The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 248: Catch the oddity

"I apologize for not giving you prior notice about my visit here, John. I came here right after I heard about Joanna being back here, which I really didn’t know about before. I haven’t seen her for a long time, and I didn’t see her off for her marriage last time. Since she is here, I came here hastily. I don’t want to lose the opportunity to see her. It is impossible for a married lady to stay forever in her maiden home, isn’t it?"

In the drawing room, where they gathered after the dinner, Aunt Camille initiated the conversation in a weak-sounding voice, representing a repentance yet delivering strong ground over the demand of explanation that was asked by Duke de Lara, who was sitting on a single couch next to the longer couch she occupied.

The tone she used to ask for an apology from the Duke was different from that toward Canillas when they were still in the dining room, and it was an apology that was made due to the strict request of the Duke.

If the Duke did not ask her to approach him for an apology, Canillas was sure that the judgmental elderly would not bother to lower even half a level of her voice to him. Hence, he simply gave a very light nod without uttering a single word, not even looking properly at the one who spoke to him.

There was no obligation for him to heartfully respond to a fake apology, an apology that was made to please his father-in-law. And that single nod he gave was only played as a symbol to respect his father-in-law, who had been respectful to him during his stay in his house, and did not overlook how others treated him.

Aside from that, he did not want to prolong unnecessary matters, as he was sure that he would not have any business to deal with her in the future.

The warmth was permeated in the air as logs of wood were burning brightly in the fireplace, casting a red-orange hue on the ivory walls that stood firmly in the room.

Standing not far from the fireplace was Phillip de Lara, and he was not alone, as the young lady named Valerie Preston seemed to have an interesting topic to converse with him about. And Joanna, who was sitting on the couch across from her father, could not retract her gaze from them, not even bothering to take a sip of warm tea from the cup she held and rested on her lap.

"This is also the idea of Valerie. I knew I should not..." Aunt Camille seemed to want to say something but hesitated and took a fleeting moment to pause as if weighing something as she looked at the Duke, who offered her an unfriendly look. She then continued, "She gave me a reason that I couldn’t overlook to come here. She missed Joanna so much, and she was sure that Joanna must love to see her coming to visit her. You know yourself how happy they were when they were together, right, John?"

Joanna immediately withdrew her eyes from the scene that was about two meters away from where she sat to look at the stepsister of her mother, a stepsister that her mother adored and regarded as her sibling.

She had wondered why both Valerie and her mother suddenly came to her home, made some scene, and caused her father to enrage. But it had never come across her mind that she was the main reason for their presence now in her home. Yet upon hearing that, she could not help but squint her eyes at the older lady who was speaking with her father.

Did she mishear what the older lady said as an explanation that was demanded by her father? Since she was certain that she did not, was it wrong if she doubted if she told the truth, as the young lady that was said to miss her a lot did not show the slightest thing to represent that feeling as she was busy talking with her brother since they left the dining room?

Did her father catch the oddity as well? She hoped her father did.

It was not the first time the lady that she called Aunt Camille visited her home. When her mother was still alive, she frequently came to visit and could take about a month-long stay in her home.

Her mother did not have a sister as a sibling. When her mother was nine years old, her grandmother passed away due to illnesses. About one year later, her grandfather remarried a widow, who was none other than his former sweetheart.

It was said that their big gap in the differences in social class forbade their young love from flourishing. They were forced to separate and build a family with the person that was chosen for them out of their willingness. But time and fate brought them back together.

Joanna did not know her mother’s true feelings regarding her grandfather’s remarriage at that time. She also did not know how her uncle, who was her mother’s older brother, responded to that.

What she knew was that the widow that her grandfather married brought in an eleven-year-old daughter from her previous marriage, and she was Aunt Camille. They had no children of their own after the marriage, and Joanna did not know whether it was intentional or not.

The other thing Joanna knew was that her mother grew up together with Aunt Camille in the same house until her mother married her father when she was eighteen. And to Joanna’s memory, they had always had a good and warm relationship like siblings. Hence, her father regarded Aunt Camille as family even after her mother was no longer living with them.

It was also her father’s gratitude for Aunt Camille, who often came to her home with the pretext of taking care of her and her brother. But her father refused when Aunt Camille offered to stay in her home on a daily basis until she came of age, and her father reasoned that Aunt Camille had her own family that was more right to be taken care of.

He also strongly declined the offer to nurture her and her brother in Aunt Camille’s house, although she reasoned that it would be hard for him to take care of his children while he had abundant responsibility as a duke. Her father said that it was his main duty and responsibility as a father.

Thus, she and her brother could have a strong bond with their father because he had always been with them despite his busy life as a duke.

Nonetheless, Aunt Camille was right that they had not seen each other for a long time, and the last time she and her daughter were here was about six to seven years ago.

She did not know why they suddenly stopped stepping their feet into her home. She had asked her father, but the answer she obtained at that time was ’I don’t know.’