Interest Compounds on Revenge - Chapter 67
Everyone was shocked by the story of Madame Armand’s divorce.
The end was so messy that it was hard to believe they had lived as a happily married couple for five years.
“It seems Emily Landt notified her husband of their separation. She said I grabbed her by the hair.”
The story that followed was also quite a spectacle.
“It was wrong of me to vulgarly grab and shake her hair. But my husband doesn’t know Emily’s true nature at all.”
Not only did he not believe her when she told him about Emily’s intentions, but he even went so far as to call her ugly for slandering an innocent person.
“What kind of woman is she?”
Pauline asked Lea discreetly.
“She apparently sent love letters to Terran for years too. Saying she’d be happy to be his mistress if he’d meet her.”
“She’s insane, knowing full well he has a fiancée…!”
Pauline burst out angrily in response to Lea’s words.
To this, Lea added one more thing. That Emily had also given Terran a love letter at the Bellis banquet hall.
“Oh my! How can you just grab her hair? You should have just…!”
Pauline raged uncharacteristically. At this, Chainer chuckled as if finding it amusing.
Even to Chainer’s naive eyes, it seemed Pauline was empathizing as she was in a romance with Tom.
“Did she receive alimony?”
Sonya, who had been listening silently, asked a very practical question. At this, all eyes turned to Emily.
“There’s an estate that our family gave as a dowry when we married, but he didn’t return that either. Honestly, my husband is, how should I put it, stingy when it comes to spending money on anything.”
“But since the cause for divorce lies with your husband, of course he should return the dowry, right?”
Sonya spoke heatedly. Soon after, Madame Armand began to sob sorrowfully again. She lamented her situation, saying she now had nowhere to go, no money, and didn’t know how she would live.
In that moment, many agonizing thoughts flashed through Lea’s mind. But it wasn’t at all that she felt burdened by suddenly taking on Madame Armand.
The problem was that she herself was empathizing with the woman’s situation as much as Pauline. Moreover, she realized that she herself felt extreme betrayal at a man’s infidelity.
It didn’t matter whether it was someone else’s affair or her own.
Just as Lea was inwardly seething with anger, James came looking for her.
“The Duke is asking for you and Madame Sonya.”
“I’ll be right there, James.”
Lea immediately softened her hardened expression and answered kindly.
“Pauline, Chainer! Madame Armand must be hungry from her long journey. Please take care of her meal first.”
“Don’t worry, miss.”
As Lea was about to leave the room with Sonya, she turned back to Madame Armand. She grasped the lady’s hand firmly and said,
“Don’t worry about anything. I’ll find a way.”
“Th-thank you, Lady Bizac.”
Madame Armand was at a loss for words.
* * *
Terran welcomed Lea and Sonya warmly when they came to his office. He soon handed them a photograph and a letter.
“It’s my friend’s younger sister in Galdensia. She’s going to participate in the selection this time.”
“I see.”
Lea carefully examined the photo Terran gave her. It was a lady with a graceful appearance. She soon passed the photo to Sonya.
“The letter should contain Adele’s body measurements, the color and design of the dress she wants, and various other requests.”
Lea and Sonya alternately examined the photo and letter.
The client’s name was ‘Adele Wellington’ and she was a count’s daughter. But Sonya’s expression didn’t look very pleased. It was the same for Lea.
‘Her beauty falls far short of Allen’s sister Rivet.’
Of course, the Crown Prince’s consort isn’t chosen by beauty alone. They would consider various conditions like character, education, refinement, family background, and so on.
“She’s quite ordinary.”
Sonya sighed while looking at the photo. The graceful appearance was literally plain and modest, with no particular charm felt.
“Adele is a terrible bookworm. She wears glasses, I think.”
At Terran’s words, Sonya’s expression worsened. It seemed obvious that Rivet would be chosen. But his plan was different.
“Madame, please use your god-given hands to ensure that Adele is definitely chosen as the Crown Prince’s consort.”
At his words, Sonya turned pale. No matter how well a dress is made, it needs the wearer’s appearance to support it to some extent to shine…
“I’ll do my best, Terran.”
Lea answered on Sonya’s behalf. If they put their heads together and researched methods, surely there would be a way.
Sonya rose first, holding the photo and letter. That’s when Lea asked her,
“Sonya, please call Madame Armand here.”
“Understood.”
As Sonya left, Terran gave Lea a puzzled look.
“Madame Armand?”
Lea briefly told him about Madame Armand’s situation before she arrived. But there was one strange part.
Terran must have received a love letter from Emily at the banquet, yet he seemed not to know her well. Or perhaps he was pretending not to know.
“So what does Grace want?”
“Well, I don’t have a proper chaperone, you see. Pauline has become the workshop manager, so the maids have been taking turns attending to me. So I was wondering…”
As Lea hesitated to speak, he crossed his long legs and pressed his hand to his forehead.
“You want to bring in Madame Armand as Grace’s chaperone?”
“That’s right.”
“But it’s not such a simple matter. Being Grace’s chaperone, and no one else’s, requires ample experience and above all, a good reputation in society. We can’t put just anyone by Grace’s side.”
For some reason, Terran’s words became uncharacteristically long. As he spoke, he took out a paper from inside his jacket.
He unfolded the paper with a grape cluster drawn on it and let out a big sigh.
“Hah! When will this grape cluster ever be filled?”
Lea almost burst out laughing. If she hadn’t covered her mouth with her hand in time. But her eyes kept laughing as she looked at Terran.
