WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

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◈ Fragments of Thorns and a Cradle ◈

Chapter 27

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Content Warning: sexual exploitation and slavery.

She was a dreadful girl. If she had risen to a position beyond her station, she should have humbly intended to inherit her predecessor's work. Instead, Henrietta seemed to spend every day thinking only of how to defeat a female slave. Lucrezia had disliked the sight enough to shut herself away in the inner castle.

Whenever Henrietta opened her mouth, it was about Marie.

'Mother, Marie, that girl...'

'That girl seems to look down on me.' 'She is turning San Arzok upside down and speaking badly of me.' 'Marie, that girl, is disrespectful to me.' 'This is not right. Mother must intervene.'

There was no end to it. Lucrezia had nearly suspected that the girl suffered from delusions.

The rumors about Marie might not have been good. But if Henrietta's temper was foul enough to torment her over imagined grievances and overturn San Arzok, she should at least not have been so weak that she could not handle one female slave.

How had Nestro raised their daughter? If Henrietta was angered by Marie enjoying luxuries beyond her station, should she not understand that she herself was enjoying position and luxury beyond her station by becoming mistress of a great noble house she could never have dreamed of entering as the daughter of a mere knightly family?

If Marie truly had looked down on the mistress and thrown the castle into disorder, Lucrezia would have stepped in. If her husband could not handle a female slave because he found her difficult, Lucrezia would have acted, however tiresome it was.

But Marie had done nothing wrong. It was not because Lucrezia favored a girl she had raised close by for so long. If she summoned Marie to scold her, there needed to be something to scold.

"Why are you crying?"

"N-No reason."

Henrietta shed tears. Lucrezia looked down at her dark face wet with tears, then turned away.

Lucrezia did not know what Henrietta hoped to gain by crying, but she was not a man. She was not someone deceived by tears into giving away what should not be given. Still, Henrietta would not stop crying.

Perhaps she did not know her mother-in-law. Or perhaps she knew and could not stop. Lucrezia watched the young woman, panting and flushed red. The way Henrietta bit her lip with a resentful, twisted face made her look like a child of fifteen or sixteen.

Once again, Lucrezia felt how completely opposite she was to Marie. Marie had an innocent, childlike face, yet carried the abyss of her dead mother within it. She felt like an old woman who had swallowed an eternity. Even without trying to read her, Lucrezia could see her unspoken anguish in her green eyes.

But Henrietta...

"It is unfair. I, I... It is unjust and wrong. You should not treat me this way. The marquess, and you too, Mother..."

Lucrezia did not answer. Henrietta pleaded her grievance through tears, began crying aloud even more miserably, then looked at Lucrezia. As Lucrezia only watched, Henrietta continued.

"I am the bride of San Arzok. I am the marquess's wife. Yet everyone, everyone treats me..."

Henrietta stopped and wiped her tears.

"Why does the marquess not love me? Why does he like only that girl?"

Henrietta murmured with a face that said she could not understand. Then she reddened with rage. Lucrezia could not understand Henrietta.

"Do you not like it here? Do you dislike that your husband has another woman?"

"It is not that..."

"But you chose this."

"..."

"I opposed you."

Henrietta froze white. Lucrezia did not pity her daughter-in-law in the slightest. Every time she saw women resent their husbands for not looking at them, for embracing concubines while leaving their wives alone, she could not understand them.

"Do you feel Endymion treats you harshly? Then go back. You have no children, so this marriage can be undone. Endymion has not touched you, so we can make it as though it never happened."

"B-But, Mother..."

"I cannot go back. I am Gwendel's bride..."

Henrietta moved her lips with a wronged expression. Lucrezia waited, staring at her as if to say that she should speak if she had something to say. But Henrietta only wet her eyes and could not speak.

"There. You will not go back."

Lucrezia spoke softly. Henrietta shook. She looked as though she wanted to argue but could not part her lips.

"Because you like the life of ruling as the mistress of San Arzok. You wanted this. You married into San Arzok against my opposition because you wanted this."

"..."

"Women who marry knights often have lovers with whom they cannot form a proper marital bond. Even if they do not, they find men with whom to share affection and companionship after marriage. They deliberately choose that free life. I did as well. I had nothing to regret in this marriage. So I did not feel humiliated if my husband buried his nose between someone else's thighs."

"..."

"I am not a woman who becomes miserable because her husband is mad for women. I did not come here to beg one scrap of affection from such a messy little man."

Henrietta looked at her with tear-filled eyes.

"Were you not the same? Did you not accept this marriage because you had nothing to regret? You had enough chances to choose a groom suited to your station. Was he not a baron of Baljebur? I heard he was a promising young official. His family was small, but he had enough wealth. I heard he was especially devoted to you. There were also two young wealthy men who were infatuated with you."

"That was..."

"They were all nobles who could not take concubines. You would have been their only woman."

Henrietta rolled her lip between her teeth. Lucrezia looked away from the woman who had hardened with spite. Lucrezia knew the Viscount and Viscountess Nestro well. There was no reason their daughter should have grown so foolish.

It was foolish to hurt oneself by hoping for what should not be hoped for.

If someone asked whether it was wrong for a wife to seek affection from her husband, Lucrezia had nothing to say. But Henrietta had known he was a man with another woman and still chosen him as her husband. What could be done about a situation that had existed from the beginning?

If Henrietta claimed she had married hoping that, after a little romance, he would devote himself to their home, that was even more laughable.

Women who could not bear female slaves usually could not bear their very existence. Their eyes blazed merely because those women breathed, and they could not stand the thought of them bearing children in their houses.

Then they should not have chosen such a marriage.

Officials, who faced no threat of dying on the battlefield, were not permitted concubines. There might always be the risk of a mistress, but that was different from a concubine, and a lawful wife could demand punishment.

"Endymion will never love you. He will never give you his heart."

Lucrezia spoke once more before turning away.

"So if it is unbearable to live at his side, return even now. I will take responsibility for ending this marriage without harming your reputation or your family's. I promise you that much. Endymion will understand as well."

"..."

"If you do not want that, live quietly. Do not compare yourself to a mere slave. Even if that girl seems more beautiful and exceptional than you, she is nothing compared to what you possess."

"..."

"As you know, beauty is no blessing for a slave. It is only poison. Marie is a girl you should pity."

Lucrezia thought of Marie. Unlike Henrietta, who had a pretty face and a comfortable family, who had grown up in a home lacking nothing, Marie was an orphan who had lost her parents. Without her master's favor, she might have to open her legs on the street to feed her living children.

To feel inferiority and jealousy toward a girl who would spend her life consumed by anxiety and loneliness was foolish. Lucrezia did not say it to reproach Henrietta, but sincerely. Henrietta should pity Marie.

"That is the path for your own good. Even if she displeases and disgusts you, she will never surpass you. Do not overturn San Arzok like this again."

"I..."

"You may not believe it, but I hope you are happy here. I hope you take pride in your own nobility."

"..."

"Inferiority and jealousy make a person endlessly unhappy. And if the person you compare yourself to is a girl far beneath you, it will be unbearable."

"I understand what you mean."

"Then that is fortunate."

Lucrezia glanced at Henrietta, who nodded blankly, and turned away.

"You will finish preparing the banquet."

"Yes."

She left Henrietta wiping her wet cheeks and walked out of the bedroom.

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