Chapter 93
“…What?”
Over the past few days since Aldrick returned, Violet had felt happy to see him safe, but at the same time, she also felt sorrowful. It was because this time had solidified the resolve she’d carried all along.
Aldrick, her dear friend. Aldrick, the excellent knight. Aldrick, who would only continue to succeed even more.
He deserved a better bride than someone like her, who had been driven out of her home and forced into a marriage. Violet was tormented by the pressure that she needed to step aside as soon as possible.
Her complicated emotions, affection for Aldrick, and a fury she couldn’t quite explain became a tangled mess and exploded outward.
“Did you just say divorce?”
“Yes. It was a marriage made for the war in the first place. Even now, we could dissolve it and you could marry someone better—”
“What, did you meet someone better than me in the capital?”
The look in Aldrick’s eyes as he asked was fierce.
Violet had known him since he was very young.
But the person standing in front of her now felt completely unfamiliar.
She had never seen him this angry before.
“What are you talking about? I—”
“Who is it? Is he here at the party right now? Mind if I take a look?”
“I told you, it’s not like that! I just—”
“Then why are you bringing up divorce?”
“Can you please just let me finish talking?!”
Violet burst out in frustration, but it didn’t seem to reach him.
“So the fact that I said I liked you. Was that some kind of joke to you?”
“What did you say?”
“I like you. No, I love you. I told you that was the reason I proposed to you.”
“What are you talking about… You wanted to marry me because of the war.”
“Of course the war was just an excuse. I’ve been crazy about you for as long as I can remember. Before I even came of age, I had nightmares every night thinking you might marry someone else! I finally managed to tie you to me with a marriage, and now you’re saying you want to tear that apart and run?!”
Aldrick’s broad shoulders trembled with emotion as he finished.
“I will not allow it.”
Violet felt her mind go blank from everything he was saying.
What in the world is he talking about?
She couldn’t bring herself to believe it easily.
“But Aldrick—”
He must be mistaken. He’s still just a kid, so of course he could be confused.
Still clinging to her strange conviction that Aldrick was a child she had to protect, Violet tried to persuade him one last time.
“You haven’t spent much time in the capital yet. That’s why… maybe you just think I’m special because I’m the only woman you’ve been close to. But someday, when you meet someone you truly love—”
“Mistaken?”
She soon realized she’d made a terrible move.
“Mistaken, you say?”
If anything, Violet’s words only provoked Aldrick further.
“From the moment I first saw you at the stream, I’ve never once been able to get you out of my head. And now you’re calling that a mistake?”
The dangerous intensity in him as he stepped toward her made Violet instinctively recoil.
“Not a single day has passed without me thinking about you. When I couldn’t see you, I lived holding on to the hope that I’d meet you again. Every day since I was seven—until now.”
Stepping backward, Violet soon found herself backed up against the garden wall. There was nowhere else to go. But Aldrick didn’t stop walking. The space between them closed.
“My life only had meaning when I saw you, when I thought of you. Every moment I spent without you was worthless. The reason I’ve kept going all this time was all for you, so that one day we could be together. And you’re telling me that was a mistake? You think that’s a misunderstanding?”
Before she knew it, Aldrick was right in front of her. She could feel the hem of her dress brushing against his leg. Violet swallowed hard.
Their faces were now so close she could feel his breath.
“Every night before I sleep, I think of you so I can see you in my dreams. I may not pray, but I never forget to think of you.”
Aldrick lowered his voice to a murmur, just enough for Violet to hear. The heat of his breath tickled her ear and made her entire head buzz.
“I even touch myself while thinking of you. And you’re saying all of that was just my delusion?”
The Aldrick in front of her no longer seemed like the one she knew. The heat radiating from his body, the burning gaze that looked as if he might devour her, the manly scent surrounding her—everything was unfamiliar.
And her own reaction to this Aldrick was equally unfamiliar. Her heart thundered wildly, heat rushed through her body, her cheeks flushed red, and her fingers and toes tingled.
Overwhelmed by these strange new feelings, Violet squeezed her eyes shut.
“Like you said, I’m still young and inexperienced. So why don’t you teach me, as my elder?”
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