Portrait of An Arrogant Master - Chapter 182

Now, Macy’s feelings for him must surely be tinged with hatred rather than affection. Why would she behave like this?

As that thought crossed his mind, a sudden image of Prince Benedict, whom he had met on the stairs, flashed in his mind. Contrary to his expectations, the prince’s composed attitude had made him appear almost as though he had what he wanted.

A cold shiver ran down his spine. After tiring Macy out, he let her fall into a deep sleep, then he began searching through the letters that had fallen on the floor, looking for something he hadn’t seen before.

“This was here…”

He almost missed it, but there was a letter tucked in a box. It bore the swan seal, the symbol of Ciseina’s royal family. Rubens opened it and found out that Macy had met with Prince Benedict for the second time.

Rather than wake Macy, Rubens called for Morgan to confirm the situation.

“It’s… I heard Prince Benedict has offered Lady Macy the position of court artist.”

“Court artist?”

“Yes.”

Rubens’s face turned menacing.

He had thought that if he lured Macy in, she would never be presented with an offer for studying abroad, but it seemed his assumption had been completely wrong.

Whether it was studying abroad or being a court artist, the fact remained that she would have to leave him. If she left, Macy would break down within three months, her body would grow stiff.

Unless she was ready to face death, there was no way she would make that choice.

For a moment, he had been so agitated that he had thought she would rather die than live like this, but Macy had once said she would endure if he loved her…

Seeing Rubens’s increasingly serious expression, Morgan quickly added,

“But I heard that even if Macy becomes the court artist for Ciseina, she doesn’t have to naturalize.”

“A court artist paints for the court; how could she avoid naturalizing?”

“I’m not sure about that either… Anyway, Prince Benedict told Macy that, and she said that once it’s confirmed, she’ll tell you because she thinks you’d stop her if she told you beforehand…”

“Ha. So, even knowing I won’t like it, she still wanted to do it.”

How arrogant of her. It was because of him that she could paint again.

It was annoying that she lied to Rubens and went ahead with her work. He recalled the memory of Macy, who had once said painting was her everything.

“Tch. Fine, go. But keep it a secret from Macy that I know.”

“Yes…”

After sending Morgan away, Rubens fell back into his thoughts. Hadn’t her excessive desire for paintings been curbed that time in the cabin when he told her to leave if she didn’t listen? Has it faded over time? Or was it because lately, he had been kinder to Macy?

No. Something felt off.

Most importantly, it didn’t matter if she didn’t need to naturalize for the court artist position, because Ciseina had never appointed someone from another country as a court artist before. If this was a lie, then who was lying?

Morgan? Benedict? Or maybe… had Macy, who now knew Rubens’s secret, been involved?

“Ha.”

As his thoughts tangled with Macy’s obsession with painting and his own secret, her possible betrayal started to make sense. He had shared his secret with her because he thought she wouldn’t use it against him. He had believed she was too naive and gentle to exploit such a weakness.

But if she had changed her mind, and if becoming the court artist meant she planned to only occasionally visit Rubens for the name treatment and then leave him…

“Threatening to reveal my past wouldn’t be impossible.”

The word ‘threat’ didn’t fit Macy, but if she were truly backed into a corner, perhaps she would do anything.

The image of her crying in his arms in the carriage came to his mind. She seemed like someone trapped and desperate. She hadn’t shown it outright, but she must have hated him and wanted to run away.

“It seems like you’re overthinking it.”

Nicholas, who had been silently listening to Rubens, suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

“Doesn’t Miss Macy care for the Duke? She wouldn’t leave you.”

“Macy may say she likes me, but she never wanted to be a mistress. She wanted to escape it if she could. And her desire to paint is stronger than I thought.”

The many times Rubens had crushed Macy’s spirit flashed before his eyes—the times he had broken her down, stood by while she cried, and kept her trapped.

“So, she wants to escape from me.”