The Duke's Eccentric Lady

Evidence of Innocence

Fiona was woken up hearing the sounds of knocking on her door. For a brief while, she forgot that she wasn't in her own bed, but in one of Duke Grahams' guest bedrooms. Her sleep was so sound and deep last night that she almost forgot last night's incident.

"My Lady? Have you woken up?" A feminine voice called from behind the door.

"Yes, you may come in," Fiona answered groggily while rubbing her eyes. That was a good sleep, it seemed that all the running last night had made her tired.

Two maids came inside of her room, carrying several necessities for her. They were different from the maids that attended her the other night, but they were as friendly as their colleagues. One of them brought a tray full of breakfast food and placed it on the bedside table next to her.

"Mr. Robert and His Grace had told us to serve you with the utmost comfort," the maid said while smiling at her. "Sarah, the maid who attended you last night, told us that your feet were red and blistered when she helped take off your shoes. Would you like me to massage them, My Lady?"

Fiona, who was in the middle of spreading rose hip jam on a slice of warm bread, immediately froze and stared at the maid awkwardly when she heard that.

"N-no! You don't have to, um..." She fumbled around her words. "Please, I feel bad if I make you work too hard for my sake. You are Duke Grahams' maids, not mine."

"Oh, nonsense, My Lady. Any esteemed guest of His Grace is our responsibility to take care of as well. But if you are uncomfortable with the massage, at the very least, please let us provide a basin with warm water for you to dip your feet in after your breakfast. My Lady couldn't possibly walk around with blistered feet."

Fiona became flustered. When she fled her family's mansion, she never thought the Duke would tell his servants to treat her so lavishly like this. She was already prepared to be detained and interrogated by Duke Grahams considering his fearsome reputation.

The black-haired woman enjoyed the breakfast provided for her. A hearty cream soup with several loaves of freshly baked bread and a cup of tea. Rosehip jam accompanied the meal, which she used to eat her bread with and mixed into her tea.

She came to notice that roses are a recurring theme in the estate. Rose insignia, a huge rose garden outside the mansion, the faint scent of rose cologne that the Duke wore, roses decorating every vase, and even rosehip jam. The Grahams held their symbol with pride that the Duke featured it on almost everything in his household. She found it kind of cute and even slightly dorky.

Hm? Wait… This kingdom's name is Rhois, right? Putting aside the legend that the name came from the Goddess Rho and the God Isaiah, doesn't that mean the word "rose"? Then, why is the Duke's family the one who had roses as their insignia instead of the Royal Family?

Huh… Fiona tried not to think about it too much. The things she read from the books in this world indicate that the Royal Family and the dukedom vassals have such a complex political power anyways.

Once she was done with her meal, one of the maids helped to move away from the tray and dirty dishes while the other provided the warm water basin she was promised. Fiona said her thank you before dipping her feet inside the basin, sighing in contentment as the warmth soothed her aching feet.

Another knock was heard from the door and this time, Robert came in.

"Good morning, My Lady," the elderly butler greeted her while smiling warmly, Fiona couldn't help but smile back as well. "His Grace said he would like to talk to you in his study once you are done with your breakfast. You might want to prepare and get dressed."

"O-oh, right!" Fiona was getting too pampered by the maids that she briefly forgot the main objective of why she was here.

This had been a recurring thought she had ever since her transmigration, but nobles in this world are very pampered, huh? Everything they do, their servants will help them do it for them. Even for things as easy as preparing a bath and brushing hair. The reason Fiona was able to quickly adapt to it was due to the new memories that she received.

After Robert closed the door back, the maids helped her bathe and change into the dress she was provided. The style of the dress was a bit out of the trend since it was the Dowager Duchess' old dress, but oh well, beggars can't be choosers. It still looks pretty anyways.

While she was being attended, the two maids reminded her of Margot and Mrs. Schwarz. Fiona frowned as she wondered what happened to the both of them back home. Surely the knights would've realized she was gone by now? All the more reason she must have an audience with the Duke as soon as possible, hopefully, he will also help the troubles she had back in the Coventry estate.

Once she was presentable, Fiona went out of the guest room and rendezvous with Robert. The elderly butler led her to Duke Grahams' office, in which the Duke had been sitting down on one of the sofas, Mr. Ricci and an unknown man with long hair accompanied him. The new company was wearing a long robe with brocades decorating its hems.

"Please, have a seat, Lady Coventry," the Duke started. Fiona nodded before sitting in front of him. "You must've remembered Ricci, my secretary. And this is Mikael Horvat, the mage I told you about last night."

"Good morning, Lady Coventry," Mr. Ricci said while smiling at her. He definitely looked fresher than his form last night. "Forgive my impudence the evening prior, I was so tired that my mind wasn't working properly anymore. But it was a pleasure meeting you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Ricci. And I'm also delighted to meet you, Mr. Horvat."

Mikael merely nodded at her in silence. It seemed that the mage wasn't a man of many words. He merely took something out of his long sleeves and placed it on the table. It was the wine glass she handed to Duke Grahams last night.

