I Was Marked as the Grand Duke Male Lead’s Stepmother - Chapter 7

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 7

Thinking that the child had spent about three months alone in this large, dark room made her heart feel heavy.

“Young Master… so you were here.”

Marisselle found Fleur crouched behind the headboard of the bed.

Fleur showed no reaction upon seeing Marisselle. Like a mannequin.

His clothes were filthy and smelled. His hair was matted, and his unfocused eyes were completely empty.

Her heart ached. What words could she possibly say to this child?

Marisselle sat down silently a few steps away from Fleur.

A long time passed. Marisselle opened her mouth.

“Young Master, from now on, I will take care of you until you say you don’t want me to. And I’ll be here with you like this every day. Starting today, I’ll sleep here too. Ah! But don’t worry. I won’t share your bed with you. I’ll bring my mattress from my room and place it here next to yours to sleep.”

Marisselle deliberately didn’t mention that she would care for him like a mother.

She judged it would be better for Fleur to prevent herself from being associated in any way with his painful past memories and to build a new relationship instead.

Also, not knowing what kind of presence his mother held in Fleur’s mind played a part.

She didn’t force anything. She thoroughly centered her daily routine around Fleur so the child wouldn’t be scared, wouldn’t feel uncomfortable, and wouldn’t be lonely.

One day, two days—there was no significant change. Three days, four days, the days accumulated. Like that, a week passed. Finally, change came.

* * *

“Fleur is eating meals with the nanny?”

Morgan, who had been listening to Porel’s report, asked back as if suspicious.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Since when?”

“Since this morning.”

“How long has the nanny been here?”

“Today marks the 8th day.”

Morgan stopped what he was doing.

He had hired Marisselle with mixed feelings of doubt and hope.

When he received the report that from the very first day of work, she entered Fleur’s room and slept there with him, he thought she was truly an unusual woman.

Every single action reported to him was unlike any other nanny.

A child who feared people was now eating meals with another person… Morgan had hoped for this kind of thing, yet he couldn’t quite believe it.

Especially since Fleur was afraid of adult men, it had been a long time since Morgan had seen him.

Even the aged Porel, who couldn’t be found to have even a trace of intimidation, couldn’t easily approach him.

The only people who could get close were women who appeared small and frail.

After learning this fact, he had hired nannies with gentle or delicate appearances.

In the end, it had all been futile.

The reason he hired Marisselle was simple.

She was a completely different type of woman from all the nannies he had seen so far.

Her actions for the commoner children in the marketplace, and how she was afraid of him yet not afraid at the same time, had been impressive. And then that woman was among the nanny applications that day.

He became curious, and thought that with that level of courage, she would take good responsibility and care for Fleur well.

So he called her for an interview despite her lack of experience.

As Morgan’s thoughts reached this point, he recalled when he interviewed Marisselle.

She was the only person who had ever fallen asleep in the Duke’s Household interview room.

Also, for the second reason she should become a nanny, she had mentioned himself. Even thinking about it again, it was absurd. A snort of laughter escaped him.

‘What, that she has no interest in me so I won’t be bothered by her?’

Ha. As Morgan mulled over this thought, his mood strangely soured. Oddly enough, those words remained in his mind, scratching at his nerves.

Morgan unconsciously frowned.

“Your Grace, is there some problem with the report…?”

“Ah, no. Report the next matter.”

* * *

“Young Master, please try this too.”

Marisselle cut mushrooms into small pieces and placed them on Fleur’s plate.

“How is it?”

Fleur, who had been chewing the cut mushrooms, scrunched up his face.

“If you can’t eat it, you can spit it out. Here.”

Marisselle quickly held out a napkin.

Toward Fleur who was hesitating whether to spit it out or not, she smiled reassuringly and demonstrated by spitting into a napkin.

Only then did Fleur seem relieved as he carefully spat it out.

“Did you not like the texture? Or did you not like the taste? Number 1? Number 2?”

When Marisselle asked for the reason, Fleur pointed to number 2.

Marisselle’s question about why he didn’t eat mushrooms was for gathering information to improve his picky eating later.

For Fleur right now, a sense of safety without any threats was more important than picky eating, so improving his eating habits was postponed, but gathering information was necessary.

