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Chapter 16
The Poisoning Plan(6)
Leopold was still aiming for the position of crown prince.
And it was all because of his wife, Caroline.
He must have been swayed by her suggestion that they should win the people’s favor by building a relief shelter.
The king, who adored the child born from the wife he loved dearly, made the mistake of marrying his second son, Leopold, to the daughter of Duke Cortez.
Caroline, a noblewoman of the powerful and wealthy Cortez family, was not satisfied with being merely the wife of the second prince, the Duchess of Lachent.
It was the king’s failure to realize his daughter-in-law’s ambition.
And Grayson was the one paying the price for that mistake.
“Investment, is it.”
If he refused here, Leopold would suspect Grayson of siding with the crown prince and would continue to bother him for some time.
“How much do you need?”
“Not too much, not too little — exactly one thousand gold. Of course, I’ll put your name down as one of the founders.”
A thousand gold wasn’t exactly loose change.
Grayson felt sick at the idea of investing in something that would clearly amount to nothing, but he nodded.
“You may leave my name out.”
“Right, right. You always were generous like that. Still… it’s really a shame you’re marrying that witch’s daughter, Edith Reynolds. I wish a better match had been arranged for you.”
Grayson didn’t reply.
Instead, he called the steward and instructed him to bring the money.
Leopold took the heavy pouch, slapped Grayson’s shoulder, and laughed cheerfully.
“But you know, you might find good things about her as time goes on. Grow some affection, too. It gets even better once you have children.”
Would it, really?
Grayson let out a short, dry laugh as he stared at the door Leopold had exited through.
He knew very well how a loveless marriage ended.
Twenty-five years had passed since the king lost his beloved first wife and married his second — the current queen — and yet the king still longed for the former queen.
His affection never truly belonged to the current queen.
Of course, that didn’t mean he gave no affection to the children born from his second marriage — but the degree was different.
Grayson was past the age of being wounded by his father’s blatant favoritism, but Rosalyn, the youngest, was not.
She still longed for the king’s love, and it pained Grayson to watch her.
So Grayson placed little value on the notion of love.
Love clouded judgment, blinded reason, and led to unfairness — nothing good ever came of it.
In that sense, marriage to Edith was, in a way, something to welcome.
Edith did not look at Grayson with the expectant eyes other women had.
She did not seem to seek affection from him either.
‘I will do my best to fulfill my duties, Your Grace. So please don’t forget your promise to guarantee my rights.’
He liked that.
There was nothing more elegant than a relationship where each person upheld their duties and protected their rights.
***
“Do you know how high she holds her nose? She annoys me to death!”
Lillian set down her teacup and quietly watched Julia, who had burst into Tidel Manor without notice and started complaining about Edith before even sitting down.
Lately, Lillian’s own heart had been boiling for the same reason: the constant news about Grayson and Edith.
[The Prince and the Witch’s Library Date]
[Prince and Witch Spotted on Alka Road]
[Is This the Birth of the Couple of the Century?]
Centad must be a peaceful kingdom indeed if the third prince dating a supposedly deranged woman became news every time.
It made Lillian’s insides twist.
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand why the two of them were getting married.
Why had Grayson accepted a marriage proposal with someone like Edith?
And why had her father tied Edith to the royal family?
If it was that easy to bring in a marriage with Grayson…
‘I should have been the one engaged to Grayson!’
Wyatt knew perfectly well how long Lillian had held feelings for him.
So why?
She had heard that the king had initiated the proposal.
She had also heard that in return, the taxes on salt trade would be drastically reduced.
‘Why would His Majesty want Edith as his daughter-in-law? If it were Belita Mason, I’d understand…’
Belita Mason of the Mason County—just like Lillian, she had been in love with Grayson for years.
Beautiful, intelligent, kind, beloved by many. Belita.
As rivals, Lillian had hated her.
But now that Grayson was being taken by Edith, Belita suddenly seemed like the preferable option.
More than ten years ago, after Lillian’s mother died, Wyatt had brought Eliana and her daughter Edith into the estate seemingly without a second thought.
From the very first moment, Lillian disliked them.
The country noblewoman who looked as if she had seduced her father and taken her mother’s place.
A woman with a child, choosing money and power over her husband.
“Lady Edith is so beautiful, isn’t she?”
“When I first saw her, I thought she was a doll.”
“Well, the madam is stunning, after all…”
Even though Edith only clung fearfully to her mother, the servants adored her.
Lillian hated it.
She felt as if the intruding stone had come to take her rightful place.
So every time she bullied Edith, Eliana appeared like a ghost, scooped her daughter into her arms, and glared.
‘Don’t touch my daughter, Lillian Reynolds.’
The more Elliana protected Edith, the more Lillian’s cruelty grew.
Whenever no one was looking, she hit her, pinched her, kicked her.
One day, she even had a servant catch insects and shove them into Edith’s mouth.
How satisfying it had been to watch Edith cry and call for her mother while trembling helplessly.
‘Those were good days…’
As she grew older, she could no longer bully her recklessly like before, but there were still plenty of ways to torment her.
And by then, Wyatt’s interest in Eliana had faded, leaving her as a marchioness only in name.
Once the master’s attitude changed, the servants immediately followed, treating Eliana and Edith harshly.
“She acts like she’s already a duchess. It’s disgusting… Really disgusting. Lillian, you’re lucky you don’t live in the manor anymore. You don’t have to see her face every day.”
Julia continued ranting about Edith.
Lillian disliked Julia as well.
How could she like a stepmother who was close to her own age?
But accepting Julia had been different from Eliana.
Wyatt was expanding his business, and the gold bars Julia brought as dowry were extremely useful.
Her family owned a large mine, providing a reliable future source of funds for the Reynolds family.
And Julia wasn’t beautiful enough to be a threat.
‘Father will use her family for all they’re worth, then discard her.’
Since the ending was obvious, Lillian could tolerate Julia.
Julia grew uneasy when Lillian remained silent and only sipped her tea. Then she spoke.
“Marquis Myers came to pick up Edith again today. They were holding hands from inside the manor all the way out. Isn’t that strange? I thought that girl completely lost her mind after her mother died, but in front of the marquis she acts all polite and modest. And they’re still going on dates. I really thought he’d be disgusted after the first one and never see her again.”
Lillian’s expression hardened.
She had already seen the newspaper reports about Grayson and Edith walking hand-in-hand along the riverside, but hearing it directly from someone she knew felt different.
Lillian set down her teacup and looked at Julia.
She disliked the way Julia’s eyes sparkled as if she had been waiting to say all this, but she had no choice but to accept that Julia was the only person on her side at the moment.
“There are only about two months left until the wedding. At this rate, they’re going to end up a perfectly blessed couple.”
“I have something that could help, Marchioness.”
“Something that could help?”
Julia leaned forward, and Lillian mirrored her, lowering her voice.
“It’s an ointment. If you apply it to the face, it causes swelling and boils. Just three applications and the pus builds up so badly that you’d have to cut it open with a knife to drain it.”
“Oh my. That would leave scars all over her face.”
“Exactly. It wouldn’t be good for a bride-to-be to ruin her face right before the wedding. She’ll have to be very careful.”
“But no one guards Edith’s room…”
“If you mix it into a strongly scented lotion, no one will notice anything unless they intentionally sniff it.”
“How pitiful.”
Watching Julia giggle, Lillian also laughed.
If left alone, Lillian had believed Grayson would eventually grow tired of Edith and reject the engagement on his own.
But if time kept passing without any issues, then they had no choice but to create a problem.
‘This is your fault, Edith.’
She had hated Edith from the very first moment she saw her.
