Chapter 47
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About thirty minutes later, the two were sitting across from each other in the drawing room as if nothing had happened. In the meantime, Anne had properly dressed, and Logan had quieted down as if all spirit had left him.
He looked sullen, like a child who had been scolded. Anne’s eyes darted here and there. He won’t try to get revenge later, will he?
Still, this wasn’t the time to worry about that. At last, they had a chance to talk calmly. As soon as the maid who had brought the tea withdrew, Anne spoke.
“I’ll say it again. I don’t want to marry you, Your Highness.”
“…I understand.”
Logan answered in a low voice. He didn’t meet her eyes, only stared at his teacup, making it impossible to tell what he was thinking. Anne pressed the matter.
“So let’s cancel the engagement.”
Just like the engagement itself, the breakup ultimately depended on the queen. This was the best method Anne had come up with. She would damage her own reputation so the royal family would be the one to want the breakup. Even if the fault lay on her side, if they were the ones who requested it, the Avery family could avoid at least part of the responsibility.
Her plan had worked fairly well, but Anne still wanted to be certain. Logan’s refusal to break the engagement felt strange. It seemed like he might be feeling unnecessary responsibility because of that night.
Logan said nothing. He quietly turned over her words in his mind. Why was Anne Agnes rejecting him so strongly? The problem was that there were too many reasons he could think of. Then next. Why had she acted that way that night? Pity? A sense of responsibility?
Either way, it was humiliating. And yet he didn’t understand why he felt so desperate. When he had first heard the rumors, rage had surged through him like madness. Even so, he had never considered breaking the engagement. Instead, he had rushed over and tried to hold onto her by force. Why?
Anne watched him carefully as he sat there blankly. He said he understood, so was that enough now. If he had accepted it, the breakup would proceed smoothly, but that alone wasn’t enough.
Even if Anne Agnes stepped aside, there were plenty of candidates for crown princess. The Avery family was the exception, most noble houses wouldn’t refuse the position of future queen. Anne cautiously spoke again.
“By the way… what do you think about Marilyn?”
“What, who…?”
Logan, who had been staring at his tea the whole time, looked up. Anne quickly leaned forward.
“Marilyn Bohr. My friend.”
Marilyn Bohr. Anne Agnes’s friend. Logan recalled her. More precisely, he remembered what she had said when she approached him at Anne Agnes’s coming-of-age party.
‘Do you… love Anne Agnes?’
He hadn’t been able to answer. He hadn’t mocked the idea, nor had he given the gentlemanly reply that he would try.
Was that the problem? Because he didn’t love Anne Agnes, because he couldn’t say that he did?
Was that why she didn’t want the marriage? Because she didn’t want to stay beside a coward?
Anne had no way of knowing what thoughts were passing through Logan’s mind. In her own head, there was only one thought, she needed to bring the male lead and female lead back together as soon as possible.
“Marilyn is nice, isn’t she? She’s kind and pretty…”
Mentioning her figure would be a bit much. In any case, in Anne’s eyes, Marilyn was still the perfect female lead. Compared to her, Logan was full of flaws, enough to say he had already failed as the male lead. The story had already gone completely off track, so Anne had never even considered the possibility of the two ending up together.
But as if by fate, Marilyn had fallen in love with him. So if given the chance, Logan would surely come to love her as well. Now that his physical issue had been resolved, everything would surely return to its proper place. If the biggest obstacle, herself, disappeared, it might happen even faster.
That was why Anne planned to leave the capital as soon as the engagement was broken. Then she would no longer have to feel sorry. Not to Logan, and not to Marilyn.
Logan stared at Anne in disbelief.
“…You, you.”
He covered his eyes with his hand. He couldn’t bring himself to meet her gaze.
Anne tilted her head. Ah, would stepping in like this only have the opposite effect? Maybe the fact that Marilyn was her friend would make it awkward for him to approach her. Perhaps the best thing to do wasn’t to interfere and to remove herself as quickly as possible.
But Logan said something she had never expected.
“Do you hate me that much?”
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