The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - 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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Episode 73
“I’m not a child, darling. Don’t worry about me. Go.”
Cecilia, reading the concern in his mind, spoke bluntly. Davion let out a soft laugh.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you.”
He shut the drawer and kissed her cheek quickly before heading to the bathroom. Cecilia called after him, belatedly raising her voice.
“Take your time!”
The moment water sounds began flowing from beyond the bathroom door, she pulled out the paper she’d hidden beneath the blankets.
After committing Blake’s five rules to memory one more time, she tore the paper into fine strips and buried it beneath the garbage, where Davion wouldn’t find it.
“Sit.”
Blake sat at the head of the table, reading the newspaper as he waited for her. The appetizing spread before them seemed to herald the beginning of harsh trials ahead as a daughter-in-law.
News of Davion’s marriage would have already reached the world. Afraid of what the papers might have written, Cecilia deliberately avoided looking at the newspaper Blake held.
A maid pulled out the chair beside Blake, showing her where to sit. But the moment Cecilia was about to offer her thanks out of habit—
“Don’t greet.”
Cecilia quickly closed her mouth and planted herself in the chair.
Blake folded the newspaper and set it on the table, then asked.
“Where is my wine?”
“I… I apologize, madam. I’ll fetch it at once.”
“Never mind. But see it doesn’t happen again.”
As she listened to the exchange above her head, Cecilia couldn’t bring herself to pick up her cutlery, couldn’t even lift her gaze from the edge of the table.
Blake dismissed the maids with a gesture, then poured water into his wine glass and began to speak.
“My son is a military officer in this nation and an heir to the throne in my homeland. At twelve, he inherited tens of thousands of acres and has since supported the livelihoods of thousands of households. Though perhaps not among the richest men in the country, he alone could feed this entire city’s population for ten years.”
Blake swallowed the cold water, his voice dropping to an icy tone.
“Bankers queue for a chance to dine with him. Young politicians fawn for his patronage. That is the man who married you.”
So don’t expect to be treated as family just because you’ve wed his son.
The unspoken words Blake left hanging became arrows that pierced Cecilia’s heart.
Nobility and servant. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. A world unto themselves that she could never have dared enter without marrying Davion.
The invisible wall that existed between them and her by birth seemed to solidify even further in this moment.
“I trust you’ll learn your place from this moment forward.”
Blake released a thin, trembling sigh, then set down his wine glass and picked up his cutlery as he spoke.
“Eat. In your circumstances, at least your body must remain healthy to be of any use, mustn’t it?”
Cecilia, barely nodding, likewise took up her fork.
In truth, her reason for entering this household aligned with what Blake had just said. Davion was already born into wealth, but marriage could have granted him something greater still. Yet he had surrendered that enormous opportunity for love.
He had sacrificed a portion of his future.
And so Cecilia, in turn, refused to conduct herself purely out of selfishness.
* * *
6. Laugh without making a sound, and cover your mouth when you do.
7. Exercise particular care with forms of address when calling upon others.
8. Do not leave the bedroom in undergarments.
9. Shoulders may be bare, but legs must remain covered.
10. Maintain your weight in the 40-kilogram range.
* * *
Upon entering this household, Cecilia had to discard all her clothes save for the negligee she wore at night. Even that she hadn’t so much been granted permission to keep as she was secretly preserving it, knowing Blake had no reason to see it.
Instead, her dressing room was filled with dozens of pairs of high heels, various undergarments including corsets, and garments so costly that Cecilia could scarcely have imagined them.
After carefully reviewing the new regulations conveyed through a maid, Cecilia deliberated at length, then selected and dressed in an outfit from the dressing room.
When she returned, Blake sat with his feet propped on a stool, reading the newspaper.
She examined Cecilia’s form from head to toe—glasses perched on her nose—as if awaiting the results of some crucial examination. Cecilia’s heart pounded in her chest.
“Displaying your collarbones so brazenly in broad daylight is nothing but advertising your vulgarity. And where is your corset? A strange fashion has blown in from across the sea lately, I’m told, but a woman ought to know how to express her natural lines. Don’t think you’ll go wandering about this house without a corset.”
“Yes, Mother.”
At the word “Mother,” Blake’s eyebrows twitched subtly.
“Do you know how to apply makeup?”
“I… I know of it, but I’m not particularly skilled at—”
“Don’t stammer.”
Cecilia drew a deep breath and straightened her spine.
“I have little knowledge of it.”
“Then you’ll have to learn beginning now.”
Blake gestured toward the direction of the vanity.
Atop the mahogany surface with its three-panel mirror sat an abundance of cosmetics used by the nobility. Blake’s lady’s maid, who assisted with her makeup and dressing, quietly took a step back and indicated a seat. Three other maids held their positions around the room. As Cecilia sat in the upholstered chair, she caught sight of Blake’s watchful gaze in the mirror beyond. Only after Cecilia’s makeup had begun did that scrutiny shift back to the newspaper.
In a moment of careless inattention, she committed a small mistake. Her elbow brushed against the mother-of-pearl-handled brush resting on the vanity.
As the brush fell to the floor with a dull sound, a subtle silence descended upon the room. Yet no one moved to pick it up, and just as Cecilia was about to bend down—

“Don’t pick it up.”
Cecilia froze where she stood. Blake had already set down the newspaper and was approaching with deliberate footsteps.
“Regardless of whether I acknowledge you as my daughter-in-law, you are my son’s wife.”
She bent to retrieve the brush and handed it to the maid beside her, speaking as she did.
“You’re all dismissed.”
Cecilia’s painted eyelids widened, her gaze fixed unwaveringly ahead.
‘You have to steel yourself. Guilt changes nothing. So mercy is only a luxury.’
Yet one corner of her heart had turned pitch-black with stain.
* * *
11. Never bow your head before the servants
12. Never directly reprimand or punish the household staff
13. Never take the steering wheel without permission
14. Obtain prior approval for any outings or visits
15. Make every effort to conceive within the earliest possible timeframe
* * *
Davion’s sedan could barely cross the mansion’s gates before nine o’clock that evening.
Without even parking properly, he searched the mansion frantically for Cecilia, moving from room to room. Encountering Blake was entirely unexpected.
Blake sat in darkness with the bedroom door wide open, nursing a glass of wine.
His nerves were wound so tight that the deep crimson gown she wore set him on edge. Though she said nothing, he knew his mother had seen him arrive; there was no choice but to stop.
“Don’t divorce her.”
Davion removed his hat, his hands reddened from the bitter cold of the winter night.
“Whatever happens, you must remain husband and wife unless one of you dies. It’s the only way to preserve what little honor you have left.”
“Then you needn’t worry, Mother. And my wife?”
“She’s gone upstairs.”
Blake seemed about to say more, then pressed her lips shut and cradled her forehead in her hand, muttering low.
“That damned fool……”
Davion closed the door to allow her the freedom to curse. His pace toward the bedroom quickened, until he was nearly taking the final stairs in a bound.
After composing his clothes and hair, Davion knocked on the bedroom door.
“Cecilia?”
But silence answered from beyond. He turned the knob slowly and soundlessly to look inside.
Only pitch darkness met his eyes. Through the quiet, a faint breath emerged gradually.
He set down the hat he’d been holding on a nearby chair, crept to the bedside, and switched on the lamp. Curled up on the bed lay Cecilia, asleep.

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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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