Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 69
“A love potion?”
“Yes. I was told that spraying this scent makes the person you like easily feel affection for you… There’s someone I’ve long harbored feelings for.”
Someone Louise has feelings for? A beloved? Caroline had never heard of such a person in her life.
“Is it unrequited love?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, so that’s why you have this…”
Caroline’s expression, which she had been maintaining with effort, slightly crumbled.
Gypsies were all frauds. Her father always said so.
Those of uncertain origin should never be given rights. Unless you hold their lifeline, they’re like rats that can betray you anytime, anywhere.
“Even so, you’ve done something foolish and dangerous. Everything from a gypsy is bound to be fake anyway…”
“Yes, I know.”
Louise quickly made excuses.
“I didn’t spend much money on it, so it’s not that significant. It was just… for my own satisfaction. I wanted to confess my feelings, and I thought spraying this might help me get a favorable response before I do.”
“Madame…”
Caroline showed a troubled smile. Louise, usually kind yet stern, seemed oddly endearing today.
However, the light smile gradually faded.
No one knew the effort of winning a man’s love better than she did. So, she could fully understand her desperate heart.
But… there were absolute rules she had to adhere to before her emotions, as the eldest daughter of the Lasphilla family.
“Madame, regardless of the reason, this isn’t right.”
“Yes, I understand…”
At her reproach, Louise awkwardly fiddled with her lips a few times before glancing around.
“You’re not disappointed in me, are you?”
“Disappointed? How could I be! How could I ever be disappointed in you, Madame? I’m just a little surprised.”
But the discomfort showing on her face was unmistakable. Louise, as if understanding her heart, nodded slightly, saying,
“If it’s something you can’t condone, I won’t use it.”
She attempted to throw the bottle outside.
“Madame!”
Caroline urgently grabbed her arm.
“It’s an item marked by gypsies! What if it somehow leaks outside…?”
“Ah, right. Then I’ll safely dispose of it outside the Coffret Manor.”
“…Yes, please do that.”
“I’m truly grateful for your magnanimity in overlooking my mistake. I’ll never forget it. And… I’m sorry, Lady Caroline.”
“…”
After apologizing again with an embarrassed expression, Louise turned to leave, and Caroline was left alone. She placed her hand against her forehead, murmuring,
“A love potion, to think a virtuous person like Madame would fall for gypsy sorcery…”
She felt unnecessarily tired. It was late, so she should prepare for bed.
With that thought, she was about to call a maid to assist her when…
“Oh?”
Something caught her eye.
Caroline blinked at the bottle left on the table.
The potion Louise said she would dispose of remained in its place.
“Did she forget?”
Approaching, she picked up the bottle.
‘Should I just throw it in the bathroom?’
Holding the bottle, Caroline walked towards the bathroom, Louise’s voice echoing in her head.
‘I wanted to confess my feelings, and I thought spraying this might help me get a favorable response before I do…’
“A favorable response from the person you like…”
She stopped in her tracks.
“…”
After pondering deeply, she immediately turned around and walked in the opposite direction, towards the annex where Ulysses was.
With the perfume bottle Louise had left furtively hidden in her sleeve.
***
In the dead of night, Caroline lingered in front of the annex entrance.
Due to Adam cutting the household staff for the Rosencrantz’ servants in half, there wasn’t a soul in sight near the annex.
Just darkness. Confronted with the unfamiliar darkness, Caroline suddenly felt afraid.
‘Is this okay?’
She knew the answer. It was not okay. If Caroline’s intentions were to reach Adam’s ears, it wouldn’t end with just a simple whipping.
But… No. She wouldn’t be discovered.
She believed that.
It was just an item filled with a woman’s pure, innocent hope.
‘I don’t know about any gypsy’s malicious intent. Louise didn’t explain that to me. I haven’t heard anything, and I didn’t realize what this was.’
Caroline shook her head as if trying to erase the story she had just heard, closing her eyes tightly and then reopening them.
‘I don’t know anything. I’m just a girl who naively fell for the story of a ‘love potion’.’
