Chapter 20
Poisoning Plan (10)
The old woman rolled her large eyes about, looking utterly terrified.
Edith waited patiently for her to calm down.
After a moment, the old woman shrank in on herself and bowed her head.
“I-I’ll leave right away, so please don’t take me away.”
It seemed the old woman had mistaken Grayson, a man of high standing, for someone who had come to arrest her.
Edith firmly held the old woman’s wrinkled, bony hand and spoke.
“Grandmother, we’re not taking you. Please don’t worry.”
There were many kinds of gypsies who stayed in the city.
Some opened shops and settled down properly, while others secretly built huts in places like this and lived like beggars.
The city turned a blind eye to gypsies who paid taxes and ran businesses, but gypsies like this old woman were arrested the moment they were discovered.
If they were merely driven far away, it was fortunate.
But there were also unsavory types who sold them to illegal slave traders.
It was only natural that the old woman was terrified.
The old woman hunched her shoulders as if she couldn’t quite believe Edith’s words.
“Ah… you must be hungry…”
In the old woman’s other hand—the one Edith wasn’t holding—was a pigeon, somehow caught and now hanging limp.
Only then did Grayson notice the lifeless pigeon and step back another pace, but Edith had no room to pay him any attention.
After learning of Wyatt’s poisoning plot, Edith had been unable to do anything, yet time had continued to slip by.
She didn’t know whether the old woman possessed herbs that could neutralize the Plarin poison, but perhaps, through her, she could be introduced to someone who dealt in such things.
The old woman was the straw Edith had barely managed to grasp.
‘Gypsies are despised. Then what is it that they want from us?’
From something she had read in her mother’s diary, Edith had found one answer.
To win the heart of a gypsy who was looked down upon, what must one offer?
‘Respect.’
Wasn’t what gypsies—who weren’t even treated as people—desired simply to be treated like human beings?
It was uncertain whether it would work on an old woman who looked utterly exhausted, but with death looming before her, Edith had no choice but to try anything she could.
So she pressed the basket she had brought into the old woman’s hands and said,
“I happened to bring a packed meal—would you like to eat this, at least?”
The old woman’s eyes, which had been wavering aimlessly, fixed on Edith.
Unlike when she had been frightened, a sharp, weighty gaze brushed over Edith’s face before dropping downward again.
“It seems you want something from me, miss.”
“No, it’s just that you looked hungry, Grandmother.”
The corners of the old woman’s mouth lifted.
“That can’t be. Miss, I don’t believe in human kindness.”
The old woman suddenly raised her head and met Edith’s eyes, then dropped the pigeon and grasped Edith’s hand.
Edith flinched in surprise, but she didn’t pull away, instead holding the old woman’s gaze.
Grayson watched the two of them with his arms crossed.
“But what’s inside this seems to have been prepared with great care. Since you’ve shown such sincerity, I’ll return the favor. What is it you want, miss?”
Edith swallowed hard and flicked a glance toward Grayson.
She still hadn’t told him about Wyatt’s plot.
Wyatt intended not only to kill Edith, but also to pin the blame on Grayson.
When she learned of the plan, there was no guarantee that Grayson would quietly let it pass.
‘He could seize on it as a pretext and call off the marriage.’
That could never be allowed to happen.
Edith had to marry Grayson and escape the Marquis of Reynolds’s household.
‘Not yet. I can’t tell him yet.’
But if she told the old woman what she needed here, Grayson would surely find it suspicious.
When she had heard about herbs from Edward, Grayson had been there as well.
She wished Grayson would tactfully excuse himself, but he showed no sign of doing so.
His unhurried gaze lingered on Edith and the old woman without wavering.
The old woman continued to watch Edith’s face, waiting for her answer.
Anxiety made her breath feel tight.
This was a chance she had barely managed to grasp—she couldn’t just let it slip away.
“I want to obtain some herbs.”
The old woman’s lips split into a wide grin.
“I thought as much. They say that if you want herbs, you should seek out a gypsy. But since you’re the first person to come with such a carefully prepared meal, I’ll find you anything at all. What is it that you want?”
