Chapter 85. Do You Like Shopping?
The sun was still blazing in the afternoon.
The carriage carrying Raymond and Edward was just passing through the central street of ‘Charlotte Square.’
‘Charlotte Square,’ the largest commercial hub in the capital, Denver, was lined with various luxury shops, making it, so to speak, a shopping district for the upper class.
The reason Raymond sought out this place today was to go to the membership club located further inside.
“Oh?”
At the sound of question coming from the front seat, Raymond’s closed eyes slowly lifted upward.
“Look, in front of that boutique… that’s Lawrence, right?”
Raymond stared intently at Edward, who was still fixated on the window, wondering why he was making such a fuss, and then finally cast his gaze in that direction.
In front of the boutique Edward had mentioned, a pair of people were standing.
The two people, who looked like a devoted couple, were known to Raymond as well.
The brown-haired man with a dazed expression was Lawrence Cornell.
The red-haired woman glued to the man’s side with her arm linked through his was Céline de Evitz.
They were the two people constantly being discussed in society lately.
The story of the young widow and the unmarried man having that kind of relationship was a wonderful feeding ground for idle aristocrats.
Whether they were or not was, in any case, none of Raymond’s concern.
Raymond soon withdrew his gaze from outside the carriage window.
“It seems to have been true. Those two.”
Raymond frowned at Edward, who was continuously gaping as if he had discovered some tremendous fact.
“Stop loo—”
“I heard Baron Evitz was quite harsh toward the Baroness when he was alive.”
“…….”
He was about to tell him to stop looking and sit up straight, but Edward cut him off and began rambling about things Raymond wasn’t curious about.
“So, she rejected all those countless temptations and chose Lawrence, didn’t she? Well, that’s what the rumors say.”
It was a piece of talk that circulated wherever people gathered, so he knew it even without wanting to listen.
They said she was such an enchanting woman that she had received countless seductions after becoming a widow.
Yet, the woman who had proudly raised her nose, rejecting all those temptations, unexpectedly chose the ordinary, unexceptional Lawrence, who possessed nothing.
Because of this, a strange rumor had once circulated.
That Lawrence was exceptionally skilled in ‘nighttime affairs.’
Of course, Raymond was uninterested in either side of the rumor.
“Lawrence is somewhat like that, you know. He’s gentle, and he’s good at being attentive to details that men often overlook—I actually didn’t believe it when they said the Baroness was moved by Lawrence’s affectionate nature, but…”
As Edward shook his head and cast his gaze out the window again, Raymond’s eyes involuntarily drifted back there.
“…….”
He let out a tsk sound involuntarily, seeing them continuously clinging to each other without embarrassment right on a public street, no matter what they were so happy about—but… yes, their bright, open smiles, as if they were the only ones there—well, they certainly seemed happy.
“Seeing those two makes me think of something Elisa said.”
Elisa was Edward’s youngest sister.
She was the type Raymond absolutely detested, being annoyingly outspoken without a plan, though he never showed it in front of Edward.
Since he wasn’t particularly curious about what Elisa had said, Raymond chose silence this time as well.
“She said women find happiness in little things like that. Like going shopping together, or going to a coffee house to drink tea together.”
Hah, what ridiculous nonsense.
To walk around with a woman by his side, doing such pathetic things.
Sensing his fierce displeasure at last, Edward offered an awkward laugh.
“Well, you won’t have to do that… but who knows? Maybe you, too, will someday walk around like that to win someone’s heart.”
Ah, is that rude, since there is Lady Constant? Raymond shot a frosty glance at Edward, who was uttering such senseless comments.
“Nonsense.”
At his cynical remark, Edward continued to persist, saying, “Well, you never know with people.”
In the meantime, the stationary carriage moved forward again, and the sight of the two people slowly began to fade from view.
That night, watching the woman in his arms calm her rapid breathing, the image of the two people he had seen during the day suddenly came to mind.
And what followed was that pathetic remark Edward had made.
—Maybe you, too, will someday walk around like that to win someone’s heart.
It wasn’t just because of those words.
Why would he, for what reason?
Why would he perform such a foolish act now to win the favor of a woman who was already his?
However, the thought suddenly occurred to him because he wondered how the other person was accepting the current situation.
He was the owner of this mansion, and she was a low-ranking maid here.
Just as the woman was reluctant to let this relationship be known, Raymond had not easily accepted this relationship from the start, either.
An orphan of low status.
She was someone he could absolutely not accept, recalling his own father, Randler von Chesters, and his vulgar courtesan mistress.
That was why he had treated her so harshly, trying desperately to resist and refuse to acknowledge his attraction to her.
He had ultimately crossed the line like this, but still, accepting the woman was by no means easy for him, either.
Naturally, this led to this unsightly behavior of secretly meeting in the dead of night, avoiding other’s eyes, but other than that, Raymond actually had no great dissatisfaction with this arrangement.
He did his work during the day, and at night he could freely take the woman into his arms, so it would not be an exaggeration to say he was enjoying the best period of his life.
But—
Was the woman also feeling that way?
Like other women—no, he didn’t even need to look that far.
Had she never once had the thought while neatly styling Cecilia’s hair?
That she, too, wanted to wear such beautiful dresses and be finely dressed.
Thinking back now, he could only recall her in worn and shabby clothes.
Always focused on remaining acutely sensitive toward the woman, he had never once thought about her appearance.
And to be agonizing over a woman’s feelings.
Since he had never done such a thing in his life, his head felt even more complicated.
‘Going out in public…’
As he pondered various thoughts, his mind drifted to that point, and the few alternatives that suddenly came to mind began to appeal to him quite a bit—no, rather substantially.
The problem, then, was how to put this into practice.
“……What’s wrong?”
At the low sound, all his complicated thoughts cleanly evaporated into thin air.
Seeing the woman’s clear face leaning on his arm, Raymond’s lips curved into a smooth smile.
Raymond then slipped his hand under the woman’s back and lifted her onto his body.
“Ah, wai—”
The woman, who had instantaneously been mounted on his body, squirmed nervously with a flustered expression.
Raymond tightly grasped the woman’s waist, preventing her from moving.
After struggling for a long time, perhaps realizing she couldn’t escape, a long sigh escaped the woman’s lips.
The slight glare in her eyes conveyed the unspoken question: What bizarre thing is this again?
He had told her countless times that it was not good to glare at him while naked, but in moments like this, she was exactly like a big, foolish bear.
Raymond gently stroked the woman’s bare skin and softly whispered.
“Do you, perhaps, like shopping?”
“Sho— Hngg…”
A lewd moan immediately escaped the woman’s lips as she tried to repeat the question.
Raymond acted as if he had understood everything without hearing it, and calmly asked again.
“Yes, shopping.”
Sliiiide—As he trailed his fingers down her neck and further below, tickling her, a soft, groaning sound came from the woman.
“I… I don’t know, unnng.”
Heh heh, she was trying her utmost to answer even amidst all that, which was so pitiful and cute.
He knew himself that he was playing increasingly wicked games.
The hand that had been circling slowly around her slender waist eventually slid down to the soft swell below.
“Ha… Stop that… Haaa-unng!”
Seeing her red lips part and her eyes immediately tear up, shopping was clearly not the important thing right now.
Raymond cursed under his breath, grabbed her slender waist, and laid the woman back down on the bed.
Her body was already thoroughly soaked.
Meeting his expectation, Raymond buried his head between her parted legs.
Immediately, accompanied by a scream-like sound, another long night was beginning.
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