Certainly, what must be refused · 13. May 2025

CWMBR 6

Chapter 6

***

Normally, she would have gobbled it up, but the thought of Ain in the dining hall, with all the delicious food in front of her, made her mouth sour and her appetite dry up.

Bridget left the trolley where it was and entered the bedroom. She'd left the window open a crack earlier, and the air had cooled in an instant.

She rekindled the dying fire in the fireplace and closed the window. The rain had been falling hard, and the open window was damp. She slammed it shut, muffling the sound of the rain, and silence descended on the bedroom. Bridget shifted her gaze from the roaring fire in the fireplace.

The carpet, a makeshift cover-up to hide the bloodstains, was unfamiliar. Still staring at the carpet, Bridget slowly approached it. Grabbing it by the scruff of the neck, she lifted it slightly, revealing a wooden floor. The red stain had seeped through the dark grain.

As soon as she saw it, her stomach dropped. It felt like something was rumbling, spilling.

She wondered if it was the intermittent blood loss of her miscarriage.

The fishy odor from somewhere was more depressing than unpleasant. In fact, the tears stopped, but the bleeding never seemed to stop. Blood that had the hem of her skirt.

Her fingertips tingled as she swept across the floor. A thorn must have broken through from the roughly polished hardwood floor where they’d been trying to remove the bloodstain. It scratched deeply, and a clear droplet of blood gushed out. Bridget stared down at it, dumbfounded.

Then again, she swept her hand across the floor in despair.

As she had every day since the miscarriage.

***

It rained longer than she expected. It poured for two more days, and both Bridget and Ain had stayed in the manor house.

If Bridget was used to being left unattended at the mansion, Ain was not. After all, he was a man for whom time was money, and he abhorred pointless waste. After three days of being stuck in the mansion for no purpose, it was only natural that he should be feeling a little frustrated.

So he decided to take out his frustration on Bridget since he had had nowhere else to vent it.

Bam!

Bridget, who had been crouching on the floor, lifting the carpet as she did every day, slowly raised her head. The man, who seemed larger and taller from below, stood in the doorway, looking down at her.

"You don't have the energy to make it to the dining room?"

Bridget glanced at Ain.

It felt strange to face him in this bedroom so many times in recent days. It was the only bedroom in the mansion that she considered her own, and yet this man seemed to be invading it, and it was an unpleasant realization.

“Is this how you exploit your employees when you live alone?”

“Exploit?”

"It's not their job to do all the work of a lazy hostess."

Lazy hostess.

Bridget was speechless, never having heard that word before.

More than anything else, she was stunned that he would refer to her as a "hostess”. It was not a word she would expect to hear from a man who had just announced his intention to file for an annulment.

"What the hell is this....................."

"I don't know why you're chasing me all the way down here, do you need evidence to build a case in your favor?"

Ain Wise did not engage in unnecessary and inefficient behavior. He despised arguing, especially as a waste of time, so there must be some purpose and intent behind his rushing in to argue. Bridget guessed it was probably about the annulment suit. There was no other reason.

But even if she found a plausible explanation, it still didn't make sense.

"Soon everyone will know about this lawsuit, and if you're making such a big deal about it, does that mean you're sure you're not going to lose? Then there's no need to come here and have this unnecessary conversation."

Ain's expression remained hard. In general, he always looked like that. It wasn't just that he had to be on edge every minute of every day, dealing with huge sums of money. As far as she could tell, he was that way by nature.

Sensitive, cranky, suspicious, and full of complaints. From a young age.

"Yes, it's an unnecessary conversation, but it caught my eye, so I'll check it out."

Bridget nodded, her expression dignified in response to his disapproval.

"I've been in this manor for months, and it's unbecoming of a master to have his servants' grievances come to his attention now."

The corners of Bridget's mouth curved faintly. It was a cold smile.

"You've taken the first step, and you should see what lengths they're willing to go to in order to serve me."

Bridget slowly pushed herself to her feet. Her gaze swung around the bedroom, which was obviously untouched by the servants, and stopped on the trolley lying in a heap.

"Ah, they must have gone to the trouble of pushing that trolley all the way up here, that's for sure."

The trolley, which held a couple of bowls at most, was light enough for a child to push. A white cloth was draped over the top, but she could tell from its outline how meager the table was. Ain, who hadn't even realized the trolley existed, frowned at it.

"What else is there? The trouble of making food? I can't agree that's a lot of trouble. They take care of their own meals, so it's just adding one more, and maybe it's easier than feeding you.”

Bridget turned away, the urge to rest overwhelming her, but Ain had no intention of stopping his pointless nitpicking.

"Why do you insist on eating in your room? Your legs look fine from the way you walk around."

"I didn't realize that would make me look ugly. I'm sorry, I've never been to the dining room before, so I don't know where it is."

Of course, she was lying when she said she didn’t know where the dining room was. Only an idiot wouldn't know the layout of a mansion they'd been staying in for months. However, it was hard to tell if saying she didn’t know was a complete lie, because she'd never been "shown" to the dining room.

"What?"

Ain asked in disbelief. After glancing at him, Bridget turned her head and stared out the window.

This was her bedroom. Not 'Mrs. Wise's bedroom', but 'Bridget Pennington's bedroom'.

"Do you realize how much closer this room is to the kitchen? It would have been much easier for anyone to push a trolley up here than to set up food in the dining room, so think of it that way."

When she first came to the mansion, Coleman, the mansion's general manager, gave her the guest room, claiming that he had been called in unexpectedly and hadn't prepared properly.

That was months ago. Bridget now realized that he hadn't even bothered to organize the hostess's room in the first place.

"It's not as if all the 'trouble' they've been through hasn't happened, for all you know."

After all, all the ill-treatments she received here was predicated on Ain Wise's acquiescence. So it would be a pointless waste of energy to go over every single one of them now.

After noticing Ain standing there speechless and somewhat annoyed, Bridget announced in a nonchalant tone of voice.

"If you have nothing else to add, please leave, this is my bedroom for now."

***

During the rain, Ain visited Bridget a few more times, but he left without having a long conversation. Bridget didn't respond to him for a long time because his conversations were really useless, and she ignored him time and time again because she was really unwell and didn't have the energy to deal with him.

At first Ain was fierce with her, as if he thought she was trying to play mind games with him, but she ignored him, so he didn't do much more.

After a few more days, the rain stopped.

He'd leave the manor soon, at least it'd be quieter.

Bridget was relieved, but unfortunately, Ain did not leave immediately. Bridget was in a quandary.

If he didn't leave, she could leave, but sadly, over the next few days, Bridget's health deteriorated rapidly. Magnus was right: her body had not yet recovered enough strength for a long carriage ride.

Bridget knew that with her neglectful care of her own body she would not be able to leave immediately, and the suitcase she had packed for immediate departure had been lying in the same spot for days.

"It's ..................."

"Then..................."

She heard someone talking outside her window. Bridget sighed as she glanced outside in annoyance.

Ain was seen grabbing some of the hired help and yelling at them. He was picking fights with Bridget, and suddenly, as if something triggered, he was wandering around every corner of the manor for the next three or four days. Bridget could see that the servants were sweating profusely at his capricious behavior.

But now that the rain had stopped, he seemed to be walking around the outside of the mansion. Bridget watched them nonchalantly from the window, then closed the slightly ajar window tightly.

She was relieved to hear no more voices. She drew the curtains to block out the view, and lay down on her bed, feeling refreshed.