Spring in My Grasp - Chapter 73

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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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(73) Let’s Be Friends

Her eyes gleamed with warmth as she regarded Rowan directly.
“It’s certainly refreshing to have the Countess of Valerion join us.”
“I hope you don’t find my presence disagreeable.”
“Disagreeable? Not in the slightest.”
Marchioness Matia spoke with genuine delight.
“Though I may be somewhat older, I believe we could become friends.”
A continuous smile played at the corners of her mouth.
“My name is Edel—just call me Edel, if you please.”
At the Marchioness’s words, everyone in the room—including Lea and Eloze standing behind Rowan—gasped audibly.
“Oh, how lovely. You may simply call me Rowan, Edel.”
Rowan responded without hesitation, and Marchioness Matia’s smile deepened considerably.
“I often engage in social discourse with various people, but this… yes, this truly feels like conversing with a friend without pretense. Just as it did when I attended the Royal Academy in my youth.”
She spoke as though recalling distant memories.
“Shall I share a secret? My husband is terribly prone to sulking.”
At that moment, Laila, who had been sipping her tea, nearly spat it out.
“Marquis Matia sulks?”
Rowan asked casually. Marchioness Matia—or rather, Edel—nodded in confirmation.
“We married young through arrangement, so I never realized his temperament was so sensitive. In our early years, I simply assumed he was naturally cold and taciturn. But as time passed, I discovered that whenever something wounded his pride, he would fall silent. He need only speak to me directly, but having been raised among the highest nobility with such formal education, he simply didn’t know how to express his feelings honestly.”
“So… what did you do?”
At Florence’s cautious question, Edel touched her teacup thoughtfully.
“I too was raised with such rigid propriety, so for several years we lived in genuine coldness. Moreover, since our union was arranged, I never thought to question it… until circumstances forced my hand.”
Everyone in the room regarded Edel with serious expressions. She laughed somewhat sheepishly before continuing.
“Everything changed after I gave birth to our child.”
Rowan let out a soft exclamation of understanding.
“My emotions were turbulent even during pregnancy, but I endured it. Yet after the birth, between my recovery and caring for the infant, when he continued with that same distant demeanor, I simply… snapped.”
She had screamed at him, demanding divorce if this was how things would remain.
“He was so startled that he fled from me.”
Edel laughed at the memory. For days afterward, Marquis Matia had avoided his wife entirely.
She had resolved then that this pretentious, hypocritical marriage must end. No matter how arranged the union, sharing a life in the same space with someone in such a manner contradicted her very nature. Though born into nobility, her true temperament burned like fire.
“Yet one night, he came to my bedchamber with great hesitation.”
Marquis Matia had knocked carefully and entered under cover of darkness, avoiding the servants’ notice, and presented a sight beyond imagination.
“He confessed that he’d been avoiding me out of fear that I would ask for a separation, and he wept like a child, begging me not to leave.”
Now Laila and Florence’s faces had gone pale. They were nearly overwhelmed. Rowan fell into contemplation and nodded knowingly. Thinking of Alexis, it was hardly surprising.
“Then he apologized profusely and attempted to kneel before me, but I—”
“Ah, Marchioness!”
Unable to contain herself any longer, Laila hastily cut off Edel’s words. She was nearly trembling with fear.
“If, if you keep talking like that… what if… what if…”
Laila was timid by nature. As she listened to the authority and dignity of Marquis Matia crumbling away, she was seized with terror at the thought of whether she should even be hearing such a frightening truth.
“What if Marquis Matia somehow… what if he finds out…”
As Laila spoke in a trembling voice, Edel let out a laugh with her eyes wide open in mock surprise. In moments like these, she looked far younger than her actual years.
“It doesn’t matter if he knows.”
By now, Marquis Matia was completely under Edel’s thumb.
“What does it matter if he finds out? It’s not as though I’m spreading lies.”
Edel giggled as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“Do you know how much I’ve wanted to laugh every time I see him putting on airs of authority and dignity in public? That only I know how he whimpers at home. How unfair it’s been. I have no one to tell, and I certainly can’t tell the maids.”
Then she turned to Rowan with a bright expression.
“We gather like this sometimes and share what’s really on our minds. I can’t tell you how refreshing it is.”
At those words, Rowan nodded with a soft chuckle.
“Hearing Edel speak like that reminds me so much of Alexis—it’s been quite entertaining for me as well.”
Now even the Holy Knight was like that, it seemed. Laila pressed her hand to her forehead as if her head ached.
“It’s such a blessing to have someone to confide in when you’re troubled.”
Edel said.
“Baron Boden seems so serious and composed—that must be wonderful.”
“…”
At those words, Laila fell silent. She pursed her lips and gently caressed her teacup. As she suddenly grew dejected and quiet, everyone in the room turned to look at her.
“The truth is…”
Laila hesitated before speaking.
“I think there’s another woman in his life.”
The moment those words left her lips, Laila burst into tears.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to show you this side of me.”
Laila tried to hold back her tears, but Florence beside her gently patted her back to comfort her.
“Oh, Laila.”
It seemed she had long suffered in silence, afraid that word of family troubles might spread and bring shame. When everyone in the room comforted her sincerely without reproach, Laila eventually broke down into quiet sobs.
“Though it was a match arranged by my parents, I truly tried my best…”
Laila’s voice was filled with resentment and sorrow. It was clear she genuinely loved Baron Boden.
“And we’ve only been married such a short time… the scoundrel!”
Rowan approached her and offered words of comfort.
“Don’t cry, Laila. If there’s anything we can do to help, we will.”
And she added the next thought.
“My own husband’s illegitimate child has already appeared, after all.”
At those words, Laila’s tears turned into hiccups. Today had brought her far too many shocking revelations. She hastily wiped her wet face with a handkerchief and looked at Rowan with eyes full of sympathy and understanding.
“I’ll call you Rowan too.”
“Of course.”
Rowan replied warmly.
“Goodness, how can such shameless women even exist?”
Laila suddenly forgot about her own troubles and brought up Maribel’s situation instead.
“No matter how much he truly is Baron Valerion’s son, how could he show his face in High Society so brazenly!”
She spoke as if it were her own affair.
“And Countess Glister too. When Baron Valerion clearly has a wife and son, she parades around with that woman like a daughter-in-law and displays the illegitimate child everywhere.”
At her words, all the noblewomen in the room fell silent. It was then that Rowan realized something. Contrary to the rumors, there were people in the upper circles who viewed Countess Glister and Maribel’s actions unfavorably. And the noblewomen present in this very room were among them.
“There’s nothing to be done about it.”
Rowan spoke.
“My husband and I have severed ties with the Glister Earl Family, and since I haven’t shown my face in High Society, there’s no reason people would favor me.”
“It’s absolutely absurd!”
Laila, her tears now dried, displayed an indignation far removed from her earlier timidity.
“In truth, only you have the right to confidently present yourself in High Society as a Countess. A woman who should never have appeared is making the rounds in High Society through Countess Glister’s influence. That’s why Baron Valerion must have severed ties with the Glister household—”
Laila, speaking in her excitement, suddenly caught herself, as if she’d misspoken. Covering her mouth with her hand and cautiously gauging Rowan’s reaction, she found Rowan smiling gently at her. And Rowan recognized that all the noblewomen seated here were in fact desperately curious about what had truly transpired.
“Well, actually….”
Rowan smiled sheepishly, tracing the rim of her teacup with her fingertip.
“It’s quite a long story.”

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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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