Lady Cinderella - Chapter 11

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

Lady Cinderella Episode 11

He had rubbed the paper so often that it had taken on a glossy sheen. Like a cyst that kept nagging at the skin, the matter had been a constant irritation, but now that he had met her in person and brought her back, it was as if he had finally lanced it, and some of the tension drained away.
“What do you intend to do from here on?”
“We’ll have to think about that after the princess wakes, won’t we?”
She had not only shouted at him, demanding to know why he had taken so long to arrive, but had thrust her blade at him and dropped Marquis Osborn’s name without a shred of caution. Worse, she spoke of the Emperor’s displeasure, a subject even he could hardly bring himself to mention, with no sense of fear at all. Her utter lack of guard made her look like a pup that had never learned to fear the tiger, charging straight at it.
Perhaps that was why he found he could not simply leave her be. Having brought her here, he felt at least bound to see her through, and so before retiring to his chambers, he stopped by her room to check on Ella, who had fallen into a deep sleep. The beautiful room, bathed in the best of the morning light, had once belonged to his mother.
This was the only room he could think of that was fit for a woman, and so he had brought her here. Now that she lay in the bed, it was only beginning to sink in what Seth and Olga would be thinking about it.
“You’re very lucky, Lady Lloyd.”
Conditions like these were not easy to line up, even by design. As he watched her sleeping face, which kept lingering in his mind for reasons he could not name, Calaile found his hand drifting again and again to Ella’s silver hair. He pressed a light kiss to her forehead, where her breath came slow and even, then left the room without a word.
* * *
The morning sunlight was so dazzling that Ella frowned before she even opened her eyes. Her little room faced north, and light rarely made its way in at all, so it took her a moment of tossing beneath the blanket before everything that had happened came back to her in full.
“Oh!”
Last night, while her family had left her alone and gone off to the ball, she had been sitting there grumbling over the laundry when the Grand Duke himself appeared before her. Without a second thought she had brought up the matter of a fake engagement, and she remembered climbing into his carriage right after.
“Did you sleep well, my lady?”
“Ah…”
Before her mind had fully returned, a stately woman bent at the waist before her. Being addressed as “my lady” while she was dressed in such a shabby state made her cheeks burn. She sensed a stale smell clinging to her body, and Ella pulled the blanket higher and curled up beneath it.
“Girls, take the lady to the bath.”
“Yes, Lady Olga.”
“I am Olga, and I’ll be attending you from now on. I manage the household here at the Grand Duke’s Residence, so tell me whatever you need.”
“Huh?”
Before she could even register anything beyond the name Olga, Ella found herself surrounded by six maids and swept straight toward the bath. It had been so long since anyone had attended to her like this. The maids, seeing how flustered she was, set to scrubbing her with great diligence.
“Don’t hide yourself, my lady. This is simply what we do.”
“W-wait! Slowly!”
Setting aside the lady’s protests, Olga turned to the belongings the Grand Duke had personally brought in and examined them one by one. She searched every item thoroughly, in case there was anything that might pose a danger to him.
That morning Kevin had told Olga that the girl was a niece of Marquis Ruth, and she had been left speechless. Her possessions amounted to a few changes of clothing, one of which was mourning black, some old jewels that seemed to belong to someone who had passed, and a diary. Almost everything Ella owned was shabby and meager.
“How did a young lady of such standing end up like this?”
“Oh, it’s a common enough story.”
The girl had wept so pitifully at her grandmother’s funeral, where Seth had attended as the Grand Duke’s proxy, that she had moved him, and at the time it had seemed to Seth as though the Marquis was personally casting his own niece out.
“What a pitiful creature.”
Rumor had it that the sole heir of the youngest daughter, whom the late grandmother had doted on, had been reduced to something worse than a commoner by the abuse of her stepmother, Patricia. Seth was less concerned with the girl’s welfare than with why the Grand Duke would bring home a young lady in such a troublesome situation.
“I can’t imagine what Calaile has in mind by doing something like this.”
“Oh, you’re hopeless. He’s finally decided to marry, that’s all. Any man would hate to see his beloved treated this way.”
“Even so.”
“What do you mean, ‘even so’?”
Olga promptly scolded her grumbling husband. It wasn’t as if he’d brought home some unspeakable woman from the slums; a girl from a respectable house who looked so innocent was far better marriage material.
“Um…”
“I’ll be going now, Olga.”
“See you later.”
It seemed the lady had finished her bath, so Seth hurried off to attend to other matters, and Olga neatly arranged Ella’s belongings. The maids had stayed up all night, from the previous evening straight through to dawn, preparing for the lady.
To order a proper gown, the maids took Ella’s measurements after her bath, which she had taken with rose-scented soap. They had already found a dress to hand, and after tailoring it to fit her body perfectly, Ella was transformed into a flawless picture of a lady in the blink of an eye.
