Chapter 54
I tried a little harder to win more sympathy from Claude.
“If you’re doubting my feelings, that’s unfair. Like I said, it’s not like I left because I wanted to run away. Do you know how hard things were for me after I left the estate? I lost all my money to thieves, I had no way to make a living, I couldn’t even find a proper place to work. And just how many men tried to pester me, calling me a homeless woman with nowhere to go…”
“What city did you stay in?”
Ah, looks like I let too much slip.
“I just mean it was that difficult. Difficult enough to make me swear never to do something so reckless again.”
“So, your life had become so difficult that you’ll never run away again. And that’s why I should believe you?”
Is there any reason not to believe me?
“What if someone like the late Duke appears and threatens you again? Is there any guarantee you won’t just run away like this time?”
“That’s…”
I saw Claude’s brow vein bulge as he looked at me, unable to immediately say no.
Fine, I admit he has every right to be upset.
But the reason I couldn’t answer him right away wasn’t because I was planning to run again. It was because I was worried about my own powerlessness. If it really came down to it, wouldn’t I need to at least defend myself by getting out of harm’s way…? For example, if his wife would threaten to kill me…
As I closed my mouth tight, unable to say anything, Claude kept staring at me, persistent.
He looked like someone who already had a specific answer he wanted, but I had no idea what that answer was, so I could only flounder.
Watching me roll my eyes around, he let out a long sigh and finally stood up from his dignified seat.
“Honestly, you never have any sense but you always manage to come right to me.”
With the gait of a god descending to the mortal realm, he approached and stopped right in front of me.
“You’re not prepared at all. Not at all.”
Scolding me like a child, he reached out and tilted up my chin.
“When you were acting all sweet, I actually hoped you might ask me to marry you, but then you suddenly tell me to go to another woman.”
My trembling brown eyes met his piercing red ones in a strange standoff.
So, what you’re saying is…?
“You say you risked your life to come back, and the best you can ask for is to work as a maid?”
It wasn’t until his callused thumb brushed over my lips that I realized I had stopped breathing.
“Don’t you think your ambitions are a bit too small?”
Oh, so it’s a matter of ambition? Should I have asked you to shove out the head butler and give me his position instead?
I nearly arrived at the wrong conclusion thanks to his leading questions, but…
“But, Young Master, I am a maid, after all.”
Fortunately, I soon remembered my place.
“How could I dare ask you for anything more? After all, I’m just a maid…”
“What if you’re not just a maid?”
Is that what you mean?
At some point, I lost all sense of where this conversation was headed, and I was starting to feel a bit confused.
“If I’m not just a maid… then what should I become?”
At this sudden question about my future, his handsome lips finally curved into a smile.
“I intend to make you…”
The words that slipped from between those lips finally made my head spin.
“…the Duchess.”
What did I just hear?
His words were so outrageous, I couldn’t even find my voice.
“What do you think? If you became the Duchess, you wouldn’t be shaken by any old threat, would you?”
How was I supposed to react to something like this?
I forced a smile like someone who’d just heard the world’s most unfunny joke.
“If you’re joking, Claude, it’s a pretty—haha—wild time for jokes…”
“Does it sound like a joke?”
All traces of a smile had vanished from his face.
“…It is a joke, right?”
With a heart pounding even harder than when I fled the mansion, I nervously asked again.
“It… it’s a joke, right?”
There was no answer. Claude only held my hand, his face completely devoid of any smile.
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