RAMHM Chapter 130

Nora Giusetta's Defection

I watched Nora's frightened expression, then quietly drew the box toward myself.

"No, don't!"

I ignored her and opened it anyway.

A herb scent sharp enough to sting the tip of my nose.

It was a scent I knew very well.

Snap.

I shut the box with an irritated motion and shoved it far away.

Nora sat there hollowed-out, as though my hand had shoved her instead of the box, before crumpling back into the sofa with the look of someone who'd just lost ten years of their life.

"Lady Giusetta. You know something."

"Please, please don't ask me anything, my lady."

Nora buried her face in both hands and mumbled.

The pallor that had drained from her face seemed to have spread—the bony, vein-ridged backs of her hands just as pale.

"If you won't tell me, then I have no choice but to assume you and Her Highness the Crown Princess conspired together to kill me."

Through the gap between her thin hands, Nora's eyes flashed wide with shock.

"Oh God. Oh God! Why have I gotten dragged into something like this—!"

"This isn't the first time Doris has asked you to do something like this, is it? I don't mean delivering gifts. Haven't you been doing a lot of strange things lately?"

Vivid terror surfaced in Nora's eyes.

She shook her head as if she couldn't believe my mouth could say Doris's name so boldly.

Then, as if she couldn't bear it any longer, she sprang up from her seat.

"I—I did everything I was told, so I'll be going now. I appreciate the offer of a hot spring bath, but I'm a busy woman. Please understand I can't stay here forever. And please, don't ask me anything more. Just do as I told you. It's advice for your own sake!"

I narrowed my eyes and watched her wrap herself in the shawl she'd taken off and start toward the door.

When I said nothing, Nora, glancing back uneasily as if that silence unsettled her too, bit her lip and headed for the entrance.

The manor was small enough that she hadn't gone twenty steps before her feet suddenly froze in place.

"My, it seems you had a prior engagement."

Right on cue, a dark silhouette appeared in the entryway.

I rose slowly and walked up behind Nora.

"It's been a while, Viscountess Giusetta. How is your jewelry business doing?"

A tall noblewoman with elegantly upswept white hair strode forward.

She was a noblewoman who gave off, at first glance, something faintly sacred—the air of someone who had spent long years at a temple, with eyes that had clearly, once, been the eyes of a tremendous beauty.

The same pale sky-blue eyes as Vincento's passed over Nora and landed on me, standing behind her.

I caught sight of Vincento hurrying in after her, and recognized at once who the commanding old woman before me must be.

Rhodness's maternal grandmother, and—by the wife-inheritance law—heir to her husband's title: Marquess Canulla Winster.

Only then did I notice the brooch bearing the Winster crest pinned to her formal jacket.

Nora, having apparently recognized her at the same instant, bent at the waist to offer her courtesies at nearly the same moment I did.

Lowering my eyes, I saw the long cane the Marquess leaned on as she stood.

The cane, studded thick with gleaming jewels, seemed to support her somewhat slower gait despite the proud, upright way she carried herself.

"So you're the Countess Acacia who owns this estate. Rather more endearing than the rumors of a scheming temptress would suggest."

"Grandmother, you came without a single word of warning—an uninvited guest—and you still had to say that?"

"Vincento, I told you not to call me grandmother out in the open. I can hear the cracks forming in my honor as a Marquess, because of you."

Vincento escorted Canulla without another word.

Canulla passed by both Nora and me and settled onto the sofa as naturally as if it were her own home.

"And will the two of you just stand there, then, ladies?"

A cold stillness settled over the lobby.

Vincento looked uneasy that I had received the Marquess alone, without Rhodness present, and Nora—too intimidated by the Marquess's presence to turn her back—ended up sitting back down after all.

"You're a busy woman, I'd imagine, in the capital. What business could you have all the way out in a place this rough?"

Beside me, Nora's fingers fidgeted anxiously.

"Her Highness the Crown Princess gave me a gift, Marquess, and I've brought it here."

I calmly slid the box toward the Marquess.

"She told me it was a precious incense, to be burned only when no one else was around, if you can believe it. Since you're an honored guest, Marquess, would you take a look at it for me? I'm afraid I know nothing about incense."

"If you wish."

At Canulla's nod, Vincento opened the box. Canulla's face visibly hardened.

"Viscountess Giusetta."

"Y-yes?"

At Canulla's stern tone, Nora answered at once.

"What were your intentions, bringing something this dangerous all the way out here?"

Nora looked at me with eyes that wavered helplessly, her expression that of someone who'd lost everything in the world.

It was a look begging for help.

"Do you even know what this is, to have brought it?"

"I—I... I don't know exactly what it is! But..."

Thoroughly cowed by Canulla's blazing presence, Nora answered haltingly, drawing her neck in like a frightened tortoise.

"The Duke—Duke Castagna, who received this incense from her, collapsed the very next day. I—I might be wrong, but I thought this incense might..."

"Your guess is correct."

Canulla let out a deep sigh.

