Episode 13
TL: Jasmine
Chloe struggled with her trembling voice.
“Since then, she has been reflecting on herself a lot. It is thanks to the grace the Duke has bestowed on us that the marriage talks between Count Cromwell and Alice are ongoing. Thank you.”
“If I had known that the price I’ll get for shutting up would be losing contact for three months, I wouldn’t have given you any favors.”
Chloe’s hands were sweaty when the duke said it. She wiped her sweat off her handkerchief because she thought the needle would slip at this rate, but the problem was after that. The missing needle fell on his chest. As soon as Chloe tried to pick up the needle, taking care not to touch the bare skin as much as possible, he held her hand.
“Let me go, Duke.”
“Answer.”
Chloe bit her lips until it hurt and opened her mouth with all her might not to tremble. Her pulse rate increased in the hand that was grasped by him.
“I had written to the duke several times.”
“But I never got it?”
“Because I couldn’t send it.”
“The level of lies is disappointing.”
Her pulse beat faster and faster. She tried to pull out her hand, but the duke rather tightened his grip on her hand.
“Let me go, Duke.”
“Tell me the truth.”
Her palms, drenched in sweat, rubbed more and more harshly. Chloe ended up raising her voice with a red
face.
“I thought the duke wouldn’t be satisfied no matter what letter I sent, so I wrote it several times and tore it apart!”
The Duke’s eyes shone bluish. After she made a loud noise, he was surprised by the reaction and asked back, facing her breathlessness.
“Why did you think I wouldn’t be satisfied?”
“….Because the duke hates me.”
The Duke finally laughed out loud.
“Is that your conclusion?”
“You don’t like me, don’t you? I am unbearably unpleasant, right?”
Chloe’s face, which spits out words that have not gone through her head, turned pale and then red repeatedly.
“Keep going.”
“I know someone can just hate it for no reason. You helped my younger sister, but you haven’t heard from me since then, so you may have thought I was arrogant. But really, I hesitated because I didn’t know what to give back to the Duke. I thought about how could express my sincerity but…..”
The duke raised his eyebrows as if he were waiting for her to say something. Chloe actually prepared not only the letter.
Chloe remembered the men’s gloves in her bedroom. She cut herself to make his gloves, and embroidered the family crest, a birch tree, with the duke’s initials, but did not have the courage to send them. It was the same with speaking out about the existence of his gift. What can she expect from a man who says that embroidery is the most useless hobby in the world?
“I’m sorry. Please let me finish the wound treatment.”
Before she could finish speaking, Chloe was swung onto the bed. She caught her breath at the sudden change of position. Through the open window, she heard only the mournful chirping of birds. The problem was that Chloe’s body was lying on a needle connected to the thread, and the wound being pulled was very painful just by looking at it.
“Duke, if you do this, the wound will hurt…”
“If you don’t shut up, you’ll regret it.”
To consider what to regret, she had to go back a long time. To the mountain behind the river. No, was it the night when she opened the window as if possessed by the Duke’s voice?
Chloe couldn’t take it any longer, lifted her face and cut off the thread that was dripping blood with her teeth. With lips dripping red, Chloe opened her mouth as if pleading with him, while sighing.
“Why is the duke… being so rude to me?”
“Isn’t this an opportunity to be rude to a woman who came alone in the middle of the night without an attendant inside a man’s bedroom?”
Chloe was now burning red from the nape of her neck and to her breasts exposed above the dress.
“I just came to treat the Duke according to my father’s order.”
“Is that all you wanted?”
The conversation was again flowing in a similar pattern like a long time ago. The Duke must have been convinced that Chloe’s father was struggling to connect her with him somehow.
“I understand the Duke’s distrust of humans. No, I’m trying to understand. On the battlefield, nobody would have trusted anyone.”
Chloe took a deep breath and continued.
“But, Duke.”
“Say it.”
Thump. Thump. Chloe thought her heart, which was beating too fast, might stop at this moment. She closed her eyes and opened her mouth toward him.
“It would be too much narcissism to think that every woman in this kingdom wants to marry you, Duke.”
At the moment, there was silence between him and her. The Duke, who was looking at her with a strange expression that was neither angry nor in a good mood, finally burst into laughter. Chloe couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t move because he buried his face in her shoulder.
“Duke.”
The Duke, who was smiling with his whole body shaking, raised his head with a smiley face. Is he crazy? Chloe swallowed her dry saliva as she watched him laughing as if he was out of breath even after hearing insulting words. Even if he didn’t press her down on the bed, it was difficult for her to breathe, but the duke was getting closer and closer.
