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Chapter 4
“Goodness, Miss Caitlin, please calm down. We’ve told Miss Annette many times that she has plenty of fine clothes, and that she should wear Annette’s clothes instead. But Miss Annette keeps saying Miss Caitlin’s clothes look better and keeps coveting them.”
The nanny’s mouth was spewing lies effortlessly.
Now that the dinner with the Grand Duke—who absolutely had to attend—was over, the nanny had nothing left to fear. She calmly lied to Caitlin, who held real power in the estate.
“Nanny, no matter how much my sister may be acting up, how long have you even worked in this household?”
“That’s true. It’s all my fault for Miss Annette behaving so rudely.”
While the two who were perfectly in sync played their little game, I changed into indoor clothes.
Flap.
The thin muslin undergarment floated in my hand.
Give this back? If she wanted it so badly, fine.
Riiip.
With a disgusting tearing sound, Caitlin’s muslin undergarment was split cleanly in two.
“Eek! What are you doing? That’s my clothes!”
“You told me to take it off. I did. How I take it off is my choice.”
“Who said you could tear it? Are you insane?”
“Oh, I ruined something I borrowed from you. Fine, I’ll pay for it. Happy now?”
“You… you!”
“You were going to burn it anyway, weren’t you?”
“What?”
“You always throw away anything I touch because it disgusts you. I figured you’d do the same with this, so I handled it first. Was that too much?”
Caitlin turned deathly pale, gasping as if she might collapse at any moment. It was the first time the once-cowed Annette had retaliated so boldly.
“I read my old diary recently, and it had some interesting entries. Turns out you’ve ‘borrowed’ quite a few things from me when I was younger, haven’t you?”
“A diary?”
“That muslin undergarment is nothing. If you were going to borrow things, you could’ve at least taken better ones. Instead, the maids were so careful around your mood that they brought the oldest, most worn-out pieces.”
Honestly, if I hadn’t been pressed for time to attend dinner with the Grand Duke, I wouldn’t have worn that muslin piece I just tore.
So tearing it wasn’t wasteful—it was simply returning an already worn item to nature.
“I’ll gladly pay for that cheap muslin. But in return, I’ll need back everything you’ve borrowed and never returned.”
A crown.
“Annette, this crown is so pretty. Can I just try it on for a bit?”
Allowance money.
“Sis, can I borrow some money? You’ve been saving since childhood anyway.”
A hair ornament.
“Sis, I have a tea party tomorrow at the Marlin Count’s house and I really want to wear your headpiece. It was your grandmother’s, right? I don’t have anything like that…”
“Come on, it’s just borrowing from your little sister. Aren’t we family?”
Memories of Annette’s past abuse and my past life in a new family overlapped.
People who only came close when they needed something.
Step-siblings who were closer than strangers yet treated me like a motherless child.
Honestly, strangers would’ve been better.
These weren’t things to be dismissed as a child “borrowing toys.” As the eldest daughter of House Fosche, Annette’s possessions were all precious and expensive. And Caitlin—and the servants—had slowly taken them one by one.
‘I’m not the old Annette who just endured everything silently.’
“Perfect timing. That pearl earring you’re wearing right now was mine too, wasn’t it? You took it as a ‘sisterhood gift’ the day you first came to our house.”
Caitlin instinctively covered her ears. The white pearl earrings dangled from her lobes—gifts said to have been given by the former queen to House Fosche.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? You’re making a fuss over just a muslin undergarment? In a ducal family like ours?”
“You were the one who started this over ‘just muslin.’”
At my cold voice, Caitlin’s face flushed red.
A muslin undergarment versus royal pearl earrings. She clearly thought I had lost my mind.
“I won’t nitpick the small things. But you know those pearl earrings are valuable.”
Ignoring her unease, I continued clearly.
“Besides those earrings, there’s also the emerald bracelet you borrowed… and Simon, your younger brother, took my horse. And also…”
As I listed them one by one, Caitlin’s face grew whiter and whiter. She hadn’t expected me to remember everything.
