Chapter 8

Daniel grinned when I corrected his way of addressing me. He lowered his head and said, “My lady.”

Good.

He smiled again when he saw my satisfaction. I really wanted to know what was so funny to cause this man to grin so much.

“I never intended to tease you. I apologize if I offended you. I simply...”

“‘Simply’?”

Daniel’s large hand wrapped around my waist. My goodness! I couldn’t help but gasp.

His hand was strong, but his guidance was gentle. As I followed his lead, Daniel continued, “I just find it refreshing that you know nothing about me, my lady.”

“Does that mean you have a reputation?”

“Perhaps, or perhaps not.”

What the heck? So do you or don’t you?

I realized that we were heading toward Count Murphy’s guest dining room. Gary had apparently directed people there, but I had been so engrossed in looking at Daniel’s face that I had failed to hear anything else.

Daniel offered his arm to me again. I laid my hand over it. We ambled into the dining room.

Mildred had grown distant from society when she married Vans. She had hardly been invited anywhere besides parties hosted by friends or family, like Sandra, and had thus missed out on a lot of society gossip.

I looked at Daniel. “Pardon me, Lord Wilford, but how long has it been since you made your debut?”

Men entered society at age nineteen. Delays could occur if something unavoidable happened, like Iris and the disappearance of her stepfather.

With the queen mother as his godmother, Daniel should have debuted at nineteen.

Daniel flashed a smile at me.

Hmm, this man seems to know that his smile is his weapon. Otherwise, he would not smile at me every time I spoke to him so sharply.

“If you are asking how old I am, my lady, I am fully old enough to be escorting you.”

“One only needs to debut to escort one of the opposite sex. If you wish to be treated like a twenty-year-old, I am happy to oblige.”

We arrived at the table. Daniel raised an eyebrow and pulled out my chair for me. When I sat down, he gently pushed the chair in.

“If that’s possible, I will not dissuade you.” His tone was teasing. Or amused. Or maybe both.

I was speechless. I glared at him as he sat beside me. “You mustn’t make fun of your elders.”

Mildred was thirty-seven, after all. She could not be younger than Daniel. As I contemplated Daniel’s age, I took the napkin in front of me.

He looked to be in his late twenties, but vague stories of a man like Daniel began to surface in Mildred’s memories. Mildred seemed to have heard about the debut of a very handsome man after she was already married and a mother. Mildred had noted the fact that his godmother was the queen mother more than the part about his good looks.

There did not seem to be a big age difference between her and the man she had heard about back then, so there might be less than ten years between them.

One year or ten didn’t make a difference to Mildred. If their age difference was less than ten years, it was even more important to put distance between them. It meant that there were more than ten years between him and Iris.

“If you knew how I treated my elders, you would be astonished, my lady.” Daniel laid his napkin on his lap like I had. My eyes reflexively moved toward his thighs.

No, no. I can’t be doing this. I felt like a shameless pervert; like one of those old men you find working for any company who want to sing and dance with young women at karaoke bars.

“Thank you for coming,” Gary began his opening remarks. There were a total of fourteen attendees besides Gary and Sandra. Ten had arrived as couples, and four, including me, had come single.

I compared the faces in front of me with the faces in Mildred’s memories and nodded at each. To my surprise, two others besides me were unmarried, at least according to Mildred’s memories.

That meant Daniel was probably unmarried too.

“Mil.”

The meal was over, and we had been ushered into the reception room. After the servants brought beverages for the guests, Gary approached me. I was talking to Sandra, who was saying something about the crops in Belz being quite good.

I did my best to go through Mildred’s memories, but she had apparently never been interested in Belz’s agriculture. She didn’t even know if Belz grew wheat or corn. Woman, wheat and corn look completely different.

I flipped Mildred off as Gary approached us. He was holding wine rather than tea. I had considered drinking wine as well but decided against it. I wasn’t sure whether it would bring out Mildred’s drinking habits or mine.

“You seem to have gotten friendly with Lord Wilford.”

At Gary’s words, my eyes gravitated toward Daniel. He was speaking with other men. His tall stature made him easy to spot beside the fireplace.

“More or less,” I answered with little interest. I could say yes if he asked whether we knew each other, but I wasn’t sure I could say the same about getting friendly.

