Henrick stood up right away and spoke to Gloria.
“Please feel free to tell me. His Lord is currently dealing with an important customer at the bank. I will convey your message to him.”
Gloria agonized about the better option. She could simply relay it to the butler without having to meet the Baron personally.
“May I change the design of the wedding dress you chose earlier to another design? I would like you to convey this to the baron.”
Gloria intended to minimize her having to meet with Baron Stephen until the wedding day. Gloria had to prepare herself in accepting this marriage. However, the butler’s face darkened when he heard that. He looked irritated for a moment, and then gave some presumptuous advice to the future baroness.
“I’m sorry, but I think it would be difficult to change the design of the wedding dress even if it’s His Lord’s future wife herself who ask it.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Well, about that…”
Aware of designer Ferronel who was listening to their conversation with interest, the butler hesitated to answer. Gloria turned to the designer.
“Madam, I apologize, but could you leave us for a moment? I would like to talk to the butler.”
Madam Ferronel answered Gloria’s request with a mischievous smile.
“Oh, come to think of it, it’s past lunchtime. I have to work on another order, so I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Ferronel led her people out of the parlor. After waiting for a while, the butler raised his chin high in front of Gloria and began to speak.
“Did you happen to see the portrait in the second living room where you had the couple picture taken today?”
Gloria wondered why the butler was suddenly talking about portraits, but then Gloria remembered what she had seen before the photoshoot begun. She frowned for a moment when she saw her self-portrait in the corner of the wall.
“Yes, I saw it. You’ve painted me as a portrait.”
‘How dare the Baron paint myself even before we officially get married.’
Gloria felt uncomfortable for a moment when she looked the painting. Moreover, her appearance in the portrait was lifeless and looked so dead. Even when she was only in her thin pajamas. It was a portrait that exuded the kind of vibe that was embarrassing to look at directly.
The butler brushed his neatly arranged hair and continued to speak.
“Actually, that portrait is not your painting, young Lady.”
Gloria tilted her head when she heard his words. Silver hair and violet eyes. And when she looked at the lines of her face, it did resemble Gloria so well. Who was the woman in the painting if she wasn’t Gloria? She didn’t even have a twin.
“Then who is the woman in the painting?”
“Her name is Julie Innis. His Lord’s first love.”
The butler then spoke more deeply about Baron Stephen’s story which he wasn’t supposed to tell her about.
“When the Baron was a poor nobleman, there was one woman that he came to love. Yet no one in her family was willing to give their daughter to a poor baron, who was also in his young age. Eventually, this woman named Julie could not overcome her family’s opposition and left the Baron and married another man. His Lord could not forget the humiliation he received from his first love. However, he used it as an opportunity and overcame all sorts of difficulties, then he eventually managed to grow his businesses on a large scale, including Stephen’s Bank to its peak.”
It was the first time Gloria had heard about this. Pretending not to see the gradually darkening look on her face, the butler continued.
“His Lord, who thought he had finally made enough money, visited his first love from 40 years ago. His Lord said to her that he has more money now. He requested that Julie leave her husband and come with His Lord. His Lord persuades Julie Innis to live together. Unfortunately, Julie Innis had a cruel husband, so she didn’t lead a good life.”
“In that case, His Lord should have married her back then. Not me.”
Gloria muttered. If only the Baron had married Julie, Gloria wouldn’t have to be here now. Gloria would’ve been enjoying her freedom now.
The butler nodded enthusiastically as if agreeing with her.
“I wish that had happened too. Unfortunately, on the night when His Lord came to visit her, Julie Innis chose another poor path on the tree near her home. The suicide note was found and told that she was the only one who would still feeling miserable, despite having a choice to marry His Lord and left her husband to have a happy life. After that, His Lord lived alone and lonely whilst longing for his heartbreaking first love.”
Gloria, who heard the story was dumbfounded and just laughed. No wonder the designer was talking about the baron’s love story. It was the detail of the story that the pitiful lady talked about briefly when they met earlier.
“So the reason the Baron wants to marry me is because I resemble his first love?”
The butler did not answer, but only slightly dropped his head.
The butler told Gloria about this story on purpose. He felt dissatisfied that a humble commoner had replaced such a future baroness.
‘Despite the fact that she’s going to sit on the position of baroness, she’s just a substitute. Therefore, she must live up to her position.’
The butler swallowed his anger with this thought in mind. He had attempted to push her sister into the baroness’s seat. He even dyed her hair and change his sister’s eye color. A woman who looked exactly like Julie Innis appeared and ruined all those plans. It was some kind of relief he could offer for his failure.
Right. Baron Stephen was only trying to marry Gloria because she looks like his first love. He wasn’t in love with Gloria, but only saw her appearance and was led by the imagination of Julie Innis whom he loved.
