
This child was a symbol of her firm relationship with Gray, and the most certain place given to her by the Duke’s family.
She could also become a member of the Benton family.
But those hopes and dreams shattered along with the miscarriage.
At twenty-seven, after the miscarriage, while Anne withered away alone in the Duke’s residence, Gray soared with the wings of the Duke, flying across the palace and the capital’s skies.
The numerous parties were filled with young and beautiful women, and noble ladies and young ladies cheered for the young Duke’s appearance. He didn’t care whether he had a wife or not.
Behind the Duke, the late Duchess’s lamenting voice was always heard at the parties.
“Such a lowly thing that can’t even give birth to a heir is my daughter-in-law. If I could, I’d divorce her immediately.”
Did Gray really not know about the various rumors that circulated among the Duke’s and maid’s, eventually reaching Anne’s ears?
Anne, trusting in his love, never asked him anything.
She only waited, believing that if she had faith, her husband’s love would return.
After all, he was not just anyone; he was the partner who had shared the painful and enduring years, and together they had created countless memories.
Anne naturally thought that when Gray grew disillusioned with his glamorous noble life, he would return to her side.
One night, as she grew weary from the long wait, she placed an old fountain pen into a drawer and smiled faintly.
It was a fountain pen she had bought with difficulty by saving up money.
The pen was a cheap one with a poorly drawn gold pattern under the cap, something that would never be used in the Benton family. Yet, Anne cherished the fountain pen, stained with Gray’s touch.
Although it had never been used since being placed in the drawer, she would occasionally take it out to reminisce about him.
At that moment, a noise came from outside the corridor.
“The Duchess is sleeping, Duke.”
It was a maid’s voice.
“Really?”
The Duke of Benton, who had returned from a party, seemed to be quite drunk. Anne could hear the maid struggling to support the Duke’s swaying body.
“Duke?”
The maid did not avoid the approaching shadow.
Soon, the sound of the door opening and closing was heard as the man and woman found an empty room between the darkness of the corridor. Their heavy breathing and small moans tangled together through the closed door.
At that time, the Duke’s wife’s door opened in the empty corridor.
Anne was not asleep.
Standing in front of the door with the sound of their breathing leaking through, Anne’s hands trembled.
She wanted to open the door, shout, and grab the hair of the woman who had seduced her husband, dragging her to the Duke’s courtyard and casting her out.
As her fingers trembled on the doorknob, footsteps were heard from the end of the corridor.
A sneer accompanied the low, nasal sound.
In the quiet corridor, apart from the occasional moans of the man and woman, no other sounds were heard. The small, low nasal sound seemed even louder.
Anne saw the silhouette at a distance and gasped.
Mother?
Though she had never called her that.
The late Duchess was standing at the end of the corridor.
She looked at Anne’s shabby and unworthy figure by the door, curling one side of her lips into a smirk.
“You’re finished.”
