Episode 61. Suspicion (7)

“Young Lady.”

“Shhh.”

Vera, who was sitting beside the bed watching Monica soundly asleep, put her index finger to her lips, signaling Daria to be quiet. Monica was the type who wouldn’t wake up easily once she fell asleep, but there was no need to make a lot of noise in front of her. Vera got up without making a sound and went outside with Daria.

“Young Lady. I confirmed that Sir Edward went into his room.”

“Yeah. So he’s capable of finding his own room…”

“He staggered a bit, but he seemed to be in his right mind.”

There was nothing wrong with Edward going into his room. What happened after that was what mattered. If his judgment was normal enough to find his way, and he really did it… Just thinking about it made her chest feel as heavy as if it were filled with stones. Seeing Vera take a deep breath like a sigh with a dark expression, Daria said.

“Since there hasn’t been any particular noise since Sir Edward went in, it might not be a big deal.”

“…Yeah.”

Those words didn’t offer much comfort to Vera. How many men and women in the world start having sex with moans as soon as they enter a room and make eye contact? The circumstances immediately after entering didn’t help with any speculation.

“Well, I’ll go now. Monica might look for me, so wait by her side… No, just sleep.”

“No, Young Lady. I will attend to you.”

Vera was about to say she would go alone, but she eventually accepted Daria’s offer because of the worried look in her eyes. She could have scolded her servant for not listening, but after spending decades together, you could feel emotions even in that expression that always seemed the same.

The reason Vera suspected the relationship between Winnie and Edward wasn’t a big deal. It was just the thought that how could nothing have happened when an adult man and woman had been together alone for half a month? Edward was a young man with a good body and a handsome face, and Vera thought Winnie wasn’t someone who would be lacking in looks either. It seemed so natural for the two of them to get involved. Because of that thought, Vera had checked the amount of semen Edward ejaculated after they had sex immediately after he returned. She had let it go because of the enormous amount that seemed to have been building up for days, but thanks to Daria bringing unexpected physical evidence, her suspicions grew again.

“Young Lady, there was men’s underwear among the laundry brought from the Mountberne viscountcy.”

“Oh, really?”

Since Winnie lived alone without keeping even one servant, the servants of the Eulstein Family were doing her laundry for her every few days. They couldn’t clean because Winnie hated it when her things were messed up-though Vera thought Winnie herself was the one who messed things up the most-and they only collected the laundry she put out in the designated basket and washed it for her.

Since the mistress of the house, Vera, had a great interest in the Mountberne viscountcy, it was natural for Daria, Vera’s exclusive maid, to collect the laundry. The purpose was to check the laundry to find out if Winnie had a lover, though. Daria’s hard work wasn’t in vain, and this time, men’s underwear was included in the laundry.

“It would have been nice if she had told me if she had a lover… Do all the children want to hide everything?”

“I took it out separately because you said you wanted to check it.”

“So you actually brought it… Huh?”

Daria was holding the underwear with just her fingertips, as if she didn’t want to touch it. Vera, who had glanced at the underwear without thinking, had no choice but to express her question and embarrassment.

“If you’ve checked it, I’ll take it back to wash…”

“No, wait a minute.”

It was very familiar, men’s underwear that she had seen often recently. But the only men’s underwear Vera had seen these days was Edward’s. Even while trying to think that men’s underwear all looked the same, Vera carefully smelled it.

Vera thought she had a pretty good nose. She was good at smelling even faint scents and had a nose that remembered what kind of scent it was. And the conclusion her nose came to was that the strong body odor emanating from this underwear was the same as the scent of the man Vera had been smelling every day lately.

Following Vera’s order, who had an unusual expression, Daria watched the Mountberne viscountcy for several days. And she conveyed the fact that Edward went in and out of the Mountberne viscountcy every day, which her Young Lady wouldn’t have wanted. He said he couldn’t go back to the main estate with her because Monica might see him, but he was meeting Winnie every day after meeting her under the pretext of washing up at the Mountberne viscountcy. The first emotion Vera felt after hearing that was a sense of futility. In the end, men were bound to like young girls. She was just realizing once again that she was past the age to be loved completely.

