Chapter 118
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Lane hummed cheerfully as he climbed into the carriage. He was in high spirits. Not only had his health rallied for the first time in ages, filling him with energy, but his little excursion had yielded far more than he expected.
To think she possessed such a useful talent.
A sister with an ability unheard of in this world. He pictured her, the sister he had so easily cornered. Her trembling figure, so unbecoming of one with such an extraordinary gift, was utterly amusing.
He stopped humming and let out a series of twisted laughs.
She could become the Grand Duchess, but she’d never change her true nature. She’d used that power to get lucky, seducing a husband and trampling all over the Count’s family, but who could keep loving a b***h who did nothing but tremble and hide behind him?
Lane inwardly cursed and sneered at his sister. He felt not a shred of gratitude toward her for granting him even this brief reprieve from his pain. He was, by nature, incapable of such feelings. What interested him far more was a different matter entirely.
His sister couldn’t even control her power, using it haphazardly. She seemed to know it manifested at will. On her face, so utterly devoid of any talent for concealment, he had seen no sign of shock or confusion—only fear.
But she clearly had no idea if her power was permanent or temporary. Her face was ashen with terror, yet at that particular remark, her eyes had gone wide, completely at a loss.
Does the Grand Duke not know, then?
It would make sense. I heard they haven’t been publicly separated for any significant length of time.
Lane’s eyes curved into thin crescents as he gazed at the window. Outside, it was dark; inside the carriage, it was bright. The glass reflected not the passing scenery, but his own face.
“Could the Grand Duke have known about Ailee’s ability beforehand? Is that why he proposed?”
If so, how did he find out?
Thinking back, he had acted with a strange impatience, desperate to push the wedding through.
He’d refused the offered dowry, skipped the engagement ceremony entirely. Lane had never seen a Grand Duke—no, any noble—insist on proceeding directly to the vows. Such cases existed, of course. Either the bride was with child, or one of the parties had a defect, making it imperative to lock down the betrothal at any cost.
Until the wedding, Lane had assumed it was the latter. The Blashur Grand Dukes were notoriously volatile, ticking time bombs, so perhaps he’d desperately needed an heir. Even so, the excessive kindness he showed Ailee had struck Lane as more than a little suspicious.
Both Mother and Father had been eager to see Ailee gone, so they hadn’t bothered to ask why. In fact, they’d even suggested moving the ceremony up.
He had been so frantic to claim that nuisance… could he really have known about her power? But Ailee was infamous in society as a talentless simpleton. How, and when, could he possibly have found out?
He couldn’t have just seen her passing by; he’d never set foot in the Count’s estate. Did that b***h Ailee discover his weakness and strike a deal? Then again, it had been quite some time since she first started muttering about her ‘power’. She would have known about it, and she might have even figured out where it would be most useful.
They’d supposedly ‘watched’ her, but everyone had been so indifferent they hadn’t a clue what she was doing. A deal might have been surprisingly easy to make. People only ever sought her out when they were angry, and even then, Mother and Father rarely bothered.
Even if she did.
Ailee hadn’t seemed to know her ability was temporary. So, when she first bargained with the Grand Duke, it must have been a simple “I’ll heal you, so protect me,” or something to that effect.
The Grand Duke would have agreed for the time being, but he surely never intended to keep her around forever.
She’s pretty enough for now, so he’s probably having fun playing the loving husband and showing her off.
But how could a dazed, useless thing like her ever fulfill the duties of a Grand Duchess? It would be a miracle if she could even produce a child. If the Blashur Grand Duke had any sense, he wouldn’t keep her indefinitely. Unless, of course, Ailee managed to bargain with him, admitting her power wasn’t permanent.
That would be problematic.
Perhaps because he was standing right in front of her, he’d just spat the words out without thinking. Back at the estate, she had been a good-for-nothing simpleton. He’d assumed she was still the same and just ran his mouth. It would be inconvenient if she suddenly decided to get clever. This was the danger of old habits. Tsk.
“Then again, the Grand Duke will probably just try to keep her locked up in the house, same as I would.”
Lane tapped the carriage window with his index finger.
It would be troublesome if he tied her down first.
Still, even if his opponent was the Grand Duke, it wasn’t as if he had no options. A person drowning in deprivation, with cripplingly low self-esteem and a self-loathing that was palpable. Poor—Ailee. He knew, more or less, exactly how to handle people like her.
Lane closed his eyes, bobbing his head slightly as if to a silent beat.
He remembered the look in her eyes just before she left the Count’s manor. She knew it was a marriage she was being sold into. She knew her own parents were the ones pushing it through with indecent haste. And yet, she’d worn that pathetic, pleading look, hoping until the very last second that someone, anyone, would stop it. All while knowing perfectly well that no one would. How absurd.
To hope for something you don’t even expect to happen.
How pitiful.
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