“I’m not okay, you idiot!”
Cassia’s angry outburst rang out and everything fell silent. Starting with Vita and Fleurette who were entangled on the floor, Paul, who was watching the embarrassing situation from behind, and Zester himself, who was blinking in a daze at the furious rebuke of the once virtuous noblewoman.
Cassia stared up at Zester’s startled face, then let out a long sigh.
Time to calm down.
As much as she wanted to throw off the image of a dignified lady and scream every insult she knew at Zester, it would only come back to bite her.
Who would understand that this anger of hers had been simmering for ten years? To everyone else, it would just look like she had gone mad.
She wasn’t about to ruin her own image for no reason.
To disperse the attention that was now on herself, Cassia turned sharply toward Vita with a rather fierce expression.
“Let go of Miss Roseline.”
Once she spoke to Vita in the most dreadful tone she could muster, everyone’s attention shifted to the new standoff, just as she intended.
Vita scowled and spat, “Madam! This prostitute…”
“How insolent!”
Cassia snapped sharply and her eyes were cold. Startled, Vita’s hands loosened. Finally escaping that iron grip, Fleurette scrambled to her feet and adjusted her disheveled clothes.
“You. Have you perhaps gotten the delusion that you’re the Lady of this house?”
“M-Madam? No, I didn’t mean—.”
Despite her angry voice, Cassia’s face held no expression. Which made it even scarier. Vita felt a chill run down her spine. Cassia looked nothing like the angel she had been acting as for the past week.
“Since the Baron considers you family, I thought to allow you to remain in this castle despite the ambiguous nature. But if you cannot distinguish what matters you can and cannot stick your nose into, how can I, as the Lady of this house, allow this to continue?”
“W-What do you mean?”
Despite Vita’s trembling voice, Cassia ignored it and sharply continued her rebuke.
“Not only have you assaulted a guest in my castle, but you are also challenging my authority as the hostess, and I cannot allow this to slide. Otherwise, everyone in this castle will think they can treat me like a fool.”
After staring down at Vita who remained sat on the floor, Cassia turned her gaze to Zester. For some reason, her quiet gaze at him felt more frightening than the spears and arrows on a battlefield. Zester swallowed drying.
“You seem to be acting arrogantly because you’re relying on something and believe I don’t dare to kick you out…. but I will have to reconsider whether I should let you remain in this castle so for now, you will be confined to your room.”
“What?!”
“What gives you the audacity to have that presumptuous look in your eyes? Do I look like your friend just because I’ve been nice?”
Vita was speechless at the cold look in Cassia’s eyes and her lips trembled.
“Baron! Did I do something wrong? Please say something to Madam!”
Hearing Vita’s cry, Cassia turned to look at Zester. If he wouldn’t even allow putting Vita in timeout, she refused to hold back anymore.
But despite Vita’s desperate cries, Zester just stood there with a blank look on his face and barely showed any reaction.
“This is so unfair. I only did that for the Baron and the Madam’s sake…”
“Miss Vita! I suggest you do as the Madam asks. Go back to your room.”
Paul, who had been carefully watching Cassia’s expression, quickly intervened.
For some reason, he felt like the Madam shouldn’t be provoked any further but the clueless Vita kept trying to express her grievances.
Paul inwardly clicked his tongue.
“It is unthinkable that you would react so sensitively to a woman coming out of a man’s room. Frankly, I don’t care if this woman is a prostitute. How is that a problem? It’s hardly unusual for a nobleman to be summon a woman into his abode.”
“Wait, I think you’re misunderstanding—.”
The once quiet Zester immediately tried to butt in but his mumbled words were drowned out by Cassia’s frosty voice.
“If you understand, then get out of my sight, immediately. Your actions today were for neither me nor the baron and I suggest you reflect properly on your behavior.”
The madam, whom she believed to be an angelic lady that was easy to fool, had turned out to be no ordinary opponent. Her eyebrows were raised coldly as if she had no intention of changing her mind.
Vita lifted her head and turned to Zester who was standing next to her with a desperate expression. Now he was all she could rely on.
However, Zester didn’t seem to care about the humiliation that Vita was experiencing. He was staring at Cassia’s side profile, looking like a pathetic lost puppy.
“My wife, t-this isn’t…you’re misunderstanding something…”
“Are you deaf? I said, return to your room.”
Cassia didn’t even notice Zester fumbling around next to her. When she snapped sharply at Vita who was hesitating, Zester’s gaze finally turned to Vita.
Finally catching the eye of her savior, Vita shot him an earnest look. Please help me.
But the Zester that she planned to rely on, frowned and said the most breathtaking words, stunning Vita from the shock.
“…What are you doing? Why aren’t you listening?”
She told you to get out of her sight.
* * *
Maybe the way she acted at their first meeting was due to the shyness of meeting a stranger.
Zester thought of the Cassia from a week ago and the Cassia from today and they were very different people. Then he realized something. She wasn’t acting differently because she hated their marital relations. She was just the type of woman to clearly state what she liked and didn’t like and she was clearly upset and displeased with what happened earlier.
Paul looked embarrassed and said that Cassia must have misunderstood the reason for Lady Fleurette’s visit. Zester also thought the same. Paul wanted to go apologize and clear up the misunderstanding, but Zester stopped him, wanting to do it himself.
If anyone should be apologizing to Cassia, it should be him.
After sending Vita away, Cassia disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a frosty breeze. Zester stood hesitantly outside Cassia’s door for several minutes then he finally mustered the courage to knock.
