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~Chapter 57~
“So… maybe she’s angry because she felt ignored when he prevented her from fulfilling the contract?”
Helio answered brightly while looking at Daphne.
“Angry because she felt ignored… That might actually make sense.”
Daphne thought about it seriously for a moment, then nodded as if the explanation had merit.
Just as Helio said, she must have gotten angry because she felt that Theophanes saw her as someone incapable of doing anything.
“Yes… that must be it.”
Daphne rubbed her chest as if something inside had suddenly sunk down, then smiled.
Watching her, Helio swallowed the sigh that almost escaped him.
Honestly, it was a bit of mischief on his part.
He had folded away his own feelings before they could even bloom, yet the two of them were stumbling around cluelessly.
Just a tiny bit of spite.
Even if they discovered the truth later, surely something this small would be forgiven.
Helio soon stood up.
“Shall we go back, Duchess? The children still need to eat, don’t they?”
“You’re right. We should.”
Helio held out his hand to Daphne.
It was simply a gesture of goodwill.
Daphne smiled brightly and took his hand, standing up.
When they returned to the dining room, Michael was still awkwardly trying to manage things, while Jaquet sat there looking dejected.
“Jaquet.”
“Mom!”
At Daphne’s call, Jaquet’s face instantly brightened.
“Mom’s really hungry. Will you eat with me?”
Jaquet nodded eagerly.
“Yes!”
“I want to eat too!”
“Then I suppose I should eat more as well.”
With Michael and Helio joining in, the annex kitchen quickly became lively again.
* * *
“Welcome, Linda.”
“I’m sorry for being late. I had to finish closing the shop.”
“I didn’t expect you to shut down the shop completely.”
“It was my great-grandmother’s teaching—focus on only one thing!”
Daphne grinned, clearly pleased by Linda’s answer.
“Becky, bring what we prepared.”
“Yes, Madam.”
At Daphne’s request, Becky brought over a basket.
Inside were materials for making lace.
“You can make lace with a crochet hook, or by crossing threads with bobbins. I’ll teach you both methods.”
As she explained, Daphne demonstrated how to do it.
“If you follow this exactly, you’ll learn quickly. I knew my judgment wasn’t wrong.”
While Daphne was watching Linda practice making lace with satisfaction, someone knocked on the drawing room door.
“Madam, it’s Henderson.”
“Come in.”
“What is it?”
“The master is asking for you, Madam.”
“Teo?”
They hadn’t really spoken properly since that day.
“Yes. He said he has something important to tell you.”
Daphne hesitated for a moment before nodding.
“Tell him I’ll come shortly.”
“Yes, Madam.”
After Henderson left the room, only Daphne and Linda remained.
“Linda, do you have a place to stay?”
“Ah… well, the dress shop building used to double as my home, but since we sold the whole place… I don’t have anywhere now.”
Daphne nodded with a grin.
“Becky, take her to the head maid and arrange a room for Linda.”
“Yes, Madam. Please come this way.”
Linda nodded and followed Becky out.
After watching her leave, Daphne looked into the mirror in the drawing room and fixed her hair and clothes.
“It’s nothing, really. I just… don’t want him to see me looking messy after so long.”
She muttered to herself, checked her appearance one last time, and then left the room.
When she arrived at the study, she ran into Dante as he was coming out.
“Dante.”
“Ah, Madam. My teacher is waiting for you inside.”
“Thank you.”
When she entered the study, Theophanes was sitting at his desk.
With his sleeves rolled up and glasses on, he was reviewing documents.
The sight of him looked surprisingly… lethal.
Her heart felt as if it were pounding loudly.
Why was her heart beating like this?
She quickly rationalized that it was simply because she hadn’t seen his handsome face in a while.
Taking a small breath, Daphne spoke.
“Teo.”
At her voice, Theophanes lifted his head from the documents.
“You called for me.”
“Ah, yes. Duchess.”
He blinked tiredly at the papers before raising a hand to remove his glasses.
“Wait!”
Daphne suddenly grabbed his arm.
Theophanes froze.
“Ah, I mean…”
Daphne seemed to realize what she’d done and quickly released his arm.
“I just thought… maybe you should keep them on.”
Her face turned red as she stammered.
Her whole body was basically saying that she liked how he looked with glasses.
Seeing this, Theophanes almost laughed before catching himself.
“You like me wearing glasses that much?”
“W-What?!”
Her voice cracked.
For the first time in her life, Daphne felt like she understood the meaning of wanting to crawl into a hole and hide.
She waved her hands frantically and lowered her head.
“I just meant… it might be inconvenient for you to take them off…”
Looking at her ears, which had turned bright red, Theophanes struggled to suppress his laughter and spoke.
“Please have a seat.”
“Yes.”
He gestured for Daphne to sit on the sofa.
“The reason I called you is this.”
Theophanes picked up several letters from the desk and sat across from her.
He spread them out on the table.
“What are those?”
“Letters from the vassals.”
“The vassals?”
“Yes. Because of the incident with the gate appearing… it seems the collateral families and vassals are coming up to check on the situation in Anaxis.”
Daphne’s expression instantly turned serious.
“When will they arrive?”
“At the latest, within three days.”
She fell into thought for a moment.
“Is there anything I need to prepare?”
“They’re coming suddenly, so we can’t host a full banquet, but we should at least prepare a dinner.”
“I understand. I’ll make the preparations.”
“If it seems difficult, you can have Dante—”
“No!”
Daphne thrust out her hand firmly in refusal.
Theophanes stopped mid-sentence and stared at her.
“Don’t take away the work I’m supposed to do. I’m not a childish little girl. I’m perfectly capable.”
After watching her for a moment, Theophanes burst out laughing.
“I was planning to leave it all to you anyway. You didn’t have to say it so strongly.”
“Ah… I…”
Daphne’s face turned bright red again as she lowered her head.
“I’ll be counting on you, Duchess.”
“Leave it to me. I’ll do my best.”
Feeling the atmosphere they hadn’t shared in a long time, Theophanes felt some of his fatigue fade away.
“Oh, and actually, there’s something I wanted to say as well…”
As if their cold war had never happened, Daphne and Theophanes began chatting quietly together.
Watching them from outside the room, Dante frowned.
“So they say couples’ fights are like cutting water with a knife.”
But he didn’t know.
The mood had only improved for a moment.
The real problem between them had not been resolved at all.
