Chapter 13
The Crown Prince was the only person who worked tirelessly to see Duke Dominic Whitmore become a married man. Part of the reason was the close relationship between House Whitmore and the Queen’s family.
The decisive reason, however, was an incident that had taken place nine years earlier.
A court musician bribed by anarchists had once approached the Crown Prince during a ball with the intent to assassinate him. Had the young Duke-to-be of Whitmore — not even fully grown, let alone of age — not immediately grasped what was happening and thrown himself into harm’s way to shield the royal family’s sole heir, the kingdom might well have been thrown into chaos.
In the aftermath, anti-anarchist sentiment swept through the realm. Countless conspirators were hunted down and sent to the gallows. The Crown Prince, however, cared little about any of that.
Instead, he had been deeply moved by Dominic, who was even younger than he was, and resolved to treat him for the rest of his life as both a cherished friend and the man who had saved his life.
He had even opposed Dominic’s enlistment in the army more fiercely than the late Duke and Duchess of Whitmore themselves.
In other words, the Crown Prince’s relentless matchmaking stemmed entirely from genuine goodwill. He simply wanted the Duke of Whitmore to marry soon, settle down, and finally find some happiness. To Dominic Whitmore, however, it felt like nothing more than an exhausting obsession.
‘If I don’t corner you like this, you’ll just run away again, Nicky.’
The Crown Prince had even resorted to using the childhood nickname he had once called him by, arranging for his cousin, Lady Greta, daughter of the Duke of Greta, to join them for dinner. The problem was that neither Dominic nor Lady Greta looked the least bit interested.
The moment the Crown Prince gave them a playful wink and quietly excused himself, Lady Greta discarded even the veneer of polite sociability and spoke.
‘I apologize, but I have no intention of marrying.’
‘Neither do I.’
Having been beaten to the punch, Dominic answered at once without so much as a flicker crossing his face. Lady Greta’s interests lay not in marriage, but in inheriting her family’s title.
In any case, by the time the exhausting and uncomfortable dinner finally came to an end and Dominic returned to the estate, it was already past ten o’clock.
He still needed to review the second-quarter financial report the head butler had prepared, but fatigue tempted him to put it off until tomorrow.
Moments like these made him wish he had one more sibling. He could never entrust the duchy to his tender-hearted younger sister, so an elder or younger brother would have done nicely.
Of course, any hope of passing the crushing weight of those responsibilities onto a brother and disappearing into military life, where the years could slip by in simple routine, had long since become impossible.
After changing out of his formal attire and into more comfortable clothes, Dominic stepped into the rear garden to clear his thoughts.
Summer had come early this year. The damp night breeze carried the rich fragrance of unfamiliar flowers.
Tilting his head back, Dominic searched the night sky for the North Star, just as he had been taught during his military training. It’s around ten o’clock now, so north should be…
Just then — Rustle. The sound of leaves shifting broke the silence.
Dominic frowned and turned toward the source of the sound. Soft, light footsteps steadily drew nearer.
“Eek!”
With a startled cry, the woman who emerged lost her balance and staggered backward.
She was just within reach. He could have caught her with a simple stretch of his arm. Instead, he didn’t so much as lift a finger, choosing to watch the one-woman performance unfold.
Thud!
Landing squarely on the ground, Irene hurriedly pushed herself to her feet without ever looking him in the eye. Unable to face the man staring down at her with open disbelief, she kept her head bowed.
‘Just my luck.’
Half out of curiosity, half because she had promised Chloe, Irene had finished <Lady Scarlet’s Secret Hobby>. After reading it to the end, she’d been certain that if she went straight to bed, disaster would follow. So she’d quietly slipped out of the detached residence instead.
She had deliberately chosen the deserted rear garden to cool her overheated mind.
A peaceful walk was supposed to cleanse both body and soul, to restore her to the proper, respectable young lady she ought to be.
So why did the very man who kept putting her virtue to the test have to be here?!
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