The duke was furious.
This impudent baby rabbit. She had clung to him with apparent delight, and now she was screaming directly in his face.
“Do I look like some kind of monster? That’s rather hurtful.”
Ivelina had both hands clapped over her mouth, eyes wide with alarm.
The rabbit who had devoured him and run was just as adorable while alarmed as at any other time. Which could only mean she knew she was cute when startled and was doing this on purpose.
‘Impudent thing.’
So the duke had no intention of going easy on her.
“H—how do you… how did you know to come here…”
“You don’t need me to answer that.”
“I—I’m sorry! I did something wrong!”
“What was it?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m asking what you did wrong.”
The baby rabbit, pale as chalk, let her eyebrows droop and worked her mouth in silence—like a newborn goldfish.
“I’m not sure what I did wrong. I don’t actually remember…”
“You’re apologizing without knowing what for?”
“You were looking at me with a very frightening expression…”
“My face always looks like this.”
The duke was watching her directly, but Ivelina’s green eyes kept sliding away from his—she couldn’t hold eye contact, and had fixed her gaze somewhere in the vicinity of his nose or his jaw instead.
He observed this displaced gaze with something approaching delight. She was very cute.
Ivelina pressed her trembling hands together and squeezed her voice out with effort.
“I—first of all, how did you find where I live? And how did you know my name…”
“I called it all night.”
“‘Oh—'”
She clutched her chest like a woman in cardiac distress. Then she visibly collected herself, dabbed her forehead, and pressed on with some attempt at composure.
“Well—be that as it may. Why exactly are you here…”
“You disappeared rather quickly. I found that impertinent. So I came to retrieve you.”
“‘Oh—'”
The baby rabbit grabbed her own chest again. She exhaled a rough, winded breath, like someone who had temporarily lost access to air.
Then she steadied herself, adjusted her posture, and said:
“I—I didn’t run away.”
She left her lips slightly parted, as if there were something more she intended to say, and watched the duke out of the corner of her eye.
He waited and watched her expression cycle through its rotations in silence.
“The—what happened last night, I don’t actually remember it clearly, so… and it was just a night’s diversion anyway, so…”
The baby rabbit had produced a truly unfortunate excuse.
But the duke had been a virgin. He had given his first time to Ivelina.
His blood ran cold.
“A night’s diversion?”
The expression that settled over the duke’s face at those words was cold enough to raise cold sweat on the spot. Ivelina’s nostrils flared.
She gripped her racing heartbeat in both hands and searched for a slightly better hole to crawl into.
“Or—a night’s… ‘comfort’…?”
“You console yourself with ‘intercourse’?”
“‘Hk—'”
The baby rabbit made a peculiar sound and pitched forward.
The duke found her immensely irritating and immensely endearing at the same moment.
She was the only one who had ever taken him—conquered him—consumed him, while he had known nothing of the world. And she was also the insufferable creature who had thrown him aside like unclaimed luggage the moment she had finished.
“What is the protocol for someone who takes their fill, tosses the remnants away like garbage, and leaves?”
“…!”
“Lured in with sweet words, stripped everything I had. The moment it was over, treated me like the last item of business on a list.”
‘Tch.’ He clicked his tongue.
“What kind of conduct is that?”
“I—I did wrong.”
The water rose in the baby rabbit’s eyes. Her green irises shook.
“I’m truly sorry. I’ll forget everything that happened last night—please don’t worry. I won’t breathe a word of it to anyone. I’ll take it to my grave, I swear.”
She clasped both hands and pleaded.
The duke could not understand it. Why was she refusing him so thoroughly?
‘How different she is now from before. Tch.’
And then a hypothesis crossed his mind.
Given that it was her first time—perhaps there were aspects of the experience that had not satisfied her.
He narrowed his eyes.
“Let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes!”
“Are you saying that now that you’ve had a taste, I wasn’t worth the effort?”
“What? No—that’s not—the ‘taste’—the, um… it was ‘good!'”
She slapped her hands over her mouth immediately, as though she’d said something she hadn’t meant to. She had apparently been quite sincere about the taste.
The duke was somewhat reassured.
“It was. Good?”
“…Yes.”
“And yet you ran.”
“…”
“Leaving only that useless scrap of a note.”
“…I’m sorry!”