Her anxious expression seemed to scream, That girl who used to stay quiet no matter what… was calculating all of this the whole time?
To them, Annette had been an easy, disposable step-sister who just endured everything. So seeing her suddenly standing tall and demanding answers left them shaken.
Cornered, Caitlin switched to anger instead.
“So what if you’re marrying into the Grand Duke’s house? What, you think you’re something now? You’re just going to the freezing North where you can’t even survive winter without our family’s support!”
“What?”
“Even if there’s a difference in rank, the Grand Ducal House is still pathetic enough to need our support. In that cold place, there probably isn’t even enough food—agh!”
Smack.
Caitlin’s head snapped to the side. I had slapped her.
“Apologize.”
Annette… hit me? That disgraceful girl slapped me?
Caitlin stared at me in disbelief.
As a noble lady raised in luxury, she had likely never been slapped in her life.
But I no longer needed to tolerate idiots insulting the male lead.
“Apologize immediately.”
“What are you doing!”
“Insulting me is a family matter. But you just insulted the North I’m marrying into. I can forgive anything except that.”
“I didn’t say anything wrong! Agh! Let go!”
Wrong. Insulting the protagonist of this novel was unforgivable.
The world of a transmigrator revolved around the protagonist, you idiot.
“I won’t let go until you apologize.”
I said sharply. Startled, Caitlin struggled but couldn’t respond properly. Even the servants, who should have intervened, just stood frozen, stunned by the sudden violence.
Our tangled bodies struggled against each other.
Footsteps approached.
“So Miss Annette’s tolerance does not extend to her sisters, it seems.”
Suddenly, a strong force separated us.
“Ack!”
Startled, Caitlin stumbled backward and fell to the floor.
I found myself held quite securely in someone’s arms.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke?”
I gaped.
An iron mask covering his face. A distorted voice. It was unmistakably him.
Why was he here?
‘You said you weren’t coming!’
“I apologize for entering a lady’s room without permission, regardless of the reason.”
He bowed formally.
“But when people fight with the door closed within the estate, this tends to happen.”
He glanced at the wide-open door.
“Looks like I ended up with some free time.”
Now that my anger had cooled, I realized I might have gone too far with Caitlin.
‘If I had known the Grand Duke was coming, I wouldn’t have pulled her hair like that… or would I? It still probably looked like I was on the same side as him.’
If I were a proper noble heroine, I would’ve defeated her with elegance and words. But I was just a short-lived extra, so my body moved before my mind could.
“I was wandering and somehow ended up here.”
His gravelly voice echoed near my ear. Even distorted, it somehow felt gentle.
Maybe the Grand Duke prefers wild women. I should remember that.
“Perhaps I’ve been thinking about Miss Annette more deeply than I expected.”
“In that case, shall I prepare tea?”
Ignoring Caitlin still crying on the floor, I asked shamelessly.
“I would like that, but there seems to be another guest here first.”
Unfortunately, the Duke wasn’t shameless enough to calmly drink tea in front of a crying young lady.
“If you could spare me some of your time, I will arrange a proper appointment and return.”
“Yes, of course!”
I nodded quickly.
“Miss Annette…”
The Grand Duke hesitated as if about to comment on me. What? That I was calm? Charming? Bold? Why stop halfway—don’t leave me hanging!
But instead of speaking about me, he turned to Caitlin, still sobbing in the corner.
“North is cold. We do not have the luxurious foods of the South. But please remember—the peace of the South exists because we guard the northern borders.”
His voice was cold, like frost.
Caitlin trembled.
“I… I…”
‘He heard it.’
Barely able to stand with the help of Sir Daniel, Caitlin collapsed again.
“I will not accept apologies through violence in the North.”
He leaned slightly toward me and whispered softly—just for me to hear.
It was almost gentle, as if joking, if not for the iron mask.
By the time the Grand Duke left, Caitlin could not even meet his gaze. As she bowed her head, strands of red hair I had pulled drifted down onto her lap, one by one.