"Mikael had checked the wine glass earlier with his magic, and he had confirmed that there were traces of Fleeting Night's ingredients on it," the Duke said to her. "Personally, for me, this is enough to take over the murder investigations to clear off your name and find the real culprit. But I am curious; what other proof do you have that made you so sure of your innocence? Forgive me for being thorough, but after all, your rivalry with Lady Davenport to pursue Lord Oscar du Anderton's heart was… infamous."

Here it comes. Fiona straightened herself and cleared her throat before explaining things. She started by rolling the sleeve of her right arm and lifted his head just a bit, revealing the bruises she discovered.

"Just last night, I realized that these bruises had formed on my skin, mostly on the sides of my neck and on my right wrist," Fiona elaborated.

"I did not remember ever injuring myself in these places. Judging from the coloration, I had deduced that I probably obtained them around the timing of the ball. If I had to say, they must've been inflicted by the real culprit when they tried to force me to drink the drugged wine."

"Oh? How did you know it was from the culprit?" The Duke asked her. It was obvious from his gaze that he was intrigued with Fiona's explanations. "For all we know, you and Lady Davenport could've had an altercation with each other that would cause the bruises."

"At first, I thought so too, Your Grace. But then I realized the marks of the bruises were too far apart to be made by Lady Davenport's hands. What I am saying is that these were made by a man's hand, not a woman of Lady Davenport's size.

"And further then, I also thought of other things in the crime scene that indicate that the murderer is probably an adult male," Fiona explained.

"Hm? Do tell."

"I remembered the angle of the dagger. It was angled upwards, which means she was stabbed in the chest from above. Lady Davenport was taller than me, if I wanted to stab her to death, it would be very inefficient to take the hit from above and down, I would've needed to stab her repeatedly before making a fatal blow, in which Lady Davenport would've had enough time to alert the other guests."

Fiona rubbed the bottom of her chin with her fingers to indicate that she was thinking, "If a woman my size wanted to kill Lady Davenport in a single clean stab, I needed to stab her from below. So, judging from that, the murderer is either a tall man or a woman who is taller than Lady Davenport. Combine that with the bruises I had, I'd say it was the former."

The black-haired woman knew all of these from the time she researched how Crime Scene Unit members would profile the surroundings and conditions of the corpse so that they can have a rough estimate of what the killer is like. Who knew it would have another usage other than for writing crime novels?

The Duke smirked in amusement, "If you stabbed Lady Davenport while she was sitting down and you were standing in front of her, you can have that clean stab from above."

"Yes, but the sprawled position of Lady Davenport's corpse doesn't indicate that she was sitting down when she was stabbed. Her figure was barely on the edge of the sofa, which means that she fell to the couch after being stabbed."

Duke Grahams chuckled before clapping his hands slowly as if he just saw an amusing show. Now that Fiona took notice of their surroundings, Mr. Ricci and Mikael were also stunned by her explanations.

"Bravo, Lady Coventry," praised Duke Grahams to her. "I never knew that you can even deduce all that just from seeing bruises and the angle of the knife. If I had noticed your brilliance, I would have recruited you to help with my cases from a long time ago."

Fiona couldn't help but blush in embarrassment hearing what the Duke said, "Thank you, Your Grace. I know it is not entirely enough to completely find the killer, but I thought at least it can point us to a more definite path to start.

The Duke nodded, "We are looking for a male who is taller than Lady Davenport, had access to the ball and the salon, and had motives to murder her."

Fiona smiled, he knew the Duke would catch on quickly. "Does that mean you would help me?" She asked meekly.

"Of course. I shall be inquiring to Captain Gunther on why he wouldn't give me the new evidence. Mark my words, Lady Coventry, if I can prove that you are indeed not the killer, I will save you from being punished for a crime you never did as I reveal the true murderer.

"But if I found out that you had been tricking me and you were indeed the murderer…" Duke Grahams' words trailed off, his eyes were gazing sharply at Fiona. It made her skin form goosebumps all over. "... I shall throw you to the dungeons myself. I hope that you do not disappoint me, Lady Coventry."

"I will not, Your Grace," Fiona said firmly. Despite feeling pressured by the Duke's intimidating gaze, she is as determined as he is in unveiling the truth. If there is anything that completely bugs Fiona, it's an unsolved mystery.

"Good." The domineering tone of his voice made Fiona slightly swoon. The Duke stood up from his seat before heading towards the door, "Mr. Ricci, come with me to deal with the Royal Knights. Mikael, stay with the Lady until I return. After that, I hope you will accompany me and provide me with some more interesting insight, Lady Coventry."

Mikael, who kept a neutral face since the beginning, suddenly contorted his expression to an exasperated one.

"Chester, are you going without me?" He asked meekly as if he was a puppy. Judging from the way he called the Duke so casually with his first name probably indicates that Mikael is very close with him. Fiona would've thought it was cute if the mage didn't suddenly point at her as if she was a menace and said, "Y-you're not leaving me with her, are you?"

"Oh, come on, Mikael. I know how much you dislike the Royal Knights," Duke Grahams said as he chuckled. "Just stay with the Lady, maybe she will provide you some insight to research a groundbreaking new magic."

As the doors were closed, Mikael turned to her and stared at her with scrunched brows. Fiona sighed upon seeing how the mage acted in front of him, it seemed that he was only docile if his "master" was in the room.

'I hope Duke Grahams return soon with the papers…'