Chapter 49
Bang!
The door slammed shut with a thunderous sound.
Aldrick set Violet down on the bed. Even then, she was still squirming in discomfort, her body bound in rope.
And honestly, she no longer even remembered why she had been trying to escape from Aldrick in the first place. Her purpose had long since disappeared.
There was no more drive to run, and no hope of getting away.
After placing her on the bed, Aldrick yanked off his steel gauntlets and tossed them violently onto the floor.
“I didn’t come all this way to find you just to watch some bastard pretend to be your husband.”
Violet had opened her mouth to protest, but shut it the moment she saw the hardwood floor dent under the weight of the gauntlets.
“….”
Silence fell.
Her whole body, tense for so long and now with her hands still tied behind her back, was sore and exhausted.
What she wanted most was to collapse flat onto the soft bed. But it seemed Aldrick had no intention of untying her.
This was the Lord’s manor of Saint-Lour.
The local lord had clearly had many things to say upon witnessing his neighboring noble, Aldrick, bring back his runaway wife, but Aldrick had only given the bare minimum of courtesy before bringing her straight to a room.
Even so, the manor wasn’t as lavish as Count Lambert’s estate in the capital, Violet thought vaguely.
Now wasn’t the time for such thoughts, but her mind wandered.
Her whole body ached. Perhaps from the blood rushing to her head when he’d carried her over his shoulder, her head throbbed.
The rope had chafed her skin raw, and it stung.
The most frustrating thing was herself. How she couldn’t even manage to run away properly. It was pathetic.
Aldrick looked down at the now-docile Violet.
She never knew his green eyes could be this cold.
There were so many sides of him she was seeing for the first time—just today.
“Unfortunately for you.”
Aldrick raked his hand through his hair as if trying to suppress his anger. His armor clinked with every movement.
“My role on the battlefield was mostly tracking and assassination. Which means finding an amateur runaway like you is as easy as breathing.”
As he said this, his hand went to the sword at his waist. Violet startled, trying to rise up instinctively. Or more accurately, she flailed.
Was he actually going to harm her?
“It still took me three months to find you because too many damn people kept getting in the way.”
Srring—that now-familiar, chilling sound rang out as Aldrick unsheathed his sword and thrust it into the floor.
“So don’t even think about disappearing like that again. I don’t want to have to act violently toward you anymore.”
It had seemed like a simple move, but nearly a third of the blade had sunk into the gaps between the floorboards.
“Aldrick.”
He looked at her silently. His breath was heavy, his gaze intense and threatening.
“Just talk to me. Why do you have to pull out something so scary? Are you really trying to threaten me?”
She was afraid—just a little. But it was Aldrick. And her trust in him outweighed her fear.
“If that’s how you see it, then yes. It’s a threat.”
But this Aldrick wasn’t the Aldrick she knew.
She had heard of men threatening to break their wives’ legs when they tried to run.
Was he going to use that thing to cut hers? Cold sweat ran down Violet’s neck.
“Violet. I know I told you how I felt—no, I believed I did. You’re the first woman I’ve ever loved. You’re my only family. And you thought you could just leave me like that?”
“So… now you’re waving a sword at me to force me into staying?”
“You think I’d actually hurt you? No. Never.”
“I really am sorry, Aldrick. And yes, I was in pain too. But I told you—I had my reasons.”
But Aldrick wasn’t listening.
“You don’t know what real pain feels like, Violet. If you did, you wouldn’t have left me.”
His tone had calmed, but only slightly.
“I’ll say it again. I can’t let you go. I won’t allow a divorce. That letter you left? I burned it. And the reasons you gave me—I can’t accept them. But if you absolutely have to leave me…”
He nodded toward the sword embedded in the floor.
“Then stab me with that. Kill me and go. My corpse won’t chase you.”
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