A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 26

Matthias wasn’t someone who got angry easily. It would be more accurate to say he was a person whose emotions rarely showed much change.

People said that about him, that he’d been born wearing the dignity of a great noble like an outer shell, but in truth, there had never been any reason for him to get angry in the first place—who would even dare anger Matthias Nielsen?—and by nature, expressing anything outwardly didn’t suit him.

The admiration he felt after appreciating a beautiful work of art or watching an excellent performance was something he only needed to feel within his heart.

If he wanted to praise something, a formal word or two was enough, and if he wanted to express more than that, material reward sufficed.

He had never wailed, nor had he ever laughed so hard his stomach hurt. It wasn’t that he was an unfeeling person, but rather that there had never been any reason for him to do so.

But right now, at this very moment, he felt a burning heat in the center of his chest. His temperature seemed to rise, yet he couldn’t clearly say whether this was anger or something closer to disbelief.

One thing was certain, though. He didn’t like this situation. More specifically, that pink-haired woman quietly following behind him.

Click. As the door to the small sitting room shared by the married couple closed, Matthias slowly turned around. Just as he was about to open his mouth to vent this unpleasant feeling, a crisp voice, sounding faintly sulky, reached his ears first.

“Why didn’t you keep your promise?”

“…What?”

Caught off guard, he asked back. The woman facing him was, surprisingly, angry.

The moment he saw her biting her lower lip, her eyes filled with resentment, a sharp ache ran through his head. A faint disappointment spread in her gaze. He found it absurd. What did I do?

“…What exactly are you talking about right now?”

“You didn’t keep it. The promise you made when you married me.”

That promise, exactly what…

“Please don’t make me angry.”

Before proposing, at their very first meeting, she had made that wish.

It hadn’t made sense to him then, and even now, it felt just as one-sided and unhelpful, like an unwelcome guest. Matthias confirmed aloud the only context he could grasp.

“I made my wife angry?”

“Yes.”

“Ha… In what way?”

At that, the woman hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t because she was intimidated by the man’s baffled gaze. Rather, it was clear she was deciding whether or not to say it out loud.

In the end, the urge to speak won, and words slipped through her full lips.

“…Even if there’s a time limit, aren’t we still husband and wife during that period? …I learned that being husband and wife means trusting each other no matter what and taking each other’s side unconditionally. So, Your Grace, you should have listened to me first.”

“….”

“That day, in the bedroom, you cut me off without even listening to what I had to say. That was too much.”

As if she truly felt wronged, she spoke clearly, her eyes trembling.

“You should have listened first, and whether you believed me or not, at the very least, in front of others, you should have taken my side.”

“….”

“Because you didn’t take my side, I… yes. I’m angry.”

For a moment, Matthias forgot what he was supposed to say. Was it because her words about not taking her side struck a nerve?

Of course not.

The fact that the servants sometimes subtly ignored the mistress of the house and didn’t follow her orders right away was something he had already heard through the head maid. And ever since Lady Jules arrived, that behavior had likely become even more blatant.

No matter how loyal the Nielsen servants were, that loyalty applied only to ‘Nielsen.’ What subordinate would sincerely follow a mistress who wasn’t treated properly?

Even knowing all this, he hadn’t paid it much attention. She was someone who would only stay for exactly one year before leaving anyway, so he didn’t feel the need to correct it. The woman herself was counting down the days, wasn’t she?

But the reason he was at a loss for words right now was entirely because of the wife in front of him, eight years younger than him. More precisely, because of the way she spoke so bluntly, as if she didn’t know how to phrase things indirectly.

Angry because he didn’t take her side? What noble in the world spoke like that? At least, none that Matthias knew.

Compared to the elegant, roundabout way nobles usually spoke, her words thrown so directly at him only made him more confused.

And a ‘married couple who always trusts each other and takes each other’s side.’ Just what kind of world did she live in? That sort of thing only appeared in books children read.

In the noble society of Römern, where Matthias Nielsen and Eleanor Brynhill lived as ‘husband and wife,’ such a notion was unthinkable. It was that absurd.

