Chapter 24
“I’m thirsty…” The next morning, Elisha opened her eyes feeling extreme thirst. She also felt dizzy and had an immense bout of heartburn.
‘What’s wrong with my body?’ Elisha, who had wondered about the cause of her physical condition, suddenly recalled the memories of last night’s events. Drinking with the knights until becoming drunk, whining like a child, and being carried all the way to the room in Richard’s arms…
Feeling an extreme sense of shame, Elisha immediately looked around the room nervously. Fortunately, it seemed like Richard wasn’t in the room.
‘Seriously, what have I done…’ Elisha slapped her cheek and buried her face in her pillow. ‘We haven’t seen each other for such a long time. I can’t believe I acted like that as soon as we met again! What would Richard think of me when he saw me acting indecently like that?!’
‘He might think that I changed after he left and had been drinking everyday while he was away…But, this is really unfair…I had been occupied with the workload that comes with managing the territory’s affairs…And yesterday was the first time I decided to drink along with other people…’
‘Well…let’s just quickly get up and pretend that nothing happened last night.’ Elisha sat up quickly with determination at that thought. She still felt a bit dizzy and thirsty, but it was bearable.
At that moment, the door suddenly opened. Elisha was so surprised that she quickly laid down on the bed again. ‘I don’t know why I did this though…’
Elisha, who was pretending to be asleep, opened her eyes slightly to take a peek at the person who came into the room. As she expected, that person was Richard. ‘It seems like he just finished taking a bath…’
Richard was wearing a bathrobe with a towel draped on his wet hair. Whenever he wiped his hair with the towel, she could see his chest muscles flexing easily through the loosely tied robe. The remaining water droplets flowed down between his elegantly shaped muscles. That sight was very alluring. On top of that, though the colors of his pale face and red lips are in strong contrast with each other, they were strangely blending into a harmonious image.
Richard, who finished drying his hair, went to the dressing room and came out again, wearing only clothing on his bottom half. Looking at his bare upper body, Elisha, who forgot that she was pretending to be asleep, opened her eyes widely in admiration and almost made a sound. ‘Huk! Why are you taking off your clothes in my room?!’
‘Ah, I forgot…This is also your room…But…’ Elisha was embarrassed but still couldn’t take her eyes off him. She had already seen his muscles when he had worn thin pajamas before, but looking at them directly made her feel different. His muscles looked bigger and firmer than she thought.
But there was something on his body that caught her attention even more. The small and big scars all over his body.
‘Fool……you must’ve got hurt a lot and didn’t treat the wounds properly. Why did you leave the wounds untreated until they became scars? You had always been like this…Treating your precious body too indifferently…’ When Elisha thought about the endless fights Richard went through and the countless wounds he received during the war, her heart ached.
Richard shook his head and put on the shirt he just brought out with him. Then he buttoned it up and approached the bed.
Startled, Elisha turned around and pretended to be asleep again. “Um….” She couldn’t see Richard coming closer because she was lying down with her back facing him.
However, she could feel his presence and smell his unique body scent, so she knew that he was getting closer. At that moment, her heart started to race.
‘Did he notice…?’ She could feel his gentle gaze fixed on her. Nonetheless, she decided to stay still, trying to appear like she was still sleeping.
Knock, knock.
As if to help her, someone knocked on the door. Soon after, Richard’s presence faded away. It seemed like he stood in the doorway for a while. Then he closed the door without any conversation with the visitor and approached Elisha again. As Elisha waited nervously, she heard his voice behind her back.
“How long are you going to pretend to be asleep?”
A three-second silence fell between them.
Elisha, who had been frozen for a while, soon resigned and slowly lifted herself up. “I- I didn’t pretend to be asleep. I was just lying down because I wasn’t fully awake.”
As if it didn’t matter to him, Richard handed Elisha the glass he was holding.
Elisha looked at the liquid in the glass with curious eyes. It was a clear red liquid. In it, there was something that looked like dried petals floating. “What is this?”
“A good hangover cure.”
“Oh…Thank you.” Elisha received the glass in bewilderment. It seemed like it was delivered by the servant just now.
As Elisha was about to drink it, Richard gently held her hand. Surprised by his sudden touch, Elisha’s eyes widened as she reflexively looked up at him. Richard quickly put something in her hand. “Drink it and get some more sleep.” Then, he just turned around and left the room.
