THIBV - Chapter 85

Penelope left alone, gritted her teeth.

This humiliation was all because of Bridget.

"Ahhh! Bridget!!"

All her misfortunes were because of Bridget.

The reason she met Isaac without knowing he was that kind of man was because he was Bridget's husband.

Penelope ground her teeth and cursed Bridget.

"You should be unhappy, Bridget. You should be even more unhappy than l am!"

Her tantrum didn't end easily.

Penelope sobbed all night, but with nowhere to vent her frustrations, she picked up her pen again.

These days, the person she vents her melancholy feelings on is her father, Count Hudson.

Count Hudson had been getting invited to many social gatherings lately, thanks to Penelope's misfortune.

Penelope's tearful letters contained much about Bridget.

These days, society ladies seek out the Count of Hudson to find out who Bridget is.

So, whenever Penelope sent a letter, Count Hudson would comfort her with affectionate words that she had never felt before and told her to write to him whenever she wanted.

Penelope also noticed that her father had been going out to social gatherings a lot lately. She also noticed that he was talking about Bridget there.

She opened her swollen eyes with a start.

"You think I can't touch you just because you're sitting in a palace with high walls? You'll just have to wait and see, Bridget."

Penelope recently heard from her father that the Countess of Highbury had a miscarriage because of Bridget.

The Duke of Linchester was very angry about that.

Penelope looked down at her belly with venomous eyes.

"Father, Bridget touched my child too. I didn't tell 6 because I thought it was a coincidence, but she's been acting strange since then. I wonder if she did something to my child too."

"I'm so scared that this child won't be born normal."

Another letter was delivered to the Count of Hudson today.

The next day, Penelope went out without even a single maid.

From that day on, a dull thumping sound came from the room.

The maids, who found it suspicious, investigated the cause of the noise, but Penelope declared that she had no idea what it was.

"Something seems strange..."

It seems like something is going on in the room.

"What are you doing making such a thumping sound?"

"Are you going to jump out of bed?"

"Hey. Why would a pregnant woman do something like that unless she's crazy?"

"Surely she's not trying to pick on the kid, is she?"

"The master promised to register the child in the family register, so why would she do something like that now? And the baby is only a few weeks away from being born."

"Right? There's no way she could move the furniture by herself..."

"Aren't she going to start throwing things again?"

"I thought it was like that, but strangely the room wasn't that messy?"

"What...?"

No matter how hard the Winstons tried, they couldn't figure out what Penelope was doing in her room.

***

Millea took the girls, who were a little more timid than before, and began to be careful about what they said and did, out of the reception room and gave them rooms.

'I wonder if I'll end up doing babysitting work for nothing."

She liked taking care of others and was good at it.

Having no daughters, she was secretly happy to be taking care of girls a few years younger than Eric.

But she hid those feelings and deliberately looked at them coldly.

It would have been difficult if Bridget's maid brought in for political reasons, had been the one who had to be cared for by Millea.

Why did Seraphina say 'child'?

She couldn't figure it out.

She was thinking of just watching the girls for a while and kicking them all out if she felt like they weren't right.

After asking the maid candidates to pack their bags, she gave them some free time.

They made a total of three groups of three move together. Three was the easiest number to control when causing trouble.

Millea planned to secretly watch the girls and figure out their tendencies.

Just then Eric was seen getting out of the carriage and entering the dormitory.

It was Bridget who called to come and do the cleansing.

"Mother."

Eric greeted me warmly with a bright smile.

A smile spread across Millea's lips at her son's attitude.

"Why does it seem so lively here?"

"Bridget decided to take a maid."

“Aha.”

Eric smiled kindly and nodded to the girls passing by.

At this, some of the girls blushed.

Millea watched him closely, not missing a single thing.

It is okay to enter the palace if you want to meet a gentleman you like and socialize with him...

The purpose was transparent and there would be no problem.

However, you shouldn't become completely obsessed with dating and aim for just that.

'There are only a handful of numbers left before night falls.'

The number of applicants was twelve. Three of them left, so there were nine left.

There probably weren't many girls who wouldn't get excited when they saw Julian in the evening.

"Bridget is waiting. Come in quickly."

"Yes, Mother. Take care."

Eric, unaware that he was receiving a lot of attention from the girls, gave Millea a tender hug on the shoulder.

Standing in front of the reception room where Bridget was waiting, he glanced at his clothes briefly and then opened the door with a quick sigh.

"Mrs. Winston."

"Sir Eric."

Bridget rose to greet Eric.

She was wearing a bright spring dress today.

A bright teal silk dress trimmed with pink ribbons went well with Bridget's calm blond hair.

With her fair skin and rosy cheeks, Bridget looked like a single flower.

Eric's vision was filled with Bridget.

To him, she seemed like the prettiest part of a gardener's carefully tended spring garden.

"Welcome. How have you been?'

The sight of her smiling brightly and welcoming him was truly dazzling.

"That's what I did. Madam, you're bringing in a maid."

"I need a trustworthy messenger."

"I hope we can have a good relationship."

Eric asked cautiously.

"Have you been talking well with your younger sister since that day?"

Bridget's expression turned gloomy at Chloe's story.

"I brought up something unnecessary."

"No. I haven't had time to see my sister since that day. It would be more accurate to say I didn't make time."

Bridget smiled weakly, wrinkling the tip of her nose.

"Don't you feel like meeting your younger sibling?"

"Because if I meet Chloe, I'll run into other families too."

The thought made Bridget gasp.

Eric knew a bit about each other's family history, so Bridget felt comfortable bringing it up.

Bridget unknowingly confided her feelings to Eric, who was listening to her story with an affectionate face.

"Family is like a wall to me. A wall so thick and big that I can't hear the other side. When I face it, my heart feels heavy and I don't know what to do."

Eric nodded with a look of understanding on his face.

Instead of Bridget, he sighed and showed empathy through his facial expressions and gestures. He wasn't doing it on purpose: he was just good at empathizing.

Bridget found comfort in Eric, even though he didn't give her any advice or say anything else.

Feeling understood. That's quite empowering.

"But unless you want to ignore it and pretend not to know, don't delay for too long. In my experience, when conflicts arise in the family, the longer you hesitate, the harder it is to resolve them."

"How did Sir Eric solve it?"

"I couldn't solve it."

“Ah.”

Bridget realized that this was a conversation with his father. It seemed that he was not on good terms with Count Spencer.

Eric smiled sheepishly.

"I also have a big wall that I can't overcome."

"It's hard, family."

"Much more than any human relationship."

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