THIBV - Chapter 122

At that moment, Penelope was lying curled up, hugging her hungry stomach.

No matter how much she ate in the prison, she was still hungry. The soup, which consisted of just a loaf of bread with a few pieces of beans and carrots, was tasteless and she would get hungry again as soon as she turned around.

Penelope kept screaming, so the bread served became smaller than before. It was meant to discourage her.

Penelope, who had lost the energy to cry, lay quietly and blinked her eyes.

'When the hell is the next trial? Why won't you even tell me that? You bad guys. I told you there are only bad guys in the world.'

Many thoughts crossed her mind.

If only Bridget had been properly harmed from the beginning, this wouldn't have happened. Bridget should have died at the Count of Kensington.

Penelope was lost in her meaningless and malicious thoughts when suddenly their door opened with a loud crash and she heard the quiet, swoosh of feet in leather shoes approaching.

Penelope raised her head and looked back, then saw the face of the person approaching her and jumped up.

"Nanny!"

"Shh... I came secretly. Don't make any noise."

The nanny, who had pulled a shawl over her head and hidden her face, put a finger to her lips.

As Penelope approached her on her knees, the nanny hesitated at the stench from her. But soon she asked with a worried look on her face.

"How are you? You must have been worried a lot. What terrible people. How could they bring your precious person to a place like this..."

"Nanny..."

Penelope's heart ached.

"Bridget came and said that the nanny had run away, but that was a lie! The Duke of Linchester is looking for me, isn't he? He hasn't abandoned me, has he?"

"Yes. The Duke is looking for a way to help Madam. Isn't that why he sent me here?"

"Yes, yes. Thank you very much. Tell the Duke that if he saves me, I will never forget this favor. Yes?"

"Oh my, your beautiful face is badly hurt. It's so sad..."

Then, the nanny took out a sandwich with meat and vegetables and a water bottle full of clean water from the bundle she had brought and handed it to Penelope through the bars.

"You haven't had a proper meal, have some."

"Thank you. Nanny!"

Penelope, who had been gulping when her nanny took the sandwich out of the bundle, bit into it greedily as soon as she received it.

The texture of the crunchy, fresh vegetables and the flavor of the smoky, savory ham were exquisite.

It seemed like it was the first time in her life that she had ever eaten such delicious food.

Penelope felt like she was about to crу.

"Please chew it slowly and thoroughly."

The nanny opened the lid of the water bottle.

Penelope held the sandwich in one hand and drank it with the other.

The food in her mouth gulped down her throat.

The nanny, who had been staring blankly at it, turned around and said she couldn't stay here long and would see her later.

Penelope sat against the iron bars with a face full of hope, watching the nanny's back until she disappeared, then suddenly coughed.

"Cougj! Cough, cough!"

What the heck? 

Her throat felt like it was burning.

Penelope suddenly felt short of breath, tried to catch her breath, and coughed hard again.

"Cough! Cough!"

Something rose in her throat.

What came up along with the remains of the sandwich she had just chewed and swallowed was a red lump of blood.

"Huk! Ugh! Th... this is... Ugh!"

A panicked Penelope tried to call the guard, but her voice was silent.

She couldn't breathe.

"Ugh! Huh! Ugh!"

Penelope rolled on the ground, clutching her neck.

Her face turned bright red and clumps of blood kept spewing out of her mouth.

Penelope stared at the water bottle the nanny had given her with wide eyes.

But that was only for a moment, as her hand soon fell away.

There was no further movement.

The cold dungeon became silent without any sound of life.

***

The nanny leisurely left the court and headed straight to the Duke of Linchester.

The Duke wanted to see this for his son's house.

"Well done, Your Highness."

"Is it obvious?"

"I saw with my own eyes that he was mindlessly drinking poison. I'm sure of it."

"Well, good job."

The Duke of Linchester smiled with satisfaction.

The nanny smiled proudly and waited for the next thing to happen.

