Chapter 79
Click.
While the couple shared a kiss in bed, they sensed movement outside the door.
At the rustling sound, Floria twisted her shoulder.
If this continues, we’ll be on fire again before breakfast.
Although it happened often, Floria hurriedly pulled away from him, afraid the servants might overhear.
“Seems breakfast has arrived.”
“The steward chief, I suppose.”
Aidan clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The staff here were well trained not to disturb the Duke and Duchess newlyweds under any circumstances.
However, they would wait outside the door like that, ready to enter as soon as the bell was rung by their master.
Aidan disliked even that subtle intrusion.
But without the staff, Floria would be trapped in Aidan’s arms in bed for life.
“Hurry up.”
At his wife’s urging, the Duke glared at Floria’s exposed shoulder with a displeased expression.
“Ah, just a moment.” She said that and quickly threw on her robe to cover herself.
Then, when she nodded, Aidan rang the bell, and as if they had been waiting, the staff came in.
“Your Grace the Duke, Your Grace the Duchess, good morning.”
“Good morning,” he replied curtly.
Aidan’s voice to the servant was gruff.
But since this was a daily occurrence, the steward paid no mind and relayed the morning news.
If he let things continue as Aidan liked, the Duke and Duchess might never leave the bedroom.
On days without outside affairs, the Duke monopolized his Duchess and refused to let her go.
The delicate Duchess might end up broken.
“His Grace the Duke knows no half measures,” thought the steward as he began speaking.
“Last night, a letter arrived from Altomole.”
At the steward’s words, Aidan’s relaxed expression twisted subtly.
He straightened up slightly.
“What’s in it?” “The usual.”
Though letters to the Duke were obviously not to be opened until he read them, letters from the Palace of Altomole were an exception, and the steward opened them first.
Because their contents were so formulaic, there was no need even to read them.
Helia, who couldn’t prepare a dowry, was unable to marry.
The “kind and gentle” Duke Lionel of the Piets Duchy, who had fallen in love, ultimately abandoned her.
Instead, he married the first princess of the Kaluit Duchy and used her dowry for military spending, just as Aidan had expected.
And the sword of the Piets Duchy was now being directed at neighboring Altomole.
Which was understandable—the newly militarized Piets Duchy would surely regard Altomole, with no real army, as an easy target.
Thus, daily pleas for aid arrived from Altomole.
Aidan left everything concerning Altomole to Floria.
The Chef Duchy had just concluded its war with Kaluit and was now at ease.
“Either way is fine—do whatever puts your mind at ease.”
As a dutiful daughter, it would be right to help her family.
No matter how much her parents didn’t love her, they were still her birth parents, and Altomole was her hometown, even if only bitter memories remained.
But…….
She couldn’t forgive it.
She could endure being treated like a fool and ignored.
But she could never forgive them for treating Aidan like an uneducated beast.
And how dare they now cravenly beg him for help after all that.
“Throwing out a guest in the middle of the night—only beasts do that. How could they?”
“Beasts? No—he’s worse than a beast of a man.”
Even after her mother and sister returned to Altomole, those words stayed with her.
The husband before her, though rough and possibly bloodied, was an honest man.
Not hypocrites like her mother and sister.
They may tempt sweetly now, but if she—or Aidan—asked them for help, they would never lift a finger.
Letters without sincerity.
She had no desire even to concern herself with their contents.
At Aidan’s look, studying her intention, Floria shook her head.
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.