🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 13
Minuet took the elderly lady’s hand and stood up. As she brushed the dirt off her skirt, a small cloud of dust rose.
“What are you doing here… in my garden?”
At the words my garden, Minuet froze.
Was it not an ownerless place?
“I’m sorry. I thought it was abandoned.”
“Abandoned? There is no land under the sky without an owner.”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Land with an owner.
With a devastated expression, Minuet’s eyes hurriedly scanned the garden she had already changed.
What if she told me to restore everything to the way it was?
The thought of the plans she had worked on for days turning into nothing—and having to undo everything—made her dizzy.
“Judging by your clothes…”
As if unaware of Minuet’s anxiety, the elderly lady slowly examined her outfit. The ribbon was messy and the hem of her skirt was dusty with dirt, but it was clearly fine silk.
“You seem to be a noble young lady…?”
“Ah, I am Minuet LeVine.”
Only then did Minuet straighten her back and clearly state her name.
“Minuet… LeVine? The eldest daughter of the LeVine estate nearby?”
“Yes? Yes.”
“If it is the LeVine family, I know them very well. But the Minuet I know was said not to have enough strength to lift stones like this.”
“Ah… well…”
As Minuet hesitated, the elderly lady’s gaze moved past her to the small side door left slightly open.
“Ah, you must have come through that door which has not been used for a long time. It has been ages since that door was opened.”
Minuet nodded, then turned her head at the smell of freshly baked bread.
It had been an abandoned space. A place where the scent of food had never once drifted before.
But when she saw smoke rising calmly beyond the garden, she finally felt that this truly was someone’s garden.
“I was away for a long time, so the garden was neglected. But now I have returned to Visk.”
The elderly lady continued slowly.
“I am Grand Duchess Violet Crowley. But why is a young lady of the LeVine family here without even a maid? What exactly were you doing here?”
“Well…”
Was it alright to tell the garden’s owner that she had been redesigning it freely? Minuet hesitated.
The Grand Duchess slowly looked around the garden again, then stared at Minuet.
“Surely you did all of this, Miss LeVine?”
“…Yes.”
“Alone?”
The small feathers on the short-brimmed hat hiding the Grand Duchess’s white hair fluttered in the wind. The deep wrinkles on her small face and her tightly pressed thin lips made Minuet swallow nervously.
If she did not honestly admit that she was the one who changed this place, innocent people might be dragged in and scolded instead.
“Yes. I did it alone.”
At her answer, the Grand Duchess narrowed her eyes as if trying to see through her.
“If you truly arranged the garden this much by yourself…”
What punishment would she give?
The Grand Duchess spoke unusually slowly. Minuet grew more anxious.
She did not mind being punished. But she could not bring disgrace upon Count and Countess LeVine, who had taken such good care of her.
“Then, would you take charge of renovating my garden?”
Minuet, who had tightly shut her eyes in fear of severe punishment, opened them wide at the unexpected words.
“Pardon? Me?”
“You must have worked very hard doing all this alone. I will send the maids from my estate. Please take charge of renovating my garden.”
“…Are you serious?”
“Ah, is it rude of me to ask such a favor of the daughter of a distinguished count’s family? I merely thought Miss LeVine seemed to enjoy this work—”
“Yes! I’ll do it. I will.”
Afraid the Grand Duchess might change her mind, Minuet answered quickly. Instead of punishment, she had received official permission to continue her work. She could not ask for more.
The Grand Duchess, who had been watching the unfamiliar young lady of the LeVine family with interest, burst into laughter.
“I shall pay dearly for Miss LeVine’s help. If you need anything, tell me anytime.”
Someone might ask if she had not decided to think of this time as a vacation and enjoy her life as a count’s daughter. But compared to being trapped in a luxurious estate, proving her life through marriage, this suited her far better.
Was this not an occupational disease?
“Where has Lady Minuet disappeared to again?”
Among the young maids doing laundry, Rosa lifted a bundle of clothes and spoke.
“She must be taking another walk inside the estate. Lately she walks much more often.”
Poor our lady.
Encouraged by the other maids’ sympathetic expressions, Rosa slammed the laundry down harder.
“Madam keeps her so carefully that she can’t even go out. I would feel suffocated too. It’s good the estate is large. If it were as small as my house, she might lose her mind.”
Poor our lady.
As the maids nodded vigorously, a slightly older maid, Julie, spoke.
“Have you seen this article?”
Wiping her wet hands on her apron, Julie pulled out a folded newspaper clipping.
<The Lonely Lady of the Debutante. Minuet LeVine>
“Is that about our lady?”
