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“Hey, this is…!”
Marianne couldn’t resist the boiling anger and shook her hands.
Grace thought it wouldn’t be strange if she, who is hot-tempered, selfish, and can’t stand insults, threw the glove she was wearing or the fan she was holding at her at any moment. Sure enough, Marianne moved her hand to take off her gloves.
It was then.
“I’ll apologize to Lady Grace, Marianne.”
Owen, who had been looking at Marianne with a cold gaze so far, said, blocking her action to take off her gloves.
Marianne was even more angry at those words and shouted, looking back at Owen with a red face.
“Your Highness!”
“If Lady can’t do it, I will do it.”
“……Huh”
“I’m sorry, Duke Felix. And Lady Grace. Forgive my fiancée’s rudeness.”
Marianne’s face reddened even more as she was full of anger from Owen’s cold words. How could a man call her his fiancée not take her side, instead apologizing publicly, and humiliate her?
This was not an example of a spouse who should be on her side at any moment. It was really hard to bear with the anger, but her fiance was a prince, so she couldn’t resist and just stared at Owen’s side face, which was slightly lowered.
“There’s nothing to bow to me, Your Highness. Because the person who deserves an apology is my wife.”
It was Arthur instead of Grace who responded to the apology first.
Originally, it was right to let Grace respond to Owen’s apology according to etiquette, but Arthur pretending not to know received the apology instead.
The reason was that he didn’t want Grace and Owen to have a conversation. There was also something he said to him at the last wedding party. Also Prince Owen’s gaze, which Arthur caught, that suddenly appeared at the front door of the mansion and has been reaching out to Grace all the way up to now, was most disturbing.
And that speech, where he called Grace “Lady Grace,” not “Duchess Felix,” has also been annoying. It was said that the jealousy of a man was several times stronger than that of a woman, but that didn’t seem to be wrong.
Arthur stared at Owen with a cold gaze, suppressing the urge to immediately block Owen’s strange gaze, which had only been touching Grace.
“Okay, okay. Everyone, stop there.”
“……!”
“Since we’ve just become a family, it’s not unreasonable to have some conflicts, but should you still have a troublesome fight in front of the elderly people?”
While there were mixed views between the four that evoked the atmosphere. It was Duke Alberton who had been looking at Arthur and Grace with a strange face.
He turned to Marianne with a blunt voice and rebuked Marianne after changing the atmosphere with the words of a most benevolent father.
“Marianne, I understand that your mind is wobbly ahead of the wedding, but the words you said a while ago were too big of a disrespect. Make sure to apologize later.”
“Father, why should I!”
“Marianne.”
“…….Okay.”
Marianne, who was furiously refuted by the remark, soon replied in a discouraged voice to the stern gaze of Duke Alberton.
However, the gaze at Grace sitting across from her was still full of resentment and irritation. Grace snorted lightly and ignored the gaze. That gaze was annoying, but she didn’t want to deal with it.
Marianne’s expression of staring at Grace then became even rougher, perhaps more annoyed by Grace’s behaviour that seemed to ignore her. Owen looked away with a frown, and Marianne was even angrier at her fiance’s cold attitude.
The only person who noticed Marianne’s mood said while patting her annoyed eldest daughter’s hand.
“It’s not unreasonable to be sensitive about the marriage issue, as you haven’t been able to eat properly these days because you’ve been trying to fit in your dress. I know your heart.”
“……….Mother.”
“At times like this, relax by eating desserts that are tongue-in-cheek. Tom! Bring the cake that I told you to prepare!”
“Yes, madam.”
Duchess Alberton, who tenderly comforted the nervous Marianne, called in the butler and instructed him to bring the cake.
At those words, Tom, the butler, bowed deeply and soon went to the annex next to the drawing-room and pushed out a silver tray from there.
After that, Tom put the tray near the table where they sat, opened the silver lid that was covered and took out a three-stage strawberry cake. And he began to cut it skillfully with a silver knife.
“……!”
At that moment, while ignoring Marianne’s stinging gaze, Grace looked down at Arthur’s hand that was holding her. Then she involuntarily turned her head by the sound of a nearby voice and looked at the cake on the tray, and her expression hardened.
The strawberry cake.
It smelled and looked the same as the cake sent to poison her by Duke Alberton on the day she first died.
A birthday that had to be celebrated with cheap cookies and mulligan soup without a piece of cake. And strawberry cake sent by the family on the first birthday she had when she came to the monastery after refusing an arranged marriage offered by the family.
Although the cake was nothing special, filled with crushed strawberries and stuffed with blueberries, it was a special enough cake for her that her family gave her as a gift for the first time.
