Lady Angelos personally paid a visit, and the Duchess received her politely, asking the purpose of her call.
Lady Angelos sneered. "You know perfectly well. I notified you days ago and more than once received no reply. It seems you really are busy."
The Duchess calmly replied that any unimportant letters would be handled by the butler on her behalf. Then the Duchess countered with a jab of her own, thorns hidden in her words. "Lady Angelos must also be very busy. No, your complexion is looking much older. Do take better care of yourself in the future."
In Dorothia's view, the reason the Duke did not show his age was that in addition to his authority, his swordsmanship had reached a high realm. But the Duchess clearly had none of that. How does she stay so young?
To change the subject, Dorothia hurriedly spoke first. "We've come this time to have Lady Elodie apologize."
Lady Angelos followed up with a sigh. "To have guests in the house, yet still not show herself for so long. How ill-mannered."
Arriving late, Elodie did not argue, but instead admitted fault first. "If I'd known you were coming, I would certainly have come on time."
In truth, even without Elodie saying a word, the Duchess had already guessed their objective.
So Elodie laid things out directly. "You were the one who approached my guard, and you said you felt dizzy and asked him to hold your hand. Is that what you're talking about?"
Dorothia gritted her teeth. "After that, he even wiped the hand that had touched me and then threw the handkerchief away right in front of me, as if I were filthy."
So she demanded that, as his employer, "You should acknowledge your mistake."
At that moment, Elodie's single "I'm sorry" slammed the mood to a halt.
Mother and daughter both froze, thinking they must have misheard.
Seeing them speechless, Elodie continued. "Since there was a misunderstanding, as his employer, it's true that I should apologize to you both."
The two of them were completely dumbfounded. They had never imagined that the once ruffianly Elodie would actually apologize of her own accord. Dorothia had nothing to say and could only grit her teeth and accept it.
Seeing the matter settled, the Duchess indicated that they might now have tea. Of course, Lady Angelos knew how skilled the Duchess was with poison, so her first reaction was suspicion. She must have poisoned it.
But the Duchess simply said, "There's no need to worry. Drink with peace of mind."
Elodie hastily added another layer of reassurance. "This tea was brewed personally by Mother. The taste and aroma are both first rate. You can drink it without worry."
Holding a might-as-well-try attitude, the mother and daughter still picked up their cups and took a sip.
Seeing that they were fine for the moment, Elodie smiled and said, "How could Mother poison anyone? Poisoning guests who come calling would be far too obvious."
But in Lady Angelos's eyes, their personalities were exactly the same, enough that calling them real mother and daughter would not be an exaggeration. Knowing full well that Elodie was not the Duchess's biological daughter, Lady Angelos made a snide remark. "It must be exhausting to have no choice but to raise an illegitimate girl as your own."
The Duchess's expression did not change. But to protect Elodie's dignity, she fired back at once. "Elodie is my daughter. Of course she's like me."
Seeing that they could gain no advantage, the Angelos mother and daughter could only slink away.
Elodie had never expected the Duchess to say those words.
Only then did the Duchess take out a bottle of antidote and tell Elodie to drink it soon.
Elodie was stunned. "Mother, you really did poison the tea?"
The Duchess explained that this poison was not lethal, but it was enough to keep them from going out for a while.
Frightened by her mother's sharp methods, Elodie turned and bolted.
Watching her retreating back, the Duchess instead felt, My daughter really is adorable.
The Duchess recalled how, when she was little, the moment she reached out a hand the girl would tremble like a frightened puppy. So the Duchess had deliberately kept her distance. But that time when Elodie greeted her of her own accord, then took the initiative to make an antidote, and even took the initiative to call her mother, all of it made the Duchess feel for the first time: so this is what being close is like.
At the same time, the moment the Duke of Angelos saw his wife's expression, he immediately told her to look in the mirror. Only then did Lady Angelos realize that her face was covered in black spots.
When Dorothia discovered her own disfigurement, she let out a piercing scream.
Not long after, rumors began to spread. The social butterfly Dorothia Angelos has shut herself in. What on earth happened?