Night of the Abandoned Duchess - Chapter 22

“Tonight, I’m going to make a stew filled with healthy vegetables.”

“I don’t like vegetables. It doesn’t taste good.”

A little boy’s muffled voice could be heard, though Rosalind didn’t care and continued her word.

Although four years have passed, cutting was not something she got used to easily, and she would often leave small scratches on her white, fine hands. Of course, she could have asked Anna to cook for her, although it was her desire to cook for her own child.

“Even if it doesn’t taste good, you have to eat it. Then, you’ll become a big and wonderful adult later.”

In the end, Leo nodded his aesthetically beautiful head, and she put the diced vegetables into the pot. He tugged at the hem of her skirt as she stirred the vegetables to mix them well with the ladle.

“Mom.”

“Why?”

“Where did my dad go? Why don’t I have a dad?”

Her hand holding the ladle stopped.

Gently biting her lip, she bent her back and lowered her eye level to look at her son. A bright but clear voice filled the kitchen.

“Leo, do you know who the Virgin Mary is? Your mother is like Lady Maria.”

“Lady Maria…? What do you mean?”

Whether Leo knew or didn’t know, he spoke with serious thought. Rosalind gazed at Leo and uttered with a heavy face.

“In short, it means mom gave birth to you without a dad.”

As if her own words were amusing, she burst into laughter.

Her playful voice continued.

“You haven’t had a dad since you were born. Mommy got you pregnant without a dad. Mom is such a great person.”

At those words, Leo jumped and puffed his cheeks like nonsense.

“It’s a pure lie!”

Rosalind found the puffy face cute, and he pulled the puffy cheeks straight as if she couldn’t help it. The reddish-tinged cheeks and the blue eyes looking at her were so lovely.

As she looked at her son’s face, she gently brushed away her smile and spoke again with a very serious face.

“Can’t you just remember that Leo is mother’s son for now? I’ll talk about dad a little later, slowly. I just want you to know that dad is a very sweet and wonderful person who resembles Leo. That’s it for now.”

Hearing that, Leo looked into her eyes as though he understood his mother’s words and nodded his head gently.

She then closed her eyes and smiled brightly, ruffled her child’s head.

“Dinner is coming soon, so would you like to hang out alone for a while?”

“Yes. All right.”

Leo nodded his head as he spoke and glanced over the kitchen. Rosalind stared at her son as he left the kitchen, smiling quietly and bitterly.

The little hand that pulled her hem while asking about her dad was still too much. How should she explain? Even though she knew she couldn’t turn it over as a joke, it was difficult for her to explain it without hurting the child.

“Madam, why are you doing this?”

Anna ran into the kitchen, trembling while making a fuss, and rolled up her arms. As she looked into her tired eyes with the traces of time, Rosalind smiled as if she was okay.

“What is wrong with this?”

But, she really wanted to know what was wrong with this.

She once lived as the mistress of a splendid castle, though she was now a mother raising her child in the corner of a small countryside. Although she may not have lived a prosperous and convenient life as she used to, it was warm and more comfortable than ever.

She was grateful for her present life.

It had been four years since Rosalind evaded her father and her husband in a boat and settled in this country village. She originally planned to come back at the right time after a short stay, but unexpected events eventually forced her to settle down and live here.

The lord of this place, whom she found out by chance, was kind to people from abroad. And, partly because of her father, who, according to her mother’s letter, was still running rampant on the road, and above all, because of Leo…

Her own son.

The one and only son she loved so much.

Shortly after she had crossed the sea to come here, all the food didn’t taste good and she started to feel nauseous. In addition, she kept getting sleepy and irritable, and her irritability increased.

Even though Rosalind thought that it would be unusual to say that it was an aftereffect of living in a new place, she did not know that it was pregnancy.

They said she was more likely to be infertile, but why…?

When she went to see a doctor with a hopeless heart, they said she was lucky that the medicine she had been taking was helpful.

…Luckily?

After leaving her husband, was it any good that she has now come to conceive? After she found out she was pregnant, Rosalind was so confused that she couldn’t even sleep properly.

Between parents who did not love each other, she suffered.

