Chapter 4: Did I Seem Like Someone Who Could Be Taken Lightly?
After a short silence, Lord Ashley quietly opened his mouth.
“That night, I could not bring myself to leave you there and go home.”
“…”
“I only understood why I felt that way afterward.”
“Afterward?”
“My body moved first. That has never happened before.”
They were not carefully arranged words.
Even so, there was no deception in them.
“Is that the reason for your proposal?”
“No, that was only the beginning.”
“The beginning.”
“Yes.”
Lord Ashley lowered his gaze slightly, then continued.
“I had heard before that you supported the Valentone family well. But I had only thought I knew.”
“…”
“That night, I saw it with my own eyes.”
“What did you see?”
“That you did not choose to drag someone else down.”
I forgot to breathe.
“There are people who cannot remain silent when they are unjustly insulted.”
“Yes.”
“You could have cried and appealed. You could have turned the situation around by making someone else the villain.”
“…”
“But you did not do that.”
His low voice was calm.
It was neither condemning nor praising, merely stating the truth.
“I simply had no choice but to act that way.”
“Perhaps.”
“…Then it is not something worthy of praise.”
“Even so, not everyone can do it.”
I could not respond.
“I do not think it is quite right to call that strength.”
“Then what did you think it was?”
“Dignity.”
That single word sank deeper into my chest than I expected.
I had thought I would either be laughed at or pitied.
I had never imagined that someone had seen me that way that night.
“…”
“However, having dignity and continuing to be trampled are two different things.”
I instinctively lifted my face.
“Did I seem like someone who could be taken lightly?”
“You did not.”
“…”
“That is why I could not leave things as they were.”
He was so straightforward that I was momentarily at a loss for words.
“However, if it was only to help me, letting me stay at your residence would have been sufficient.”
“That is true.”
“Then why…”
“I did not want to let you go.”
This time, my breath truly stopped.
Lord Ashley furrowed his brows slightly.
Even as he said it, he seemed unsure how to measure the weight of his own words.
“I am not skilled at stringing together clever words in social settings.”
“Yes.”
“But I have no intention of taking you lightly. That much I can promise.”
“…”
“If you wish to leave that house, I will first prepare a place for you. After that, you may decide whether to choose me.”
I truly thought he was clumsy.
Even though it was a proposal, he prepared an escape route first.
That, more than anything, felt like him.
“Is that not the opposite of how it usually goes?”
“Would it be a problem if it were?”
“No. It’s just…”
“Just?”
“I thought you were quite an awkward person.”
“I will not deny that.”
He replied with a straight face, and I let out a small laugh.
At that, the corners of Lord Ashley’s eyes softened ever so slightly.
“You… should smile more.”
“Eh?”
“It suits you better.”
This time, I was the one who fell silent.
Seeing me like that, Lord Ashley averted his gaze slightly.
“…Forget what I just said.”
“I cannot forget it.”
“I see.”
“Yes. …Thank you very much.”
I wondered how long it had been since I could speak this way, without tension in my shoulders.
Perhaps, in front of this person, I did not need to be overly guarded.
“May I ask one thing?”
“What is it?”
“If I were to refuse your proposal—”
“…Yes.”
“Would you regret it?”
Lord Ashley did not hesitate in the slightest.
“I would.”
“…I see.”
“But even so, I have no intention of forcing you to agree.”
For some reason, that answer made me happy.
At the very least, with this person, I would not be taken lightly.
For the first time, I felt that I wanted to stand beside him of my own will, not because I needed to be saved.
I did not give my answer on the spot.
However, by the time I returned, my heart was almost decided.
The engagement with the Duke of Glenford became a major topic in the capital.
Frederick had annulled the engagement on impulse.
Cecil had taken her sister’s fiancé.
The Evans Count and his wife had not protected their eldest daughter.
And above all, the talk of ledgers and contracts that I had mentioned that night began to spread little by little.
The way people viewed the Evans family and the Valentone Count’s family began to change gradually.
—It seemed that things taken for granted were only understood in their weight after they were gone.
On my final day before leaving my family home, Cecil finally raised her voice.
“Why is this happening!”
Though her eyes looked as if she might cry, what dwelled within them was not delicacy, but irritation.