Chapter 103. It Would Be Better If You’re Not Caught
The two were able to satisfy their hunger only in the deep of the night.
After the long lovemaking ended, the man who had covered Deborah’s completely limp body—too exhausted to even lift a finger—with a sheet left for somewhere and returned after a while.
When he came back, he was holding a large basket in his hand.
A basket intricately woven from wicker.
Seeing him approach, Deborah barely managed to raise her upper body that had no strength left.
Quickly wrapping her exposed naked body inside the slipping sheet.
At the sight of her blinking at the sudden basket, the corners of the man’s mouth curved softly.
“I thought you’d be hungry.”
With that, he opened the lid of the basket he had placed in the middle.
Inside were foods.
Freshly baked brioche fragrant with butter, savory cream of mushroom soup, fresh strawberries topped with cream and sugar, and warm milk.
A menu perfect for filling an empty stomach at this late hour without being too heavy.
Of course it would have been prepared on the master’s orders, but thinking of someone who had waited until this hour to make the food made heat rush to her face without realizing it.
When the person himself was so nonchalantly calm.
But more than that—
Her gaze, which had been fixed on the inside of the basket for a long time, suddenly moved to the man’s face.
“Why did you bring this here…….”
A literal question asking why he had brought the food here.
And not through a servant, but carrying the basket himself.
‘It can’t be that he means for us to eat it here…….’
From the circumstances, that seemed to be the case—yet honestly, it was far too strange.
For him, born as the legitimate eldest son of the great Chester family, to sit on the floor like this without any servants attending and eat food was something that simply could not happen.
Whether he had no intention of answering, the man tore off a piece of brioche from the basket into an easy-to-eat size and held it out to her.
“…….”
In that moment, the savory butter scent pierced her nose.
She really must have been hungry.
Because even in the middle of all this, saliva was already pooling in her mouth.
In the end, at his gesture shaking his hand as if telling her to eat, Deborah reluctantly accepted it.
After that, there was no particular conversation.
They simply shared the food he had brought while watching the softly flickering light.
How much quiet time passed like that?
“By the way…… what time is it now?”
When her stomach was somewhat full, Deborah glanced around and opened her mouth.
Normally there would be a clock somewhere on the wall, but no matter how much she looked, she couldn’t see anything like it.
And though it was a bit late to wonder, she was also curious exactly where they were.
From the view outside, it seemed to be somewhere on the first floor……
From the moment they arrived, she had been dragged around in a daze, and because she had briefly fallen asleep in between, it felt as if all her senses had become completely jumbled.
“Probably around midnight.”
“…….”
So an entire day had already passed—
The thought that struck her the instant the man spoke so casually.
And at the same time, a pang of regret quickly brushed one corner of her heart, startling Deborah without realizing it.
So this is why they say people shouldn’t indulge in luxuries beyond their station……
It had only been half a day, yet she was already feeling sad that this dream-like time was ending.
She tried to act calm so he wouldn’t notice those feelings, but the man did not miss the emotion that had flashed and disappeared in an instant.
The man gently took the spoon from Deborah’s hand and immediately pulled her body into his embrace.
“Good.”
“…….”
“I made the schedule entirely on my own whim, so I thought you might not like it.”
Hearing the soft voice falling gently into her ear because she seemed regretful, Deborah simply listened quietly.
“You can just come again next time, so there’s no need to feel that way.”
……When? Until when…… would that be possible? She wanted to ask that, but Deborah held it in and bit her lip hard.
No matter how passionately she loved him, to the point she could do nothing about it…… regrettably, Deborah did not trust the man.
That was a slightly different story from not trusting Raymond von Chester as a person.
Deborah simply understood her own position better than anyone.
Because she knew all too well the pitiful, wretched women who gave everything to a man they could never reach and withered away miserably and alone.
……She didn’t want that. She didn’t want to become like her mother—who abandoned herself, longed until the moment she closed her eyes for a man who never once came looking for her, and in the end left the child she had borne alone in the world and departed.
She never wanted to become that kind of person.
She absolutely would not……
“Perhaps—”
Her body flinched without meaning to at the low voice that reached her ear, perhaps because she had been so tense while steeling her resolve.
“That guy…… Jade Wilkins.”
As though it was dreadful even to utter that name with his own mouth, a cold chill had already seeped into the man’s voice.
Deborah held her breath and waited for the next words.
The moment his mouth, which had been silent until now, finally opened, tension shot through her entire body.
“About that guy and my relationship—have you heard anything?”
Deborah immediately shook her head.
“……No.”
She could have asked, and in fact she had been curious enough to want to go ask right away.
What kind of bad blood existed between the two that just being together made the man react like that.
But the reason she hadn’t.
“……I wanted to hear it directly from Your Grace. Not through someone else’s mouth.”
Yes, that was why.
The reason Deborah had endured all her curiosity and frustration until now.
Hearing that answer, the man showed no reaction for a long while.
After staying silent for a time as if thinking about something, he spoke again only much later.
“My father—”
At the completely unexpected first words, Deborah’s body flinched.
In her mind flashed the huge portrait hanging on the wall above the Elfengrin stairs.
Randall von Chester.
The man’s father, and the 7th Duke of Chester.
He had a somewhat cold impression, but the moment she saw the portrait, his face was beautiful enough to steal one’s gaze.
At the sudden appearance of that person, her heart began to stir for no reason.
“The person I remember was an extremely cold and ruthless man.”
“…….”
“Because he never once smiled, not even at his wife—my mother—or at the children who carried his blood.”
Along with the sneering laugh, the icy expression that had been vividly felt even beyond the portrait brushed through her mind again.
“He merely fulfilled his duty as the head of the Chester family; to him, Mother, me, and Cecilia were nothing.”
“…….”
“No, he probably even thought of us as nuisances he wanted to get rid of.”
At the man’s self-mocking words accompanied by a bitter smile, Deborah wanted to say no, that couldn’t be, how could that be true.
But she couldn’t say anything.
How could she lightly say such things when she knew nothing about the pain deeply embedded in his heart?
All she had to do right now was quietly listen to what he was saying.
Yet even so, she had never dared imagine.
That such words would come from his mouth—
“Yes, since there was a woman he loved so dearly he would die with her on the same day, and a beloved son born between them, of course the three of us must have felt like obstacles.”
A woman he loved so dearly he would die with her on the same day……? And a son…… born between them?
In that moment, an inexplicable dread wrapped around her entire body.
Could it be…….
The vague thought floating in her mind soon took solid form with the man’s next words.
“Jade Wilkins. That bastard is the illegitimate child my father had with his lowly mistress.”
Ah…… A low sigh escaped Deborah’s lips without her realizing.
So much sweat had gathered that her clenched fists were soaked.
How could something like this…… Then Jade was the Duke’s half-brother by a different mother?
No, more than that…… Jade must have known that she was a servant of the Chester family……
Of course he couldn’t speak carelessly about such a thing—but even so, remembering that he had never once shown any sign of it in front of her until now, her mind went completely blank.
“How you ended up entangled with that guy—”
The man’s firm voice struck her ears again, breaking through the confusion.
“I won’t ask for details.”
“…….”
“But it would be better for you not to let me catch you with that bastard ever again.”
“…….”
“Because I’m not—”
“…….”
“—such a fool as to just watch my woman do that.”
At those chilling words that sounded like a warning, her expression instantly hardened.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
That is not a valid reason for hating Jade 🙂