Gloria smiled bitterly as she looked around the room that was given to her, which was very beautiful but somehow looked old-fashioned.
“Now I get why this room is called ‘Julie’s Room’.”
She looked in the mirror again and saw the mannequin standing in a tacky wedding dress. The mannequin had straps at her joints, looked wobbly, as if she was about to collapse at any moment.
Gloria felt frustrated by the tight bodice wrapped around her. She saw the illusion that this ill-fitting dress was trying to crush her body in an instant. I immediately felt suffocated.
“Help me…”
Gloria struggled while clutching her neck with both hands. She gasped, her eyes were rolled onto the back, and seemed to be in pain. The only thing visible was only the white part of her eyes. The servants cried out in shock.
“Oh my God, young Lady!”
The oldest servant held Gloria’s body when she fainted. The maid gave instructions to the other maids and loosening the straps of the dress that was wrapped around Gloria’s body.
“Here, get the scissors…! Ah, no, no, bring some water as well!”
Gloria was unconscious. She swallowed and shouted angrily. The butler panicked and ran out to call the doctor, while the servants moved around frantically and shouted at each other.
‘It wasn’t me. After all, I’m not loved by anyone.’
‘How life can be so cruel to me?’
Her husband still longed for the dead woman. She could now only live by pretending to be a woman named Julie whom she had never met before. No one in the world wanted Gloria as herself.
Gloria felt dejected as she scratching the carpeted floor with her nails.
‘I’m lonely. I’m lonely.’
Gloria thought that no one in the world wanted her.
She should have persuaded Claude to run away with her yesterday. Or, she should have gone out in the rain alone. That way, she wouldn’t have become a baroness merely in name.
As Gloria tore the dress at the tightness of her chest, the beaded thread on the wedding dress also fell apart and the beads rolled down and scattered on the floor.
Soon after, the doctor who came in with a handkerchief that had been mixed with anesthetic pressed it to her face. Gloria struggled for quite a while before she fell unconscious.
* * *
That night when Stephen got home and heard about what happened, he just clicked his tongue and brushed if off.
“Tsk. That’s because she’s too weak. This is why we should check for the heir. Call the gynecologist to the residence tomorrow. Preferably a female doctor.
“Yes, Your Lord.”
“When she comes tomorrow, tell her to check if Gloria can give birth to an heir. Oh, and see if she has done anything with men before.”
The butler bowed his head as if he had became familiar to Baron Stephen’s cold remarks. He accused the baroness for making His Lord angry. Then suddenly, he recalled a message that nearly got missed from the Baron. The butler asked the Baron carefully when he relayed Gloria’s message.
“Your Lord. Your wife wants you to change the wedding dress you have chosen with a different design, what should we do?”
The butler’s words got the baron irritated.
“She will wear whatever is given to her! Why does she have so many complaints? Go tell her that she can’t change her wedding dress’ design!”
“Yes, Your Lord.”
The Baron became angry and took a bottle of whiskey from the shelf.
The wedding dress was the resemblance design that his first love, Julie Innis, wore when she got married. It should have been Julie who married him and wore that dress. That way, Julie wouldn’t have lived a miserable life. Regretting it, he down the strong whiskey in his mouth. It has been 40 years since Baron thought about those regrets.
“She should be grateful that she resembles Julie. She should have been grateful to live and be a good baroness. Tsk.”
In the Baron’s memory, Julie Innis was already venerated as a saint. To him, Gloria was just a tool to give birth to an heir.“Ah, Henrick. Ask Rudrick to get me the things I told you about before.”
“Things that Your Lord told about before?”
“Didn’t you hear it?! Why didn’t you have that thing Rudrick bragged about when he was drinking until he had a son?!”
Rudrick was one of the staff in charge of the provincial branch above Stephen. He always succeeded in giving birth to a son after one night and loved to exaggerate and brag about things.
Rudrick often bragged about his wife giving people a great drug before they got pregnant. The medicine was said to be good for male energy and created by a famous witch 200 years ago prior to her death. It was also said to be able to save dying people. How could he say such strange things in front of people without feeling embarrassed?
It was common knowledge that among the high-ranking people, who hated him on the surface, secretly went to Rudrick and attached to him for that. The Baron asked him how he could get the medicine, but he couldn’t give the Baron information that easily, and instead said that it was a business secret.
It was only then that Henrick’s butler understood what his Lord wanted, and quickly exited the baron’s office.
‘I have to manage it immediately after the wedding.’
The butler began to be concerned about the baron’s fortune that could possibly fall into Gloria’s hands. It must have been too late after she gave birth later. Although he failed to push his younger sister as the baron’s wife, regardless of the fact that if she bear a child first, she would still became a concubine or mistress.
But the Baron was already approaching 80 years old. The butler quickly turned his head while thinking this was still worth-trying.
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