Chapter 8
“His Grace, the Grand Duke, has arrived.”
“Your Highness.”
I turned away from Caitlin and smiled brightly at my fiancé—no, the man who was now my husband.
“Now we will be leaving. Lady Annette, it will be difficult for you to return here again. Is there anything you are leaving behind?”
His rough voice had vanished, replaced by a low, refined tone that showed concern for me. His manner of speaking was still stiff, but the concern behind it was unmistakable.
“If Your Highness says so, I suppose I should check once more.”
I glanced at Caitlin. She was trembling, fists clenched, her face twisted with resentment.
Her expression clearly said, “No one told me the Grand Duke of Inkheart was this handsome!”
It was the same look the people of the Marquis of Fosche had when Darius first removed his silver mask and attended breakfast.
The marquis had stood there with his mouth hanging open. Even his younger brother had made a strange face. The marchioness and Caitlin had gone red in the face, barely able to speak.
“W-Who are you?”
“I am Darius Inkheart.”
That was Caitlin’s expression when she realized the identity of the handsome young man who had suddenly appeared—her half-sister’s fiancé, the one she had always looked down on. I could still vividly recall it. It was so entertaining I could have woken up laughing in the middle of the night.
I called a maid and did a final check of my luggage. There wasn’t much I was taking with me: a few newly made dresses, Annette’s diary, and the jewels I had taken from Caitlin…
“Hmm?”
My hand, rummaging between a ruby and a sparkling diamond ring, suddenly began to move faster.
My expression turned cold.
“My mother’s keepsake is missing!”
Soon after, a maid screamed in shock.
“Lady Annette’s necklace is gone!”
Hot tears rolled down my cheeks. I cried out in anguish.
“Of all things, how could they steal that! My late mother’s keepsake!”
The mansion was thrown into chaos. The wedding was immediately halted on the day the eldest daughter was to marry, all because the late marchioness’s heirloom had been stolen.
The entire estate was turned upside down searching for it, and eventually, the culprit was caught.
It was the nanny.
“Nanny… how could you do this to me?”
I shouted through tears, as if I were mourning my mother all over again.
“W-What is going on?”
Dragged out by servants holding her arms, the nanny looked around in panic. She had not even shown her face while I was preparing to leave the estate, and even today she had been packing her own belongings.
Lady Annette is leaving, so I suppose I should leave as well.
That had been her excuse.
“You have nothing to say after seeing this necklace?”
Sniffling, I thrust the sapphire necklace in front of her.
“That’s—!”
The nanny’s eyes widened.
“Who would have thought you’d steal my mother’s necklace of all things!”
“What are you talking about? Lady Annette gave it to me herself!”
“I gave it to you?”
I shook my head in disbelief.
She had taken the bait. Barely suppressing the corners of my mouth from rising, I forced myself to sound tearful.
“What have you ever done to deserve receiving my mother’s keepsake? Did you really think I was that easy to take advantage of? Stealing valuables and blaming me?”
Everyone in the household knew how poorly Annette had been treated. That made my accusation believable.
“Who knew we were feeding and clothing a thief in this house?”
Caitlin was the first to coldly turn her head away from the nanny. The same Caitlin who had once worked so well with her to bully Annette now offered not a single word in her defense.
“Lady Annette!”
Realizing things were going badly, the nanny cried out.
“You gave it to me! You told me I had taken good care of you and that I could take the necklace and the money! You said I should use it to live comfortably!”
“I gave it to you? Why would I give my mother’s keepsake to someone who treated me so well that I owed them that much? Do you really think I was that easy to fool?”
At that, even the nanny who had been insisting on her innocence was left speechless. In truth, she had never once treated Annette kindly.
“The marquis wanted to send you with me to the North because he was worried about me, but you refused outright, didn’t you? You said you didn’t want to go to the cold North.”
I continued, tears still falling.
“I tried to understand—maybe you didn’t want to go because of your age. But it turns out you were just planning to steal my belongings and run away while I left! Even taking money!”
“Lady Annette! That’s a lie! I didn’t steal anything! The money was given to me by you!”
The nanny pleaded desperately with the marquis, the marchioness, and Caitlin. But they all looked at her with cold expressions.
“Take that woman to prison. Beat the truth out of her if you must!”
The marquis delivered the verdict coldly.
Because of the stolen sapphire necklace incident, the Grand Duke and I stayed at the estate one more day.
“I am sorry about your nanny.”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I just need some rest. I’m a bit shaken.”
Darius tried to comfort me, but I spent the entire day looking devastated from the shock of my trusted nanny’s betrayal.
That night, I quietly left my room.
I was heading to the basement prison of the marquis’s estate.
“Lady Annette.”
“I want to talk to the nanny about why she did it.”
At my request for privacy, the guard stepped aside with a sympathetic look.
“Ugh…”
“Nanny.”
In just half a day, she had apparently been interrogated harshly and now lay groaning on the prison floor.
“You! How dare you come here!”
“Where else would this be? This is a prison, and you’re a prisoner. A criminal, at that.”
As soon as she saw me, she screamed.
“You gave them to me! I told you I didn’t need them, but you forced them into my hands!”
“That’s right. I did give them to you.”
I admitted it easily.
I pulled Annette’s diary from my chest. Poor Annette. With no one to talk to, she had only ever written her thoughts here. Thanks to it, I now knew everything that had happened to her.
“You wicked—evil girl! After everything I did for you!”
“‘It rained today. Rosaline was severely scolded and sent home. The nanny said Rosaline stole the item, but I know the truth.’”
At the sudden reading of the diary, the nanny’s face twisted.
“Rosaline?”
“‘Rosaline did not steal it. Someone else did. Even as she was expelled, she worried about me. She said she could find another job, but I would have to remain here.’”
Rosaline had been a young maid who joined the household around that time. Only a year or two older than Annette, she treated her like a younger sister. But to the other servants who bullied Annette, Rosaline must have been an eyesore.
“Don’t you remember? You grabbed Rosaline’s wrist yourself and said that hand stole the marquis’s valuables like a rat.”
“I don’t remember! That thief deserved it!”
“Seems you committed so many wrongs you can’t even remember them.”
I clicked my tongue.
Those who think only they can set traps eventually fall into their own schemes.
The marquis had wanted the nanny to accompany Annette to the North. Not out of concern, but to use her as an informant. I, however, did not want her to come.
“So, what do you think? My father seemed to want you to come to the North. What do you think?”
The nanny had reluctantly said she would only go if she was paid more.
“There’s no need for that. How could someone who has lived in the South her whole life adjust in the North? And you’re not even in good health.”
So I took out the sapphire necklace she had always coveted and placed it in her hands.
“You raised me for so long. Think of this as your reward.”
I also gave her money, then told the marquis she was leaving due to poor health, saying she could live comfortably for the rest of her life with those things.
“Guard! Lady Annette is telling the truth! Someone come here! She admitted she was lying!”
“Who would come here now?”
I laughed softly and reached through the prison bars, lifting the nanny’s head.
“No one is going to listen to you here.”
Just as no one had cared when Annette trembled alone in her cold, neglected room.
In the end, life always comes full circle.
“If you had even a shred of conscience, you wouldn’t be here now. Do you really think you deserved those precious things?”
My laughter echoed through the prison. If she had known her place, she would never have accepted them. If she had understood what she had done to Annette, she would have been too terrified to take them.
“Someone! Anyone! Please, come listen! Lady Annette is lying!”
Her desperate cries filled the prison, but it was useless.
If Annette were here, I would tell her:
You are not here, but I have taken your revenge for you.
