Chapter 44
* * *
“Could we talk for a moment?”
Yvonne awkwardly broke the silence as she entered her husband Dominic’s bedroom upon his long-awaited return to the mansion.
“Seems like today is the day everyone wants to chat with me.”
Dominic muttered to himself, gesturing toward the seat across from him at the table where he sat.
Yvonne could guess who Dominic had been speaking with, even without asking. It must have been Angela.
“What did you talk about?”
Dominic, who had already indulged plenty at the palace and was now refilling his glass, parted his lips, heavy with the scent of wine.
“Kalian is in prison. She asked me to get him released.”
Yvonne’s eyes widened. This was the first she’d heard of it.
“Prison…? Why?”
“He disobeyed the imperial decree by going to rescue that child, and it’s become an issue.”
Dominic referred to Angela as “that child,” as if she were someone else’s daughter. In the past, this had brought Yvonne some comfort, especially after giving birth to Beatrice. After all, he would embrace Beatrice and call her “our Beatrice.”
But why did this term now fill her with such sorrow? Angela’s abduction had changed Yvonne in strange ways. It even made her say things like this.
“If the count hadn’t gone to save her, your daughter might never have come home. She could have died at the hands of those villains. And right now, he’s the only one struggling to find out who was behind it…”
Dominic regarded Yvonne with an unusually sharp gaze. He tilted his glass, draining half of its full contents, before speaking to her.
“She said something similar, but I didn’t expect to hear it from you. Since when did you start taking her side?”
Yvonne’s face flushed slightly at Dominic’s words.
‘Your Grace, make me your duchess. Give me the power to stand against the young lady. I don’t want to live in fear like this anymore.’
It was a ridiculous situation. Here she was, saying this to Dominic, who remembered her proposal. She, who had despised Angela more than anyone in the Bilton mansion.
But… she never wanted to feel that same heartache again, the one she’d experienced upon learning of Angela’s abduction. That despair over the severed locks of hair… never again…
Knowing that such tender feelings still lingered within her, she couldn’t remain the same as before. Her heart kept stirring.
“She’s a child with a harsh nature.”
Of course, Dominic seemed displeased with Yvonne’s changed attitude.
“What kind of merciful feelings could you possibly have for a child like that?”
Yvonne watched as Dominic emptied the remaining half of his glass and refilled it once more. Silently, she rebutted him in her mind. Harsh nature? Far from it—she was more like a little bird that had lost its nest.
Yvonne stared at the brim of the overflowing glass before opening her mouth.
“I just didn’t understand it. He rescued his own fiancée, and yet he’s imprisoned for it.”
But Dominic shook his head coldly.
“There’s nothing more important than the imperial decree. He didn’t obey it, so he’s paying the price. If that absolute truth isn’t upheld, the empire will step onto the path of ruin.”
Dominic was speaking of duty. There was no room for human emotions to intervene. It was too much, especially from someone who surely harbored a tender name in his own heart.
“So what will happen to Count Florence?”
“Ah.”
Dominic brought the glass to his lips and set it down, a satisfied smile spreading across his face—one deeper than when he’d been called a brother by the emperor while receiving wine.
“If she makes up her mind, he’ll walk out of prison unscathed. But if she can’t and keeps prattling on about love, he’ll only leave as a corpse.”
“What do you mean by making up her mind?”
Yvonne asked again, not understanding Dominic’s words. Only after emptying his glass completely did he speak.
“The mind to break off the engagement.”
Yvonne was stunned for a moment, realizing Dominic was doing exactly what she herself had intended. He continued in a casual tone.
“I attached the condition that if she severs ties with that child, I’d help him get out of prison immediately. We’ll know the result by tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.”
“……”
“Why so silent? Aren’t you pleased? You once said it would be wonderful if Kalian were Beatrice’s match.”
Yvonne felt as if she’d been struck hard on the back of the head. She remembered now.
It was the day after all the banquets celebrating her marriage to Dominic had ended. Even Yvonne, who wasn’t much of a drinker, had had about two glasses of champagne. She was tipsy.
She’d been grateful to Kalian for steadfastly holding his place throughout the events. Everyone smiled on the surface, but she knew they were mocking the duchess who had once been a nursemaid.
She could endure being ridiculed herself, but it pained her to think Beatrice would face the same treatment. Moreover, Angela hadn’t attended the final banquet, as if refusing to acknowledge them.
In that moment, Kalian’s presence had been a godsend. He too was pointed at as a count from commoner roots, yet he remained utterly unshaken.
He was strong in himself, and that strength seemed capable of protecting anything. It had appealed to her.
So she’d said it.
‘How wonderful it would be if Count Florence were our Beatrice’s match…’
A remark tossed out like a drunken murmur, fleeting. She’d never imagined Dominic would etch it into his memory.
This came after she’d already done something terrible to Angela over the same issue. The result had been her disappearance, the abduction, the limping leg.
Yvonne hastily shook her head. Her stiff lips wouldn’t part easily, so she denied it first with her gesture.
“Th-that was… just something I said. Just… because the count is a good person…”
“Yes. Because he’s a good person, we should give him to our Beatrice. He’s too good for that child, isn’t he?”
Dominic refilled his empty glass once more. The red wine trickling into it looked just like blood. In that instant, Angela flashed before Yvonne’s eyes.
Startled, Yvonne shook her head. Only then did she see the hatred filling Dominic’s eyes. It went beyond simply withholding affection from his daughter—it was excessive.
They were the eyes of someone who would kill Angela and tear into her flesh. The gaze of a starving beast that wouldn’t be satisfied until it had drained every last drop of her blood.
