Beatrix likes Desserts

Beatrix, standing in front of the large glass window, looked out at the scenery outside.
This window was the only connection to the world that told her autumn had come when the leaves fell, winter when it snowed, and spring when the petals scattered.
Lately, the colorful butterflies flying around the garden told her that summer was ending.
‘It’s a life I’m just living because I can’t die.’
‘What’s so important about the changing seasons that I stand here every day and watch the changing scenery?’
Creak.
Just then, a car suddenly stopped outside the window.
Beatrix knew that her other connection to the world had arrived.
The person who got out of the car was Gwendolyn.
An old connection and friend whose hair had turned as white as her own.
Knock, knock.
Not long after, Gwendolyn knocked on the door of the sunroom.
Beatrix turned her head.
“Come in.”
Gwendolyn, who had opened the door and entered, stood her parasol against the wall.
“You know, there were places where the leaves had already fallen on my way here today. Autumn will be here soon.”
In Gwendolyn’s hand, there was a dessert box again this time.
She never came empty-handed.
A sweet scent was leaking from the dessert box.
“It’s a crumble made with the plums I picked from the backyard yesterday. They’re perfectly ripe.”
Beatrix did not like desserts, but she would take a bite or two, thinking of Gwendolyn’s sincerity in always making desserts with seasonal fruits.
Gwendolyn seemed to know that Beatrix, who just stood by the window and watched the seasons change, would not eat seasonal fruits with her own hands.
“It’s well-baked.”
Beatrix, who had taken a small bite of the crumble and swallowed it, gave a nonchalant compliment.
At that sight, Gwendolyn smiled without a sound.
“Do you know that at times like this, madam, you look exactly like the young lady Selene?”
“She doesn’t resemble me.”
“You’re probably the only person who would say that, madam.”
Beatrix could not really sympathize with those words.
Selene’s face looked like a mixture of her parents, Nicholas and Lily, and her personality, which had a peculiar side, was completely different from hers.
However, in a situation like this, it was not important who the child resembled.
As she thought of Selene, the shadow that lingered around Beatrix’s eyes deepened.
“Is Selene doing well?”
“Yes, she went through a difficult time for a while, but I think she’s much better now.”
That was a relief, at least.
It was a shocking thing to find out that the man she had been seriously dating had approached her for her fortune.
‘Although it’s my fault.’
Beatrix admitted that she had chosen the wrong day.
She had intended to finish talking with Orlando before Selene’s competition began, but the situation had gotten complicated.
It wasn’t something to be rushed just because it was a rare outing.
But how would she have known?
That Evelyn would burst in while she was talking with Orlando.
And that Evelyn would go straight to Selene and reveal Theron Cox’s true identity.
“She must be resenting me.”
Beatrix had hidden the reason why Theron Cox had approached Selene, wanting Selene to get married and have a child quickly.
Because she was confident that that man would fall helplessly for Selene.
Although her intentions were not as bad as Orlando’s, the act of trying to manipulate Selene for a purpose was no different from him.
She regretted that fact a little now.
“The young lady Selene is not the type to deeply resent anyone.”
“She resembles Nicholas in that aspect as well.”
‘Nicholas had never greatly resented or disapproved of his only brother in his life.’
“It’s true. Seeing as she didn’t even question Lord Orlando after finding out everything. And she’s still on good terms with the young lady Evelyn.”
“I see…”
“To be very honest, she might have been a little disappointed in you, madam, but I’m sure you can work it out through conversation later.”
That was by no means an easy task.
Conversation was one of the difficult things for Beatrix.
In the past, it hadn’t been difficult to open up and talk to others, but after Nicholas died, it became difficult to reveal herself completely to anyone.
“Even I, recently, asked for the young lady’s forgiveness for pretending not to know about Mr. Cox’s true identity, and she generously understood.”
“Even though you were just doing what I told you to.”
“Because it’s true that I deceived the young lady.”
