6.
“…My friend works at the Norde dukedom.
She said the duchess herself heard our lady got thrown out of His Grace’s bedchamber in the middle of the night, and she was so delighted she handed out gold coins to her servants.”
“The rumor’s already spread that far?”
“Plenty of people saw it.
Of course it spread.
Honestly, if there’s disgrace to be had, our lady manages to carry it all on her own.”
“They’ve been married two years without even consummating the union—what more shame could there be?
If it were me, I’d have gone mad and thrown myself at him too.
She must’ve been burning up with desi—oh!”
The maids, chattering gaily as they climbed the stairs, froze mid-step when they saw Nina standing there, her face like ice, posture regal as a judge.
“M-Milady…”
Rebecca, Duchess of Norde.
Granddaughter of Marquis Crewe, the Empire’s Minister of Finance, and eldest daughter of the Wessler dukedom.
Though she was now bound by a marriage of convenience as Norde’s duchess, she had once been notorious for her fervent adoration of Ash D.
Bayern.
That was why any rumor about her unhappy marriage spread like wildfire—people pounced and amplified it like a cyber-viral scandal.
If word of that night reached the Duchess of Norde’s ears, it would soon be all over society.
Damn it…
Thinking of the Duchess of Norde made her grind her teeth.
“Didn’t they say she was thrown out of his bedchamber?
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Duke takes a mistress in the house.”
“Oh my—do you really think he’d go that far?
Duchess Norde, you’re worrying too much.”
“They’ve been sleeping in separate rooms for two years.
If he doesn’t want to hand the estate to his nephew, he might very well bring a mistress into the house.
Honestly, the duchess’s condition isn’t exactly… ideal.
What if she can’t bear a child—or if the child isn’t legitimate?
What then?”
A grand charity gala hosted by the Imperial Family.
That day, after overhearing slander about herself, she completely lost control—lunging at the Duchess of Norde, tearing at her hair, and creating a scene.
Because of that, I earned the wrath of the Imperial Family, and the Duchess of Norde grew more arrogant than ever, strutting about as if she owned the world.
…Should I just throw the divorce papers at him and disappear?
The thought of the Duchess of Norde picking a fight with her at every turn in the future made her desperate to escape.
If she didn’t get in the way, there shouldn’t be any real obstacle to protecting his guardianship of the heir…
No.
Pull yourself together!
There was a reason she was racking her brain for a safe way to divorce.
If she made a single mistake, then a year from now her entire family would meet a ruinous end.
She had to avoid doing anything that would earn her husband’s lasting resentment.
They’ve gotten bold while I’ve been holed up in my room…
Steeling herself, Nina’s voice turned icy.
“…Should I thank them for understanding my situation?”
“Milady, summon the guards at once and have them punished for insulting the nobility!
Shall I fetch the guards right now?”
Marsha bristled, fists clenched as if ready to charge, and the maids began to quake and plead for mercy like leaves in a storm.
“M-Milady… we’ve committed a grievous sin!”
“Please, beg you—grant us forgiveness!”
Nina gave them a cold, hard stare.
“Marsha, go fetch the head maid.”
“What?
Not the guards straightaway?”
“Just do as I say.”
“If that is your wish, Milady…”
Marsha shot a withering glare at the trembling maids before hurrying down to the first floor.
Not long after, she returned with the head maid in tow.
“What is the matter here?”
Brown hair, brown eyes, somewhere in her mid-fifties—Melanie.
Under the duke’s protection, she had long been Nina’s open adversary, perhaps the one in the household who hated her second only to her husband.
Prodded by Marsha, Melanie stopped at the second-floor landing and tilted her brows upward in sharp reproach.
Her eyes demanded an explanation,
radiating the certainty that the root of the problem must, of course, lie with Nina.
The look soured Nina’s already foul mood even further.
“Head maid, what punishment befalls a servant who lets her tongue run loose?”
The sharp glare that had been fixed on Nina shifted toward the maids.
“It depends on the gravity of the offense.
Typically, they are confined or have their wages docked.
In more serious cases, they may be dismissed—or even sued under the confidentiality oath.”
“And if the remarks defamed the master or mistress of the house?”
The maids seemed to realize what they had been overheard saying.
Melanie exhaled a quiet sigh before replying.
“…Are you suggesting punishment under the crime of lèse-noblesse?
If you wish to have them brought to trial, I will be obliged to give the duke a full report of the incident.”
“I’m not without shame.
