episode_0022

[Episode 22] – Jealousy

Early in the morning, just before dawn, I headed to the front door in my pajamas and a shawl to see Catherine off. No matter how annoying it may be, it is polite to see her off. As I headed to the front door, my eyes met with Catherine’s, who was about to leave without even seeing her off.

“Trisha?”

“Are you leaving without even seeing me off?”

“It’s early in the morning. I told you you could sleep in, right?”

Catherine smiled slightly, put down the bag she was holding, and approached me. When she was a step away, Catherine looked down at me and stroked her hair. Sometimes I think about it, but Trisha’s height felt so short. She was the shortest in the family, and she seemed to be about 10cm shorter than Catherine.

“It would be better to cover up to the nape of your neck today.”

“…That’s the mark you left.”

“So. Don’t let other people see it.”

“Who’s going to see this…”

Catherine’s hand caressing my nape made my shoulders tremble. I quickly covered it with a shawl, but the red marks on my collarbone and neck from last night were not completely hidden. Even now, when I think of last night, my body feels like it’s burning with the residual heat of pleasure.

While I was lost in thought for a moment, Catherine’s hand, which had been stroking my hair, came down and touched my chest as if it was squeezing it tightly. I was startled by the sexually harassing touch, so I slapped Catherine’s hand on the back of her hand. Catherine, who had taken her hand off my chest, licked her lips as if she was sorry.

“Really..! If you just take your eyes off..!”

Even though the feeling from last night was still vivid on my skin, I almost moaned when Catherine grabbed my breast. My body, which had become increasingly sensitive since class began, now flinched at the mere touch of a hand.

‘Honestly… I feel like I’m in heat…’

I raised my head and glared at Catherine, but she smiled slyly and came closer. When we were so close that our breaths were almost touching, Catherine grabbed my chin and made me look into her eyes.

I wanted to turn my head away, thinking that maybe she had caught what I was feeling, but Catherine held my chin firmly, gently. I felt her eyes scan my expression, and I felt heat rushing to my face.

“What, what is it..?”

“If you’re seeing someone off, there’s something you absolutely have to do, right?”

“..? What is that-”

As soon as I finished speaking, Catherine grabbed my jaw and forcibly opened my mouth. Then she turned her head and deeply penetrated my mouth. For a moment, not knowing what was happening, I opened my eyes wide and looked at Catherine, whose noses were touching. I shuddered involuntarily at the gaze that was looking straight at me from under her long black eyelashes.

“!?”

Th,this…a kiss!?

Her tongue, without any consideration, entered my mouth and explored here and there. It swept through my teeth, rubbed the roof of my mouth with its tip, and crawled under my tongue to suck up my saliva. I tried to push Catherine’s shoulder with my fist, but I couldn’t exhale as Catherine pressed even harder.

I didn’t know how to breathe, so I could barely breathe a little when there was a little space between my lips. Catherine tilted her head and the subsequent kiss took my breath away and returned it. I forced myself to kiss her until I became dizzy, sucking and licking. The hand that tightly grabbed the nape of my neck that was exploring me made my insides tingle.

When we kissed to the point where my eyes were dizzy and my head was spinning, Catherine finally took her tongue out of my mouth, allowing me to breathe properly. Catherine’s tongue sticking out and saying “Bae” looked so erotic.

“Hehe…hehe…”

Between their slightly separated lips, a silver thread of saliva stretched out and then broke. When he looked up at Catherine blankly at the sudden kiss, she closed her eyes and smiled.

“You should kiss when you see someone off.”

“Haa…crazy…”

I ended up cursing without realizing it. I wanted to ask what on earth he meant, but my lips had already been stolen. Catherine’s face was full of regret as she licked the saliva off her lips. If I spoke wrongly here, I was sure my lips would be stolen again.

“Don’t be lonely without me.”

“…If someone saw it, they’d think they’d never see it again in their life.”

“That’s how I feel.”