After learning that fact, when she had sex with Edward, she seemed to smell a scent that she hadn’t been able to notice before. The scent of another woman’s flesh remained on Edward’s body, hidden by the sweet scent of flowers that she hadn’t been able to smell. But until now, there was still a glimmer of hope in her heart that he might have really just come to wash up. The reason she had just ordered Daria to put Winnie to sleep in Edward’s room was also for that reason. It was a struggle not to admit it until she saw it with her own eyes, with a glimmer of hope.

And that struggle lost its meaning as she got closer to Edward’s room. Winnie’s voice, letting out breathless moans, seemed to shatter the expectations in Vera’s heart every time that moan echoed. It seemed like she didn’t even have the thought of hiding it to this extent. She thought of Winnie, who had had a hard time making eye contact with her alone during the day. She didn’t even feel jealousy. She wondered if she was just clinging to a man who was only suitable for girls her daughter’s age.

What kind of expression was she making now? She forced a smile at Daria, who was looking at her with a worried expression, and grabbed the doorknob. If she didn’t open it all at once, she felt like she wouldn’t be able to open it completely and would run away, so she opened the door forcefully with a bang. Vera could see two pairs of eyes looking at her in embarrassment, and,

“Hic, huff, heeuk, heueuk ❤”

Winnie’s figure as she came after making eye contact with her.

Ah, I should have covered her mouth.

After seeing Vera’s face, she regretted not preventing Winnie from making a sound. Did she come because it was noisy? As the excitement subsided, she felt her thinking ability, which had been narrowed by the thought of sex, returning to normal. The alcohol was completely gone.

“Hic, huff, heeuk, heueuk ❤”

Why is she like this again? Did she have a fetish for getting excited when caught by others? Winnie came while making sounds that weren’t even moans. Her soft body collapsed on top of me, pleasurably contracting my penis, but none of that entered my head. All I could see was Vera’s face, which was clearly hurt but trying to act unaffected, as if she was trying to be nonchalant.

Squeak.

Vera took a step back and gently closed the door again, so I left Winnie and followed Vera. Vera was standing in front of the door as soon as she opened it.

“Noona, come in for a second.”

“No, I think I’m being a hindrance. Tell me when you’re done. I’ll wait here until then.”

“It’s all over. It’s all over, so… come in and talk for a second.”

I couldn’t see what kind of expression Vera was making, but the maid standing behind her and looking at me, what was her name, Daria? Anyway, that woman’s eyes were unusual. Even though it was the same expression as usual, I felt a frost-like coldness. Vera still didn’t move, so I gently pulled her arm without using much force. Vera obediently followed my touch, but I was glad the maid didn’t come in with us.

“Don’t worry, I’m not angry or anything like that, Sir Edward.”

Not only was she using formal speech, but she had also reverted to using stiff titles. Vera’s appearance, uncomfortable and struggling, felt like it was piercing my heart. I felt like a criminal… No, I was a criminal to Vera. Winnie, who had somehow come to her senses, had gotten up and was sitting on the bed with her knees bent, feeling like a criminal like me. Vera sat on the sofa looking at the bed, so I naturally sat next to Winnie with my knees bent.

“Um, hoo…”

Vera was about to say something, but she swallowed it because her emotions welled up. She was fanning her eyes hard to dry the corners of her eyes where tears were seeping out a little.

“Sir Edward, Mountberne viscount.”

“”Yes.””

“When young men and women get close, they can roll around naked like that. I understand. I don’t think there’s a friendship between men and women, so… what else would it be if they get closer than friends? As the Mountberne viscount said, they wouldn’t be friends, so they would become something else.”

Unexpectedly, in a calm voice, Vera began to scold Winnie and me.

“Still, you shouldn’t cheat.”