Duke of the Beast and the Vicarious Bride - Chapter 14

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※ This work contains depictions of coercive relationships, explicit language, and other graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

In so many ways, it was completely unlike the scene she had dreamed of as a child. Even if all illusions had faded, she had not wished for such a wretched wedding. Against a night sky threatening blizzard rather than sunny daylight. In the cold hall of a gloomy ancient castle rather than a springtime square. Without flowers or cheers, not even a single blessing. A ceremony her husband himself did not even attend.

Fiona felt like a clown standing in a comedy that was not at all amusing. Before long, they completed the final procedures of the world’s most unhappy and melancholy wedding. Now, only the marriage bed awaited her.

* * *

Before the shock of that miserable ceremony could fade, Fiona was dragged away by the maids who had accompanied her from the Count’s manor. The interior of the ancient castle was generally disordered and desolate, but some living spaces had been cleared enough for habitation.

Even as the maids led her along, Fiona quickly took in the antique central staircase, the excessively ornate chandeliers, the endlessly long corridors. Fortunately, compared to its cold and oppressive exterior, the interior did not seem so terrible. Of course, anywhere would seem palatial compared to the attic room she had lived in, but since this was to be her home henceforth, she could not help but observe it closely.

How does one clean a place this vast? Do they have an enormous number of servants?

Perhaps it was because she had spent her life labouring at odd jobs, but such useless concerns naturally arose at the sight of such excessively spacious quarters. Realising this, she noticed also that every corner of the castle was immaculately clean.

From its exterior, she had assumed it to be an ancient structure, yet the furniture and furnishings placed here and there bore no trace of age; the window frames, carpets, and tapestries alike were spotless, without a speck of dust or stain. Maintaining such condition would require, by her rough estimate, some three hundred servants. As she pondered this, she was suddenly ushered into a room.

It was a spacious and luxurious chamber, likely intended for her use. Before she could even glance around, the maids propelled her straight into the bathroom.

“What are you dawdling for? Did you not hear the young master say to prepare as quickly as possible?”

Having received a scolding from the most forward of the maids, her mood, which had been improving, was promptly dragged through the mire. After countless such experiences at the Count’s manor, it was nothing new, but being treated as an ugly duckling was growing tiresome.

Having scraped the bottom herself, she understood all too well. Powerless commoners moved, paradoxically, more than anyone by the logic of power. Their lives and livelihoods depended on it. Whether the maids before her or ordinary villagers, their principles were the same. They quickly discerned who held power and who did not, and fawned only upon those who could benefit them.

If not? They ignored utterly, or even considered beneath them and trampled upon them. In Fiona’s current case, it was closer to the latter. The maids had eyes and ears. The sudden appearance of a bastard rolled in to marry in Joséphine’s stead could hardly sit well with them. To have to wash and dress a vulgar, lowly pig butcher galled them. And to have been dragged north because of that girl—what more needed saying?

In an instant, the maids had stripped Fiona bare as a plucked chicken and, with hands devoid of gentleness, scrubbed her scalp, unwashed for days. The moment she sank into the steaming bath, tension began to ease, but the maids, as they washed her, commenced gossiping among themselves.

Even here, I’m treated as invisible. It was unbearable.

“Ugh, my fate. To end up coming north of all places.”

“You said it. I thought I’d be attending the mistress at the manor; who’d have known I’d be dragged to this cold, dangerous place!”

“And the distance! I thought I’d freeze to death on the way!”

Listening to the raucous chatter of three or four maids made her head ring. One shorter maid, who at least seemed mindful of Fiona, glanced at her and murmured quietly.