Lady Cinderella - Chapter 27

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

Lady Cinderella Chapter 27

* * *
Back in her room, Ella burrowed straight under the covers. A tumble on the floor didn’t bother her in the slightest, but her heart felt cold and raw, as though someone had hacked it to pieces with a knife.
‘How cruel.’
How frightened I was, and how hard I tried not to let it show, and how badly my hands were shaking. He couldn’t even offer a word of praise, and instead he flew into a rage for no reason I could understand, and disappointment came rushing over her. No matter how many times she replayed it, she had done nothing wrong. She had slipped out of the Empress’s barbs with some cleverness of her own, and the Emperor had even slyly arranged their next meeting, showing her his favor.
Learning chess wouldn’t be easy, but if she was going to have chances to sit face to face with the Emperor like that, she intended to do her best to clear the Grand Duke’s name and dispel any suspicion surrounding him. Ella, in her irritation, pounded her pillow furiously instead. No matter how hard she punched it, her insides ached as though they were festering.
‘Maybe I should just withdraw.’
From the start, this engagement had brought the Grand Duke little benefit. Judging by the way he had teased her as though it were all a joke, Ella’s struggle to survive must have looked to him like nothing more than a passing amusement. The awkwardness she had seen in him, plagued by the pressure of marriage, might well have been nothing but her own selfishness, her wish to claim the seat beside him.
‘But.’
Her situation was far too precarious to simply step back now. If she truly broke off the engagement and returned home, there was no telling what her father and stepmother, both seething with resentment, would do to her. Mary had said she could take Ella in at any time, but that only applied once Ella was able to decide her own future on her own.
Going to Mary now would only mean inflicting more trouble on her, all because of her father’s wretched behavior. In her heart, she was already twenty-three. Now that she thought about it, she was surely the same age as the Grand Duke, but her body was still eighteen, which meant she had to wait a full year and four months. To have the reins of her life handed over to someone else was exactly why she hated this. Even after being used like that, here she was again, and Ella vented her frustration by beating the pillow as hard as she could.
“Lady Ella, it’s Olga.”
At the sound of a knock and Olga’s voice, Ella stopped her hands and looked toward the door. So it had finally come. Ella rose from her seat and glanced at the drawer where her belongings were kept.
“Come in.”
Contrary to her expectation of hearing nothing but an order to leave the mansion, a line of trays came in one after another behind Olga.
“His Grace said he has been so busy with work today that he must spend the night in the Main Building. He asked me to convey his apology for being unable to dine with you and ordered me to prepare a special snack.”
Check cookies and golden-brown madeleines came in, followed by a strawberry fresh cream cake heaped with cream and a croquembouche piled with sweet cream puffs and drizzled with sugar syrup.
There was a peach tart glazed with glistening syrup, caramel pudding in clear glass dishes, mango juice, and even brioche, Ella’s favorite, a veritable feast of sweets piled high.
Finally came a parfait loaded with macarons. Just looking at it all, she felt as though her stomach was already full.
“What is all this?”
“Her Ladyship instructed us to prepare everything you might have the slightest liking for.”
“There’s far too much. How am I supposed to eat all of this?”
“If you leave some behind, we’ll take care of the rest, so please don’t worry.”
The staff knew perfectly well that Ella alone wouldn’t eat much, and they were already delighted at the prospect of a feast, thanks to the Grand Duke’s fuss.
‘Wasn’t he angry?’
He wore the face of someone deeply regretful. She had expected him to say he wanted to call off the engagement, but now that he was coming out with such meek humility, Ella felt uneasy rather than pleased.
“Did he say anything else?”
“Not in particular. He simply ordered us to look after you with all our might, so that you won’t skip your meals.”
“I’m not a child, you know.”
It wasn’t as if a person died from missing one meal. Back home, thanks to Patricia, skipping dinner had been as routine as eating it.
She would eat, of course, since they had gone to the trouble, but the desserts were so pretty to look at that it wasn’t easy to bring a fork to them. For now, since the ice cream would melt, Ella scooped a spoonful from the parfait topped with macarons.
As the sweetness melted softly across her tongue, the sulky feeling in her heart began to ease a little. As though her earlier hesitation had never been there, Ella dove into the sweets with her usual gusto.
“It makes me glad to see you eating so well.”
“I don’t know. What if my dress won’t fit at this rate?”
“If you want to bear a darling little baby, you’ll need to grow stronger.”
“A baby?”
At this utterly unexpected remark, Ella unknowingly let go of the spoon she was holding. Even after a maid promptly placed a spare spoon back in her hand, the mere mention of it made her throat tighten, and the food wouldn’t go down.
“You’re still rather young, I know, but never mind that. In our day, everyone married and had children at about your age.”
Olga, being a woman of the old school, had a remarkable talent for speaking of frightening things without the least hesitation. Ella pushed aside the cold sweat running down her back and sipped her mango juice with a loud slurp.
“How… does a baby actually come about, again?”
“Oh my, you don’t know yet?”
Of course she knew. She knew exactly what a man and a woman had to do with each other. Whenever she stayed up all night at Mary’s dress shop, working on urgent embroidery, the married women would spend the long hours talking dirty to pass the time.
Mary and the other wives would go on and on with stories so scandalous that innocent Ella felt her nose might start bleeding the moment she heard them. Thanks to that, she could proudly say she had mastered the theory better than anyone, but hearing it spoken aloud by someone else was utterly embarrassing.
‘The Grand Duke and me?’
Come to think of it, she had leaned against that broad chest and cried her heart out, and sometimes she had even thrown herself into his arms without a second thought. But the way he pinched her cheeks and stroked her hair felt less like how one treats a beloved woman and more like how one treats a younger cousin. Dwelling on it alone would only make her feel strange, so she had carefully avoided thinking about it until now, but seeing Olga and several others already swelling with anticipation made her truly uneasy.
“No, I do know, it’s just…”
“Two people who love each other so dearly, I am always ready to receive any news of them with joy, whenever it comes.”
Olga had been Calaile’s nurse, so it was plain to see how dearly she cherished him, as though he were her own child. Her kindness toward Ella was surely due in part to the fact that Ella was the young lady the Grand Duke, the child she had raised so lovingly, had brought home with his own hands.
“I’m still young.”
“That’s not what you said just now.”
Ella shamelessly made an excuse and merely stirred the parfait with her spoon. Watching the flustered Ella, Olga could not hide her smile. She had a sneaking suspicion that the way the Grand Duke had humbled himself so completely had unsettled Her Ladyship’s composure, though none of them had said so aloud.
“His Grace treasures you very dearly, Lady Ella.”
“I think he just pities me.”
She was certain he could hardly bear to ignore her dire predicament, and since she had been babbling about state secrets without restraint, there was simply no choice but to help her.
“No man would lavish such devotion on a woman he had no interest in at all.”

