Chapter 29

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 29

Chapter Title: Bad Woman

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“Miss, you’ve been fooled by that kindness of hers.”

Olivia, starved for affection, had been utterly incapable of rational judgment in the face of such tender warmth. But Anne was different.

Diane might have seized ownership of the lily key through the incident she orchestrated to satisfy her own selfish desires, but in doing so, she had also triggered Anne’s wariness.

“It’s true, Miss. She’s a truly bad woman.”

And Anne’s suspicion of Diane Brooke had become the root cause of the jewel thief stigma unfairly pinned on her.

Olivia’s trust in Diane ran deep. Her longing for a sister-like friend—the first of her kind—turned even a loyal maid’s worried counsel into irritating nagging.

The more Johann’s indifference deepened, the greater Olivia’s dependence on Diane grew.

“Please believe me, Miss.”

Frustration and pity heated the rims of Anne’s eyes.

“I believe you.”

Olivia laid her hands over Anne’s neatly clasped ones.

“I believe you, Anne.”

She gave the gripped hands a gentle tug. Anne settled into the chair opposite.

“Will you tell me about her? That woman.”

Olivia whispered, stroking the back of Anne’s small hand with her thumb. Scars from blows meant for Olivia dotted the skin—marks Anne had earned protecting her since childhood.

Stories Olivia didn’t know but only Anne did came spilling out. By the time she finished, noon had long passed. The sunlight streaming through the window had turned to gold.

Anne headed down to the kitchen to help Mrs. Marie with the late lunch, while Olivia stared blankly at the necklace box, feeling utterly drained. In the quiet room, only the clock’s second hand ticked busily away.

As time passed, her initial bewilderment gradually settled into calm. Now that she knew Diane Brooke’s true colors, she had a rough grasp of the situation. Pure speculation, of course.

The question was how to handle it.

‘Keep your head cool.’

A man’s advice from some time ago surfaced in her mind.

‘Heart hot?’

She’d teased him because she liked his serious face. Even knowing the answer, she’d play dumb, just to keep him near a little longer. She cherished those drawn-out conversations with him.

‘No. Heart cool too. When it’s time to judge, Gianna, you have to be ice-cold.’

Olivia cooled her head. She focused solely on the facts of the incident, coldly and without emotion.

She wanted nothing to do with Johann Leopold. He was a man with a fiancée in the picture. She truly had no desire to reconnect with him like this.

But.

Diane Brooke had to pay for her crimes.

Anne’s innocence needed to be cleared from that false accusation, and as for Elaine’s husband’s situation... well, that wasn’t really Olivia’s concern. Elaine...

If she hadn’t brought up the necklace when they first met, Olivia wouldn’t have gotten involved at all.

Olivia, who had sat motionless for a while, rose from her seat as if she’d made up her mind.

She went to the desk by the bed, pulled out a sheet of stationery from the drawer, dipped the pen in ink, and brought it to the blank paper. After a brief hesitation, the nib began to dance across the page.

Morris arrived at Great Hill at his usual time. He always escorted Johann from the ducal residence to the Leopold headquarters.

“You’re here, sir?”

A servant carrying a stack of mail spotted him descending from the carriage and greeted him.

“Ah! Benjamin. Good morning.”

Morris smiled and climbed the entrance steps alongside him. He stamped his shoes on the mat at the door before stepping inside. Meanwhile, Benjamin sorted the mail on the sideboard in the entrance hall.

“Huh, who sent this one now?”

Morris, heading toward the lobby, paused as he passed Benjamin and asked.

“What is it?”

“Mail without a sender. A few came for Madam before, but this one’s for the Master.”

Benjamin handed Morris a letter stamped with the Britt Kingdom seal and a postmark. Morris’s eyes narrowed.

Morris gazed down at the letter he’d been handed and asked,

“Before? Do you happen to remember which post office?”

“Of course. Norton postmark that time.”

“Norton?”

“Yes. My memory’s sharp. It looked suspicious right away, so I paid close attention.”

Norton...

He’d heard the name somewhere recently. It hovered on the tip of his tongue. Frowning in thought, Morris asked,

“Any others from Norton?”

“No, just the ones to Madam.”

Benjamin stated it as obvious.

“What business would those Norton folks have sending letters to a ducal house? Unless they’re staff here, that is.”

