WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

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◈ Fragments of Thorns and a Cradle ◈

Chapter 5

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"I think we brought in the wrong one."

The man brushing Lucrezia's long hair watched her reflection in the mirror. When their eyes met, Lucrezia closed her lips. Her thin, nearly colorless mouth made her stubborn expression stronger.

Holding her hair softly, the man poured out a little rose oil and carefully spread it from roots to ends. Lucrezia closed her eyes and enjoyed the brushing. He loosely braided her long hair over her left shoulder, then kissed her earlobe.

"Then bring in another."

Lucrezia opened her eyes. She looked at herself and the man in the mirror. Bronze skin, curling blond hair, bright blue eyes like jewels. When she tilted her head to look at him, the lips that had touched her earlobe met hers.

She closed her eyes at the soft touch and waited.

He kissed her with familiar ease. Lucrezia wrapped her arms around his neck and tipped her head back slightly. His thick arms encircled her waist as the kiss continued. After a time, they opened their eyes together.

"Has it been a little over a year? There is still nothing to seize on."

"You said she was stupid."

"She is, but the world does not know that yet."

After pulling away, Lucrezia placed a hand on his chest and spoke coolly. Lusakan laughed softly and kissed the corner of her eye. Lucrezia enjoyed her lover's kiss, then pushed him away and murmured lazily.

"I think we made the wrong marriage."

"Marry him again. People annul marriages and remarry at the drop of a hat here. No one will say much."

Lusakan answered as he watched Lucrezia pass him. She laughed, stepped onto the balcony, and mimed smoking with her fingers. Lusakan brought her a water pipe. She held the mouthpiece between her lips and faced the cold wind.

"Should I?"

"It would not be difficult. If you want it..."

"The time for that has passed. It passed long ago."

"..."

"Look at Endymion. Do you still not know him? He goes mad over his female slave."

Lucrezia drew her brows together. Exhaling a long stream of smoke, she touched the face of her lover, where wrinkles had gradually settled. His bronze skin, uncommon on the western continent, remained smooth and firm.

His long lashes, high nose, and masculine square jaw suited a warrior who had earned experience on foreign battlefields. The deep, striking features distinctive to a man of the southern continent were exotic and splendid.

"Anyway, he is just like his father. Even the way he keeps a woman at his side is excessive."

"Hm."

Lusakan Oscares rested his chin on the railing and considered this.

Lucrezia remembered her dead husband, then remembered the son who resembled him too closely and caused her such trouble. She calmly suppressed the irritation rising in her.

Henrietta, whom Endymion had brought in as marchioness a year ago, was the daughter of Nestro, a banner-bearing house under Gwendel. Ordinarily, Nestro was too insignificant for its daughter to aspire to become the lawful wife of a great noble.

Lucrezia had been the one to persuade Endymion, who had not wished to marry in the slightest.

"It is not for the house's business. It is for Marie."

Female slaves made excellent material for gossip. No matter how secure their place in a household, they could not escape slander.

Taking the blame even for the mistress's mistakes was a kind of original sin. It was the fate of lowly women born slaves, who enjoyed a part of a noble's luxurious life at his side.

Even if Marie had done nothing wrong, it could not be helped. The deeper the favor she received from her master, the deeper the shadow cast over her.

"So bring in a lawful wife. If you are thinking of your wife, do that. If people saying that Marie has affection denied to the lawful wife would hurt her heart and damage her honor, bring in a reasonably suitable woman and shut their mouths."

That had been Lucrezia's advice. A woman from a family useful to the house would be preferable. One clever enough to handle herself would be better still. She had recommended Count Randiol's second daughter.

"There were many candidates."

Lucrezia frowned to herself.

"Because of that girl."

Lusakan spoke. Lucrezia narrowed her eyes slightly, then nodded.

"But now you want to change her because of that girl?"

"How should I know what is in his heart?"

Lucrezia pressed her fingers to her temple, speaking as sharply as though she were cursing.

