Chapter 20
* * *
Marian looked at Helena with worried eyes.
“Madam, are you alright? Your face seems paler than usual…”
“I must be a bit tired from tossing and turning last night. My body’s fine, Marian.”
“You’re not really sick, are you?”
Helena smiled and patted Marian’s shoulder.
“I’m really fine. I should head down now.”
“Yes, madam… Oh, here are your gloves!”
Helena, with white lace gloves on and a hat perched atop her neatly pinned-up hair, left the room. As she descended the stairs, she saw Kavil’s back as he stood waiting in front of the entrance.
He must have sensed her presence, yet unlike usual, he didn’t turn around. Only when Helena approached right up to him did he glance down at her.
Inside the carriage heading to the imperial palace, an uncomfortable silence hung between the couple sitting across from each other. Helena’s eyes gradually blurred as she absently watched the scenery flashing by outside the window.
She had closed her eyes briefly due to fatigue, and when she awoke from her light doze, they had already arrived in front of the palace.
“We’ve arrived, madam.”
Rubbing her hazy eyes and nodding, Helena saw Kavil dressed in a pitch-black uniform come into view. Only then did she realize the warmth of him sitting close beside her, and her head tilted in confusion.
She briefly wondered if Kavil had originally been sitting next to her. As Kavil swiftly alighted from the carriage and looked at her as if urging her on, she hurriedly rose from her seat.
An attendant approached and bowed politely to the couple.
“We’ve been waiting, Duke Destrian and Duchess. I’ll escort you to the palace garden.”
Following the attendant through a long, ornate hallway that seemed as if molten pure gold had been poured into it, they reached a green garden at the end, with a large pond in front.
In the center of the garden stood a luxurious table and chairs. Not long after the couple had taken their seats, Lucien appeared with a bright smile.
“Welcome, Duke Destrian and Duchess.”
“We greet Your Highness the Prince.”
Lucien, gazing contentedly at the bowing couple, gestured for them to sit. Unlike the quietly eating couple, Lucien was talkative to the point of being chatty.
The conversation continued for quite a while in the form of Lucien asking questions and the couple answering. After the meal ended, the three moved to a terrace overlooking the entire palace garden.
As Lucien had boasted, the garden was filled with all sorts of colorful, rare flowers and trees that were hard to see in the empire.
Kavil, who had indifferently turned his head following Helena’s gaze, looked at the garden and showed uninterested eyes.
It was then that he thought, seeing how her gaze always lingered on greenery wherever they went, that she might like it if he built a new garden in the residence.
His head turned at the voice coming from beside him. Elegantly setting down his teacup, Lucien spoke.
“I hear the duchess has been selected as an invited artist for this art exhibition?”
“That’s correct, Your Highness.”
“The opening day is not far off, and I’m already looking forward to it. As you know, madam, I’m an ardent fan of yours.”
“I’m simply grateful that you enjoy my work, Your Highness.”
“Oh, right, does the palace garden suit your taste? I’ve gathered all the beautiful flowers of the empire here…”
Helena, who had been nodding with her gaze fixed on the garden, turned her head at Lucien’s following words.
“Oh dear. Come to think of it, there’s one flower I don’t have.”
“…A flower you don’t have?”
“The most beautiful flower right in front of me—I don’t possess it, do I? Haha.”
“…….”
Unlike Lucien, who burst into laughter with a cheerful face, Helena’s lips stiffened. Kavil also glared fiercely at Lucien with narrowed eyes.
He had been in a foul mood since before coming to the palace. The patience he had been forcibly holding onto because it was an outing with Helena snapped at that moment with Lucien’s words.
Kavil spoke in a low,沉en voice.
“Your joke seems to have gone too far, Your Highness.”
“I merely offered the highest compliment one can give to a beautiful lady. If it offended you, I apologize, Duke.”
“The apology should be to my wife, not me. You’ve committed the rudeness of comparing the empire’s most注目 new painter to something as trivial as a beautiful flower.”
“…….”
At Kavil’s words, the lingering smile on Lucien’s lips vanished in an instant. The amicable atmosphere shattered in a moment, and a precarious silence, as if it could break at any second, seeped in.
Lucien, who had been staring piercingly into Kavil’s cold golden eyes, soon lifted the corners of his mouth and looked at Helena.
“If my compliment displeased you, I apologize, Duchess.”
“It’s fine. No need, Your Highness.”
“Anyway, the duke seems to cherish his wife greatly. Accepting an apology on her behalf directly from me.”
“…….”