Not all of the capital was the same. Norton was a district where down-on-their-luck nobles had gathered.

“Remember how many times?”

“Of course. Three.”

His answer matched Diane’s statement. So, love letters from the duchess’s lovers after all? But something still nagged at him.

And now a senderless letter to the duke on top of that—it made his neck ache from the morning.

“I’ll take this and check it out.”

Leaving a word of thanks for the trouble, Morris headed to his office.

Though low in the line of succession, the Duke Johann Leopold he served was undeniably a contender for the throne, so he couldn’t rule out poison in the contents.

Fortunately, Rondo had no one bold enough to target Johann’s life. It was just a simple letter. Not ordinary, but at least no apparent danger. On the surface.

Unable to trace the sender, Morris took the letter and knocked on Johann’s bedroom door.

“Come in.”

Morris steadied his breath and entered.

Johann was dressing. As Morris stepped in, he was fastening a black cufflink. The shirt wrapping his large, solid frame gleamed white in the clear sunlight.

“I have a matter to report.”

Johann, fastening the other cufflink, nodded lightly.

“International express mail for you, sir.”

Morris circled behind the butler and carefully placed the letter on the table in front of Johann.

As the butler helped him into his suit jacket, Johann’s impassive gaze flicked briefly to the letter, then fixed on Morris.

“Sender unknown, posted from the Britt Kingdom.”

Only then did Johann show interest. He waved off the butler brushing his jacket. The butler bowed politely and left. Johann sat in the wing chair by the table.

After scanning the contents of the letter Morris had brought, Johann’s expressionless face reached for a cigar. The tip glowed red. He exhaled a long plume of smoke, his gaze slowly returning to the offending letter.

As the pale gray smoke dissipated, clumsy but earnestly penned words came into view.

Johann pinched the stationery between his oil-slicked fingers.

The content was exceedingly brief.

「To His Excellency, Duke Johann Leopold」

The cowardly sender, who hadn’t revealed their identity, began the letter in a thoroughly businesslike tone.

「I have the pink diamond necklace.

How did I get my hands on it?」

The letter started politely but ended in absurd provocation. A mockery of an owner unaware even of the theft.

But even thieves had their weaknesses.

This bold yet naive thief wasn’t skilled at hiding their handwriting.

Unfamiliar it was not to Johann—clumsy letters he knew well. The handwriting of Olivia Blanchett, his former wife.

A woman who’d only learned to write at seventeen, hastily schooled for the marriage market. Everything about her had been immature and rough around the edges.

Johann’s gaze sharpened as he stared down at the script from those unripe fingertips.

He set the letter back down and exhaled deeply drawn smoke.

Assuming the sender was his ex-wife. How exactly had the necklace ended up in Olivia’s hands?

Thinking back to why he’d entrusted the lily key to his wife’s secretary, that day’s incident came to mind.

On the night the necklace vanished, it had been found in the wife’s maid’s room.

What if the maid had already swapped it with a fake by then?

And the loyal maid had presented the real one to Olivia...

Hmm.

It was logical enough. But Johann quickly dismissed the hypothesis.

He’d provided her with material abundance. Why bother?

Especially over a single necklace. It didn’t add up. The maid disposing of the loot on her own seemed far more plausible.

So the maid was the culprit after all?

“...”

No. That didn’t fit.

What reason would Olivia have now to expose her maid’s criminal acts? Her sole confidante, who’d been with her since the Blanchett earldom.

Another flawed inference.

Which left one possibility.

Diane Brooke. The lily key’s possessor.

Johann, feeling fatigue, slowly closed his eyes. Blue-white smoke curled from the cigar between his fingers.

Assuming Diane Brooke was the culprit. How had the necklace crossed the ocean—straight into Olivia Blanchett’s hands, of all places?

How...

Johann tapped the armrest with long fingers.

He needed to revise his stance of non-involvement with his ex-wife.

“Send a sparrow to Olivia.”

After a stretch of silence, Johann opened his eyes and spoke flatly.

“To that woman.”

His ash-gray eyes gleamed sharply in the early morning sun.

“Attach surveillance.”

Johann’s gaze shifted to the letter, as if it mocked him.

A faint sweet perfume on the white paper. Clumsily stamped letters. In the enigmatic missive, he almost sensed his wife.

She was capable of such absurd antics? That newly realized fact held his gaze on the letter for a long while.