Chapter 76
Gorgo, having put Lucy behind him, swallowed hard as he looked at the Grand Madam.
She’d come with maids and guards in tow. It was clear she’d planned this visit.
At any other time, the Grand Madam would have stayed shut in her rooms, if only out of fear of Edward.
But Edward was away.
And she knew it. Her air was thick with triumph.
‘We’ve been played.’
Gorgo admitted it bitterly, thinking back to moments before.
When he’d been made to leave the room by Clara’s words, standing guard at the door.
He’d just tightened his grip on his sword when.
“Kyaaah!”
A shrill scream rang out not far away.
Sophie’s scream. The maid who’d gone to fetch salve for Lucy.
‘What’s going on?’
It came from close to Lucy’s room. And it was the scream of a maid attending her.
‘If something’s happened to the lady, it’s trouble.’
Gorgo’s face hardened as he moved fast toward the scream.
But no matter where he looked, there was no sign of Sophie.
‘What in the world?’
Gorgo stopped and scanned the area.
Across the way, Sophie came running with the salve, her eyes wide as she saw him.
“Sir Gorgo? Why are you here…”
“You. Didn’t you just scream?”
“Pardon? Scream? I was in the main building until just now.”
“The main building?”
“Yes. I couldn’t find the salve for the lady, so I went to the main building to fetch some…”
“…Then who is with the lady now?”
The moment he said it, the two of them understood at once.
That they had left Lucy and Clara alone in a closed room.
Sophie, knowing nothing, only stood there, thinking at least one maid was with Lucy.
But to Gorgo, who knew Clara was the Grand Madam’s person, this was serious.
‘A trap.’
An open trap, and he’d fallen into it.
He’d been so worried for Lucy’s safety that he’d made the mistake of leaving her alone.
Gorgo clicked his tongue and shouted at Sophie.
“Go back to the main building! Tell Lady Rosendal what’s happening!”
“Yes! Yes!”
He’d rushed back, but neither Lucy nor Clara were in the room they’d left.
Anxiety bit at his neck. Cold and sharp.
‘My lady.’
Lucy was already someone important to him.
Because Gorgo had never seen Edward look at anyone the way he looked at her.
Tepe seemed to think it was nothing. Edward himself didn’t seem to know it yet.
But Gorgo saw it differently.
He was quiet and slow with words, and he skipped steps in logic, but he trusted his instincts.
And his instincts whispered that Lucy was precious to Edward.
‘If anything happens to her…’
He’d scoured the west wing in a daze, and at last he’d found it.
“You ill-mannered thing!”
The Grand Madam, berating Lucy and ordering her seized.
“Grand Madam.”
Gorgo looked around with cold eyes.
At the grim pressure, the Grand Madam’s guards flinched and stepped back.
The Grand Madam, who’d also seemed cowed for a moment, burst with anger.
“Do you dare block me? You, a mere guard, and not even the duke? Do you know who I am?”
“Grand Madam. You are no longer permitted in this building. Being here is overstepping…”
“Overstepping? I spent thirty years here!”
“Grand Madam!”
“And you’d throw me out over a wench like that? What right have you worthless things?”
The air was growing heavier by the second.
“Mother.”
Pop.
A small head poked out from behind the large frame.
“So what exactly are you angry about?”
“What?!”
“Being kicked out? Or someone stealing the jewelry?”
“Why you… fine. Now you’ve said it!”
At Lucy’s wide, innocent blinking, the Grand Madam’s shoulders squared at once, her tone turning smug.
“Even a guard can’t protect a thief.”
“What do you mean?”
“That insolent thing came here, coveting this building before she’d even become duchess.”
“Oh, I didn’t covet it.”
“…And after she came and went, the jewel vanished!”
“A jewel?”
“The Black Rose of the Goddess. You know how precious that is.”
Gorgo turned to Lucy, calm.
But before he could ask, Lucy’s eyes went wide.
“What a pretty name. Did you name it, Mother? You have a real gift for naming.”
“What?”
“Like Edward, for instance. A man who shines so bright and beautiful, and you gave him a name that sounds common and plain to anyone. Surely that was to teach him humility before others?”
Was it flattery or insult?
The Grand Madam lost her words for a moment, her son praised and her sense cut down in one.
“But I don’t even know what it looks like. If Mother could explain with her fine way with words…”
“Hmph! A brooch shaped like a rose, made of fine black pearls set in silver… Wait! You stole it and now you claim you don’t know?”
“Now that you describe it, I know what it is. But I truly didn’t take it.”
“Well, we’ll see about that.”
The Grand Madam tapped her fan, eyes gleaming.
“We don’t know where you might have hidden it, so we’ll strip you down and search…”
“Grand Madam!”
It was Gorgo who shouted, furious.
“How can you say such a thing!”
“Why? Did I say I’d strip her here?”
The Grand Madam shook her head as if this were nothing.
“I’ll take her away and have my maids strip and search her. Is there a problem?”
It was a staggering insult, and Gorgo’s face went paler by the second.
‘If only Tepe were here.’
Someone to curse and point fingers in a moment like this.
Gorgo was grinding his teeth.
“Yes! There is a prob…”
“It’s all my fault, Grand Madam!”
Just as Lucy opened her mouth, Clara dashed out and threw herself at the Grand Madam’s feet.
So fast it made even Gorgo and Lucy freeze.
The Grand Madam gave a snort.
“Your fault?”
“Yes. A master’s fault is her servant’s fault. All the mistakes the young lady made are my own…”
Lucy’s eyes went wide.
At the same time, Clara and the Grand Madam traded a look.
The Grand Madam’s smile deepened.
She hadn’t planned to simply frame Lucy as a thief.
The scheme was this.
“Then let’s do this.”
The day Edward and Lucy’s marriage was announced.
The Grand Madam had pulled Clara aside and whispered.
“Even if I try to play nice, Edward will block it all at every turn.”
“That’s… true.”
“And I don’t even want to pretend to be kind to that low thing.”
“Then what shall we do…”
“I’ve heard the imperial investigators split roles. A good investigator and a bad one.”
The plan she’d worked out was this.
“One treats the culprit kindly. The other hounds them.”
“…”
“But their goal is the same. Isn’t it?”
Frame Lucy as a thief, and have Clara shield her, so that Lucy would come to trust Clara.
Then, once Lucy trusted her fully and confided everything, the Grand Madam would use it.
The beauty of it was that the Grand Madam could still achieve her real goal: humiliating Lucy.
And she could keep playing the bad investigator, tormenting Lucy again and again.
‘A perfect plan, even thinking it over again.’
Seeing Lucy in person only made her more sure.
The girl had a slick tongue, but to the Grand Madam’s eye, Lucy was nothing but a weak little animal.
If Clara took the punishment in her place, Lucy would be shocked and fret.
“Yes. If it is truly your fault.”
The Grand Madam hid her smile and looked down at Clara with cold eyes.
“Then you’re ready to take proper punishment?”
“Grand Madam…”
The Grand Madam smiled, waiting for Lucy’s reaction. And met the small head poking out from behind the big frame.
“Oh dear. Nothing to be done, then.”
“…Miss?”
Lucy looked straight at Clara and let out a sigh.
Then she spoke, firm.
“Goodbye, Clara.”