“Let’s check if you’re right or not.”
There was no need to check. The evidence was right in front of his eyes. Whether or not he knew what Chloe was thinking, the Duke, who had a happy expression on his face, got up.
“The treatment is over. Go back now.”
It was the most welcoming words she heard from his mouth today.
After limping back to the room, Chloe grabbed the gloves that were gently placed on the table and tried to throw them into an unused fireplace, but quit. This is because she thought it was more foolish to take it out on innocent objects.
Even though she changed into pajamas and lay in bed, her surprised heart showed no signs of calming down. It felt like she was drenched in a sudden rain shower in the forest. No, it wasn’t like a shower, but it felt like she was lucky enough to have met a typhoon
She thought for a while that the war should break out again and that the duke should participate again, but shook her head and prayed for self-reflection and lay down once more. She took comfort in her mind thinking about when Alice got married safely and the estate got stabilized, everything would return to normal.
Waiting for her, who barely fell asleep after a long night of tossing and turning, was the news that could make not only the Verdie estate but also the entire Swanton Kingdom stir up.
On the last day of the hunt, there was a heavy silence in the drawing room where the Verdier family gathered to see the Duke off. The bomb-like words brought up by the Duke were the cause.
“…sister, did the duke hurt his head while hunting?”
Viscount Verdier broke the silence and pulled Alice, who opened her mouth seriously, then stuttered his words in embarrassment.
“D, duke. I’m terribly sorry to tell you.”
The Duke suddenly wants to marry Alice. What does that mean?
“My younger sister is already seriously engaged with Count Cromwell.”
Chloe spit out the words like a thunderbolt in the dry sky and looked at the Duke who calmly raised the teacup with a strange look.
“I see.”
“Yes, that’s right. Haha.”
“My desire to marry Miss Alice Verdier remains unchanged.”
Viscount Verdier’s own voice, which was laughing awkwardly, was cut off. The duke’s voice, which did not change in volume, could only be heard to mean that there was nothing wrong with Count Cromwell’s proposal. In reality, it was clear that this was the case. There was at least no woman in this country who would not marry a duke who had royal blood flowing in him.
“Viscount doesn’t seem to like me. Seeing you add unnecessary reasons.”
Seeing the Duke raising his eyebrows, the Viscount raised his voice as he waved his hands.
“Is it possible? However, even if I like it, I can’t help but listen to the will of my daughter.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right.”
Viscount nodded with a hardened face.
The duke left for his villa located in a neighboring estate, asking for an answer within three days. Even before the dust that spread because of the duke’s carriage disappeared, Verdier Castle entered a state of emergency resembling a wartime in an instant.
“I’ve never imagined becoming in-laws with the duke…..”
Complexity passed by the face of the self-composed person, muttering and walking around the study quickly. It was miraculous to marry the Duke, the most powerful man in the kingdom, but the problem was Alice, who still looked like an immature kid in his eyes.
“I can’t marry the person I want anyway, so duke would be better than a count.”
Alice, whose mood swings have soared these days, shed thick tears. Apart from the problem of whether she would play the role of Duchess properly, Viscount was worried about what had happened to his daughter these days. It felt like a long time ago to see Alice smiling brightly.
“My daughter.”
“I know what I have to do, father. Even if Duke Tisse was so mad (crazy) that he proposed to me,
shouldn’t miss the opportunity that comes once in my life. But…”
Alice suddenly stopped talking, covering her mouth like she got uncomfortable. Chloe thought she should calm Alice, who was getting emotional.
“Alice, go to your room and rest. You kept saying you weren’t feeling well.”
Chloe was also confused to see Alice’s face getting thinner because she didn’t eat anything these days. When Alice stepped down helplessly, Viscount Verdier carefully asked Chloe.
“Chloe, did something special happen between the Duke and Alice in Swan?”
Her father seemed to be guessing that something had happened between Alice and Duke at the party that he invited. In front of such a father, she couldn’t say that Duke caught Alice with a man of low status.
Comments from Korean readers:
Hmm….is Eddie a royal with a hidden identity as a gypsy? The duke seems to know everything
Because of that Younger sister the female lead is getting corned…gosh I hate that woman so much
I think Alice is pregnant
It’s good that a younger sister is curious and has a lively personality but if it ends up making you pregnant that is irresponsible behaviour
The duke seems to know the identity of the gypsy and is going to plot something to make the female lead cornered, my sixth sense is shouting!!!!!