“It’s from Blue Cicada again. They’re determined not just to bite her but to tear her apart.”
“Why do they torment our lady when they don’t even know her properly?”
The young maids nodded fiercely in agreement. Their expressions darkened as they beat the laundry harder.
One maid sighed.
“Poor our lady.”
“Our poor lady who has lived her whole life in bed.”
At the very time when all the servants of the LeVine family pitied her with all their hearts,
Minuet was humming in the garden of Grand Duchess Violet Crowley.
With dirt on her hands, sitting in one corner of the garden, there was no trace of noble elegance about her.
On parchment spread over the table, she scribbled items to purchase with an inked pen, smiling brightly the whole time.
“My lady, the garden has changed so much.”
At Charlotte’s words, Minuet looked up from her writing and gazed at the garden.
Of course, to someone uninterested, it might not look very different from a few days ago. But Minuet nodded with satisfaction.
“With just a little more work, it will be much better.”
Even as she said it, she could hardly believe it herself.
In her previous life as Min Yuae, she would have been desperate to show visible results immediately. But here, each small achievement felt like a miracle.
From the moment tiny buds bloomed, to the moment she reshaped the land with drawings made by her own hands instead of a computer.
“My lady! It seems the workers have brought the flowerpots you mentioned yesterday.”
Charlotte waved toward the workers carrying several boxes. They lined up the wooden crates neatly in front of the young lady of the LeVine family.
Charlotte Teizer, a maid of the Crowley household, had a natural talent for growing flowers. Before becoming a maid, she had loved helping her family tend gardens and fields. After entering service, she thought such days were only dreams.
She liked Minuet, who had suddenly come to the Grand Duke’s estate, very much. Thanks to her, she could touch flowers again.
Watching Minuet smiling brightly while checking the boxes herself, Charlotte smiled too.
A count’s daughter who did not hesitate to dirty her hands with soil.
She had never known a noble lady like Miss Minuet.
“Charlotte. Let’s arrange them like this.”
After opening one crate, Minuet handed Charlotte the parchment she had been drawing on. As if used to it, Charlotte followed the drawing and positioned the new pots.
How does she imagine such things?
The drawings were strange, yet astonishingly precise.
Charlotte did not understand floor plans, but the drawing looked as if someone were viewing the garden from the sky. When she first saw it, she stared at it for a long time.
The drawing Miss Minuet called a “floor plan” clearly showed where to place things and what to plant.
Sometimes Charlotte wondered if Miss Minuet had been ill for so long because she possessed genius beyond ordinary people.
“Too bad I can’t make a 3D garden draft and proceed. There’s no computer here. I’ll just have to use my body.”
Even though she said strange things again today, Charlotte simply liked her.
“Isn’t it tiring because of me, Charlotte?”
Charlotte waved her hands quickly.
Since entering the Crowley estate, this was her happiest time. Rather than tired, she feared Miss Minuet might stop coming one day.
As Charlotte wished, Minuet continued renovating the Crowley garden.
The difference now was that she no longer used the hidden side door but entered proudly through the main gate. And not only Charlotte, but all the servants of the Crowley estate waited for her.
Since the Grand Duke’s long illness and death, there had been little laughter. Suddenly, a young lady who had climbed over the fence made the Grand Duchess smile again. To the servants, she was a blessing.
Today as well, the count’s daughter, her hair shining in the sunlight, busily entered the once-abandoned garden.
“A lady must not tan her face so dark.”
Calling Minuet to the drawing room for a short rest, the Grand Duchess handed her a gift box containing a wide-brimmed hat. Seeing Minuet smile like a child upon receiving it, the Grand Duchess thought tea time could be skipped. But Charlotte rushed in without tact.
“Miss Minuet, Mr. Miller has come personally. He says the water lily model is complete. Shall I ask him to wait?”
“Mr. Miller?”
Minuet turned as if about to run off, then looked back at the Grand Duchess.
“Haha. I do not know who this Miller is, but he must be more important than me, the Grand Duchess of Nikander.”
Minuet looked flustered. The Grand Duchess waved teasingly.
“You have waited so eagerly for him. You must not keep him waiting. Go on. Tea time can be another day.”
Hearing the kindness hidden behind her playful tone, Minuet relaxed.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace. I’ll just check the flowers and come right back. Ah, and the hat is very beautiful. Thank you so much.”
After bowing, Minuet ran out to the garden. As always, she did not look like a count’s daughter at all.
“Tsk. What shall we do with such a light-footed lady?”
Though she clicked her tongue, the Grand Duchess’s cheeks lifted with a smile each time she looked at Minuet.
