CH 3

After meeting Brandon, Callie returned to the Loris family.

He had asked the Count’s daughter if she had come without a maid but didn’t offer to escort her home.

Her pride was hurt at being treated worse than the women he was hanging out with, but she didn’t show it. 

Would he agree to the marriage? 

As she stood in front of the gate, her heart ached even more. Her body temperature dropped ten degrees at the thought of seeing Matthew and Susan.

As she entered the house, Lisa, the maid, rushed towards her. She looked around and whispered softly, “My lady, why are you so late? The Count and Countess have been waiting for a long time.”

Of course, they were.

The outcome of today’s meeting depended on whether the fallen Loris family could rise again with the help of the Cleart family.

“There were some twists and turns.”

There were quite a few servants in the house when Callie was young, but as time passed, the number decreased. Now, there were only three people–Milton, Noah, who was in charge of the kitchen and housekeeping, and Lisa, who did chores in the house.

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Among them, Lisa was almost as old as Callie, and she sympathized with the lady for being abused by Susan. Lisa was more of a friend than a maid.

“Miss, what about your meal?”

“I already ate.”

“If you haven’t eaten, tell me. I’ll sneak some in.”

Susan, who didn’t care about Callie’s eating habits, was even displeased with Callie’s meals.

But these days, she’d been making money from her job as a governess, so the ire lessened.

“I’m not thinking about it now. I’ll let you know later if I’m hungry.”

“Please do. Aunt Noah would worry if she finds out you haven’t eaten dinner.”

“Okay.”

How nice would it be if Lisa or Noah were her family? 

Callie swallowed her sigh, lamenting her situation again.

“What about Mother?”

“She had been walking back and forth in the house a while ago and just went into her room. She told us to let her know immediately when you come.”

“Alright. I’ll go and see her.”

“Okay.” 

Lisa watched on with worry as Callie went to Susan.

Haa, She didn’t know if there would be another uproar in the house.

The reason Lisa still remained in the Loris family, where the salary was lower than in other places, was because of Callie.

When money began to run out, Matthew cut the salaries of his servants. The owner’s temperament was also terrible, so when their salary was deducted, the servants began to leave one by one, saying they could no longer work in a place like this.

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At that time, Lisa also wanted to leave, but she was worried about Callie.

Unlike Matthew and Susan, who treated servants carelessly, Callie was a warm-hearted young lady. 

Once, when Lisa caught a bad cold and was stuck in bed, Callie nursed her all night, changing wet towels at her bedside.

Poor milady, how did you happen to be born into a family like this…

She wished Callie could marry a good man and leave this place as soon as possible. But suddenly, she was having marriage talks with a notorious man, the adopted son of the Cleart family and an alleged playboy.

Lisa tutted as she watched Callie make her way to see Mrs. Susan.

Callie stood in front of Susan’s door, leaving Lisa’s concerns behind. After knocking, she heard an answer from inside.

“Come in.”

“I’m back.”

Matthew was in the room as well.

“Have you met Sir Brandon? You didn’t make any mistakes, did you?” Susan immediately asked.

“Sir Brandon didn’t come to Stuart House today.”

“What? He didn’t come?”

“He didn’t.”

“Then, what have you been doing all this time?”

She sounded nervous. 

Let’s finish talking and get out of this room.

“I asked Marchioness Grian and went to see Sir Brandon.”

“Ah, you did well.”

They probably thought Cassie had just returned without meeting the man and were disappointed, but now it seemed their expectations had gone high again.

“And so? Don’t make people curious; tell us quickly. You remember how much we spent on that dress. Do you think Sir Brandon will ask you to marry him?”

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The dress, which a sex worker would have worn, had been ordered by Susan at a large sum of money from a dressing room.

This morning, when Cassie was getting dressed, unaware that she had prepared these clothes, Susan entered the room with the dress in Lisa’s arms.

She then said as if she was giving great advice.

[“Sir Brandon’s tastes are so high that you’ll have to wear these to get his attention. When you speak, slightly lower your body and show your br*asts. When you sit down, try to stretch your legs under the table. I added a long slit between the legs so the inner thighs would be visible. If a man sees it, they won’t be able to resist. Hohoho.”]

A mother telling their daughter to catch a man’s attention by exposing themselves.

Even if Cassie wasn’t her child, they’d lived under the same roof for several years. How could she go so far?

Callie lamented as she put on the dress Susan had brought.

But she soon changed her mind. Let’s think of this outfit as a weapon to win Brandon’s heart.

The reasons were different, but the purpose of marriage was the same.

Callie smiled bitterly at the thought of Susan bringing her dress this morning.

She told them what they wanted to hear. “I fully told Lord Brandon that I wanted to marry him. It seems that he is also in a hurry to get married to the family, so let’s wait.”

Susan was delighted to hear that she hadn’t been rejected outright.

“Really? You mean Sir Brandon intends to marry you?”

Rather than saying he was enamored of her, she mentioned that Brendon was also being urged to marry because of his reputation, so their interests matched.

However, judging from his mocking behavior, she didn’t know whether he would marry her unless his father forced him to.

“I told him he can maintain his lifestyle even after we get married, but I don’t know what Sir Brandon will decide.”

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“If you’re also under pressure to get married, you should’ve talked about it. Don’t tell me you acted cheeky in front of Sir Brandon? You might have annoyed him.”

It’s like she watched it from the sidelines.

“I did the best I could.”

She even heard him talking about treating her right in bed.

“I’m tired. May I go and rest?”

She was on her nerves when she met Brandon earlier, and when she got home, she was too tired to deal with Matthew and Susan.

“Okay, go. Be sure to let us know if Sir Brandon gets in touch.”

“…Yes.”

It didn’t look very promising, but since she didn’t want to have a longer conversation with the two, Callie answered briefly and walked out of Susan’s room.

Brandon’s father was one of the wealthiest businessmen in Irze, to the extent that people said that ‘all distribution in the kingdom goes through Hugo Cleart.’

When aristocrats who couldn’t keep up with the times sat still and held their wealth in their hands, he bought quality industrial products and relatively cheap agricultural products from neighboring countries. Then, he sold them at a raised price.

He gradually expanded the range of distribution products, and now the scale of the business has grown so much that there’s no place on earth his hands haven’t reached.

High-ranking aristocrats ridiculed Hugo behind his back, saying that he was vulgarly revealing money.

Because of that, Hugo longed for aristocratic status, and that’s why he helped the royal family during the coup d’état.

He lost more than half of his fortune to support the king, so Hugo was disappointed that the title he barely earned was a baron.

Then, he heard from the Marchioness of Grian that Callie’s father, Count Matthew Loris, wanted to marry his daughter to Brandon.

It was a tempting offer for Hugo since closed-minded nobles were reluctant to marry a family lower than their status.

That’s why he wondered about the results of the meeting.

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Two weeks later, Brandon was listening to music in the morning, his eyes closed. He had that habit when he had something to think about.

When the first song ended and the second song was about to begin, Victor came to the room with a knock. 

“The Baron and Madam are waiting to dine together.”

“Didn’t I tell you earlier I had no plans of eating this morning?”

“He said you should come down.”

Brandon laughed bitterly at Victor’s answer. “If Father tells me to come down, I have to go down. Got it. I’ll get down right away.”