A Monodrama for Carolyn August - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 36.
The Agreement Document she’d seen last night.
The one that forbade Michelle and Aiden from mentioning the man who was their husband and father.
In exchange for which they’d been given the Estate and its furnishings.
‘Why is his name coming up now?’
Caroline watched the two of them intently.
“I am merely attempting to execute the Last Will and Testament of the gentleman I served.”
“I’ve told you more than once that I don’t wish to follow it.”
‘A Last Will and Testament?’
Roman. And a will.
‘Did Roman die?’
Caroline continued to listen. No servant moved to silence her—apparently the stage wanted her to hear this.
Intense sunlight, an automobile that was clearly no ordinary wealthy man’s possession.
The actor and the Old Gentleman standing beside it, and Caroline watching them from the white steps of the Estate.
Within the context of the game, she felt like one more character on a stage.
“The Count Roman wished for his Last Will and Testament and Inheritance to be delivered to Mister Aiden. In our country, there is as yet no legislation that places restrictions on the execution of a will.”
“Neither is there legislation that prevents me from refusing it.”
‘So Roman is dead.’
But why did he want to leave his Inheritance to Aiden?
‘Family? Relatives?’
Yet from what she was hearing, it seemed Aiden and Roman were not close enough for that.
And if they had been, they wouldn’t have needed an Agreement Document.
As far as she understood, under the law one could write a will leaving an Inheritance to a complete stranger.
‘Then why?’
Aiden trembles with such loathing for it.
Was it trying to make amends for taking away his father?
“Surely you’ve given this more thought? How does it make sense to suddenly wish to leave an Inheritance when there’s been no contact all this time?”
…….
“It seems shame must have come upon him suddenly before his death, judging by how he wrote such a will.”
His tone was cutting.
A tone Caroline had never heard from him in the play or in conversation.
Yet the Old Gentleman laughed as if accustomed to Aiden’s aggressive words.
Clearly this was not the man’s first visit.
“I cannot presume to understand his psychology. I simply obey. It’s not much of an Inheritance—why is accepting it so difficult?”
But surely you don’t intend to keep me standing here? There are many eyes watching.
At the Old Gentleman’s words, Aiden finally turned to look behind him.
He spotted the servants standing bewildered and Caroline, and his expression twisted.
“Miss Caroline.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, then bent his mouth into a grimace.
Aiden exhaled a breath so deep his chest heaved, then took a step back with furrowed brows.
“We’ll adjourn to the Drawing Room. Let’s continue this conversation inside.”
“I could ask for nothing more.”
The Old Gentleman smiled benevolently and gestured with his hand.
At that, several servants went to the automobile and began carrying boxes and envelopes from within into the Estate.
‘Is all of that the Inheritance?’
Meanwhile, Aiden was striding toward her.
Caroline couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze and fidgeted with her fingers.
Though unavoidable by the Quest’s logic, she felt like a shameful person for watching someone else’s argument, and it sat uneasily with her.
“Miss Caroline, I’m sorry. Would it trouble you terribly if I asked you to take tea alone for a moment? I’ll join you again as soon as we’ve finished.”
His voice, suppressing distress while straining to sound as gentle as possible, trembled finely.
‘How it pains me.’
Her instinct was to cry out and chase the Old Gentleman away.
For Aiden’s sake, she could have feigned madness without hesitation.
But there had to be a reason the game was flowing this way.
‘It’s harsh on Aiden, but…….’
“I’m fine. You needn’t take tea with me—please, take your time.”
Aiden fell silent after his repeated apologies, watching Caroline wave him off, then disappeared into the Estate.
A servant with a gentle smile then guided Caroline to a parasol set up in the middle of the Garden.
‘So this is where tea time was meant to take place.’
A gentle breeze stirred, and all around was quiet.
Caroline watched the servants return to their usual impassive expressions and scatter to their respective duties.
‘Like background players vanishing after an important scene.’
They went about their business—tending the garden, repositioning the automobile, preparing food for the drawing room—each moving with measured purpose.
The Old Gentleman might have been an unwelcome visitor to Aiden, but to the servants he appeared to be someone of considerable importance. Even his clothes and the automobile he’d arrived in were far from ordinary.
As a retainer of the nobleman Roman, that much made sense.
From what Caroline had seen in the agreement document Michelle had drawn up twenty years ago, if someone was willing to hand over the Estate itself, his wealth must have been extraordinary.
Turning these thoughts over in her mind, Caroline swung her legs idly.
‘No tea service, and I’m left waiting. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?’
She’d been shown to this place, certainly.
But how long was she meant to wait for him?
“What’re you doing.”
“Eek!”
Caroline jumped at the sudden voice, her body tensing instinctively.
“What—?”
Toby sat in the chair across from her, a paper bag clutched in his hand.
And there he was, popping a yellow confection into his mouth.
Crunch, crunch.
It looked like eating popcorn during a theater performance.
“Can you really be out here like this?”
Caroline quickly glanced around.
By a stroke of luck, all the servants who had been in the garden had gone inside.
“That’s not what you should be worried about.”
“Hmm?”
“You shouldn’t be wasting time like this.”
Crackle.
Another yellow biscuit crumbled between Toby’s teeth.
Caroline followed where he was glancing with his eyes.
The Estate.
He wanted her to go inside.
“…But Aiden’s having an important conversation right now.”
“Exactly.”
Toby reached into the bag and set several biscuits into Caroline’s palm.
Caroline put them in her mouth reflexively, then wrinkled her nose.
“Ah, ginger biscuits. Your tastes really are— wait?”
In that brief moment of chewing, the child had vanished once more.
‘He comes and goes whenever he pleases. Is he seriously a ghost?’
Caroline stared at the empty space with a bewildered expression before rising from her seat.
She’d meant to wait here until teatime, but there was no point wasting the hours.
‘He wants me to listen in on what Aiden and the inheritance executor are discussing.’
Caroline brushed the ginger-scented crumbs from her hand and crossed the garden.
“Pardon me, Miss Caroline.”
Whatever the inheritance contained, it was considerable by the look of all these boxes being hauled about.
The moment she reached the first floor of the Estate, she stepped aside as servants hurried past carrying boxes.
That was when it happened.
[!]
A yellow exclamation mark appeared for the first time in ages.
‘Inside those?’
The boxes the servants had taken and disappeared with.
Did it mean there was something worth noting in the sorted inheritance?
“Oh, wait—”
Caroline tried to call them back quickly, but the servants were already around the corner, panting, and out of sight.
After a moment’s deliberation, Caroline followed them slowly.
They had arrived at the drawing room, situated deep within the first floor.
In that space where the study and drawing room opened broadly into one another, the servants set down their load and, dusting off their hands, left with an unhurried grace.
Waiting in the hallway for them to depart, Caroline heard voices from within the drawing room.
“Why must you insist on leaving me such an inheritance?”
!

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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