“Oh, I mean nothing by it. It’s just novel to see a side of the duke I never imagined.”
Lucien smiled as he brought the teacup to his lips. Unlike his curved mouth, his eyes were沉en. Helena, too, forced the teacup to her lips to hide her discomfort. At that moment.
An attendant approached with quick steps and whispered something close to Lucien’s ear.
“Oh, it seems teatime must end here. Something has come up.”
“…….”
“It was enjoyable, Duke Destrian and Duchess. See you on opening day.”
Lucien, who had been coldly looking down at the bowing couple, exited the terrace with the attendant. After confirming Lucien’s retreating figure had completely disappeared, Helena sighed and sat back down.
“Now he’ll really misunderstand.”
“What.”
“That Your Grace cherishes me—he’ll misunderstand that.”
“…….”
He himself didn’t understand his behavior just now, but he thought that if he went back to that moment, he’d act the same way.
Kavil furrowed his brow harshly as he mulled over what Lucien had said to Helena. How dare he give such a vulgar compliment to someone else’s wife.
Unlike Kavil’s grim expression, Helena spoke with a face that somehow looked pleased for no apparent reason.
“Still, thank you for getting him to apologize.”
“…….”
“The compliment His Highness gave wasn’t exactly pleasant.”
Kavil stared blankly at Helena’s softly curved lips before impulsively asking.
“What kind of compliments do you like?”
“Pardon?”
“What compliment makes you….”
Smile like this? Kavil barely swallowed the latter part that almost slipped out unknowingly and clamped his mouth shut.
Helena tilted her head curiously at him stopping mid-sentence, so Kavil reluctantly spoke.
“What compliment makes you feel the best when you hear it.”
Surprised by the unexpected question, Helena answered half a beat late.
“Hm… I like any compliment. Of course, His Highness’s wasn’t to my liking.”
His eyes narrowed slightly, as if her answer was unsatisfactory.
“Specifically, what kind? Do you like being told you paint well?”
“…….”
Helena’s eyes widened at the question she never imagined hearing from Kavil. In their nearly two years of marriage, he had never once shown curiosity about her.
It was always her role to be curious about him. Holding back the feelings that wanted to float up obliviously, Helena calmly spoke.
“Of course, I like being told I paint well. But what I like even more is…”
“…….”
“Being told I’m kind makes me the happiest.”
“…Kind?”
Kavil’s eyes furrowed as if it were a word he was hearing for the first time.
“Being kind and treating someone warmly is harder than it seems. Of course, it’s a wonderful thing.”
“…So you like kind people.”
“Yes. I like kind people.”
“…….”
Kavil’s lips moved as if he were about to say something, but he soon clamped them shut. Kindness. It was a word he had never heard or uttered in his life until now.
Kavil was enveloped in a complex emotion he couldn’t quite define. Helena, who had been gazing at the suddenly silent Kavil, spoke.
“What about you?”
“……?”
“What compliments do you like?”
Helena rested her chin on the table and tilted her head slightly. Sunlight streaming over the terrace brushed across Helena’s round forehead, adorable nose tip, and small lips.
Kavil, entranced, followed the sunlight with his gaze before meeting her eyes at her repeated call.
“Kavil? I asked what compliments you like?”
“What?”
“What complim…”
“No, before that. What did you call me?”
“Kavil, of course…”
Noticing Kavil’s lips stiffen, Helena cautiously asked again.
“Do you perhaps dislike being called by your name?”
“…No.”
“…….”
“I don’t dislike it.”
Rather, it was too…
‘Good, that’s the problem.’
It felt unpleasantly good. His heart tickled as if butterflies were flapping their wings. It was the first time someone had called him by his name.
Kavil turned his body sideways to avoid Helena’s gaze and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. It was to hide his lips that were curling up on their own.
However, for Helena, who had no idea what Kavil was thinking, it was simply bewildering.
‘Does he not like being called by his name?’
But he doesn’t look upset…
Helena tilted her head for a while as she examined Kavil, who had completely turned his back to her. When Kavil finally met her eyes after barely composing his expression, he wore his usual impassive face.
Kavil gazed at her green eyes, prettier than any green in the garden, before abruptly speaking.
“Calling my name.”
“Yes?”
“You asked what compliment I like. I like it when you call my name.”
“…….”
Helena blinked in confusion. Wondering what calling a name had to do with compliments, she slowly nodded. Perhaps for him, being called by name was a compliment.
“If that’s the kind of compliment, I think I can give you a lot of them from now on.”
“…….”
“Kavil.”
“……!”