The Duke, who found her after she ran away in the middle of the night with Eli and fled to her relative's house, promised to give her a large sum of money if she would just finish this matter.

So the nanny went back and found Penelope.

Now a purse full of gold coins was about to be handed out.

The Duke of Linchester gave orders, to the butler beside him.

"Deal with it."

At that moment, the butler raised the sword he had been hiding behind his back and struck the nanny's neck...

The nanny collapsed without even screaming because she didn't know anything.

The Duke of Linchester chuckled.

"You can't let me be put on trial. How dare you do something like this."

Penelope was a thoroughly discarded card.

The Duke of Linchester laughed at Bridget.

"Did you think you had me all figured out by getting Charlotte? Oh, right. Even though you're smart, you're still a kid."

But it wasn't a refreshing laugh.

The Count of Kensington's military fund corruption scandal, his breakup with the Count of Peyton due to his involvement in the trafficking and murder of war orphans, and the betrayal of Charlotte and the Count of Highbury.

Through these events, it became clear to everyone that the power held by the Duke of Linchester was in jeopardy.

It was Bridget who bit and tore it up with Julian.

The Duke of Linchester was in tatters.

But it wasn't just the power of the sun that he had.

He kept his true power hidden in the shadows.

'Maybe it's time to move them now."

His eyes became fierce.

***

Bridget agreed to testify but was relieved to hear that Penelope had found her missing employees.

After Cedric had done some searching, it seemed that the security forces had found the people unconscious in a warehouse on the outskirts of the capital and taken them in.

Cedric said he went and proved their identities and brought them back to Winston Manor.

'I'm glad everyone is safe.'

But the relief was short-lived.

An investigator from the court rushed to the palace and told them that Penelope was dead.

"What? How did that happen?"

"No one has seen it."

"No way!"

Bridget had bribed the guards in advance to prevent something like this from happening. She had even arranged for no one to visit Penelope!

The investigator who had just rushed to Bridget was also a member of the new royalist faction that Bridget had recruited.

He also seemed frustrated and expressed his anger.

"I found out that the guards we had bribed have disappeared. Everyone who worked that day has been replaced. Even the court cleaners. The Duke of Linchester is involved. This means that they had already planted people before we bribed them."

"Ha..."

She was wondering why things were going smoothly.

Bridget, unable to overcome her sense of despair, slumped down on the sofa.

It seemed as if everything that had been painstakingly planned to bring Penelope and the Duke of Linchester together had gone down the drain.

"It was because I was making too much of a fool of the Duke of Linchester. I never thought I would be caught off guard like this."

Bridget slammed her fist into the armrest.

She was angry.

'What a loach!'

Millea, who had been listening quietly from the side, consoled Bridget.

"He's an expert at this. It's not easy dealing with someone who has spent his whole life bribing and enticing people. Don't be impatient, Bridget."

In fact, Millea thought it was amazing that Bridget had done this much to the Duke of Linchester.

Didn't she give birth to a force?

Without any proper title, without anything inherited or accumulated, and even with a woman's body.

Moreover, even in this embarrassing situation, Bridget was able to point out something that others had overlooked.

"We need to start by taking care of his finances. I've already cut off several major sources of funding, but seeing him spend so much money on such a large scale means that the Duke of Linchester still has a lot of money flowing in."

The most likely candidate was the Duke of Linchester's second son.

This is the story of the second son who, without receiving a title, became independent from the Duke and entered the loan business.

The second son, Nigel, a notorious scoundrel, was known to have been expelled from the Duke of Linchester at an early age, and so he used the surname Abington without permission.

"I'll have to put someone on Nigel Abbington."

"It won't be easy to get someone to join him. He takes young boys and raises them to be gangsters, so the organization is tight-knit and completely rejects outsiders."

"Even an iron fortress has holes."

Bridget muttered something unintelligible.

"In this case, a beauty Queen might work."

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