Beloved Son
She really was a clever girl, after all.
Gazing at her son’s firmly closed door, Mrs. Etman felt a wave of relief.
A few days earlier, Kyle had returned from seeing Leila looking utterly devastated, as if his soul had left him. From the way he shut himself in his room with his mouth sealed tight, Mrs. Etman could read exactly what the two young people had discussed that day.
“Ma’am, the young master still hasn’t eaten today.”
The housekeeper who had come down from the second floor reported this with a worried face.
“Leave him be. When the heart is troubled, even eating becomes a burden.”
Mrs. Becker, the housekeeper, widened her eyes at this unexpected answer from a woman who normally fretted over a single missed meal. But knowing her mistress would never readily share her true feelings even if pressed, she nodded and withdrew.
Mrs. Etman went out into the garden for the first time in a while and tended the flower beds.
The Etman family’s garden was filled with precious rose varieties brought from Arvis’s rose garden. They were the kind Elyse von Herhardt shared only with her close friends, and Mrs. Etman had received quite a few.
In all of Carlsbard, she was the only woman without a title who socialized with the two ladies of the Herhardt family. How great a source of pride that had been. She had never doubted that if Kyle married a young lady from a lesser noble house introduced by the Dowager Duchess, the Etman family’s standing would become even more secure.
She had worked so hard to get that far, yet her husband and son were trying to undo all her efforts—just to have that one girl, Leila.
She had done a great wrong to that poor child.
Linda Etman willingly admitted the fact.
But she felt no regret. For Kyle’s sake, she could endure things several times more cruel. And finding a suitable match for someone of Leila’s station would ultimately be good for Leila as well.
Mrs. Etman cut an armful of roses in colors that would harmonize beautifully and returned to the drawing room. As she arranged the roses attractively in a vase, Dr. Etman came home.
“Where is Kyle? Still like that?”
“Yes. He seems to have a great deal on his mind.”
“I suspect something happened with Leila.”
“I’ll go see Leila myself.”
Setting the vase in the center of the table, Mrs. Etman said this lightly.
“You?”
“You seem to have forgotten that Kyle is my son as well.”
She rose with a smile.
“The son I love several times more than you do.”
When Mrs. Etman arrived, Leila was sitting in a corner of the yard scrubbing a large pot. The forceful spray from the pump had soaked not only her apron but her sleeves and even the ends of her hair.
“Hello, Mrs. Etman.”
Leila rose to greet her without much sign of fluster.
“Please, come inside…”
“No need.”
After looking Leila over carefully from head to toe, Mrs. Etman shook her head and held out the leather pouch she had brought. Leila knew without looking what was inside.
She nearly said “Thank you” out of habit, but swallowed the words and calmly accepted the money pouch. Mrs. Etman’s brow furrowed, as if displeased by Leila’s gaze fixed on her with tightly sealed lips.
“You look as if you have a great many things you’d like to say.”
“Yes.”
Leila answered without hesitation. When Mrs. Etman let out a short laugh, Leila’s heart began to race, but she no longer wished simply to bow her head as she had that day in the tearoom.
“Very well. I suppose you have every right. I’ll allow it.”
She smiled as if bestowing a favor, but her lips remained stiff.
“I take it you finished your conversation with Kyle satisfactorily.”
“I believe you’re returning our money because you know that full well.”
“What did you tell him?”
Mrs. Etman’s eyes wavered at the anxiety stirred by Leila’s markedly different attitude.
“I didn’t say the things you were worried I might.”
“Worried?”
“Yes. You must have been worried I would tell Kyle exactly what happened that day.”
“Well. I never knew you were such a bold little thing.”
“If I seemed rude, I apologize. I only wanted to convey that Kyle knows nothing of that day.”
Leila bowed her head to show apology. But when she looked at Mrs. Etman again, her eyes were even straighter and clearer.
“I didn’t tell Kyle. And I never will—absolutely never.”
Even speaking Kyle’s name made Leila’s chest ache. The sight of his back left behind by the stream that day might remain a lifelong pain.
“I’ll do it for Kyle’s sake, and no one else’s.”
“For Kyle?”
Mrs. Etman repeated with a look of scorn, but Leila did not waver.
“Yes. I know how much Kyle loves his mother. Whatever kind of person you are to me, to Kyle you are a precious mother, so I want to protect the mother he knows.”
“How did a girl this forward and insolent manage to live looking so good and gentle all this time?”
“If that’s how it seemed to you, I apologize.”
Leila bowed her head politely once more. Finding it almost like mockery, Mrs. Etman flushed red in the cheeks.
“But my feelings are sincere. So I wanted to tell you that you need not worry.”
“Since you make the promise with such confidence, I’ll choose to believe it once.”
Mrs. Etman slightly narrowed her eyes to hide her relief.