She had wanted, if possible, to bring in the daughter of a family suited to Gwendel's standing. A marriage had to be a profitable transaction. If the balance did not add up, it should fall through. In that sense, this marriage was Gwendel's one-sided loss. Lucrezia had every reason to oppose it.

When Endymion said he would give Nestro's daughter Luanigis Hall, the private residence of the household mistress, Lucrezia had tried to stop him like a madwoman. She clung to him more persistently than she had when persuading him to marry. When that failed, she went to the woman her son was mad about and asked her to stop the marriage.

But Endymion chose the Nestro woman and presented her to Lucrezia anyway. Perhaps Henrietta had heard that he had chosen her despite Lucrezia's fierce opposition. In San Arzok, the daughter of Nestro was bold and arrogant indeed.

Perhaps because Endymion had been quite tolerant of her temper, she sometimes forgot her duties and acted haughtily even toward her mother-in-law's close attendants. Lucrezia did not care. If Henrietta knew nothing, it was not bad for her to strut about in ignorance.

So long as she observed one thing that must be protected in this household, she would enjoy every honor and luxury as the mistress of San Arzok.

"If only she does not provoke that child's temper."

Lusakan tilted his head. Lucrezia smoked heavily, remembering what she had heard from the head maid. Henrietta had taken Marie's children without Endymion's permission. She had awakened the sleeping children and brought them upstairs from dawn.

Lucrezia had watched both grandsons from birth and knew what they were like. Neither the older nor younger boy resembled their mother or father. That was fortunate. They were gentle children when soothed properly.

Of the two, the three-year-old youngest was especially sensitive and difficult. The moment he woke, he had to see his mother. Though he had been weaned, he regularly pretended to seek her breast, craving her affection. He cried at all hours and was terribly shy around strangers.

No, more importantly, Endymion hated anyone touching his children without his permission. Even she, his own mother, had waited quite some time before meeting her first grandson. It was an incomprehensible feeling.

What was so important about a mere illegitimate infant? Why had he refused to show the infant to anyone for more than a hundred days? Lucrezia's eyes narrowed as she remembered.

Marie had labored for three days before bearing her eldest son. Her womb had still been small even after twenty, and the boy Endymion had made her carry had been a large baby.

Lucrezia frowned as she remembered the delivery room ringing with screams that sounded like tearing death.

The child had been born ten days before the due date. Endymion had been out hunting, but turned back, rushed into the birthing room, and would not leave. Midwives and physicians alike tried to drive him out because it was no place for a man, but her son had always been an animal. When it came to the female slave he doted on, he was not human.

The sight of her son remaining beside Marie after she gave birth had resembled a beast hidden in its den, licking its mate and young. He was a madman who could explode if stirred wrongly.

It was strange, and displeasing, that a man who grew vicious and cruel even toward his mother when she displeased him had shut himself in the birthing room for a week. When he briefly left, Lucrezia had taken the infant because she was angry that he would not even show his mother his son. Then her son had...

"I cannot bear to see this house's reputation grow any filthier."

"Gwendel's reputation is better than you think. Who would dare look down on San Arzok?"

Lusakan kissed her cheek and drew her into a soft embrace. Lucrezia opened her lips while resting against the lover she had loved for many years.

"Do you remember when Claude was born? I brought him over just to see my grandchild, and Endymion ran in like a madman and took the child away."

"Well..."

Lusakan could not answer Lucrezia's sullen complaint. She looked at him in disbelief.

"You understand him?"

"...I was horrified when your husband touched you and my son."

"That is different. I am his mother."

"Perhaps he sees you as an enemy."

"Ha."

It was absurd. Lucrezia had not expected Lusakan to defend Endymion, but his reasoning was even more remarkable. Not because he had failed to take her side. It annoyed her because he was right.

If she was forced to understand Endymion, then yes. He had been so savage because even she was an enemy. What beast would not go mad if a badger carried off the young it had hidden in its den?

"And Owen?"

Lucrezia watched him quietly and asked after her son's whereabouts. Lusakan paused while kissing her forehead, then smiled.

"It is his mother's birthday. He will come by at least once."

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