Chapter 47
“Let’s have a word.”
The one who entered without so much as a knock was Monac Grenville. Behind her hovered an anxious butler.
“What brings you all the way here, Mother?”
Dismissing the butler with a glance, Derek rose from behind his desk, his voice soft and polite.
“If you had business with me, you could have summoned me to the Grenville estate. I would have come at once.”
The sight of his stepmother’s face stirred irritation, and her lack of manners drew a sigh. But he betrayed nothing of it outwardly.
To all appearances he was a gentle, affectionate son. Yet Monac Grenville narrowed her eyes, unimpressed.
She hasn’t come for anything good.
If it had been good news, she would not have rushed here herself. In truth, she had never once brought him pleasant tidings.
“Please, sit.”
“No need. I only came to confirm something.”
“What would that be?”
Though Derek already had his suspicions, he feigned ignorance. Monac folded her arms, stared him down, and finally let out a short sigh.
“I hear you may be breaking off your engagement with Lady Elisa Leslie. Is it true?”
So that was it. He had expected as much, though it was unclear how she had learned of it. After all, Elisa had only declared on her own that she would not marry him. Between their families, no formal talk of annulment had taken place.
Count Leslie himself had said she would tire of her rebellion and return on her own. He had not once spoken of ending the match.
“Breaking off the engagement? Whatever do you mean?” Derek replied smoothly, feigning innocence.
“Then it isn’t true? Because that’s what Countess Leslie told me.”
So the countess is the source.
Suppressing a sigh, Derek inwardly cursed. He knew her tongue was loose, but he hadn’t expected it to be this loose.
“You’ve spoken with the countess?”
“Yes. Since Lady Leslie accepted your proposal, I thought it was time to set the date and discuss the arrangements. But she gave me no answers, so in my impatience I went myself.”
Foolish woman.
A faint distortion flickered in Derek’s gaze.
“You disapprove that I went to Count Leslie’s household?” Monac asked sharply, catching the subtle change like a hawk.
But Derek only smiled faintly and shook his head.
“Not disapproval, only surprise. I would have appreciated some notice.”
“Notice? This is the business of a family’s mistresses. We handle such things.”
“Of course.”
“At times like this, a mother must step forward.”
Mother.
Derek nearly laughed aloud.
“I asked if the children weren’t old enough to marry soon, and shouldn’t we hurry. But Countess Leslie looked stricken and said the two might break it off—that perhaps it was best to wait.”
It seemed she had not mentioned the reason.
“Has something happened?”
“No, nothing.”
It wasn’t a matter of something new arising—it was an old matter that had festered and finally burst, leaving it near impossible to mend.
Count Leslie had insisted Ethan Estevan, who had fallen from a cliff, could not possibly have survived. In time, the problem would resolve itself.
But Derek thought otherwise. On a battlefield where hundreds died each day, the man had always returned alive. Would a mere fall from a cliff kill him? Hardly.
“Then why would the countess say such a thing?”
“Elisa suddenly declared she doesn’t wish to marry just yet.”
Seeing that Monac would not relent without an answer, Derek sprinkled in a convenient lie.
“At her age? To say she doesn’t wish to marry, after already accepting a proposal? Do you think that makes sense?”
Monac clicked her tongue in disbelief. From there, she launched into complaints—that she had never liked Elisa, that the girl was rude and ungracious the last time they met, and so on.
Of course she was anxious. If Derek failed to wed, the chance to rid herself of an illegitimate thorn in her eye might vanish.
Derek’s lips curved.
Contrary to rumor, Monac Grenville was not a woman of compassion who would cherish a useless bastard child. Arthur Grenville, the father, no longer cared for a son unfit to inherit either.
The only reason they hadn’t cast Derek aside entirely was appearances. Outwardly they treated him well enough to avoid gossip, while inwardly they searched endlessly for ways to be rid of him.
That was why Monac had been so delighted when he spoke of marrying Elisa Leslie and entering her family as son-in-law.
And why the current situation unsettled her so much.
It unsettled Derek as well. His plan had been clear: by marrying Elisa, he would become Count Leslie himself and exact revenge on the Grenville family, who had abandoned him once they no longer needed him.
But Elisa’s defiance had thrown everything into disorder.
Now Derek found himself resenting not only Count Leslie, who had failed to keep the secret properly, but also Ethan Estevan, who stubbornly survived when he should have died.
“You must win her back. After all you’ve done for the Leslies, to break the engagement over a whim? Impossible!”
“Do not worry,” Derek answered with an easy smile. “Such a thing will never happen.”
Better death than relinquishing what he had already seized.
***
They could not risk being recognized, so places frequented by nobles were off limits. And with Ethan’s injured leg, they could not walk far. Their options were few.
“Noah, is there anything you’d like to do among these?”
Elisa asked gently. His opinion mattered more than anything.
After a moment of serious thought, Noah scrawled the word picnic in clumsy letters.
And so the three of them set out for Senri Park, near the train station.
Though it was a weekday, families filled the grounds. Blending easily into the crowd, they spread a mat beneath the shade of a great tree and unpacked sandwiches prepared by the innkeeper.
Noah usually had little appetite, often unable to finish even a single sandwich. But today was different.
Before Elisa could blink, he had devoured one whole, making her heart swell with joy.
After polishing off his milk, Noah grasped a balloon in one hand and Ethan’s hand in the other, tugging him about the park.
Though he leaned on crutches, Ethan followed the child patiently. Watching father and son together made Elisa’s lips curve in unbidden laughter.
They chased butterflies, examined nameless flowers, and wandered at leisure.
Smiling at the sight, Elisa drew out the fruit and knife the innkeeper had packed.
Of all things, peaches. At once, Derek Grenville came to mind. It pricked her conscience, as though she had used him and cast him aside.
I’ll have to apologize when we meet again.
Thank him sincerely—for helping her stay by Noah’s side.
“Give it here.”
Lost in thought, she started when a hand appeared before her eyes.
Ethan stood there, palm outstretched for the peach and knife. Noah sat beside her, sipping water.
“No, I’ll peel it.”
“You can’t peel fruit.”
“Yes, I can. I’m good at it.”
“You?”
Ethan looked at her skeptically. Everyone reacted the same way when told she could handle a knife, but Ethan’s expression was somehow the most amusing.
“Of course. Just wait until you see.”
“Give it.”
She had meant to surprise him by peeling the peach herself, but he had already taken both the knife and fruit.
“What? You don’t trust me?”
“I do. But I want to do it myself. I don’t want anything dangerous in your hands.”
She had been ready to argue, but with such words, she could only fall silent.
Ethan’s hands moved with practiced ease, slicing the peach neatly. Noah, who had crept to his side, opened his mouth eagerly for each bite.
She had always known they resembled each other, but seeing them like this—side by side, mirror images—it was undeniable.
Elisa’s heart swelled with pride.
With a tender smile, she gazed upon the two men she loved most in the world.
The warm afternoon sunlight embraced the little family, reunited at last.