“And since you claim to care so much for Kyle, I’ll trust that you’ll explain the broken engagement in a way that causes him the least possible harm.”
“Yes. I will. But Mrs. Etman—”
Looking down at the pouch of money, Leila slowly raised her gaze.
“There is one thing for which I would like you to apologize.”
“…What? Apologize?”
“Yes. I can accept everything you said to me, even if it isn’t true—but I would very much like you to apologize for what you said about Uncle Bill.”
Her hand gripping the pouch turned white, but Leila did not back down.
“That it was a tragedy he took me in and raised me, and that you resent a man like him for it.”
When Mrs. Etman snorted as if she had no idea what Leila meant, Leila carefully repeated the last words the woman had left that day.
“I ask that you please apologize for those words.”
Leila’s voice, soft yet firm, rode the cool evening breeze.
Having unexpectedly overheard an entertaining conversation, Matthias leaned against the wall with a snort of laughter.
He had been on his way back from swimming. The impulsive decision to turn his steps away from the direct path to the manor had been so he could watch Leila cry. Finding a spectacle more entertaining than tears made it quite a good choice.
He would have liked to watch Mrs. Etman’s expression, but Matthias decided to exercise patience. If he appeared, this delightful little play would come to an end.
Leaning against the window of Leila’s room that faced the backyard, Matthias sat on the sill and watched a white dove pecking at feed while he waited for Linda Etman’s reply.
“This is why breeding always shows.”
After a stretch of silence, Linda Etman’s voice came, trembling with rage she could no longer hide.
“Apologize? I’d rather pity Mr. Remmer. That poor man who took in and raised a child like you.”
Just as expected. Satisfied once more by his accurate prediction, Matthias stroked the gentle dove.
He suddenly recalled the sight of Leila he had seen through a window that day. Soaked in cold sweat, she had sobbed so pitifully. Unable even to breathe properly, her body shaking, looking thoroughly wretched.
Pathetic.
Matthias’s smiling lips gleamed red.
If she made such a fuss demanding he say it, he need only say it for her.
“Isn’t that right?”
Whispering low to the dove, Matthias left the cabin, abandoning the entertainment that had grown dull.
If Leila would not provide amusement, he would simply create it himself.
The rumor began with Mrs. Mona.
“Have you all heard? About why Leila and Kyle’s marriage talks fell through.”
Whenever she ran into the servants of the ducal household, Mrs. Mona launched into the outrageous story in a voice full of indignation.
“It was Mrs. Etman who stole Leila’s tuition money from the Remmers! Mr. Berger the postman just told me. She sent someone to steal the money, intending to make Leila give up university—and thus give up marrying Kyle!”
Mrs. Mona held her breath for a moment for dramatic effect before bursting out with the words like a firework, and everyone let out hollow laughs as if on cue. Of course, Mrs. Mona, who never dealt in baseless rumors, had her defenses ready.
“I know. It’s hard to believe. I thought so at first too. But the man who stole the money on Mrs. Etman’s orders has been caught by the police. Mr. Berger saw it himself when he delivered to the station, and he heard the whole story from the officers. You’ll all be shocked when you hear who the man is.”
When she reached the most interesting part of the story, Mrs. Mona deliberately lowered her voice.
“You all know Mr. Rayner, don’t you? Mrs. Etman’s cousin, the businessman. Good heavens, that man is the thief.”
“Mr. Rayner? Not Daniel Rayner?”
“Yes! That very Mr. Rayner!”
As voices of inquiry rose, Mrs. Mona’s tone grew even more heated.
“After doing such a thing, Mrs. Etman called Leila aside and said, ‘I stole that money—do you still dare think of marrying my son?’ and cornered the girl. A gentleman who happened to overhear thought it suspicious and informed an officer, and that’s how she was found out.”
After that, the story continued in dazzling bursts like fireworks lighting the night sky.
Good heavens, to harbor such a vicious heart and do such a thing to that poor child!
As Mrs. Mona’s voice rose higher, unable to contain her anger, her listeners’ faces grew more and more stunned.
“I knew it. There was no way Leila would just give up university and marriage for no reason.”
“Even so, how could anyone commit such a cruel act? That refined Mrs. Etman.”
Excited people chimed in one after another. They soon became orators as fervent as Mrs. Mona herself and began spreading the truth of the incident.
It took less than half a day for the story to spread throughout all of Arvis. Around then, when Mrs. Mona seemed to have vented enough of her anger and was catching her breath, she spotted Bill Remmer working quietly late in the afternoon.
That dense man probably still didn’t know.
Even for Mrs. Mona, delivering news that would drive a spike into someone’s heart was not a pleasant task. But who was Bill Remmer? A man who was as good as Leila’s father. The person who needed to know this more clearly than anyone.
“Well. I suppose I have no choice but to step up.”
Having steeled her resolve, Mrs. Mona began hurrying toward the garden.