I have no intention of repeating what I heard to my husband—that is why I called for you.”
Melanie, as head maid of House Bayern, took immense pride in her duties.
Though her relationship with Nina was fraught, she was not the sort to mix personal feelings with official business.
“We—we were just… the thing that happened a few days ago spread everywhere, so we were just—”
They seemed embarrassed to repeat what they had just said.
Their guilty, fumbling eyes rolled around as they offered worthless excuses to dodge the situation.
Nina found their behavior infuriating, but she had no intention of punishing them under the crime of lèse-noblesse.
To lock them up in the servants’ quarters’ cells, she would have to repeat, in front of her husband and his officers, the very words she’d heard.
Why humiliate herself like that?
She had no desire to lie down and spit, then call for a trial.
Still—this had to be corrected.
“…‘Dragging down the dignity of all women,’ and ‘I’d have gone mad and jumped him too’—do you really think such words can be excused as careless chatter?”
At Nina’s cutting remark, Melanie’s eyes widened as she turned a glare on the maids.
Indeed, those words alone could land them in chains for lèse-noblesse.
Melanie’s gaze shifted from the pale-faced, tear-streaked maids back to Nina, her expression grave.
“Milady, how would you have me punish them?”
“I may be the very one who’s turned House Bayern into a laughingstock, so with what face could I demand their punishment?
Yet such words stain the Duke’s name as well.
See to it yourself, as you judge fit.”
For an instant Melanie’s eyes widened in surprise.
The duchess, who had never found peace until she herself doled out punishment, now leaving judgment to another?
A duchess who had once spurned all self-reflection, now speaking of her own faults and bearing insults with composure—if Melanie hadn’t heard it with her own ears, she would hardly have believed it.
“…I’ll report back to you once the punishment has been decided, milady.”
Nina gave a small nod as Melanie, her expression stern, seized the maids by the arm.
Entrusting their punishment to the housekeeper was as good as declaring she would no longer wield the authority of mistress of the house on a whim.
Melanie was one of her husband’s most trusted lieutenants.
Through her, Nina hoped word of her change would reach the duke’s ears as she turned and walked away.
***
It must have been a mistake to force down breakfast yesterday morning while still seething from overhearing the maids’ gossip.
The indigestion that started then hadn’t eased even after a full day had passed, and her stomach churned miserably.
She had almost forgotten, after living so long in the sturdy body of Jang So-young,
that “Nina” was frail by nature.
Perhaps it was because she’d been born premature, barely eight months along.
From childhood she’d been sickly, worrying her parents constantly—especially with her weak digestion.
She had practically lived on medicine until she reached adolescence, and only after becoming an adult had things improved somewhat.
But today’s relentless bout of indigestion was proof enough she had never truly grown healthy.
Judging by how vicious this bout of indigestion was,
she thought ruefully, I should’ve torn their loose tongues out before they were thrown out…
The offending maids had indeed been dismissed yesterday and expelled from the household.
It was the predictable outcome.
Having heard their salacious gossip herself, the head maid likely saw no option but dismissal.
“Anyway, the head maid refused to give them a letter of recommendation, so they’ll never work for a noble family again.
Their lives are ruined, basically.”
Nina smiled grimly at Marsha’s blithe delight over their downfall, then sighed.
“Ugh—honestly, I feel like I’m going to die…”
“Shall I fetch your medicine again?”
“No, it probably won’t help much.”
She had taken medicine in the morning, yet her stomach still churned and she felt as though she might be sick.
…If only I could prick my finger.
If she had a lancet for bloodletting, all the better.
Nina pressed her palm firmly, wondering if she ought to jab a fingertip with a needle to ease the pressure in her chest, when—
Knock, knock, knock.
“Milady, may I come in?
There is something I must ask,”
came a voice from outside.
Marsha, anxious, turned to her.
“…Milady, what should I do?”
“Let them in.
At least we should hear what this is about.”
Nina, who had been lying on her side, slowly sat up as Marsha admitted the maid.
“What is it?”
The maid hesitated, eyeing Nina’s pale face propped against the headboard, then finally spoke.
“Count Athelott has arrived, claiming he had an appointment with you, milady.
Yet… it seems you are in no condition to receive guests.
He is waiting in the drawing room—shall I send him away?”
“Ah…”
Count Athelott.
A collateral relative of House Bayern, he was the very man who had once filed suit against her husband, seeking to strip him of his guardianship over his nephew.