Gary didn’t seem to agree. He and Sandra exchanged looks.

“I don’t know if I need to say this, but I advise you not to get too friendly with him.”

What does that mean? I looked at Gary with confusion. Is Daniel some sort of madman or what?

I looked back at Daniel. His back was to me, so I couldn’t see the expression on his face. The man across from him was explaining something passionately.

“Why? Is he a monster who eats people?” It was half a joke. This was a fairy tale; such monsters might exist. However, I didn’t think a man-eating monster would possess such a handsome shell.

Sandra and Gary exchanged glances again. Ugh, what is it? Sandra interrupted before I could express my annoyance.

“Bad things happen to anyone who gets on his bad side.”

Huh? I furrowed my brow as I looked at Sandra. What does that mean? “Bad things”?

“Do you mean Baron Wilford harasses people he doesn’t like?”

“No.” Gary looked torn. He tried to cross his arms, but his belly made it difficult, so he forced his hands under his armpits. “He’s, um, how should I say this? All I can say is that bad things happen.”

“And it’s because of Baron Wilford?”

Sandra and Gary exchanged glances again. Oh? This couple resembles each other. The moment I thought this, I recalled Mildred thinking the same thing.

All people think along similar veins. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“We don’t mean that Lord Wilford did anything,” said Sandra. “Nevertheless, everyone who has had problems with Lord Wilford has found themselves in difficult situations, so we are cautioning you to not get too close to him.”

“But you invited him, didn’t you, Gary? Why did you invite such a dangerous person?”

“I...” Gary trailed off. He glanced at Daniel to be sure he wasn’t looking our way as he continued, “He is well-traveled. He is young but proficient in business. He also has a keen eye.”

“A keen eye?”

“He is said to be very good at appraisals,” Sandra interjected.

Ah, is that so? I turned to Daniel with interest.

Mildred’s mansion was full of antiques such as paintings, furniture, and toys. All unnecessary things. Fred had bought the mansion from its previous owner with everything inside. The former owner had been a disgraced noble who could no longer maintain the house.

Fred wanted so desperately to become close to nobility that he had even purchased the man’s trash.

I pondered inviting Daniel to look everything over sometime. I was deep in thought when Gary went on.

“What if becoming close to that man sets your standards too high?”

“Gary!” Sandra scolded him too late. I had already heard what he said.

I turned sharply to Mildred’s brother. “Say that again, Brother.”

Gary stiffened, then laughed it off as a joke. “He’s too handsome. Mil, you are still young. You cannot keep waiting for Vans.”

In other words, Gary was worried that spending too much time with handsome Daniel would make me more critical of other men.

Ridiculous.

I understood that he was worried about Mildred. The Murphy family could sustain her but not her daughters too. Moreover, he probably did not like the idea of his thirty-seven-year-old younger sister living out the rest of her life alone.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he was looking for a third husband for her.

Good intentions were one thing, but rudeness was still rudeness.

I looked at him with a frown. “I am not waiting for Fred. I received word that his corpse was found.”

“My god, Mil.” Sandra grabbed my hand in surprise. She was as thin as a rod and looked like she would be grouchy, but she cared for her people.

“It’s all right.” I took Sandra’s hand in turn. “I knew this day would come.”

Mildred did. She knew that Fred would either return, or his dead body would be found. Obviously, she had hoped that he would return, more to avoid a third marriage than out of love.

“I’m sorry, Mil.” Gary spoke to me with sadness, but I knew his apology wasn’t sincere.

He may appear kind and virtuous, but Gary was small-minded. He seemed flustered by the news, but I knew he was thinking of a suitable third husband for Mildred. He might already have found someone and was just conspiring on when to introduce us.

I pushed away Gary’s extended hand.

“We’ll see if you are truly sorry, Gary.”

I expected he would hound me to marry another man any moment now that Fred’s body had been found. Let’s see how long he holds back.

“Please, excuse me.”

I placed my empty teacup on a cabinet.

“Mildred.”

I was getting ready to leave when Daniel approached. You again? I glared at him.

“Lady Vans.”

An amused smile appeared on Daniel’s face. He lowered his head in apology.