Chapter 15…
Julia had been entrusted with a letter from Widow Mishley, addressed to Kevin.
It seemed Mishley had told her to give it to him only if Kevin accepted Julia as his mistress.
“Was there also a letter for the case where I didn’t accept you?”
“No, there wasn’t. I wonder why.”
Julia seemed to be questioning that only now — but perhaps Mishley never imagined that Kevin would refuse her. Mishley knew Kevin well.
The letter began with an apology for ending their relationship so suddenly.
She wrote that she could not bear to keep a still-young Kevin tied to her forever;
that Kevin deserved a woman who would love only him;
that she believed Julia could give him happiness and companionship so he wouldn’t feel alone.
She said she had taken this indirect way because a face-to-face farewell would have been too painful,
but if they ever met again, she hoped they could greet each other as friends.
She added that if he ever needed advice, she would still be there for him.
“I have no regrets about knowing Mishley—and no lingering attachment either. She was a wonderful woman.”
“Yes. I think so too.”
Kevin felt nothing but gratitude toward Mishley.
After Catherine, his wife, had refused marital intimacy, he had vented his unspeakable frustration through prostitutes and one-night affairs. If that had continued, he might have ended up entangled with the wrong woman or dragged into trouble.
Mishley had soothed that restlessness in him—she healed him, allowed him to be vulnerable, and helped him regain calm.
He truly believed she had saved him from ruin.
“I never told you properly, but I married my late brother’s wife, Catherine. She was pregnant with his child at the time—a little girl named Marianna, now a year and a half old.
Since I had made Catherine my wife, I thought I should have her bear me another child. But she rejected me—said she didn’t want me to touch her, that it disgusted her.”
“…Because she loved your brother, perhaps?”
That would be the natural assumption. He had thought so too, at first.
“No. From her attitude, I don’t think she loved my brother that much. She hardly ever visits Marianna. As for marrying me, it seems she only did so because being a married woman, rather than a widow, made it easier to receive invitations to teas and evening parties.”
“Then… could there be someone else she cares for?”
“You think so too? I’ve wondered if she still pines for her former fiancé—or if she simply dislikes men—but I can’t tell.”
Catherine’s former fiancé had married the woman he got pregnant, though their marriage was said to be unhappy.
Was Catherine waiting for them to separate?
Or perhaps she was already continuing an affair with him.
Well, whatever the case—it didn’t matter.
“You’ve become my mistress. I don’t sleep with my wife, and things with Mishley are over. With you here, I have no desire for prostitutes or fleeting affairs. In other words, you’re the only one for me.”
“Only… me? I’m so happy. I thought I’d be content just to stay by your side, even if you had others.”
Kevin found Julia—who clung to him as if to hide her tears—irresistibly dear.