The terrible pain and the black blood that came from the throat when she emptied every single piece of it while thrilled by it. And died.
[T/N: Hearing this still gives me chills. Poor Grace (┬┬﹏┬┬)]
Grace’s long eyelashes trembled with the scent and appearance of the cake, which touched Grace’s trauma that she had forgotten.
“Sir Duke Felix, and Madam. Try it. It was specially made by our Lord for the two of you and the Crown Prince.”
“Thank you.”
It was when Tom, who had been handing out pieces of cake cut from Owen, the highest status here, soon offered Arthur and Grace a plate containing the cake.
Arthur received the plate from Tom and carefully put it down in front of Grace.
“Ugh!”
And at that moment, Grace dropped the fan she was holding, frightened by the cake that was the same as the one of that day when she first died in front of her eyes.
The fallen fan fell onto the teacup that Grace had not had a sip of, and of course, the teacup spilled. In an instant, the thick tea flowed over a narrow table and began to drop to the floor.
Marianne, who was sitting opposite, and Duchess Alberton, sitting on a small sofa next to her, quickly removed the hem of their dresses because the tea was splashing on it.
However, Grace just stared at the cake with blank eyes, out of focus, even when the tea spilled on her dress.
“My lady!”
Arthur was the first to react to the way Grace fell into that terrible memory the moment she saw the cake.
With one arm Arthur hugged Grace, who had been absorbed with past memories and hardened with a blank look, and asked, gently stroking her back with his big hand.
“What’s wrong, my lady? Did you see something that we couldn’t see?”
“……”
“My wife.”
Arthur called her name, affectionately sweeping down the blank Grace with his big hand.
Grace, who barely came to her senses with that gentle touch, finally breathed slowly and looked at Arthur with a worried gaze. Grace then fumbled and replied.
“I-, I’m sorry. I-, I’m fine.”
“What do you mean it’s okay? You look pale.”
Arthur stroked Grace’s still pale cheek slightly and said, staring coldly at the butler Tom.
“Butler, what did you do to this cake?”
“What!? Unless I’m crazy, how can I do anything wrong with the cake that noble people will eat!? Besides, this cake was made by Duchess Alberton here!”
At Arthur’s interrogation, Tom quickly waved his hands with a blue face.
At the same time, Duchess Alberton also shook her head in bewilderment at his words, which secretly ascribed the evasion of responsibility to his master, Duchess Alberton.
“Tha-, that’s right. There’s nothing wrong with the cake.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! Look!”
When Arthur, who was still suspecting, asked back without hesitation. Duchess Alberton scooped up her share of cake with a fork and brought it to her lips.
Then, Duchess Alberton, who ate it like a toad waiting for food and washed her mouth with milk tea in front of her. She quickly blinked at her husband and eldest daughter.
After that, her husband, Duke Alberton and Marianne, also ate the cake in front of them. Duchess Alberton turned to Arthur with a bewildered look on her face.
“See? There’s nothing wrong with the cake.”
“…….Well, you never know. Do you know? Maybe there is poison in it that has a delayed effect.”
“Oh my, what kind of hideous sound is that?! Duke Felix, do you see me as a person who even does such things to harm my own daughter?”
“Duke Felix, you’re talking too much.”
“That’s right! I don’t know what Grace was so surprised about, but are you driving our family to the point of poisoning or instigating just because of being a little startled and making a fuss? Ha! Maybe it’s because you’ve experienced bad things so often, so you’re a little overly sensitive!”
The atmosphere in the drawing-room quickly became harsh due to arguments between Arthur, who reacted sharply to Grace’s unusual reaction, and people from the Alberton family, who were furious at the reaction.
At Marianne’s sarcastic remarks, secretly referring to the curse of Arthur and Felix’s family, Arthur’s Odd-Eyes gleamed with rage in a hazy blue color. He took his hands to the sword-clad waist.
Marianne shrank with a frightened fox-like face and spread her palms as if she was going to cast a spell at any moment.
Grace stopped him by putting strength into Arthur’s hand, which was quickly holding him in an atmosphere that looked like it would cause an accident.
“It’s okay, Duke. I guess I made a fuss for no reason. Huh?”
Grace relieved him by removing her sharp expression and smiling slightly at Arthur with a friendly face the moment she saw him. She soon hardened her face and stared at Marianne in front of her and retorted.
“And you should apologize too.”
“Wha-, What did I do?”
“How dare you say that he is sensitive because he has been through so many bad things? For someone who will become the Crown Prince in the future, holding on to someone else’s weakness and saying mean things is too harsh.”
It was a strong statement which wasn’t like Grace, who used to speak as softly as possible even in the face of an argument.
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