Garden of May - Chapter 138
‘In reality, I’ve never even seen his face.’
The scandal itself wasn’t the problem. If anything, she would have welcomed it with open arms.
‘As long as it hadn’t named a specific man.’
From the beginning, the goal of that shipboard party had only been to scatter vague sightings, nothing more. Just enough to invite subtle scorn, quiet contempt… perhaps even brand her as a woman too frivolous to manage a noble household.
But instead—
‘”Chosen as the price for his investment”…?’
The scale of the scandal had spiraled completely out of control.
At this point, she almost felt relieved that the name Battenberg had been dragged into it. At the very least, as long as that family was involved, no man would dare approach her lightly.
But even that was only a temporary measure.
What if the rumor took an even uglier turn? What if, in next week’s paper, they claimed the Duke had already grown bored of the woman he had “bought”?
Just imagining it made her vision go dark.
‘And then… those kinds of men will come. Men who paid money to take a woman to bed for a single night.’
Would her uncle—who had hoped to profit from her marriage—really protect her honor in such a situation? Would he resist the lure of money and guarantee her safety until the end?
One thing was certain. If she hadn’t discovered the will, she would have foolishly trusted him.
Now, she could only hope that the name Duke of Battenberg would cling to her for as long as possible.
Vanessa buried her pale face in her hands, as if trying to smother the suffocating frustration. How had things escalated into something this massive…?
“Miss.”
Vanessa lifted her gaze.
Mary, looking just as exhausted, stood nearby with one hand covering the telephone receiver, speaking carefully.
“There’s a call for you—from Linden. I think you should take it.”
“Linden? Is it Rosalyn?”
“It’s a man. He said you’d recognize him if I told you his name was Logan…”
“Ah.”
Vanessa stood, trying not to show her disappointment.
It was strange, really. They had barely exchanged more than a few words on the ship, and now he was calling out of nowhere. Given the circumstances, it would have been wiser to avoid outside contact altogether. But considering he had helped connect her to her great-grandfather, it felt wrong to refuse outright.
She took the receiver from Mary.
“Hello? Logan Dawson?”
—Vanessa. Finally got through. Is it your first time using the switchboard? The operator kept messing up the connection.
He let out an audible sigh.
—Did you get back safely?
“Of course. Though it’s already been a week since ‘that time.’ Still, thank you for asking.”
—Sounds like you’re doing fine. Your name’s all over the gossip papers, but you don’t seem shaken at all.
Hearing the relief in his voice, Vanessa let out a small breath without realizing it. It was closer to a forced smile than anything genuine.
Rosalyn had been unreachable for days, and carrying the weight of this entire situation alone—pretending everything was fine—was beginning to wear her down.
She pressed a hand against her aching eyes before brightening her voice.
“What is it?”
—When we talked last time… you really seemed like you had no idea what was going on. It kept bothering me.
You need to brace yourself. Only now did she understand what he had meant. Vanessa tightened her grip on the receiver.
“Logan Dawson. Don’t tell me… you knew something like this was going to happen back then?”
—I knew there’d be a scandal involving the Duke in the South. When I saw your necklace, I had a bad feeling.
“How did I end up being dragged into something like that?”
—Rumors about railways and a racecourse being built in the South had been circulating for a while. People were already saying that if the Duke really decided to invest that heavily in some rural backwater, there had to be a woman involved. And when he suddenly chose the South as his vacation spot and disappeared… well, it all started to make sense. By the time of the departure ceremony, the journalists were practically treating it as fact.
“You knew all of that from the beginning?”
At her question, Logan Dawson suddenly laughed.
—You really don’t care about me at all, do you, Vanessa?
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 152 - Jun 16, 2026
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 151 - Jun 16, 2026
- Protected: Garden of May Chapter 150 - Jun 16, 2026
