Chapter 39
The low whisper lingered in her ear. By then, Laura’s presence had disappeared, and only the familiar warmth from behind her remained.
“Eve. How much longer will you be staying in Dalebury?”
Evelyn, her teeth clenched, slowly parted her lips.
“Just a little longer.”
“Isn’t the lady of Brumfield gone for too long?”
“If their mistress is away too long, so what?”
When she fired back without hesitation, the Duke chuckled lightly. The coolness of the library seemed to crawl up her spine, sending a chill down her back.
“I see you like Dalebury after all.”
Evelyn didn’t respond. As long as she was with the Duke, there would be no such thing as a place she truly liked.
“What brings you here?”
Despite her cold indifference, the man pressed a gentle kiss along her soft skin as he asked tenderly.
It was a natural question to ask someone like Evelyn, who had lived a life far removed from books. Still, something about it unsettled her, made her tense for no clear reason.
“…I was curious about something.”
“About what?”
She had come to find a way to eliminate something undefinable — to find a way to escape from this man’s grasp. She came because she wanted to cling to even the smallest sliver of hope.
Which meant she couldn’t afford to be honest.
“I was wondering why Princess Rowena liked this place.”
She threw out a vague excuse, then pried the Duke’s arms from around her waist. He let her go without resistance, only to take hold of her shoulders and turn her to face him.
Evelyn’s back was pressed against a tall, sturdy bookcase.
Looking up into his blue eyes, Evelyn was suddenly reminded of the watchtower in Zelakent.
The five-story tower, built to oversee the entire prison, had guards stationed at every angle with their arrows drawn. Should any inmate attempt to escape, they would shoot poison-tipped arrows without hesitation.
That watchtower was one of the reasons Evelyn, quick on her feet as she was, had never managed to escape from Zelakent.
Even after night fell and darkness thickened, bonfires blazed constantly around Zelakent. Rain or snow, the oil-soaked flames were never extinguished.
It was suffocating.
Not the solitary cell in Zelakent, not the poisoned arrows from the tower, not the acrid smoke of the bonfires, not even the firelight itself had managed to truly strangle her.
But this man — with a single glance, a single word, a flick of his hand — could tighten around Evelyn’s throat with terrifying ease.
To others, he likely looked the perfect partner: gentle eyes, smiling lips, and all touches of fondness. But under his gaze, Evelyn felt stripped bare, laid open for constant surveillance.
Cold sweat clung to her palms from the tension. She rubbed them against her dress, just as Calix finally looked away and glanced around the library.
“It’s quiet, isn’t it?”
His voice was the only sound in the room.
“It must have felt good to you to be buried in the ground, Rowena.”
“…What?”
The unsettling reply was one thing, but something else gnawed at Evelyn.
“You… you knew Princess Rowena?”
The duke had spoken as if he truly knew her.
Her green eyes wavered, visibly disturbed. Calix, meeting her gaze again, reached into the golden waves of her hair. As his fingers threaded effortlessly through the blonde strands, he spoke with unnerving ease.
“Your mother, Eve, had the same beautiful golden hair as you.”
He pressed a brief kiss to her hair before continuing.
“She was someone who struggled with how loud and chaotic the world was.”
“How do you…”
Evelyn trailed off mid-sentence, unconsciously murmuring before biting her tongue.
After all, asking how he knew wasn’t worth the breath. This was the same man who knew every detail about Prince Adrian, whom he’d claimed never to have met. It wasn’t so strange, then, that he might know a dead princess too.
She glanced down at the wrist he held and then yanked it free with a rough jerk.
“Don’t give me that bullshxt. The princess wasn’t my mother. That kind of crap doesn’t work on me.”
The duke merely shrugged, releasing her hand. His cryptic expression and calm eyes grated on her nerves.
Discussion
2 Commentsnapatrappa
hiraheth