Chapter 21
Dante hadn’t touched the cake at all.
His expression was terribly complicated, as though the current situation was tormenting him.
The cake was delicious, and Seymour had even praised him, so why was he making that face?
‘Does he hate cake?’
No, that couldn’t be it.
As far as Rowena knew, there was no such thing as a child who disliked sweets.
Yet in the end, Dante rose from his seat without even laying a hand on the cake.
“Huh? Dante, you’re not eating the cake? It’s really good.”
“I’m not eating it.”
For some reason, the reply that came back was cold.
Dante glanced between the cake and Rowena before finally turning away.
“…You should just eat more of it yourself.”
The words that followed sounded strangely drained of strength.
Thud. The door closed behind Dante, and Rowena blinked with her fork still between her lips.
‘That’s strange.’
Even if she didn’t know anything else, one thing was certain.
The conflict in Dante’s eyes as he looked at the cake had been unmistakable.
‘He obviously wants to eat it. So why won’t he?’
Rowena replayed what had just happened in her mind, step by step.
And then suddenly—
‘Could it be…?’
A thought crossed her mind.
* * *
The study of the Somerset Ducal Estate.
Dante’s hand, which had been turning the pages of a book, abruptly stopped.
No matter how many times he read the words, none of them entered his head. He had already been circling the same passage for the third time.
Dante knew why.
There was a face he couldn’t erase from his mind.
‘Rowena Whitfield.’
The tension he had briefly loosened after being deceived by that innocent face returned the instant he heard Seymour’s words.
Seymour had only intended to praise Dante, but to him, the words had sounded as though Seymour were expressing affection toward Rowena instead.
The joy he had felt from receiving praise from his uncle vanished in less than a minute.
‘That child was brought here to become my heir. How dare you insult Somerset?’
This time, the target had been Count Devon.
But next time, Dante himself might be the one hearing those words.
Seymour had the power to take away everything that should have belonged to Dante.
And Rowena would innocently smile while holding everything stolen from him in her hands.
‘I can’t trust anyone.’
No—he mustn’t trust anyone.
After his parents died, Dante had seen adults change their attitudes in an instant more times than he could count.
The head maid who had always cared for him kindly was caught trying to flee after stealing his mother’s valuables.
A man who had claimed to be his father’s friend had slyly inserted himself into the family and tried to exert influence.
If not for Dowager Lady Hayworth and Seymour, Dante would have had no choice but to watch all of it helplessly.
‘Of course, I’m always grateful to the two of them.’
Even so, Dante still couldn’t trust even them completely.
How could he know they weren’t secretly siphoning off the Graham family fortune behind the guise of protecting him?
To a child who had gone through too much too quickly after losing his parents, there was no such thing as a trustworthy adult.
Even the servants who had always taken care of him were objects of suspicion.
Living in fear that everything could be taken away from him at any moment—that he could be cast out—was exhausting.
‘I need to become useful as soon as possible.’
Suddenly, Dante remembered the strawberry fraisier cake he had left behind.
It had definitely looked delicious.
But wanting things like that wasn’t mature.
If he looked spoiled—if by some chance people began to dislike him because of it…
‘…No.’
As though trying to sever the chain of thoughts, Dante shook his head.
‘If I keep doing what I’ve been doing until now, it’ll be fine.’
He just needed to live quietly, as though he barely existed.
Just as he calmed himself with that thought—
Tap tap tap.
Footsteps approached, and then the study door burst open.
“Dante!”
“…Rowena?”
Dante immediately frowned deeply. The feelings he had barely settled churned violently again.
Why did this girl always appear at times like this just to torment him?
A sudden, unreasonable resentment rose inside him.
But Rowena simply ran up to him with a bright smile and grabbed his hand tightly.
“I knew you’d be here! Come on, let’s go!”
“What are you even talking about? Where would I go with you?”
Dante snapped harshly, but Rowena paid no attention and began chattering away.
“Listen, Dante. I just saw something, okay? They brought green-grape apples into the kitchen!”
“…Green-grape apples? You mean Snow White apples?”
A specially cultivated variety of apple with the scent of green grapes—Snow White.
It was famous for its unusually pale white color, unlike ordinary apples.
And for being incredibly expensive.
“So what about it?”
“What do you mean, what about it? They’re green-grape apples, Dante!”
Rowena narrowed her eyes and grinned mischievously.
“We should sneak some and eat them!”
“…What?”
For a moment, Dante doubted his hearing.
But the warmth of the hand gripping his told him this was still reality.
“I tried sneaking into the kitchen, but it’s way too big, so it won’t work. That’s why I need someone to keep watch. You can be lookout! If we succeed, I’ll split it with you. Sounds fun, right?”
“So that’s what this nonsense was about… Why would I do that?”
Dante was genuinely dumbfounded now and roughly shook her hand off.
Thinking that a girl like this might become Somerset’s heir only made it worse. It was almost contemptible.
“If you want to do something like that, do it alone. Don’t drag me into it.”
“But it’s more fun together.”
“Fun?”
At last, Dante’s already fragile patience snapped.
“Of course you can treat it like fun. Everyone likes you! But I’m not the same!”
Even if Rowena got caught stealing apples from the kitchen, a simple apology would probably be enough for her to be forgiven.
At worst, she might get lightly punished.
That would be all.
But not him.
He couldn’t afford to act childish.
He couldn’t afford to do things that would make people dislike him.
All the emotions he had been suppressing burst through the dam at once.
“If I do something like that, Uncle might abandon me. Do you understand? I’m different from you! I—”
“Why would the Duke abandon you?”
“…What?”
Dante frowned.
But Rowena looked exactly the same as always.
That uniquely innocent and lovable face.
Those plump cheeks brimming with laughter that looked ready to burst out at any second.
A playful expression that seemed to find the entire situation amusing.
Rowena giggled as though this were ridiculous, then said:
“I’m the one who came into this family so you could inherit the title. Why would the Duke abandon you?”
I knew it!
You idiot!
* * *
The clue had been the fact that Dante hadn’t eaten the cake.
‘There were always kids like that at Townsend, too.’
Children who wouldn’t eat their snacks during snack time, instead giving them away to other children or leaving first.
Even though they obviously wanted to eat them too.
Those children all shared something in common.
They tried to behave more maturely and properly than the others, and they were extremely conscious of other people’s opinions.
‘And they were always kids who had only recently arrived at Townsend.’
Rowena had been at Townsend since she was too young to remember. According to the teachers, she had been there since infancy.
So Townsend was practically her home.
But children who entered when they were older were different.
For them, Townsend could never truly become home.
Whether in a good way or a bad way.
‘They always thought that if they caused trouble, they might get kicked out of Townsend.’
But usually, within less than a month, those children became just as mischievous as everyone else.
The method was simple.
‘You just show them they won’t get kicked out!’
Once they caused trouble a single time, the problem tended to resolve itself surprisingly easily.
After all, once they realized the consequences of the thing they feared so much weren’t actually that terrible, they finally relaxed.
And in Rowena’s eyes, Dante wasn’t any different from those children.
“You idiot, I came into this family so I could marry you! So I could make you the next Duke of Somerset!”
