THIBV - Chapter 28

"Lady Winston has left, Your Majesty."

"..."

Julian frowned. But that was it, there was no other reaction.

Milea approached Julian, examined his wounds, and applied ointment.

Although he's always had a lot of scars from being rough with his body, the new scar that appeared on his palm a few days ago felt a little strange.

Millea glanced at the handkerchiefs she had washed and left on the table next to Julian's bed.

It was a handkerchief embroidered with Bridget's initials.

Millea knew that Julian and Bridget had another private conversation, but she didn't ask either of them about it.

"She said something strange before she left."

Julian, who had been lost in thought while holding out his hand to Millea, finally looked up and looked at her.

"What are you talking about?"

"I hope that Your Majesty will be known as a righteous King who rooted out corruption, not a senseless murderer, regarding the death of the Count of Kensington."

Julian snorted.

"She said he wanted to help Your Majesty."

"What do you think?"

"She's a person who seems suspicious to believe at face value, but she's strangely endearing. I don't sense any ill will, but I personally think we need to be on guard."

Millea also told Bridget honestly that she had been attached to someone.

"If Your Majesty thinks badly of it, I will stop."

"Do whatever you want."

Julian took the hand she had been treated with.

"She's not exactly a trustworthy woman."

Millea looked at Julian as if she was surprised.

The blood on the corner of her mouth, the handkerchief, and the way she spoke as if she had known him for a long time.

There are more than a few suspicious circumstances between the two of them.

'But you don't trust her?'

Millea's doubts deepened.

***

As the carriage pulled out of the palace, I seemed to be troubled by something and then hit the wall of the carriage to call the coachman.

"Shall we stop?"

"I have a place to stop for a moment. Go to the Count Florence's house on 13th Street."

13th Street was a street densely packed with small townhouses, each with about four rooms.

A place where wealthy commoners who want to move up and poor nobles who can no longer go down live together.

My parents' house was on the corner of that street.

Just before I returned from hell and turned Winston Manor upside down, I wanted to see Josh.

***

"Bridget!"

Josh heard that Bridget was in the study and came up the stairs shouting Bridget's name from outside the door.

The stairs creake terribly but not louder than Josh's angry footsteps.

Bang!

"Bridget!"

"It's been a while, brother."

Bridget, who was sitting in an armed chair reading an old book her father had left to Josh, closed the book with a thud.

Josh's study was a small, worn-out space containing only a small desk, a single armchair, and three bookshelves.

This old townhouse had poor soundproofing, so if you spoke loudly in the study on the second floor, the sound would reach the rooms on the third floor and even the maid in the kitchen on the first floor.

The other family members were all out, so the only people in the building were Bridget, Josh, and the kitchen maid.

Bridget anticipated the noise and had sent the maid on an errand to the cookie shop to buy some snacks in time for Josh to arrive.

"Where the hell have you been? You ran away? Do you know how long I searched for you?"

Bridget was silent for a moment, listening to the sound of the front door on the first floor.

The door soon opened and closed as if the maid was going out to run an errand.

Only then did Bridget open her lips.

"Isaac, is that so? He said I ran away?"

"Isaac wants to divorce you. I've been holding onto his trouser leg to stop him from filing for divorce at the nobles' council."

Josh grabbed Bridget's wrist and shook it.

"Wake up. Why on earth are you doing this, Bridget? Why are you doing such a foolish thing? Is it because of Penelope? Just be fine. It's not a big deal for a husband to have a lover."

It's not that big of a deal.

Bridget was angry at Josh for not trying to understand her feelings and instead blaming her for them, saying it wasn't his business.

Bridget, who had shaken off Josh's hand, muttered in a low voice.

"It's not that big of a deal for a spouse to have a lover, but I don't understand why you broke off the engagement by nitpicking about your fiancée going on a trip with another man for a few days."

When fighting with her brother, Bridget doesn't have to be polite or show off, so she just uses the language she used when she was younger. A little sharper, a little more blunt.

Josh put his hand to his chest with a hurt look on his face.

"What, why are you suddenly bringing up something from the past? You know how much that made me suffer."

Bridget snorted in disgust.

"I liked Miss Julia. I felt bad for her, but she was kind to me. It wasn't a big deal, so you should have just covered it up and married her."

"That's different from your couple's work."

"What's different?"

"Julia slept with another man before she got married! Imagine carrying another man's seed in her womb and pretending it was my son. Our family almost fell into the hands of another man's bloodline."

"As a result, Miss Julia wasn't pregnant. But my brother broke off the engagement. Then, isn't the case of my husband bringing home a pregnant mistress a bigger problem than the case of my brother's ex-fiancée?"

Josh pressed his forehead as if he was tired.

He also blurted out his words without any consideration for whether his younger sister was hurt or not.

"Whether Isaac's child is born by you or Penelope, it's okay because he's his child. Don't compare the issue of the lineage to the issue of your feelings. You know it's ridiculous."

"Are you saying I'm being unreasonable? Huh?"

Bridget felt stifled as if she was staring at a wall.

A high, thick wall that prevents your voice from reaching the back no matter how much you shout.

She doesn't think it was this bad when he was younger, but Josh is now a narrow-minded, self-justifying being.

She felt that if we continued like this, it would end up as a childish argument.

Bridget, who had held back her excitement and calmed down a bit, stopped whining and spoke seriously.

"Then what if Isaac sold me to another man? He agreed to pay him something in exchange for allowing him to sleep with me? Would that be a big deal to you?"

"He sold you out...? This is crazy."

Josh looked very shocked.

"Really? Are you saying this out of anger or because it's true? Bridget, you shouldn't say things like that emotionally."

"It's true. Isaac had his maid give me sleeping pills. The servants kidnapped me and took me away."

Josh was speechless for a while as if he was dumbfounded. He just kept shouting in the air. 

"Wow, wow. I didn't know he was such a crazy kid!"

Bridget stared at Josh, his face red and his voice screaming into the air like a madman.

Her eyes were a bit more relaxed than when he had been mocking him a moment ago.

She studied Josh closely as if searching for something in his expression, his gestures, his eyes.

"You So? What happened after that? Tell me more."

Unable to tell Julian's story, Bridget mixed truth and lies.

"I was lucky to get out because the sleeping pills didn't work well. I got help from a nearby inn."

"Wow. I didn't even know that and just thought you ran away from home without thinking! That guy... did something like that and still shamelessly lied to me! Ah, Bridget..."

Josh felt guilty about himself for trying so hard to please Isaac.

He was angry that he had been begging Isaac to cover it up just this once, saying he would catch Bridget and make her beg for forgiveness.

"Hey, then you should have come looking for this guy! Just how pathetic were you planning on making this guy? Something like that happened, and you didn't send someone to contact him right away, and instead..."

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