What kind of noble couple in the world could ever have that kind of relationship? For the first time, unsure where to begin correcting her, he forced himself to return to the start of what he wanted to say.

“…So, because I didn’t take your side, you poured filth over Miss Sorelson?”

“No. That was because I was angry at her.”

“Then you’re angry at me, and now you’re planning to pour animal blood over me as well?”

A slightly mocking tone slipped out. As he raised his brows as if to press her for an answer, the woman gave a neat reply.

“I can’t do that to Your Grace.”

“Because I have more power than Miss Sorelson?”

“Because you’re my husband.”

“….”

“Anger between husband and wife should be resolved in a different way.”

The woman, Eleanor Brynhill, had the peculiar ability to render him speechless like this from time to time. Even for him, someone well-versed in conversation, she used methods and words he had never anticipated.

After committing something no duchess in Nielsen’s several-hundred-year history had ever done, she still spoke so confidently, and he couldn’t even stop her.

“Ha….”

His words were blocked, yet strangely, he could breathe. It felt as though a part of his heart was cooling, like it had been brushed with mint leaves.

This wasn’t good. For a wife who would only remain for a single year.

He let out a low sigh.

“Answer me one thing. “If someone were to make you angry, would you act like that again?”

“….”

“Answer.”

To get out of the situation, she could have simply said yes, that she would do so. But Eleanor didn’t want to. More precisely, she wasn’t confident she could.

“…I’ll try.”

“You say that easily.”

As he stepped closer, he noticed a small red mark splattered on her pale cheek. Keeping his gaze on it, he continued in a low voice.

“You didn’t keep your promise either.”

That day, it wasn’t only him who made a promise. As if wishing upon a star, she had demanded it of him, and she had promised as well. He reminded her of that.

“Your promise that you wouldn’t ruin Nielsen.”

“….”

Matthias raised his hand and slowly wiped the bloodstain from the woman’s soft cheek as he continued.

“Fortunately, Nielsen won’t be ruined by the extent of your ‘eccentricity,’ but it might get splattered with filth.”

“…I—”

“Hush. Close your mouth.”

“….”

“We should have decided what happens when a promise is broken. You should be grateful I can’t throw you out.”

After finishing his words, he immediately left the sitting room. He didn’t even take that kind of promise seriously, yet he couldn’t understand why he was tolerating the woman, and he deliberately ignored that question.

Eleanor Brynhill ultimately did not apologize.

Ah, of course, she did send a letter filled with courtesy to Miss Sorelson. Lady Jules had clutched the back of her neck as if she were about to collapse and die on the spot, so Eleanor wrote it reluctantly. The contents of that letter were as follows.

To the esteemed Miss Sorelson

It has been some time. Are you well despite the early heat?

I deeply regret what happened to you the other day.

Please be mindful of your conduct so that such an unfortunate incident does not happen again.

I hope you recover quickly and that I may soon see you smiling brightly once more.

P.S. I sprayed on this letter the perfume you returned. How is it? Is it still a scent you desire?

Lady Jules, who learned of its contents later, said this wasn’t an apology but a jab, so in conclusion, Eleanor Brynhill had not apologized. She didn’t particularly mind. She hadn’t intended to anyway.

However, whether something in Eleanor’s letter struck a nerve or whether Miss Sorelson read it as a warning, that side remained quiet.

It was only natural, considering Matthias personally met with the Sorelsons to convey a formal apology and provide compensation sufficient to preserve their dignity.

In any case, considering Miss Sorelson’s usual temperament of being eager to seize on any flaw of the duchess, it was something she would have spread a hundred times over.

Yet, seeing how quiet the person concerned was, Eleanor thought to herself that her message must have had some effect.

Matthias did not question Eleanor any further over that matter. He did not drive her out, nor did he even bring up the word divorce. He merely let his gaze linger on his wife from time to time.

Lady Jules said she couldn’t hide her disappointment in her nephew’s response and moved to her residence within the capital.

Only then did a semblance of peace finally settle over the estate. Not true peace where everything was stable, but the kind of peace that comes from catching one’s breath just before a storm arrives.

By the time sixty tally marks were drawn across the square boxes in Eleanor’s notebook, the full summer social season had begun.