Yvonne wished the emotion she’d just glimpsed wasn’t real. But the red wine vanishing down Dominic’s throat kept appearing to her as fresh blood wrung from Angela until she died.
“I… I’m a bit tired, so I’ll go to bed first…”
Yvonne barely managed those words before fleeing from Dominic. If she faced him any longer, she felt she’d see everything hidden within him. And once she did, she herself would shatter.
* * *
“You’re doing well.”
“……”
“She asked me to tell you that. Not to worry.”
Tristan spoke to Kalian through the iron bars. Kalian’s face twisted slightly. It was because of the message from Angela.
She always managed to evoke new emotions in Kalian. This time, it was a worry so intense that he wished he could bite his tongue, die, and be reborn just to escape it.
It was strange. Angela, who had once tamed him like a puppy with her claims of being in pain, summoning him back and forth—yet now, hearing that she was doing better than before only made Kalian want to rush to her side even more.
“So, how is she really?”
At Kalian’s question, Tristan shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t the kind of gesture one would expect from someone reporting that she was truly faring well.
Kalian closed his eyes tightly and opened them again, as if bracing himself for the answer. His dark pupils vanished for a moment before reappearing, fixed straight on Tristan. For someone locked behind bars, the intensity in his gaze was fierce.
“Her fever was boiling hot.”
Soon, Tristan relayed Angela’s condition without holding back.
“I was going to stay and watch over her a bit, but she seemed uncomfortable, pretending to sleep because I was there, so I just came back.”
Kalian squeezed his eyes shut once more and opened them. He imagined Angela suffering in pain without him there.
The various scenes that flashed in his mind, though not real, still made his chest ache with a dull throb. Angela, who had always provoked his anger, had lately only succeeded in breaking his heart.
‘My head hurts so much. Hurry and call Kalian. I don’t want to be known as the fiancée of a shameless man who doesn’t even come when his betrothed is ill—tell him to come right now.’
There had been times when she threw tantrums to summon him when he didn’t come.
Why did he keep thinking that those days were better? Angela was finally showing consideration for him, just as he had wished…
“She wasn’t in the best health to begin with, you said. With the injury on top of bad news, she’s probably gotten worse. My personal physician has examined Angela before, so maybe send him over to check on her…”
Tristan raised a hand to cut off Kalian, who was uncharacteristically dragging out his words.
“You won’t be able to get in.”
Then he spoke firmly.
“The master of the house has returned, so the security is incredibly tight. Yesterday, there were quite a few drunks from the victory banquet, which let me slip in. I got lucky. In your current state, there’s no way your family physician could even approach the front gate of that mansion.”
Kalian brushed back the hair that had fallen forward over his face. It wasn’t being imprisoned that frustrated him; it was this situation where he couldn’t watch over Angela from her side.
Without him, he wondered if she could even walk properly—his anxiety was burning him up inside, on the verge of exploding.
Then, suddenly, Kalian stared piercingly at Tristan. Caught off guard by the inexplicable look, Tristan tilted his head and asked, “What?”
“You—if you’re a secret envoy from the Taran Kingdom, you must have connections with Her Majesty the Empress, right?”
As Kalian abruptly revealed his secret, a startled Tristan quickly glanced left and right before pressing close to the iron bars.
“What are you doing?”
Tristan, who usually wore a perpetual grin, was now frowning. In contrast, Kalian was smiling as if he had donned Tristan’s mask. It was as though their souls had switched places.
* * *
Angela hadn’t slept a wink. She lay there, simply staring at the pendant Tristan had delivered.
It didn’t look particularly valuable, but she could tell how cherished it had been in Kalian’s hands, and then in Tristan’s. The pendant was impeccably maintained, without a single minor scratch. Time had left no mark on it.
Angela wanted to treasure this precious item that they had held so dear, just as they had. She opened the bedside table drawer.
Taking out a soft handkerchief from there, Angela placed the pendant in the center and wrapped it layer by layer. She figured if she kept it on her person, she might damage it, so she intended to store it here.
Having neatly packaged the pendant and placed it in the drawer, Angela was just closing the door when—
With a click, a memory suddenly sprang to mind. She recalled where she had seen an identical pendant before.
“This can’t be.”
Angela covered her widening mouth and muttered. Even though she was alone, she shook her head dramatically, as if performing for an audience. But in the end, with no one to acknowledge it, she had to bear this moment entirely on her own.
“This can’t be.”
Repeating the same words changed nothing. Angela was alone, and this shock was hers alone to endure.
She hastily swung her legs off the bed. Trying to step toward the door to go outside, she limped and nearly collapsed to one side, only then remembering that she was injured.
Angela scowled fiercely and punched her thigh with her fist. It was pointless venting.
Hitting it wouldn’t make the painful leg whole again. She had wondered why Kalian made such a fuss carrying her around everywhere, but now she understood there was good reason for it.
In the end, Angela slowly made her way out of her bedroom. With steps that refused to quicken, she headed to Yvonne’s room.
She considered knocking but simply opened the door instead. Yvonne was probably in Dominic’s room right now. After such a long separation, how joyful their reunion must be.
As expected, Yvonne’s bedroom was empty. Angela shut the door firmly and began rummaging through the drawers in the room.
Since becoming the duchess, Yvonne had moved rooms, so it might not be here. Still, Angela thought, just in case.
She wouldn’t believe anything until she saw it with her own eyes. She wanted to dismiss it as just something similar. However…
“Ha…”
In the third drawer she opened, Angela found what she hadn’t wanted to find. It was a pendant identical in shape to the one she held.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ✧: *. ꕥ .* :✧ﾟ. ───