When she was young, she once wished that her father had disappeared.

Although Kyle never slapped her or treated her as authoritatively as her father did, she was still certain he didn’t love her. He was the one who could only push away with words, at other times with actions and eyes. Even the slightest kindness to others seemed like a luxury to her.

Suddenly, she remembered him with Olivia.

The thought of him living with her for the rest of his life made her feel frustrated.

In her father’s affair, her mother was unhappy throughout. She could not bring the same misfortune to her child.

And, she was afraid of it, a little bit.

How would he react if he found out she had a child of his…? They ended up hurting each other with all kinds of harsh words, but she wondered if something would change if she suddenly showed up with a child.

Maybe, she was running away.

It was the child she longed for, and it was ironic.

However, the worries did not last long. Rosalind decided to raise her own son, Leo, alone, and she is now happier than anyone else.

So, that was it.

She looked at herself and smiled brightly.

“Madam is not good at cooking…”

The quick Anna snatched the ladle from Rosalind’s hand, and she rolled her eyes playfully.

“What are you saying out loud that I can’t, now?”

Laughter quickly erupted between them.

When she left Kyle’s castle, it was Anna, her nanny, who accompanied her. In fact, her bond with Anna was far greater than that of her mother. Even Anna considered her like her own daughter.

In the beginning, Rosalind left the house and started making a living by selling the jewelry she had brought.

After she settled down, she made a decent living, teaching the children. Instead of the name ‘Rosalind,’ she hid her identity under the pseudonym ‘Cletta,’ and was satisfied with a simple and comfortable life even though it was not as luxurious as before.

“If you know, stay away.”

“I don’t want to?”

“I want to do it, too!”

As soon as Leo intervened, the kitchen became a mess. It was a peaceful afternoon with unstoppable laughter.

* * * 

“You have to chew it thoroughly, understand?”

Leo, wearing the bib, said to Rosalind with a sullen face.

“This is what children do.”

Hearing those words, Rosalind and Anna burst into laughter.

He pretended to be an adult when he was still young, and whenever he said something like that with a cheek that was about to burst, at the thought of that, laughter filled the house.

“Why are you laughing, Anna?”

“I laugh because everything the young master said is true.”

Leo, whose cheeks were chubby as though he was satisfied, scooped the stew into his mouth with a clumsy spoon. Rosalind wondered if it would be too hot, and as she was cooling the stew, she could hear Anna’s voice calling for her.

“Oh, right. Madam. I have a letter from your mother.”

“Really?”

Rosalind asked, bringing Leo’s water, while Anna, nodding her head, brought the letter.

After she settled here, the first thing Rosalind did was to write a letter to her mother.

Her mother gave her courage at the end, so she was even stronger in her heart and was unwavering. She was grateful and worried for her mother, so she immediately sent her a letter. Since then, she has continued to communicate without her father’s knowledge.

Rosalind, who had taken the letter, looked inside indifferently.

As she skimmed the content with her eyes, she dropped the letter to the floor. Leo and Anna’s gazes, who were eating, turned to Rosalind and the letter, which plummeted to the floor.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Leo, would you like to go inside for a second?”

Leo, who had glanced at his mother’s dazed eyes, went into the room tactfully. Rosalind was still staring into the air with a bewildered face.

Seeing her reaction, Anna asked her what was going on, and after a while, she barely began to open her lips.

“An, Anna. Father… He died.”

“What…?”

“So, while my father was being investigated for embezzlement, he died in the middle of the night by an unidentified assailant…”

“What do you mean?”

“…I didn’t know anything. What is all this about embezzlement or investigation? I can’t figure it out…”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Rosalind’s face was filled with only a confused look. She fumbled, picked up the letter, and started reading it again.

“Usually, the funeral should have been held right away, though it was delayed because the investigation was not over.

Although she was in contact with her mother, there was never any mention of embezzlement or investigation. The last sentence of the letter pierced deeply, without time for her to accept the sudden surge of shocking news.

“…She wanted me to come to the funeral soon.”

Anna and Rosalind’s eyes met.

“…What is going on?”

“You should go see it first.”

Rosalind nodded her head.

The peaceful mind quickly became complicated