Elisha stared blankly at the closing door and looked down at the palm of her hand that Richard held moments before. There were two fruit flavored candies in paper wrappers in her hand.
‘Why did he give these to me?’ Elisha wondered where Richard got the candies and why he gave them to her. Nevertheless, she decided to just accept them for now.
“I’ve got heartburn again…” Elisha drank the cure Richard gave her. However, her peaceful face became gradually distorted. With a distressed look, she quickly gulped it down and put the glass on the bedside table.
“Ugh, it’s too bitter!” Elisha immediately knew why Richard had given her the candies.
*****
After lunch, Elisha borrowed a book from the library and returned to the room as usual. Just as she was about to put the book on the table, she heard the sound of a horse neighing outside the window.
‘Richard?’ Elisha casually looked out the window and searched around for him. From far away, it was easy to spot him even though he was in the crowd. It seemed like he gathered the knights in front of the mansion.
‘I guess he’s going to start rounds in the territory…’ Elisha stopped walking and watched Richard talking to the knights.
‘Oh ho… whose husband can be this handsome? He really grew up well. But……’ Somehow, she still felt unfamiliar with him. A face with chiseled features. A tall muscular body of a grown-up man. An attractive deep voice. And…….
‘I feel like his personality also changed. Well, it’s even stranger to remain unchanged after seven years.’ It has been four days since they started sharing the room. They even ate their meals together. Nonetheless, she still felt awkward and couldn’t get used to his presence.
‘Now, I can’t play tricks on him anymore. I can’t even treat him casually like before……’ At first, she felt very happy when she saw Richard again after a long time because she felt like her old childhood friend had returned. Ironically, she also felt sad because the lovely adolescent boy in her memory had long disappeared. Due to her inexplicable feelings, she kept treating him awkwardly because she didn’t know what to do with the current situation.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter since we’re going to be strangers later anyway.’ They might stay as friends even after the divorce. So, it would be okay for them to be slightly awkward with each other.
However, even if she decided to accept the possibility that their situation could end up that way, she still felt sad. Her heart also became more restless.
As Elisha was lost in her thoughts, Richard suddenly looked up and directed his gaze toward her. Elisha was startled and quickly crouched under the window. ‘D-did he see me?’
At that moment, Elisha heard a familiar voice from behind.
“Milady, is there something wrong?”
It was Ann. Ann tilted her head when she saw Elisha crouching on the floor.
Elisha replied in embarrassment. “I- I thought something slipped out the book and fell on the floor, so I was looking for it.”
“Oh no, the dust will get on Milady’s dress. I will look for it instead, so please stand up.”
“Thank you, Ann.”
Ann crouched and began to search the floor. Meanwhile, Elisha lifted herself up and looked out the window again. Richard was already leaving the castle on horseback with the knights.
Looking at Richard’s back, Elisha suddenly questioned her actions. ‘Why did I hide……?’ Even though they were awkward with each other, she didn’t know why she hid as if she had committed some kind of crime.
“Ann, that’s enough. I guess I saw it wrong.” Elisha asked Ann to stop searching.
Then, someone knocked on the door. Ann immediately walked to the door and opened it.
Aaron was standing in front of the door. “His Grace is looking for Milady.”
Elisha swallowed a sigh. She already expected that Albert would call her soon. She could even guess what he was going to say.
*****
The moon was bright that night. Elisha was standing in front of the bedroom, wearing a set of thin negligee that barely covered the curves of her body. Holding the doorknob, her face was full of worries. It was because of Albert’s order for her to wear such a thin negligee.
[If you disobey my order, I’ll break all of their limbs…]
He threatened Elisha by using Ann and other maids. Having no choice, she couldn’t defy his order.
‘Richard won’t do anything if I don’t consent to it.’ She decided to trust Richard and came to the bedroom, but she felt uneasy when she stood in front of the door.
‘By chance, what if Richard changes his mind…’ Whether intentionally or impulsively, if Richard decided to do it, she couldn’t win against him. Nonetheless, she couldn’t run away from this situation.
Elisha slowly opened the door and entered the bedroom, hoping that Richard was already asleep. At that moment, she made eye contact with Richard, who was standing in front of the balcony. His glistening eyes instantly widened.
Elisha immediately covered herself with her arms and turned around. She looked for something to cover her body with, but found nothing. At that moment, she could feel that someone was approaching her from behind.
Surprised, Elisha turned around and saw Richard, who stood just a step away. His expression was noticeably distorted.
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