The Common Way to Ruin a Life - Chapter 34

A tedious, utterly pointless evening.

The composer who had shocked audiences with a daring new piece at his latest recital. A newly developed fabric that had become fashionable for summer evening parties. The torrential rains in the southwestern provinces that had flooded the rivers and ruined this year’s peach harvest…

He forced himself to respond politely to one uninteresting topic after another, and before he knew it, dinner had come to an end.

“Um, perhaps next time…”

The baron’s daughter blushed, clearly hoping there would be another meeting. The Duke of Whitmore responded with nothing more than a perfectly formal bow, as precise as a well-trained soldier.

Another meeting? What a dreadful thought.

The instant he left the dining hall, Dominic felt a profound sense of relief. No sooner had he climbed into his carriage than he ordered the coachman to ride at full speed.

Leaning back against the headrest, Dominic closed his eyes.

If he kept meeting different women like this, making it look as though he was seriously considering marriage, perhaps those ridiculous rumors will finally die down.

And if he happened to meet someone he can actually hold a conversation with, perhaps he’ll let the courtship continue a little longer. If things go well, then perhaps marriage...

“Hah…”

Lost in one thought after another, Dominic let out a dissatisfied sigh.

Even that governess had failed to persuade Chloe. Every day she came to report her failure, wearing the same troubled expression, and to his own absurd irritation, he would feel a familiar heaviness low in his abdomen.

He felt as though he had become just as insane as the woman whose head was supposedly filled with indecent thoughts.

The woman who had writhed and moaned so shamelessly beneath him would return in broad daylight acting as though nothing had ever happened, pretending complete ignorance.

Seeing her standing before the very table where they had shared that heated encounter, wearing that meek, composed expression, invariably stirred both irritation and an inexplicable sense of dissatisfaction.

In the end, Dominic gave up on having her persuade Chloe after only a week, and she stopped coming to make her reports.

Like an annoying hangnail forever catching his attention, once that woman was no longer in sight, peace finally seemed to return to his mind.

Or rather, he deluded himself into thinking it had.

Until several nights ago, when the oppressive summer heat robbed him of sleep… and he had a deeply unsettling dream.

Dominic’s eyes snapped open as abruptly as a soldier responding to the morning bugle. The sticky dampness between his legs and the lingering sensation made his entire body tense with revulsion.

The instant he saw the pale smear of sxmxn, his chest tightened as though he were trapped underwater, unable to breathe.

And then the memory surfaced. A pale, slender body swaying beneath him in his dream. He couldn’t remember what had happened in it. But one image remained vivid above all else — those gentle, innocent eyes.

So.

Dominic Whitmore had no choice but to admit that, just like that perverse governess, he too had succumbed to desire.

It felt as though he had lost the very qualities that defined him, his reason and his self-control. He should never have hired that woman. Everything’s become a complete mess!

Burdened by those thoughts, Dominic returned to the estate, carefully maintaining an outwardly composed facade as he stepped inside.

The sight of Benjamin hurrying toward him as though he had been waiting was strangely reassuring, grounding him in reality.

“Your Grace, we’ve got a serious problem!”

Admittedly, the news the butler delivered was grim indeed—cases of heatstroke were spreading throughout the duchy, and a waterborne epidemic had begun to break out.