Finally, she dropped a drop of perfume on her wrist, rubbed it, and brought it behind her ear.

The perfume, with its mysterious sea scent and fresh tuberose blended with a fresh floral fragrance, was contained in a blue-green bottle resembling the color of the duchess’s eyes.

It was a gift from Johan for Olivia’s birthday, but Diane had intercepted it. Instead, she gave Olivia a perfume with strong musk and aloeswood scents.

I saw Johan frowning at the strong perfume smell coming from her. I barely held back my laughter.

When he visited to settle the payment for the jewels Olivia had purchased, Diane casually remarked,

‘I hear the scent you gifted doesn’t suit the lady’s taste.’

Recalling that moment, Diane laughed again.

After turning this way and that in front of the mirror, Diane left the room. She walked down the corridor where only red wall lamps glowed dimly, heading towards Johan’s bedroom.

Close to midnight, Johan entered his bedroom slightly intoxicated. As soon as he opened the door, a strong perfume scent assailed his nose. The woman turned around in surprise.

Olivia.

“You’re here now.”

The secretary he had hired for his wife looked at him with a startled expression. Olivia? He felt irritated at the absurdity.

“Why are you here?”

“It’s been raining all day. I thought the bedding might be a bit damp.”

Diane continued speaking while observing Johan’s reaction as he crossed the bedroom.

“I came to change the sheets for you.”

“Is that your job?”

Johan flung open both doors to the balcony. The rain had stopped, but the humid wind that had soaked in the rain slowly inflated the curtains. The woman’s thin dress hem also swayed gently.

Johan leaned against the wall opposite the woman, crossing his arms as he looked down at her.

“Everyone seems to be asleep. So I brought them myself.”

The woman he was looking at through his drunken haze was quite pleasing to the eye.

His wife’s secretary was dressed in a manner more suitable for sharing a bed than for tending to one.

If he had been the type of scoundrel who would throw any woman onto the bed without discrimination, he might have been sufficiently aroused.

Being the sole focus of a man’s gaze always elicited an exhilarating thrill. Especially if it was a perfect man like Johan Leopold.

The man detached himself from the wall and slowly walked to the display cabinet.

With one sleeve neatly rolled up, he held a wine bottle and opener in one hand, and two glasses in the other, walking slowly with an air of languid sexual appeal.

Diane turned, pretending to smooth out the wrinkles in the bed sheet. She bent over, positioning herself to best accentuate the curves of her buttocks.

“Have a drink.”

Ah! As expected.

Hearing the voice from behind her, Diane slowly straightened up and turned around. Johan sat down, gesturing with his eyes towards the chair opposite him.

Diane wanted to show him only her most beautiful side at every moment.

Even as she walked towards Johan, she took care to ensure that her long legs in silk stockings were visible through the side slit of her dress.

Diane had never sat alone face to face with Johan before. There had always been the duchess or an aide present, like an obstacle.

Johan inserted the opener deep into the cork and carefully pulled it out.

As she watched his long fingers and smooth back of the hand tilting the bottle to pour into the glass, imagining those hands caressing her body sent a hot thrill through her lower regions. Her heart beat rapidly.

“It’s late, so I’ll just have one glass.”

Diane said shyly to Johan as he pushed a glass towards her.

Diane watched the man as he filled his own glass as well. If she had her way, she would have rushed to the bed and rolled around with him like animals right then. But she had to hold back today.

She couldn’t end it with just one night of pleasure. She didn’t want to be seen as too easy either. Since she wanted to become the Duchess of Leopold, she needed to make the man yearn for her a bit more.

The candlelight in the center of the table enveloped the two in an intimate glow.

Johan was silent. He merely swirled his glass, watching the red liquid spiral inside.

What should she say?

Intending to give him control of the conversation, Diane waited for Johan to speak first.

Men love moments when they can show off their superior knowledge.

If you offer some opposing views but let them claim victory in the argument at the last moment, they become intoxicated with a sense of superiority and strive to give their all in bed to the woman who allowed them to taste that victory.

Diane took a sip of wine, imagining the peak of pleasure this man before her would bestow. And then, finally, the man moved his lips.

“Do you know about the men my wife met?”

“Pardon?”

Diane responded with a stupid expression to the unexpected question. This wasn’t the atmosphere for a lowly bastard to intrude.

“My wife’s men.”

Johan’s low, sunken voice brought Diane back to her senses as if she’d been doused with cold water.

“Yes. Of course. But regarding the private life of the lady I served—”

Johan cut her off.

“You seem to be under some misunderstanding. The person who hired you was me.”