‘What to do with this adorable man.’
Terran was serious as if he had the most grave concern in the world.
Lea waited until her laughter subsided and then said in a low voice,
“If I sign, can I hire Madame Armand as my chaperone?”
“That’s the idea.”
He had already pushed the paper towards Lea and handed her a pen.
“Oh my! Only five left now?”
‘Five still remain.’
Terran hoped she would sign all the remaining five grape seeds this time.
But did Terran’s wish come true? Lea signed without hesitation.
‘Finally…!’
Terran was overwhelmed with great emotion at the sight of the long journey of patience coming to an end.
‘Three, four… Five? Why stop with one left?’
He alternately looked at the paper and Lea with widened eyes.
“Grace, why did you… leave one?”
He asked as calmly as possible. He tried not to get excited at all, nor to pretend to be greatly pleased and then disappointed.
Just then, Madame Armand arrived at the office, and Lea ran to the door in one breath and grabbed her hand.
“Madame Armand, please greet him. This is Duke Terran Courtois.”
“Pleased to meet you, Your Grace.”
Madame Armand greeted him politely, and Terran nodded with a forced smile.
“From today, Madame Armand has been hired as my chaperone. Terran gave permission.”
“My goodness! How grateful…!”
‘What a damned situation.’
Terran awkwardly smiled and folded the paper, putting it inside his jacket.
Has there ever been a time when she was more vexing than this moment? A woman who tantalizes like candy before his eyes.
‘I’m not upset.’
Still, he wished for the day to come soon when he could tease and devour this cunning rabbit.
* * *
Five women, including Lea, were having a serious conversation.
“We must take revenge.”
The first to speak was Sonya.
She was particularly angry at the fact that Madame Armand had not received her dowry back.
She cursed the husband as a scoundrel for not giving a penny, knowing full well how difficult it is for a woman to live alone in this society.
“How do we take revenge?”
When Lea asked, this time Pauline stepped forward.
“We should break them up so they can’t marry.”
“How?”
As much as they wanted to separate the two, there was no concrete method.
Then Pauline’s gaze moved to Chainer, who was constantly eating snacks.
“We could tell Grandpa Rapha to kill them both.”
It seemed Chainer wouldn’t be able to give a clear answer today. Suddenly, a strong light flashed through Lea’s mind.
“There are the love letters, right? You said Madame Armand’s husband believes Emily only loves him, didn’t you?”
“Yes, he doesn’t know she’s scattering letters to this man and that man. No, he refuses to believe it.”
“Then we should show him with his own eyes.”
At Lea’s answer, Pauline’s eyes sparkled as if she had found a method too.
“If that woman sent love letters to our Duke for years, James would have collected them all.”
But the problem is that James is Terran’s loyal servant.
He wasn’t someone who would easily hand over even a single document, let alone Terran’s private life.
It might be faster to ask Terran directly.
But Lea’s pride wouldn’t allow that. She even hoped Terran didn’t know that she herself knew about the love letters.
“Uncle James, I went to the clock shop a few days ago, but it was a wasted trip.”
Like a streak of light illuminating the dark night sky, this time too, Chainer provided the answer. As expected, she didn’t disappoint Lea’s expectations.
“Nothing is more precious to a butler than a clock. Moreover, clocks are very expensive items.”
“Eh! That won’t work. He might have already bought one.”
Pauline responded skeptically. But the James that Lea knew wasn’t such a rash man.
He was so attached to his belongings that he would try to fix even broken clocks, so he probably wouldn’t have bought a new item so readily.
“Sometimes, there’s nothing better than a high-class bribe.”
Lea answered with a slight smile.
Male lead is a Divorced Husband
She said to him: “Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change it!”
Liu Changning transmigrated into a female cannon fodder character in a female-dominant novel.
After reading the first half of the novel’s plot, the first thing she did upon transmigration was to divorce the Pan Jinlian-style male protagonist she had just married.
She indulged herself, pretending to be ugly and poor.
But as time passed, the way that man looked at her became more and more unusual…
Liu Changning was dumbfounded: Tell me, what makes you like me? I’ll change!
――
This lifetime, Pei Yuanshao was rejected by the same woman twice!
The first time, she drove him away. Forced by the situation, he endured the waves of anger in his heart, yielding and humbling himself.
That person lay slanted on a rocking chair, her sallow face emotionless: “If you don’t want a divorce, go cook!”
Pei Yuanshao’s face was dark and gloomy: “You!”
The second time, after the crisis in Jinling City was resolved, the new emperor sent someone to pick him up. He turned around, stammering: “I… I have to go. If you keep me…”
That person lay on the kang bed, her back to him, as if she had long anticipated this day, crisp and clear: “Goodbye!”
Pei Yuanshao was so angry his fingers trembled: “You… you!”
The mission of family and country made him restrain himself, averting his eyes and turning to leave this broken household.
Two years later, they met again. Seeing her ethereal face, his body shook like a sieve.
“She was originally a ‘she’!”
At the Qionglin Banquet, the top scholar of the imperial examination, a talented person with exceptional speech and conduct, all the unmarried young gentlemen from aristocratic families looked at her with shy and timid eyes.
The peerless imperial official Pei Yuanshao felt the anger in his heart erupt. He pointed at the woman surrounded by the crowd at the Qionglin Banquet, his thin lips slightly curled: “Little sister, I wants that person to be the wife-master of my Mingde Prince Manor.”
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