She slept in the same room as Fleur for a full week and constantly told him everyday stories.

A foal was born, a chicken laid an egg, what dream she had last night, a white rabbit visited the garden, a black cat climbed up a tree, dandelions bloomed. When the yellow dandelions turn into white dandelions, let’s go out together and blow them – she told him such harmless everyday stories.

For a patient, picturing daily life and recovery is such an important thing.

So Marisselle constantly let daily life flow, whether Fleur reacted or not. Like clear flowing water clarifies murky water.

Then came the day when he made eye contact, and he allowed her to come close.

“Young master, shall we go out tomorrow to see the flowers blooming in the garden? Round, fluffy white dandelions have bloomed. I’d like to blow the white dandelions together with you, young master. What do you think?”

Marisselle continued speaking while eating meat with vegetables.

“When you blow with your mouth like ‘whoosh-‘, each petal flies away floating on the wind. It’s so pretty that you should see it, young master… What do you think? Aren’t you curious?”

Marisselle’s eyes sparkled as she vigorously stimulated his curiosity.

Fleur had never taken a walk in the garden. The garden was just something to look at from inside his room.

He had no time to feel the changing seasons. Just keeping up with heir lessons was overwhelming. If he fell behind even a little, his parents’ cold treatment would pour down on him.

Fleur wanted to somehow do well and become a useful person that his parents would acknowledge. Heir lessons were the only path for Fleur to gain recognition.

So he devoted himself only to lessons. Then one day while riding in a carriage, he saw the smiling face of a child his age walking hand in hand with their parents.

Even though the child was wearing shabby clothes, their face looked happy. He was envious. He thought he wanted to be happy too.

He wanted to walk smiling while holding hands with his parents.

To such a Fleur, Marisselle suggested going to blow flowers. He didn’t even know what kind of flower a dandelion was. Flowers that float away on the wind – he had never even imagined such a thing.

Fleur thought of that child he had seen from the carriage.

Would he be happy if he blew dandelions together with Marisselle? What if she disliked it if he blew strangely? Would she scold him?

No. Marisselle had never made him do anything he disliked so far. She had even comforted him about his mistakes, saying not to worry about it, that even adults make mistakes, so it’s even more okay for children. She had soothed him with such strange words.

Fleur wanted to see dandelions together with Marisselle. He felt it would be okay with Marisselle.

So Fleur nodded his head.

“Wow~! Young master, you made a good decision~ Then our adventure will be in the spring garden after lunch tomorrow!”

* * *

The Duke’s Household’s vast garden was organized by themes of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

That didn’t mean the sections were divided with knife-like precision.

The spring garden was decorated with flowers and trees commonly seen in spring.

It was said to be a garden that came into being because the previous duchess loved decorating gardens.

On a peaceful afternoon, basking in warm sunlight all over her body, Marisselle walked through the garden holding Fleur’s hand tightly.

Fleur was amazed at how Marisselle knew his heart and held his hand.

He wondered if perhaps Marisselle had some mysterious ability to see people’s hearts.

Fleur was so happy just to be walking through the garden holding hands with Marisselle.

Whenever they came across flowers or plants she knew, Marisselle would stop and tell him about them. What kind of flower this was and what kind of tree that was.

She even caught a ladybug from between the leaves and placed it on her palm to show him closely.

For Fleur, it was a series of surprising and amazing things.

“Ah! Young master! This is it. The white dandelion.”

Marisselle discovered the dandelion and ran over with quick steps, plopping down on the spot. Then she urgently gestured toward Fleur and called him over.

“Isn’t it pretty?”

Seeing Marisselle’s grinning face toward him, Fleur also smiled in response.

It was amazing. Just like Marisselle had said, small white feather-like things were gathered together in a round shape.

“This yellow dandelion here isn’t one flower, but about 200 small flowers gathered together~ And here, what looks like seeds on this white dandelion, these are dandelion fruits. Amazing, right?”

As Marisselle explained excitedly, Fleur also crouched down to listen carefully to her explanation and observe the dandelion.

200 flowers gathered to bloom like one flower, such tiny things being fruits – Fleur found the small plant amazing.

And Marisselle, who knew such things, seemed impressive to him.

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