“But will I be able to do it?”

Elise shuddered in fear.

“Do not say anything and just look down coldly while standing next to me. If you are so afraid, do not look at their faces and stare at the wall behind them.”

“The wall?”

The relatives, who had come to meet Rubica today, were great nobles who Elise wouldn’t even dare to talk to normally. She was not confident enough to look straight at their faces, but staring at the walls didn’t sound that hard.

“I’ll try.”

The girl clenched her fists hard, so Rubica smiled brightly and stood up to take her hand. She was about to say, ‘Let us go right away then!’ Jennie, however, stopped her.

“But why did you have only your hair done?”

“Huh?”

Rubica had been so busy watching Elise that she had completely forgotten about getting ready herself. The same was for Linda who was next to her.

“Oh, making them wait for too long can’t be good.”

“Wait. I have selected the necklace and earrings.”

Linda quickly brought a necklace and matching earrings. In the meantime, Jennie found and brought a pair of pretty jade-colored shoes that formed a set with the dress Rubica was wearing. Rubica quickly wore the accessories and tried to put the shoes on. Sadly, putting her feet in them wasn’t easy.

“Are they… a little small?”

“I think it was made that way on purpose as leather tends to get stretched in time, but this is too much. Please wait for a moment.”

One of the maids brought a shoe stretcher and started to work on the shoes, and it looked like putting them on would take a long time. Elise didn’t want to just stand there and wait as she wanted to make herself useful.

“Where do you keep Her Grace’s gloves?”

“The gloves for outings are in the dressing room, but we keep the rest here in the bedroom.”

The maid pointed at the drawer right next to the bed. Rubica was wrestling with the shoes and missed the fact that Elise was opening the second drawer.

“Thin and white gloves would be better than dark-colored ones, right?”

“Yes.”

“We should select a few pairs and show them to madam.”

Elise took out a few pair of gloves that were just fine. Then, something small dropped on the floor.

“Huh?”

Elise was surprised and bent down to pick it up. It was a ring that had been too crudely made to be considered the duchess’ property. It had a blue stone as clear as the sky, but it was a stone that wasn’t a jewel. Whose ring was it? Had a maid dropped it while cleaning?

“Elise?”

Then, Rubica saw what the girl was doing after managing to put on the shoes. The drawer was open, and Elise was holding her ring. Her mind went black.

When she came to her senses again, she was in front of the girl and snatched the ring out of her hand. Elise was then surprised to see Rubica turn so pale.

“Is, is it your ring?”

“Yes.”

Rubica’s voice was hoarse, and her heart almost stopped. She could breathe again only when she could feel the coldness of the ring on her palm again.

‘Oh, no.’

Every maid in the bedroom and the dressing room was staring at her in shock. An old and shabby ring. As rings tended to have special meanings, it looked like she had given them the wrong idea. Even Rubica had thought the ring belonged to someone Arman had deeply loved.

‘It might be taken away from me.’

She was afraid. She was worried Edgar might see the ring and tell her to get rid of it. She didn’t want to let him find out about it. But everyone had seen her cherish it, and asking them to ignore it would only make even bigger rumors.

‘What should I do?’

Then she recalled how Edgar had scolded her about her mother’s accessories. She had no choice but to lie. The biggest change that happened to her after traveling back in time was that she had befriended the god of lies.

“It used to belong to my late mother.”

“Oh.”

Elise didn’t know what to do when hearing that, and Rubica was sorry to see her believe her lie.

“I didn’t know it was that precious.”

“Madam, why don’t you keep it in a jewelry box or register it in the treasury’s list?”

A maid proposed realistically next to the apologizing Elise. If it was that precious, it had to be kept well, not be hidden between gloves in a drawer. Moreover, that was what Rubica had feared the most.

“But it’s way too old and crude. Edgar might tell me to replace it with something that befits the duchess’ honor. Could you all ignore what you just saw?”

“What?”

The maid now looked really shocked, and they all widened their eyes. Rubica wondered what to do, but she just decided to be honest. It was going to diminish Edgar’s fame and reputation, but he never cared about those things.

“He… once commented on some other accessories of mine. He said their rubies are not good enough for his duchess and should be replaced.”

She didn’t mention how he said those accessories were only good enough for a baronetess. Her pride was too strong to even mention that. It hurt a little when recalling that again. He had spoken without knowing that they had been left by her mother, but still, it had been too much. Even if they had been what she just normally used, she had memories about them and didn’t like how he thought they could be so easily replaced.

“This ring is very important to me and I wanted to keep it close to me. Could you all just forget about it?”

Elise and the maids nodded, so Rubica relaxed as she looked at the ring. She missed Arman even more than usual today. She was eating splendid meals and wearing luxurious dresses every day, but she had been happier when she ate roasted potatoes with him.

“Madam, now you just have to do your makeup. Which perfume do you want to use today?”

A maid spoke first, and then, they all started to act as if they had never seen the ring.

“The one that just came from Pierre’s shop. I like it.”

Rubica replied as she put the ring back in the drawer. She thought it was all for the better. As the maids now knew about it, she no longer had to worry about them finding it and throwing it away or reporting it to someone. Maybe she would get a box with a lock to keep it safe.

***

“Is the duchess still getting ready?”

Zilehan asked as he looked down at his cup of coffee that had turned cold. It was the tenth time he was asking that question, and Ann replied without a smile.

“She isn’t ready yet as she didn’t expect to meet you today. It is all to greet you in accordance with the manners, so please understand.”

Zilehan’s face twitched. Preparation? He just wanted to see her face and talk. There was nothing to prepare for that. She was taking such a long time and it made him irritated. She must be making excuses to mock him and the others.

‘She looks so mild, but I guess she does know when to be strong.’

Zelihan was one of the most important members in the family and had an audience with Rubica as soon as she became the duchess. And, the first impression he got of her was, ‘She is so ordinary.’ She spoke like a girl from a lowly family in the countryside. She didn’t look unfashionable, but as she had no problem with wearing dresses that belonged to the duke’s grandmother, she probably didn’t have much greed.

-She isn’t that easy to control.

That was the comment of one of the men who tried to sell something useless to her and failed, but Zilehan hadn’t given much attention to it. His tactic had been too crude, and it would have fooled only idiots. Moreover, he hadn’t been that surprised to hear she had decided to invest on Sesar.

‘So, she likes people who genuinely plead to her than those who try to teach her.’

He hadn’t gotten rid of his opinion of her being naïve even then. It is impossible to fall to honesty and desperation and spend such huge money unless you are naïve.

That was why he hadn’t been that surprised to hear she was kicking out Shaynie. He had hated the woman, too. And, when he heard she had the annex repaired and picked Elise Solana, who was in a bad financial status, as her lady-in-waiting, he thought that was it.

‘She is eager to be considered a good duchess!’

That was why he thought she would treat him and the others politely when they came to protest for the duke’s wrong decision.

The woman had even repaired the annex when she didn’t have to only because she cared so much about how the relatives thought of her. She was a wife who had nothing of her own, and such women tended to care about words and reputation.