Wildflowers Bloom on the Grand Duchy’s Wall - Chapter 31

Cairn’s gaze grew colder and sharper.

“I’ll be going now. You two enjoy yourselves.”

Eisen realized from his expression that what he felt was resentment, and could only give a helpless smile.

“Won’t you stay a little longer and chat?”

But Cairn, except for the brief moment when Eisen arrived, never once looked her way. His fierce eyes were focused only on Lilien. Without a second’s hesitation, he turned and left the café.

Caught off guard by how quickly things were unfolding, Lilien nervously fidgeted with her hands atop the table, her eyes darting around. Eisen watched her for a moment and then offered a gentle smile.

“Go ahead, Miss de Bermore.”

“But…”

“I’m fine, really.”

“I’m so sorry, Miss Frederick. I was the one who invited you, and now I’m just leaving you like this… If only I’d warned Cairn ahead of time…”

“There must have been a reason you couldn’t tell him. Save your apologies for later—hurry! Lord Headington has long legs, he’ll be out of the garden in no time.”

“Excuse me, then. I promise I’ll make this up to you properly next time.”

Eisen nodded a couple of times.

“Go on, now.”

As Lilien rushed out of the café, Eisen calmly raised her hand and called for a garçon. She ordered tea, choosing one with a stronger fragrance than usual, and let out a light sigh.

If she’d known what Cairn Etienne Headington was feeling, she never would have shown up to a meeting like this. For her, marriage was only ever a mutually beneficial transaction anyway.

Sure, she’d blushed at the sight of Cairn’s objectively beautiful face, but what she felt wasn’t the stuff of real longing or yearning. She didn’t want to fight to possess a man—what for?

“How unfortunate.”

It really was a shame. In the Klatt Empire, there were only three types of men: Cairn Etienne Headington; men like Victor Regid who looked good but couldn’t keep it in their pants; and the rest—utterly useless. She supposed there might be some fun in taking control of the last type, if only for a while.

Still, she found herself worrying about the two of them.

“I hope he isn’t actually mad at Miss de Bermore…”

But she couldn’t really picture the cool-headed Lord Headington losing control over love. Such an image was… impossible to imagine.

* * *

Contrary to the clever Eisen Frederick’s guess, she was completely off the mark.

“Who asked you to set up something like this?”

Lilien had finally managed to catch up to Cairn on the garden path outside the café terrace, but the moment he turned to face her, he looked at her like a wild animal.

“I just… I did it for you.”

Under the arch of blooming roses, the two of them were at it again.

“For me? Not for you?”

“What? How could this possibly be for me? I just wanted you to meet someone nice—”

“So it’s still about you. You keep saying you don’t want to, but isn’t it because you actually do want to get married? Because now you see me as a burden?”

Burden.

She had never once put Cairn and ‘burden’ in the same sentence in her mind. Quite the opposite—Lilien never wanted to be a burden to him.

“My feelings never mattered to you, did they?”

No matter her original intentions, Lilien knew she should apologize. This time, it was clearly her fault.

“Lilien, you really made a fool out of me.”

She knew that. Maybe it was her frayed nerves, but all the wrong words tumbled out.

“Why are you saying it like that?”

This wasn’t how she wanted it to go at all. The closer someone was to her, the kinder she wanted to be—and the more she wanted to apologize when she’d done wrong. But, knowing that, she still couldn’t get the words out.

“If you hadn’t made the Grand Duchess worry in the first place, I wouldn’t have meddled like this. Did you think I wanted to do any of this?”

A headache throbbed behind Lilien’s eyes.

She hated herself at that moment—so stupid, she couldn’t even apologize properly. Was it the lack of sleep, or the mess inside her heart? Either way, it was her own issue and she shouldn’t be taking it out on Cairn, but her thoughts were a tangled mess.

Cairn noticed the way her hand was trembling and dragged a heated palm down his face.

“Let’s just stop here for today. I don’t want to get angry at you.”

“Aren’t you already angry at me?”