“That’s—!”
She wanted to say it wasn’t like that, but there were far too many eyes on them right now.
To make matters worse, Karen was standing there among the maids, all of them eager to catch the Grand Duke’s attention. Like it or not, she couldn’t let them see her as a fool, at least not while she was staying here. So Ella reluctantly changed her tone.
“I suppose there’s no help for it. I’ll be the one to forgive you generously first.”
“Please greet me kindly tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Do finish up. There’s still plenty left.”
Insisting that she’d burst if she ate another bite, Ella drank the rest of her mango juice and pushed the tray away. The sweetness of the sugar worked its small magic, and her mood lifted considerably from before. Hearing Olga’s words, she realized she’d been thinking far too pessimistically, so Ella decided to change her outlook.
‘I just need to keep doing what I’ve always done.’
Until Ella’s twentieth birthday, the date they had agreed on at the start, there was just one year and four months left. Each passing day made her feel a little lonely, but even so, she thought the time she had spent in this mansion would be remembered as the most luxurious period of her life.
“I should enjoy the present.”
Recalling a philosopher’s saying that no one can know the future, so one should raise a toast to today’s joys, Ella picked up the book she’d left unfinished and the embroidery she’d left half-done.
* * *
Morning came, and the two of them sat across from each other at the breakfast table. Calaile looked haggard after a full night without sleep, while Ella, having enjoyed sweet desserts and a hearty dinner before bed, glowed with health.
“Did you sleep well?”
“You look exhausted, Cal.”
“I’m fine. Camping out was routine on the battlefield, so this is nothing.”
“The lavender has grown well, so I was thinking of making a Scent Pouch for better sleep. But if you don’t want one, that’s fine.”
“Oh?”
I had said it as a generous offer to a man who hadn’t slept all night, but since he claimed he was fine, Ella returned her attention to her meal. Unable to eat the sweets in front of him, Calaile could only steal glances at Ella and begin a sly, pitiful whining.
“Ah, my head hurts.”
“Shouldn’t we call a doctor?”
“I think I need to get some sleep, but I’ve been suffering from insomnia lately.”
Ella saw straight through his words, but she feigned composure and refused to give him the answer he wanted.
“I think it would be best to call a doctor.”
“I’m not keen on taking medicine.”
Even with the answer so obvious, their little game of wits didn’t end easily. Ella kept up her pretense of innocence until the meal was over, and the Grand Duke sat there with a sulky expression, showing no sign of getting up.
“Ah, my back hurts.”
“El! Call a doctor right now!”
She had only pretended to stumble, yet Calaile came rushing over, his face drained of color, and supported her. Now it would be awkward to call it a lie, and she was also irritated at being teased all this while, so Ella glanced up at him briefly and leaned her weight against his broad chest.

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