The old woman didn’t seem surprised, as though she had dealt with people seeking herbs several times before.
“Herbs that smooth the skin. I’m getting married soon, and I want to appear perfect at the wedding.”
“Oh ho, you’re getting married. Congratulations, then. Shall I prepare some skin-enhancing herbs as a wedding gift for you?”
The old woman chuckled softly and turned around.
Edith followed after her, sneaking a glance at Grayson, but he was still watching her with eyes that revealed nothing of what he was thinking.
‘Couldn’t he go somewhere else for a bit?’
It was difficult to tell him to step aside when she herself had brought him this far.
As Edith agonized over how to discreetly convey the herbs she truly wanted, she saw the old woman crawl into the hut and followed her inside.
It was a narrow hut where only one person could barely lie down.
When Edith squeezed in as well, it became completely cramped.
The old woman, lying awkwardly on her stomach as she opened a box in the corner, glanced back at Edith and muttered,
“You could wait outside.”
Instead of replying, Edith reached out and tapped the old woman’s arm.
When the old woman turned back as if asking why, Edith took her hand and pulled it toward herself.
Though wearing a baffled expression, the old woman relaxed out of her prone position, sat up, and looked at Edith.
Edith wrote on the old woman’s palm.
She didn’t know whether the gypsy could read, but hoping she would understand, she wrote the name of the ingredient she needed.
The old woman frowned and looked down at her own palm, then wrote on Edith’s palm in return.
[Plarin is dangerous.]
[What I want is the root.]
[The root is dangerous as well. And it leaves traces. Why not use another poison instead? There are several poisonous herbs that leave no trace.]
It seemed the old woman had misunderstood, thinking Edith wanted poisonous plants in order to kill someone.
Edith shook her head vigorously and wrote again.
[I’m not trying to kill someone. I’m trying to survive.]
The old woman stared at Edith with startled eyes, then nodded and rummaged through the box for a long while.
When she finally found what she was looking for, she took out the pie and sandwich from the basket Edith had given her and placed dried grass and roots inside.
Then she pulled Edith’s hand back again and wrote,
[It’s not perfect. Even if you take this as a precaution, there will still be damage to your body.]
[For example?]
[For a woman, it could mean becoming unable to conceive for the rest of her life. Plarin is that dangerous a plant.]
Edith swallowed hard.
Pregnancy.
One of Grayson’s conditions was that she bear an heir.
‘It should be fine. By the time the duke realizes that I can’t have children, everything will already be over.’
Whether she died, or they did, it would all be settled within a few years.
After that, she could step down from the position of duchess at any time.
When Edith steeled herself and nodded, the old woman pressed the basket into Edith’s hands.
“The herb that looks like a dried human hand will make your skin smooth. Grind it well, steep it into a facial tonic, and use it. Your skin will shine like pearls.”
When Edith looked at her as if to ask whether that was really true, the old woman nodded.
Grayson watched Edith as she went in with the old woman and came out alone, still standing in the same spot.
‘What did she obtain?’
He didn’t think it was simply herbs to smooth the skin.
It felt like there was another purpose.
Edith’s red lips were pressed tightly together, showing no sign of opening.
“Did you get what you wanted?”
When he asked, thinking she seemed to have forgotten his presence entirely, Edith flinched and turned toward him.
Her amber eyes, which had been wavering slightly, finally fixed on Grayson.
A perfectly drawn smile rose on Edith’s lips.
“Yes, Duke. Thanks to you.”
“It’s hardly thanks to me. You were the one who went to the trouble of preparing a packed meal, Miss Edith.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
Edith glanced down at the basket, then pressed her lips together as if realizing something too late.
She had realized that he’d seen through the fact that meeting the gypsy here wasn’t a coincidence, but something planned.
In truth, he had noticed long ago.
Grayson looked down at Edith for a moment, amused by how everything showed so clearly on her face.
Edith, who had been frowning as she pondered something, suddenly lifted her head and met Grayson’s gaze, then said,
