FBWOW 35

Chapter 35…

And so, the day of the Duke’s evening party arrived.

Since the duke and duchess had not yet appeared, Kevin took Julia around the hall to make greetings.
He had already finished greeting most of the nobles of higher rank, introducing Julia as his wife and the new Countess.

“Wait here for a bit. I’ll get us some drinks.”
“All right, thank you.”

It seemed someone had been waiting for Kevin to step away, because as soon as he did, a woman approached Julia.

“Hey, you there. Could you give him back to me?”

Julia tilted her head.

“Him? Do you mean Lord Kevin?”
“Of course I do. I’ve been involved with him before.”

Julia had heard from Kevin that, aside from the widow Mishley, there had been several women with whom he’d spent a single night.
But she also knew that, except for Mishley, those encounters had only happened once each.
So, the woman in front of her was likely one of them.

Julia couldn’t tell what this woman hoped to achieve by revealing her past with Kevin.

“I want to marry him. So could you break up with him?”

Ah, so she was after the title — the position of the count’s wife.

Just as Julia was wondering how to respond, another woman came over.

“Excuse me, but what benefit would marrying the Earl of Carmine bring to him, if he were to wed an old woman like you?”

The “old woman” remark wasn’t directed at Julia, but at the first woman.
Indeed, the one who had spoken to Julia first looked older than her.

“I’ve already given birth before. So, unlike you ladies, I can bear the count’s child.”

The “you ladies” was clearly meant for both Julia and the first woman.
It seemed this second woman knew the reason behind Julia’s divorce.

“I want the position of countess, but not his love. So I’ll leave that part to you, his mistress.”

In other words, this second woman was telling Julia she could remain Kevin’s lover while she herself would take the title of wife.

In any case, neither woman seemed to know Julia’s current status — and yet they were attending this very party, which was puzzling.
After all, the duke’s evening parties were invitation-only for counts and above.
If they were there, it meant they qualified by rank — and yet their ignorance of such recent news suggested they were completely out of touch, perhaps even estranged from their own families.

“Is there some issue with my wife?”

Kevin had returned, standing protectively in front of Julia.

“W–wife?”
“Yes. Julia is my wife. Surely you haven’t just insulted the Countess of Carmine, have you?”

Julia was, indeed, already Kevin’s wife.
Their marriage had been announced just days earlier, and during their rounds of greetings that evening, they had received many words of congratulations.

In other words — these two women had just exposed their own ignorance and publicly revealed how far behind they were on the social news of the nobility