Her roughened silver hair had been brushed for a long time until it fell soft and smooth, and the undergarments and gown, considering they had been procured in such haste, looked remarkably presentable. Of everyone, Ella herself was the most astonished by the reflection in the mirror.
It felt strange to dress again in a corset trimmed with white lace after so long. The gown, heaped with pale pink satin ribbons, overflowed with loveliness even at a glance. Having not worn such luxurious clothes in so long, she felt more anxiety than joy.
“How on earth is one supposed to…”
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
It was as though she had stepped into a magical fairy tale: from a cinder-covered servant girl to being treated as a princess overnight. It still felt utterly unreal. Before her stood a tall man with hair blacker than the darkest night, dressed in a comfortable shirt, yet he was unmistakably the Grand Duke Wellington.
“Your Grace, I…”
“It’s all right, my lady.”
As though bewitched by some spell, he approached Ella with a tender gaze and tucked the silver hair that had fallen loose behind her ear. Yesterday she had boldly thrown her fists at him, yet now, seeing her face so plainly reveal her restlessness, Calaile struggled to hold back the laugh that threatened to escape.
‘She’s rather fun to tease.’
She had said such outrageous things that he had taken her for a bold woman, but now, seen in the light, her cheeks flushed and her bashfulness had a certain innocent charm.
Where was the confidence with which she had shouted about Oberon’s attack? Now that he had started treating her as his ‘fiancée’ before everyone, just as she had insisted, Ella’s face went red as a radish, and she did not know what to do with herself.
“Your Grace, I…”
“Did you sleep well?”
Unlike yesterday, the Grand Duke had turned gentler than the spring breeze. Being looked after so warmly by a man she had only ever watched from afar made Ella’s heart flutter until she could hardly bear it. She wanted to tell him he was being far too familiar, but the two of them had, just last night, more or less agreed on a fake engagement. And now that she had suddenly been brought to the Grand Duke’s Residence, everyone was watching her.
‘This man is skilled at hiding his heart.’
There was no need to explain it in stale phrases. With actions that had nothing to do with what he truly felt, he was justifying himself to everyone around them. He had become a man in love, and she had become the tragic heroine rescued by his hand.
Even if the reality was different, she had no other choice right now. It was a little suspicious that the Grand Duke, who hadn’t sent a single reply, accepted her proposal so readily, but Ella squeezed the hand he offered and smiled brightly.
“Suddenly acting like this embarrasses me in front of everyone else.”
“Oh my…”
The Grand Duke had never once caused any trouble with women, yet within a single night he had acquired a lover. Once they were dressed up exactly as he wished, they made a picture-perfect couple, and Olga laughed “Ohoho” as she led the others away.
The moment the door closed with a ‘click,’ the two of them drew apart at a startling speed. Pretending to be a lovesick couple all of a sudden, they felt more awkwardness than flutter. Ella wandered around the room for no reason, and when she saw her belongings neatly arranged, she hurriedly checked carefully to see whether anything was missing.
“The diary, the diary… Ah, there it is.”
Calaile watched the diary closely as she hunted for it first, rather than her gown or jewels. Ella hastily hid it behind her back and only smiled with an awkward expression.
“You’re very good at acting, Your Grace.”
“That’s too stiff for a term of endearment for a lover. I think we should settle on a pet name, El.”
At the words he had let slip without thinking, Ella’s expression stiffened.
“The only one who ever called me El was my late mother.”
It seemed that the thoughtless remark had hurt her heart. Still, compared to yesterday’s disheveled state, she had undergone a complete transformation. She was truly beautiful, yet something about her weighed on Calaile’s mind.
“Then from now on I’ll call you El. You may call me Cal in return.”
Even with her outside dressed up so finely, her shoulders still hunched and the signs of hurt were plain to see. He thought he had picked up a rather troublesome woman, yet those hunched shoulders looked pitiful to him. Just as he was about to carefully reach out an arm toward the poor girl, Ella scampered off to look at the rest of her belongings.
“So I’m going to live here now?”
“For the time being, I suppose. You’ll need to tell me the whole story in more detail, but for now, shall we get something to eat?”
No sooner had the word “meal” left his mouth than a lively growl rumbled from Ella’s stomach. Without thinking, she clutched her belly and tried hard to feign indifference.
“Y-yes, well…”
“Sounds like you’re quite hungry.”
“Don’t tease me!”
With a hearty laugh, the Grand Duke and the ash-covered lady he had brought home walked hand in hand toward the dining room. True to the story of a man who had suddenly fallen in love and cared nothing for the gazes around them, the two of them held each other’s hands tightly as they made their way forward.

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