Chapter 294

Before Lady Melissa would know it, a day had passed, and she just needed to get over with less than twelve hours remaining and she'd be able to go and have a taste of that sweet old freedom that she wanted- or needed, so badly.

Lady Melissa wanted to sneak out at exactly 12, but her body was too tired with all the work that she had been dealing with the past few days, so she would be unfortunately forced to sleep early.

It was currently 8 P.M. and she was at her desk, still doing paperwork, as she sipped some of the chamomile tea on her cup, the stress soon being faded away as soon as her mouth tasted the chamomile tea.

Lady Melissa was frustrated and annoyed to death- there just had to be so many problems today, first of all, for some reason there was a problem with the shipment of food to the Shayla estate, which Derreck was supposed to take care of.

However, Derrick had used one of his few days off, and took today as a day off to spend some time with his family, though he didn't have any children, just his wife and maybe a few other family members.

Lady Melissa was forced to deal with everything, she didn't know how hard it was being the head butler, now Lady Melissa would've allowed someone other than Derreck to make the decisions- however, these were matters far too important and confidential to ask someone else to make them.

Lady Melissa originally wanted to give Sophia the opportunity to be able to make the decisions regarding the Shayla estate by herself, at least for today, but she remembered how many decisions that Derreck would make were just supposed to be confidential.

Hence, Lady Melissa changed her mind, deciding that she'd be the one doing Derreck's work, at least for today. She didn't think that it would be so hard- so difficult, yet she was proven wrong even though it hadn't even been 24 hours since she was filling Derreck's shoes.

In addition to that, Lady Melissa didn't trust that Sophia would be making the best decisions- sure, Sophia was reasonable and level-headed however that didn't apply to all situations, and sometimes she would unconsciously let her emotions get the best of her.

That was another one of the reasons at least, why Lady Melissa decided not to give Sophia the opportunity to make decisions so freely, the last reason was because of Justin, she hadn't forgotten the fact that they were dating, even though it seemed less obvious now.

Lady Melissa knew that neither of them would try to risk saying anything that would cost either of their lives- at least she knew Justin wouldn't be able to do so because of the Knight's vow, however, Sophia was another story.

Sophia had a habit of talking too much, it was one of her biggest flaws- not knowing when to shut up and keep her mouth quiet.

Besides, Lady Melissa couldn't just force Sophia to do the Knight's vow, Sophia was different compared to the rest- she didn't even have the most basic knowledge of magic, since she was born as a peasant.

Of course, casting Knight vows to people who weren't actually knights would always be possible, however doing it to someone who didn't even have the basic knowledge or foundation of magic would be an entirely different story.

It was practically impossible to cast a Knight's vow without both parties knowing, at least the basic knowledge of magic and such, plus Lady Melissa knew that Sophia would get warier of her if she did this, and the last thing that Lady Melissa wanted is for Sophia to be wary of her.

Sophia was free of any sort of boundaries or obstacles blocking her from betraying Lady Melissa, sure there was her boyfriend, but he could just be collateral damage if she wanted him to be so.

Lady Melissa wouldn't put it past the fact that Sophia could betray her- ever since everything had happened she had been on a higher guard and more alert, she couldn't help but just be more alert.

Hence, there were suspicions she had, not just for some people in the Shayla estate, but for everyone- ever since the incident with Victoria, there was just a part of her brain thinking whether perhaps Victoria had an accomplice.

What if Victoria had someone help her with this? Help her prepare everything? It was just Lady Melissa's paranoid thinking, or so she tried to convince herself, yet she never let her guard down.

Though when it came to the three Dukes it was ultimately a completely different story, after all, Duke Gaston would make her unconsciously let her guard down by doing sweet actions, be it accompanying her to her carriage and such.

For Duke Mason it would be because of his flirtatious attempts at her, making her blush, and eventually, unconsciously let her guard down because of those corny and flirtatious attempts and remarks he would make to her.

When it came to Duke Alphonso though it was a little different, he wasn't necessarily much different from the other two yet he would express his concern and care for her in a much different manner.

Duke Alphonso was observant, something that Lady Melissa had known from the start, and whenever she would even act the slightest bit different in her attitude, Duke Alphonso would always be the one to notice asking her whether she was alright.

It wasn't something completely different or weird, but the longer that Duke Alphonso would just do that to her, the more that she would just unconsciously let her guard down whenever he was there.

Perhaps it was because Lady Melissa wasn't used to someone paying so much attention to her, someone who cared for her and genuinely wanted to know how she was feeling and if there was some way they could make her day better.

It was a sweet gesture, even though Duke Gaston and Duke Mason would notice whenever Lady Melissa was acting more different than usual, Duke Alphonso would notice it immediately, and it would just come from the smallest of her actions.