"This is an herb I taught Bardenaldo about myself, when he was a boy and used to visit the Winster estate. It's a plant native to Winster territory. It has a fine scent, but it's a poison that slowly withers a person to death."

The somewhat commanding air around Canulla sank into deep thought.

She must have heard the full account from Vincento and already learned something of Bardenaldo's crimes, given that she'd rushed all the way here on her aging body the moment she heard.

If anyone could guess that Bardenaldo had quietly taught Doris about this herb, it would be Canulla.

"Marquess. Please, I beg you, just pretend you don't know. Don't all nobles who serve the imperial family above them carry at least one dark secret? I've served Her Highness the Crown Princess for a long time, and whatever else is true, she's the benefactor who helped me when my husband was injured and our livelihood was in ruins."

At the word "poison," Nora trembled all over, but then, abruptly, her resolve rose and the words poured out of her.

"When she told me to do something, I did it. What's happening now is just part of that same thing. I didn't bring this incense to Countess Acacia out of any personal feeling toward her. My lady, do as I said—pretend to burn it and throw it all away instead. Understood? I've carried out Her Highness's command to deliver this incense, and I haven't had any hand in your death. Then it works out for everyone, doesn't it?"

Canulla's settled gaze turned toward Nora. As if she thought this was her chance, Nora straightened her shawl and sprang to her feet.

"Forgive my rudeness, Marquess. My lady, I'll be on my way now."

Nora turned and started off again, her face flushed.

Then—

"Viscountess Giusetta."

Canulla's low voice stopped her.

"Do you genuinely believe Doris Castagna is your benefactor?"

The back of Nora's neck went visibly rigid.

She stood frozen like someone who'd resolved never to turn around again.

"It's been, what, several years now since Viscount Giusetta lost the use of one leg and shut himself away."

"Marquess."

Nora called out Canulla's title, low, a note of warning in it.

The Viscount, who'd lost a leg suppressing the rebellion, was Nora's deepest wound, the thing that touched her rawest nerve.

"I've held my tongue all this time about Doris Castagna's suspicious doings, because she's my grandson's wife. But what happened to your husband was no accident."

At last, slowly, Nora turned back around.

Her face had gone a sickly blue-white, and the look she gave Canulla was raw shock of a kind I'd never once seen on her before.

"What... do you mean by that?"

"There were never any rebels to begin with, Viscountess. Viscount Giusetta was nothing more than a sacrifice—a man Doris coveted because you had such broad social connections and ran a jewelry shop, and once he was hurt and could no longer run the business properly, didn't you take it over, and didn't Doris actively help you along?"

Canulla answered, her face grim.

Nora came storming back with a terrifying intensity and sat herself down again.

It was a face entirely different in scale from before.

"There were no... rebels?"

"To keep Rhodness from being able to set foot in the capital, Grand Duke Novian apparently arranged a few things. The Crown Prince knew and looked the other way, and Duke Castagna provided the location. Doris likely didn't know the rebels were fake, but I've confirmed that she had your husband—a man with no military background at all—drafted into the operation to suppress them. His leg was torn off by a monster lying in wait in front of the so-called rebels, wasn't it?"

This time, my own eyes went wide. The Crown Prince's loathsome face—feigning ignorance while knowing perfectly well there had never been any rebels—rose up unbidden, and my gut turned.

"Isn't Duke Castagna a victim too, then?"

"Victim. Cunningly, and with great enthusiasm—making sure only the rising vassals' territories were singled out for ruin. With a secret like that between them, is it any wonder the Duke and the Grand Duke snarled at each other constantly and still managed to band together under the Crown Prince?"

"Marquess!!"

Nora's scream tore through the lobby.

Her face had gone scarlet from her neck to the crown of her head, tears pouring down her face.

The shawl she'd been clutching dropped, forgotten, to the floor, and her well-kept, long nails dug into her palm where she'd clenched her fist tight enough to leave marks.

"Just—just to keep someone like me, one noblewoman, as her own.... my, my husband—"

"Yes. I imagine that's hard to accept. But Doris is the kind of girl who would do exactly that, gladly—just to make even one noblewoman completely her own."

"Aaah—!!"

Nora struck both her own cheeks without mercy, wailing.

"Did you know about this too, Marquess, and say nothing? Why!!"

"Anyone who serves the imperial family above them carries at least one dark secret. I only learned the full details myself recently, when I began investigating. The fake rebels, frankly, were a shock even to me."

"Aaaah—!!"

Unquenched fury tore out of Nora's mouth. There was no one who could understand what Nora was feeling better than I could.

"Viscountess. It isn't too late yet."

I took hold of the hand she was using to strike her own face, wildly, again and again, and held it still.

"Do you want revenge on Doris Castagna?"

I asked her, soothing her, my voice gone dark and deliberate. Nora, fallen into despair, looked up at me, desperate.

"Could I..."

It was several minutes before Nora's lips, despairing yet hesitant, finally opened.

"How can I help?"

Every burst blood vessel in her eyes had reddened them through.

"How do I get my revenge on Doris Castagna?"

Nora, trembling all over, chewed the words out and spat them.