The baby rabbit sweated and dropped her eyes.
She rolled them back and forth for a moment—then launched into another round of nonsense.
“Your Grace!”
“Yes.”
“About last night—you really don’t need to think anything of it!”
“What do you mean by that.”
“You shouldn’t feel any sense of obligation or debt on my account. I—I consented, after all!”
The duke let out a quiet, humorless laugh.
“I’d say the obligation rests rather with you.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m sure you’re aware that a man’s first experience is something precious.”
“…!”
Ivelina made the expression of a raccoon whose prized snack had just dissolved in a river.
“What is that face. You look like a devastated raccoon.”
“So—so you really were—for the first time—was it really?”
“Yes.”
“But that—that can’t be right…”
“Ah—you’re doubting me? Thinking I must be promiscuous?”
“Pro—promiscuous…”
“That stings. You said you liked it.”
“…?”
This was, strictly speaking, a lie.
To be precise: Ivelina had never said she liked him ‘because’ he was a virgin. She had simply said she liked him. But this was a white lie, and therefore acceptable.
“You spoke as though you’d give me everything. And now you want to take it back?”
The duke tried, carefully, to soothe his baby rabbit—who looked as though she might burst if held too tightly.
“N—no! I’ll—I’ll make it up to you!”
“Make it up to me?”
“Yes! It was my fault, so if there’s anything you want from me…”
And yet the baby rabbit was already wriggling to squeeze through whatever gap remained.
What the duke wanted was marriage. So he simply chose to be direct about it, in his own way.
He reached into his jacket and dropped the contract onto the table.
“W—what is this?”
Her green eyes moved quickly back and forth.
The hands holding the contract began to tremble visibly. The lovely color drained from her face.
“This is absurd.”
“I was thinking we could hold the family introductions in two weeks.”
“…What is this? Are you serious? You want to get ‘married’ over one night?”
The duke let out a slow, wry breath.
Ivelina continued—the broken engagement, her parents, this and that—stringing together excuse after excuse with the ambition of a woman preparing to bring up distant cousins.
His patience had already run out. He redirected her to the point.
“That’s quite a preamble. What’s the actual substance of it?”
“A—a courtship period. Some time to get to know each other. I’d like a little more of it.”
“If you’re simply trying to stall, I’d advise against it. Ivelina.”
“…”
“As you may be aware, patience is not among my particular strengths.”
“I—I’m not that sort of underhanded, scheming person! I stand by my word. I’m—I’m someone who takes responsibility for what I’ve said.”
The duke saw through her in an instant.
‘She’s buying time.’
The cunning baby rabbit had begun digging with her small front paws at perfectly flat ground.
He thought it might be rather entertaining to watch until the hole was finished.
“Very well. Getting to know one another better is not a bad idea.”
The day the baby rabbit’s self-dug grave was complete—the duke intended to toss her in and fill it in himself.
He pictured the baby rabbit lying in the backyard of Hardeion manor, tucked under a blanket of earth. It was, somehow, quite charming.
The duke’s sharp eyes curved pleasantly.
* * *
A few days later.
“Your Grace! A letter has arrived from Miss Ivelina!”
‘To the Duke of Hardeion,’
‘Hello, Your Grace!’
‘I’m sorry to write so unexpectedly, but I was wondering if I might be able to visit for a little while tomorrow morning?!’
‘I really would like to come!’
‘I would be most grateful for your permission!’
‘— Ivelina Florence’
Each character had been pressed carefully into the page, round and tidy—an endearingly deliberate hand.
‘She’s finally set things in motion.’
The baby rabbit was digging her grave with great dedication.
The duke smiled to himself and sent a reply.
‘To Ivelina,’
‘Tomorrow morning I have a great deal of paperwork to attend to, so I am unable to come and collect you in person.’
‘I will send a carriage to Florence manor instead.’
‘Eight o’clock in the morning. At the front gate.’
The next day.
Ivelina arrived at the ducal manor early in the morning, slightly breathless, and came through the study door with a look of solemn resolve.
The baby rabbit was puffing with great seriousness.
“I have something I’d like to ask of you, Kael!”
‘What sort of request could our baby rabbit possibly have in mind?’
The duke concealed his amusement and watched the small mouth move.
* * *