“……”

“And the person who will fire you is also me.”

Johan crossed his long, outstretched legs and, as if tired, raised the arm resting on the armrest to rub his temple.

After briefly gazing at the man who could captivate people even with his languid threats, Diane began speaking as if she had made a difficult decision.

“By the time I found out, their relationship had already deepened. I tried to dissuade the lady, but it was useless. She met that man while avoiding my eyes.”

Diane didn’t like this topic, but since it had come to this, she steered the conversation in a direction favorable to her. Becoming a loose woman happens in moments like this.

It was she who had suggested to the stupid Olivia to take a lover to provoke Johan’s jealousy, she who had provided their meeting place, and she who had spread rumors in social circles to reach Johan’s ears.

“Every time I tried to persuade the lady to stop her act of betrayal against you, sir, she would punish me—”

“Names. Just give me the names.”

His voice and gaze had turned chilling, but Diane felt like laughing inside. But soon, she wondered.

Why is he curious about this now? He didn’t care at all during their marriage.

“Kyle Mitchum, he was a ballet dancer. And Andreya Nikolai. The painter who did the lady’s portrait was the second. Milton Lamont was the shoemaker in charge of the lady’s shoes.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes, it is.”

“The probability that my wife met someone while avoiding your eyes is…”

“Impossible. I always accompanied her when she went out.”

“Then, has my wife ever met Edgar Lancaster Lancelot…”

“Pardon?”

Diane found herself asking in confusion again.

Why is that name coming up here?

Diane was starting to get annoyed. She didn’t want to waste time like this.

“As far as I know, they never had a personal meeting.”

At that moment, Johan gave her a strange look. Then, still holding the wine glass in his hand, he stared at it quietly and said indifferently.

“You may leave.”

What?

Diane was so dumbfounded that she almost repeated that stupid sound again.

It had been almost a week since Olivia stayed at the Lancelot Hotel. As this unfamiliar place became familiar, she grew fond of it. It was time to decide on her future residence.

“Briar……”

Olivia murmured to herself as she folded the map she had been studying for a while.

Anne, who was brushing Olivia’s luscious brown hair that fell to the small of her back, asked,

“What’s famous there?”

“No. I was thinking of living there for a while.”

“In Briar?”

“Yes.”

While it was proper to find a house since they couldn’t stay at the hotel forever, Anne didn’t expect it to be in Litten.

She had only assumed that the lady was traveling for a change of scenery. It would be a long journey, but she thought they would eventually return to Londos.

However, it seemed there was no Londos in the lady’s future.

“I heard Briar roses are famous for their beauty in Brit. It must be profitable. Should we start a rose farm here? What do you think, Anne?”

Olivia’s voice was slightly excited.

“If you like it, I like it too.”

“Then, shall we go there this weekend?”

“Yes, my lady.”

Anne neatly arranged Olivia’s voluminous brown hair with a wooden-handled brush, then tied it up high with a blue ribbon.

“I’m thinking of cutting my hair.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t you think a bob would suit me well?”

“That’s true, but……”

Anne trailed off.

She remembered a girl with a smaller build and more delicate frame than her peers.

Despite her arms and legs being thin and gaunt from malnutrition, her dark brown hair was shiny and voluminous as if it had absorbed all the nutrients from her body.

The countess had grabbed the girl’s hair with scissors with a blackened handle and mercilessly cut it off.

Even when the tender scalp was scratched and bleeding from the large scissors, she paid no heed.

The girl’s hair was cut like that until she was seventeen and left the attic. Olivia would tremble at the mere sight of scissors.

“…Will you be alright?”

Anne asked carefully.

Since leaving the attic, the lady had never allowed scissors near her hair.

“Yes. It would be convenient and nice to have shorter hair.”

“If it’s because of me, please don’t. I enjoy tending to your hair, my lady.”

Anne’s expression was somewhat strange. Jian peered into the frozen ice fragments of Olivia’s past.

‘Ah…!’

She was silent for a moment, then smiled and said,

“It’s okay now. Next time we have a chance, cut it nicely for me.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Anne nodded.

Olivia headed to the tennis court with Anne. Since using the tennis court was free, she planned to use it diligently until they left the hotel.

Arriving about ten minutes earlier than her appointment with Elaine, Olivia lightly swung her racket to warm up.

As she closed her eyes briefly under the clear morning sunlight, inhaling the cool air, footsteps were heard among the chirping birds.

Olivia opened her eyes and turned her head with a smile, and Edgar, dressed in tennis attire, was walking through the maze-like green hedges. Their eyes met before she had a chance to avoid him.