“It’s me. Can we talk for a bit?”
“Come in.”
Her voice still carried a chill. Zester swallowed hard with nervousness and stepped into the room. Cassia was out on the terrace.
She wore only a light indoor gown while standing out on the terrace and he inwardly worried that she might be cold. Zester fiddled with his coat for a while, wondering if he should offer it to her.
He just needed to say she looked cold and drape it over her shoulders, but it felt like the hardest thing.
“Is there something you wanted to say?”
Frustrated by his silence, Cassia spoke first.
“It’s all my fault.”
He had been repeating what he was going to say all the way to Cassia’s room. Of course, when he actually faced Cassia, his mind went blank and what came out was much shorter than he actually practiced.
Cassia felt uncomfortable hearing Zester readily admit his mistake. For some reason, it was hard for her to adapt to this strange Zester.
From not stopping her when she was scolding Vita to even taking her side during the argument. More than a few things felt suspicious.
Could he possibly have seen through her plans to find evidence of their affair and expose them?
Cassia sighed inwardly. After going through that exhausting mess, right now, she didn’t even want to bother with that anymore.
Vita’s atrocity brought back nightmares from the past and her body couldn’t help but tremble. It was just a love affair disguised as childhood friendship.
She no longer had the confidence to force herself to keep Vita by her side just to drag some dull, ordinary scandal onto the surface.
This was supposed to be her relaxing life, yet she was busy stressing herself so clearly, she was doing something wrong.
So be it. What can you do when two people like each other? She had no intention of playing love games with her husband anyways so it might be better to pray for their healthy relationship.
However, she would have to draw a line so that nothing would tire her out.
Cassia decided she would do just that. And then she felt relieved.
“What exactly are you apologizing for?”
“Lady Fleurette. I… I didn’t invite her with any strange intentions. It’s a bit of a situation…”
Zester answered immediately, like he’d been waiting for the question.
She was definitely going to ask what situation. Then he would have to explain everything, but it was so embarrassing he felt like his mouth wouldn’t open. But he knew he still had to talk.
Zester wet his lips and waited for Cassia to ask.
However, instead of hearing ‘What kind of the situation?’, some unexpected words left Cassia’s lips.
“I thought you were just apologizing for something? Why is Miss Roseline being brought up?”
“Ah… because I invited her to the Castle and caused a misunderstanding—.”
“That’s odd.”
Cassia furrowed her brows and tilted her head
“Why would you apologize for that? If anything, that’s not something you should be sorry about. Noblemen inviting mistresses or courtesans is nothing new. It’s not something to be embarrassed about, nor is it something you need to hide.”
“No, please listen to me. I’m saying I didn’t invite Lady Fleurette with such intentions, okay?”
“Regardless of your intention, I’m saying it doesn’t matter. The reason I am upset is because Miss Vita has disregarded me, the lady of this house, because you, Lord Baron have failed to maintain proper hierarchy in this castle.”
“Ah, Vita, right. I should have introduced her properly…”
“I have already heard about your relationship with Miss Vita and your decision to let her stay in the castle. You don’t need to explain further. However, I will not stand for a matter like today recurring in the future.”
Zester didn’t know what to say. This was clearly his fault. He rubbed his forehead, feeling drained and recalled the sight of Vita causing a commotion like she wanted the whole world to see.
Vita Berkley, his friend who was practically living in the castle due to their connection from the past.
It was true that she treated him too familiarly. Sometimes, she would accidentally call him by name. Paul had also advised him to control Vita as it would disrupt the hierarchy of the castle.
It’s not that Zester didn’t do it. However, both him and Vita were the same. It felt awkward to suddenly draw boundaries due to difference in status after knowing each other for over 20 years. So, whenever Paul would nag, Zester would regret even bringing Vita into the castle in the first place.
Zester was a rather indifferent person so he wasn’t sensitive enough to care about or notice how his servants might struggle with this ambiguous hierarchy.
There had never been a major issue, so he just let it be.
Zester swallowed hard when he realized that this attitude had led to the current disaster. It would be one thing if it only affected the staff, but Vita was challenging his wife.
If he had set proper boundaries with Vita sooner, his wife wouldn’t have been shocked to see her acting so carelessly and she wouldn’t have grown disappointed in him or his territory.
He couldn’t understand how he just kept making mistakes when it came to his wife.
I’m sorry. Just as the words were about to leave his lips, Cassia spoke first.
“I’m supposed to be treated second to you here, Baron. Hence, it is very unpleasant that I am being insulted due to your failure to manage your own people. If I am to accept an apology from you, it should be for that and nothing else.”
What did that mean?
Zester furrowed his brow as if confused and Cassia readily explained.
“I’m saying this because you say you’ve come to apologize for Lady Roseline’s visit earlier. Lord Baron, I have absolutely no intention of interfering, whether you call a woman to the castle or meet them outside. So, there’s no need to be cautious around me regarding such matters. And one more thing…”
Her voice was soft and gentle like the spring sunlight, but the message from that voice was not.
On this day, Zester, the very man who could shrug off minor wounds and could endure stabbing pain on the battlefield, felt his heart stabbed by the indifferent words uttered by his wife.
“…I don’t care whether Miss Vita is your mistress or not. But I do ask that you make sure that commoner girl does not act arrogantly around me. As long you keep that in mind, Baron, I will fully respect your freedom in love.”
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