THE MARQUESS.

The disappearance of Adele naturally had the entire house in chaos.

Claude ordered for the knights to figure out what happened and where she went, but he was already becoming weaker and so he fell to another coughing fit and had to be escorted back to his room.

Eventually the investigation led to the reveal that someone must have came in the night to kidnap Adele. Her belongings were untouched so it was unlikely she left of her own accord, but there were no clues as to who took her and why.

While the rest of the Decaux family were worried about the whereabouts of Adele, Yvette was sending out letters. Well, technically it was Yvette sending the letters, but she signed each and every one of them with Sabine's name.

After she remembered the story of Robert Merchand, it reminded her that there was also another notorious man who became the subject of a lot of gossip. In Yvette Decaux's original future, after Yvette married Leon, she remembered hearing about how Marquess Tomas was actually gay and had married a young woman only to cover up that fact. His wife at the time was so embarrassed by this news that she eventually ran away, never to be heard from again. Marquess Tomas, while he was treated as an outcast after the news was revealed, lived peacefully and happily with his lover.

Having remembered that, Yvette then thought how perfect it would be if the young woman he married was Sabine instead. So she started sending letters as Sabine to Marquess Tomas, making sure to instruct Marquess Tomas to address every reply with a simple 'Decaux', so that Matthias could hand all the replies to her without being suspicious that she was impersonating Sabine.

As Sabine, Yvette pretended that she admired Marquess Tomas, and was writing to him to express that admiration, hoping that they could get closer. But she also swore him to secrecy, as she said that her mother, Adele would likely object to their union since she had her eyes set on someone different for Sabine to marry.

It was all lies, of course, but Marquess Tomas ate it all up. Even though Yvette knew that at this point Marquess Tomas was already living with his lover, pretending that he was just another cook for his house, she knew that he was likely getting worried that people might get suspicious of how he hasn't expressed an interest in getting married yet, and so was now desperately trying to hold onto this chance as much as he could.

With that going smoothly, Yvette had a few worry free days.

Everyone was either too concerned about Adele's disappearance or Claude's declining health to worry about what Yvette was doing. And so it was while they were all distracted that she ended up accepting another invitation to another ball.

Yvette was looking forward to meeting her pen pal in person.

She dressed herself up extravagantly, stole some more of Adele's makeup while no one was looking, and then set off to have her night of fun.

Yvette stepped into the ballroom and suddenly all eyes were on her. While this was a ball to celebrate Leon and Louise's upcoming marriage, secretly everyone was looking forward to seeing Yvette again. She had appeared and then disappeared just as suddenly, so they were all very curious to see her again.

She wore a fiery red dress and matching red lipstick, looking very much the part of a villainess as she descended the stairs.

Leon and Louise were both speechless, feeling as if they were looking at a completely different person to the Yvette they thought they knew.

Yvette looked around the room casually, before finally spotting the marquess. She walked over to him directly, ignoring the looks of everyone around her, and smiled as he looked up at her.

"You must be Marquess Tomas."

He blinked for a second, caught off guard, before returning her smile. "Yes. I have to say, I'm a bit surprised you recognise me."

"Oh that's only because my sister, Sabine, has been talking about you nonstop." Yvette laughed. "I've caught her reading your letters over and over, you know."

Marquess Tomas ducked his head a little awkwardly. "Ah, yes. Your sister... she's quite lovely."

"She's quite shy in real life. I don't know how she comes across in those letters she's always writing to you, but she can be surprisingly tightlipped in person. Truthfully, she had wanted to attend this ball with me tonight, but in the end she was too shy to come. If the two of you were to ever become... more... I hope you'll take that into account."

Marquess Tomas choked on his drink at the obvious implication Yvette was making, but politely replied that he would keep it in mind, and that he liked Sabine regardless. Yvette smiled, told him that she looked forward to receiving an official declaration of his intentions with Sabine, before winking at him and walking away.

Yvette cast a wistful glance at the drinks table before turning her head away. It wouldn't be good to get drunk, and she knew her body couldn't withstand alcohol, so she sighed and went around to mingle instead.

When someone asked her why she was here alone and without her family, she mentioned that Claude was resting because recently he had gotten ill. She said it so casually that they assumed it was a minor thing, and when they asked about Adele, Yvette beckoned them closer and whispered that Adele was busy planning for a potential engagement for Sabine. Yvette winked playfully and asked everyone to keep it a secret, but she knew the rumours of Sabine preparing for an imminent engagement would soon spread to all corners of the upper society.