“It’s only been two days, what the…”

I tried to say, “Don’t be so excited,” but I couldn’t finish the sentence because Catherine was looking at me like a wounded puppy. I let out a small sigh, raised my head, waved at Catherine, and said, “Goodbye.”

“Have a nice trip.”

“I’ll be back.”

Catherine smiled faintly, picked up the bag on the floor, went out the front door, and got into the Count’s carriage, which had arrived at an unknown time. As soon as Catherine got in, the carriage started running straight towards the Count’s house. I watched the carriage until it disappeared from my sight, and then entered the mansion.

“Then… shall we start preparing breakfast first?”

But then, I heard the sound of footsteps going up the stairs to the second floor. It was still early for the children to be awake, so I went up to the second floor to see if anyone was awake, but no one was there.

‘What is it..? Is it a rat?’

Anyway, it felt like the Middle Ages, and rats were running around the mansion. In my previous life, I used to get scared just by cockroaches in the house, but after I got used to living here, rats annoyed me more than cockroaches. After getting irritated by the rats I couldn’t even see, I went back down to the first floor and headed to the kitchen.

*

As Elise entered the restaurant, her family was all gathered together, waiting for the meal. It was still awkward, but they were talking to each other more than usual. Lily, who had found Elise entering the restaurant, slammed the chair down as if telling her to sit next to her.

“Are you awake? Sit down quickly. Breakfast is ready.”

“…Yes. Mother.”

I glanced at my mother. Even though she had been teased by my daughter like that at night, she smiled as if nothing had happened in the morning. The scars from last night were blooming all over her body like red flower petals, and to hide them, my mother covered herself up to her neck with dark-colored clothes, which made her look even more bizarre.

As she looked at that sight, Elise remembered the scene she had seen that morning. The scene of Catherine kissing her mother. Seeing the two of them kissing passionately in a place she wasn’t looking at, Elise felt something hot well up inside her.

It was an uncomfortable feeling that had always been there since Catherine came to the mansion. This boiling feeling was always jealousy, although it was overshadowed by Catherine’s helplessness in paying off her father’s debt. She promised herself not to think badly of Lady Catherine for trying to help her family, but even so, once her heart burned like a fire, it did not easily subside.

‘I don’t want to lose my mother.’

Blinded by jealousy, Elise could only think of this. How could she keep her mother from being taken away? What could she do? If she was going to be taken away, wouldn’t now be the time when Catherine had no mansion? Elise trembled with anxiety at the thought of her mother being taken away.

For Elise, who had no father or biological family, losing her mother was like losing everything about herself. When she thought that her mother’s love for her was directed elsewhere, Elise felt like she was going crazy with jealousy.

It was a naive thought, but Elise wished that if she could not have her mother, she could not have Catherine either. Of course, she did not want to see Catherine take her mother either. She just wanted her to love her alone.

“Elise? Did you hear the story?”

“, yes?”

“… Don’t think about anything else and listen carefully. I’ll say it again, don’t play around too much because there are no classes for two days. You should at least review. Think about things like dining etiquette and court etiquette at least once…”

Trisha kept nagging her. She said that since she didn’t have class, she should stop playing and start reviewing. She was so angry that she thought she was going crazy, but now she felt so resentful of her indifference, which had been helpful in the past.

‘Really…you don’t even know my heart…you secretly kiss my wife…you stick your chest out…it’s annoying.’

Elise began to poke and poke at the salad with her fork. She felt sick, as if she had indigested something, even though she hadn’t even eaten properly yet. When Elise turned her head to look at Lily, she looked at Sylvia, who was sitting in front of her, smiling brighter than ever.

Sylvia was eating her salad with her head down as if she was burdened by Lily’s gaze. Elise wasn’t so oblivious as to not notice the suspicious air flowing between them. It was clear that something had happened between them.

I thought about asking Lily what was going on later, and dipped the salad I had made into my mouth. Perhaps, no, definitely, the atmosphere flowing between my sisters was definitely the same as the erotic atmosphere I had felt during class.