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Chapter 20
“Oh dear… Doctor, how is my niece’s condition?”
Spencer furrowed his brow deeply as he asked Hedwin. Hedwin loudly shut the notebook he had been writing in. Adjusting his glasses, he replied:
“Indeed, there seems to be something wrong. If I may be so bold, Lady Freya Swan appears to be suffering from severe hysteria.”
“Hysteria?”
“Yes. It’s an illness often found in women. Only recently has it begun to be studied in depth, so there isn’t much data. However, Miss Freya’s pathological lying, delusions, and tendency to feign illness in front of others to seek attention all match the symptoms of hysteria.”
“Are you saying I’ve gone mad?”
Freya, listening to the conversation, flared up and turned toward them. Spencer fixed her with an icy gaze.
“My word, I’ve never seen the girl this agitated before. That hysteria—whatever it’s called—seems clear enough. Can it be treated?”
“Usually the cause is sexual frustration. I hear several of her marriages have fallen through over the years. That repeated disappointment might have piled up until it led to this.”
Freya’s hand trembled with humiliation. The conversation that followed left her speechless.
“No matter the treatment, I entrust my beloved niece to your care. Even if it takes a very long time.”
“Understood. As you know, I don’t recommend forced hospitalization based only on a guardian’s word. But since the symptoms are so evident, it can’t be helped. Lady Swan must receive treatment in the hospital. I’ve already prepared a carriage—we can leave at once.”
“Thank you, Doctor!”
Freya grabbed Spencer’s arm in desperation.
“Uncle Spencer? You don’t mean to put me in an asylum, do you? That’s completely different from what you told me in my room! I’m Freya—your niece whom you love!”
But Spencer ignored her pleas as if he couldn’t even hear her.
“I won’t go!”
Freya rushed forward to stop Hedwin as he headed for the door. At that moment, two women blocked her path—her second aunt, Maria, and her uncle’s wife, Mildis.
Their iron defense left Freya powerless to do anything but watch Hedwin leave the drawing room with ease.
“Freya, this is all for your sake.”
“Yes. Once you’re cured, you can return.”
“Let me go!”
Mildis and Maria forced Freya back into a chair. She glared at Spencer with wide, blazing eyes as he approached.
“My, my, Freya must truly be unwell. To send me such a venomous look…”
“I trusted you, Uncle! How could you… how could you do this to me? You even drugged the soup, didn’t you?”
“What are you saying? I only want to help you. You’re sick—you’re not in your right mind!”
“You want to believe I’m not in my right mind. I see it now—you mean to split the inheritance after locking me away in that hospital!”
“How could I plot such a thing while the Count himself lives? I only do this out of concern for you.”
“Then that means Jacob is your accomplice. But unless I marry him, you and everyone here won’t get a single coin! Did you really think I would obediently marry him after being treated this way?”
Freya shouted, glaring at them all.
Her defiance made Spencer’s brow twitch. He pulled out the photograph she had given him, then tore it before her eyes with a vicious shout.
“You do have your father’s cunning mind. I don’t know where you found such a picture, but it makes no difference. Listen well, Freya. You have no choice.”
Spencer stretched out his hand, and Mildis passed him a document—a marriage certificate.
“Here. Sign this. Marriage isn’t difficult. With the head of the family’s seal and your signature, you’ll be Countess Swan. Surely you wouldn’t defy your father’s will?”
“No!”
Freya shoved Spencer away and stood up. He sighed and looked to his wife. Mildis nodded, then forced a pen into Freya’s hand. Maria and her daughter grabbed her arms and waist.
“Freya! Be a good girl. Just write your name here. Such a simple thing—why must you make so many people suffer over it?”
“Let me go! Please… please stop this!”
Her struggle turned into pleas, but her relatives’ eyes remained cold.
The tears in her eyes, once enough to move anyone’s heart, now meant nothing. To them, Freya was nothing but a stack of money waiting to be cashed in.
Freya clenched her teeth. She could not be dragged away like this—she still had things left to do.
She kicked the table violently. The table wobbled, then crashed to the floor with a loud bang. Teacups shattered, spilling black tea all over the marriage certificate.
Spencer picked up the stained paper with a scowl. He held it upside down so the signature field wouldn’t be soaked. Red tea dripped from the page onto the floor.
“Damn it. If only we’d held the wedding instead of just the engagement, none of this trouble would’ve happened. To ruin everything over the words of some lowborn wench…”
“That’s unacceptable!”
The one who had been silently watching suddenly shouted sharply. It was Rachel.
“One wedding for Count Jacob Swan is enough! If Freya Swan marries him first, then what about mine?”
Spencer sneered.
“You should be grateful to be given the chance, as a commoner, to become Countess Swan. But you want a proper wedding too? How greedy.”
“How many times must I say this? I am not a commoner! My maternal grandfather is Viscount Brino!”
“But wasn’t your father a commoner? And your mother, who eloped with him, was cast out from her family. How can that be called noble?”
“My veins clearly carry noble blood! Nobility is proven by lineage, is it not?”
Rachel rolled up her sleeves and shouted. At that moment, Freya’s eyes locked on the bracelet on Rachel’s wrist.
It was a familiar silver bracelet entwined with daisies. Freya froze. That bracelet was Nancy’s—her grandmother’s keepsake that Nancy had treasured like her life.
‘Nancy never once took that bracelet off…’
Freya’s eyes blazed. Those wretches must have harmed Nancy.
Rachel, still arguing with Spencer, turned and noticed Freya’s burning stare. Seeing her gaze fixed on her wrist, Rachel smirked.
“So you’ve recognized whose bracelet this is?”
All eyes turned to Freya again. She screamed at Rachel:
“What did you do to Nancy?!”
“Well, that depends on your actions, doesn’t it?”
“If you touched her…!”
“And what could you do? Poor girl. Saving Nancy is simple. Just take that pretty hand of yours and sign the document. Then Nancy will be released safely.”
Freya’s breath came in ragged gasps. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at Rachel, who approached slowly and stroked her cheek.
“How very beautiful you are. Truly, such a face would be wasted locked away in a hospital. But don’t worry, my lady. Just three years in the asylum. When the time comes for divorce, I’ll take my place as Countess Swan, and you’ll be free of all bonds.”
Rachel gestured toward the hesitant people nearby. At her signal, they set the table upright again. Rachel carefully laid the half-soaked marriage certificate upon it.
“What can I say? A lion cub without its parents is bound to become a hyena’s prey—that’s the law of nature.”
She then placed Nancy’s bracelet on the table and barked:
“Sign it! Now!”
Freya stared at the bracelet with trembling eyes. The simple daisy engraved in it felt heavy enough to crush her shoulders.
Seeing Rachel’s cruel eyes, Freya knew—if she didn’t sign, Nancy would surely be harmed.
One devastating loss was enough. She couldn’t bear to let another innocent person suffer because of her.
Freya shut her eyes tightly and lowered her head. In her downcast view lay the marriage certificate, perfectly prepared except for the bride’s signature. Beneath Jacob Swan’s name, the head of the family’s seal was stamped like a brand.
‘My lady! Look—aren’t the flowers blooming beautifully?’
Nancy’s voice flickered through her mind. With trembling hand, Freya slowly moved the pen. Freya Swan. The letters she pressed out felt as if they scattered weakly into nothingness.
“Yes!”
Spencer snatched the signed document from her hand with a triumphant shout. The drawing room erupted into celebration.
Someone popped a bottle of champagne—clearly prepared in advance for this very moment.
Everyone raised their glasses, each calculating again how large their share would be. They laughed in delight, dreaming of the bright future that Freya’s despair would bring them.