Beatrix felt sorry for Gwendolyn.
She, who cherished and thought of Selene as much as she did, had almost been unnecessarily hated for being her eyes and hands.
“Instead, I’ve decided not to lie to the young lady anymore. So, even if it’s your request, madam, I can’t be a spy.”
Anyway, Beatrix had no intention of manipulating Selene from behind anymore.
If she did, that child might really come to hate her.
“But surprisingly, she seems to resent Mr. Cox a great deal. I’ve never seen the young lady so angry before.”
Gwendolyn smiled, picking at the crumble with her fork.
At that sight, Beatrix’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Don’t tell me those two are meeting again?”
“What do you think?”
Even while knowing that Selene would never meet a man who had deceived her, at Gwendolyn’s meaningful question, Beatrix’s brow narrowed.
“…Has Selene forgiven that man?”
“I’m not sure, but I think she’s in the process of forgiving him.”
Beatrix let out a hollow laugh.
“That’s absurd.”
“You might feel that way if you just hear it from me, but Mr. Cox is not ordinary either.”
Beatrix did not have the energy to be curious about her granddaughter’s love life.
But this time, it was a little different.
“Go on, tell me.”
“Don’t be surprised. To prove that money is no longer important to the young lady Selene, Mr. Cox demolished the company’s building that was almost completed.”
“Ha.”
“And that’s just a part of it. His eyes drip with honey just looking at the young lady Selene. He’s probably a person who would even be a servant.”
Then it was even more deplorable.
‘Why did he get played by Orlando’s tricks and take the long way around, even while loving her so much?’
“And studying abroad?”
Beatrix asked.
She had already learned through Gwendolyn that Selene wanted to go to study abroad at the Mulshe Graduate School on a distant continent, following Velora.
“She postponed her admission from this summer to the winter.”
“Not that she’s not going?”
“For now.”
‘For now.’
‘It meant there was a possibility that Selene would not go to study abroad.’
Then Beatrix had to support Theron.
Not in the role of having a child to succeed the title, but in the role of holding onto Selene.
Beatrix also did not want Selene to go on a study abroad from which she did not know when she would return.
She could not be sure that she would be alive and guarding this villa until that child returned.
“What about you, madam? Do you still think that the young lady Selene’s bloodline must succeed the title?”
Gwendolyn suddenly asked a difficult question.
“Well…. I’m not sure.”
While not wanting to force it on Selene, she absolutely did not want to pass it on to Orlando.
So, every time she thought about it, Beatrix still had a headache.
“How was it when you talked with Lord Orlando?”
“He didn’t admit to anything at all.”
He seemed to be planning to deny to the end that he had made Theron Cox approach Selene to steal the title.
It was evident from the way he had denied it with a calm and nonchalant face.
Orlando became more difficult to deal with as time passed, just as experience and wisdom came with age, not just for her.
“It was better when he was young.”
Beatrix remembered the youthful days of Orlando, who was full of vigor and youthful ardor.
He was a young man who was full of ambition and wanted to be recognized for everything.
That greed had become so great that he had made the mistake of unilaterally changing the management direction of the company she cherished.
That mistake was to make Saint Sa, which had been a social enterprise, double its sales, but in return, to make the immigrants they had been helping be neglected.
Orlando had destroyed the tower that Beatrix and her husband had painstakingly built in an instant.
But that was just a decisive factor.
Beatrix had known for a long time that Orlando was too greedy to lead the Ashcombe ducal family.
On top of that, she had been watching him because he had no qualms about sacrificing others for his goals.
She believed that if her husband had not died first, he would have made the same decision as her.
Love and devotion.
Orlando was a person who was almost the opposite of that ideology, which was no different from the roots of the family.
On the other hand, Nicholas was a suitable person who was as gentle as if he had been born of different blood from Orlando, and who knew how to embrace the people around him.
So, it was only natural that the turn would go to Nicholas, even if he was the second son.