Chapter 130. Don’t Say Such Things, Just Comfort Me
A heavy silence flowed, as if time itself had frozen.
At Cecilia’s sudden action, Edward—and even Madame Mariella, who had stepped back—could not hide their astonishment.
Amidst that, there was one strange thing.
The reaction of the party involved, Deborah, was far too quiet.
Her face looked as if she hadn’t even perceived what had happened yet.
Having stood there blankly for a long while, it was only after feeling the throbbing pain in her cheek that Deborah realized the situation before her.
However, there was no time to show a reaction.
“Ray!”
At the action of him suddenly raising his hand, Edward quickly blocked the way in front of Cecilia.
It was a moment on the verge of eruption.
Cecilia looked at the hand raised toward her, and at Raymond, as if she could not believe it at all.
‘How… just because I slapped a girl like that, how could Brother do this to me…’
Even while looking at her face, which was turning pale from shock, Raymond’s hand remained stopped in mid-air.
Eventually, Deborah placed her hand on his arm again.
In an instant, she felt the man’s stiff body flinch and tremble.
His gaze slowly returned.
“…”
“…”
Looking at the blue eyes directed toward her, Deborah quietly shook her head.
She wanted him to stop at this point.
She did not want the man to become estranged from his family anymore because of her.
So please, stop here… Raymond stared down blankly for a long time at the face that was saying so.
How much time passed like that?
Raymond, who slowly lowered his hand, soon turned his head and looked at Cecilia coldly.
“If you ever do something like this again—”
A voice resonated low.
“Then, you will be moved to a different residence.”
At that razor-sharp warning, Cecilia’s expression distorted wretchedly.
Biting her trembling lips several times, Cecilia finally opened her mouth.
“Are those words right now… that you’re going to… kick me out of here? Is that what you mean?”
“Yes.”
The words came out without a moment’s hesitation, and finally, tears of resentment filled Cecilia’s blue eyes.
“Then, you might as well kick me out right now!”
“Cecilia!”
Edward tried to stop the emotionally charged Cecilia, but it was useless.
A low-ranking maid who used to fix her hair, and an orphan at that.
She was someone Cecilia had never once considered as her brother’s wife or the mistress of the Great House of Cheister.
She could not understand Raymond, who treated his mother and herself so harshly while being possessed by such a lowly girl.
No, she didn’t want to understand.
Even while pouring out tears, Cecilia glared at her brother with eyes full of venom.
“No matter what Brother says, I am going to do exactly what I just did! Every time I see that girl, I’m going to slap her, and I’m going to scratch that pretty face all up! I, I hate it! Rather than being tied as one family to a dirty thing who doesn’t even know her own roots, I’d rather die by Brother’s hand right now!!”
*Huaaaaang*— Cecilia, who had been pouring out words rapidly, suddenly flopped down on the floor and began to wail.
At that sight, Edward momentarily lost his words and became blank-faced.
Perhaps because she had such a high-pride personality, Cecilia was someone who usually never showed this kind of appearance in front of anyone.
Even Edward, who had known her for such a long time, had never once seen her cry her heart out like a child.
Not even in those young childhood days.
It meant she was that frustrated and sorrowful, to the point where she had no leisure to mind her dignity.
“…”
In an instant, an uncomfortable feeling arose.
He felt dissatisfied with Raymond for making such sorrowful tears pour from his sister Cecilia’s eyes, all because of a mere maid.
He knew he shouldn’t be like this either in this situation, but no matter how much he thought about it, he could only think that Raymond had gone too far this time.
Edward took off the frock coat he was wearing and covered it over Cecilia’s trembling shoulders.
Edward, who slowly helped her limp body stand up, spoke lowly toward Raymond.
“Talk to me later.”
Giving Raymond a brief glance as he didn’t answer, Edward’s gaze lingered for a moment on Deborah beside him.
As he had felt before, she was a woman with a very mysterious atmosphere.
While she couldn’t be compared to Cecilia, who was a beauty of the kind that made sighs escape the moment one saw her, she had a face that somehow drew the eye.
When looking at her with her eyebrows slightly lowered in silence, she was a woman who was reminiscent of a calm dawn lake.
Perhaps Raymond was also possessed by that atmosphere.
Honestly, she didn’t look like such a pathetic woman as Cecilia had described, but perhaps because she was the person who brought misfortune to the House of Cheister, he didn’t feel good emotions toward her.
Letting out a long sigh, Edward finally withdrew his gaze and turned around.
While tightly embracing Cecilia, who was still sobbing in sorrow while leaning against his chest.
—
—I will call for you again, so you may return for today.
The situation had changed abruptly in the middle of taking measurements.
Toward Madame Mariella, who was standing there blankly, unable to do one thing or another, Raymond issued a short dismissal.
Since it was actually ridiculous to take measurements again in this atmosphere, Mariella bowed her head in greeting and left the drawing room, leaving her regret behind.
And finally, only Deborah and Raymond, the two of them, remained.
*Thump*, Raymond sat on the sofa and pulled his cravat irritably, and after hesitating for a moment, Deborah soon sat down close beside him.
The hand that caught the man’s roughly moving hand went back to its original position and began to slowly untie the messed-up cravat.
Raymond just watched that quietly without a word.
It was around the time the softly moving hands had almost finished untying the tangled cravat.
“The words I said back then.”
At those words that were heard quietly and lowly, Raymond’s eyebrows twitched.
A gaze reached out as if asking what that was.
As if knowing without looking, Deborah continued her words.
“The day you came to get me, the words I said at Jade’s house.”
It was somewhat bothersome that she called him ‘Jade’ so intimately, but Raymond listened to Deborah’s words without interrupting for now.
At that moment, they had exchanged various words disjointedly while swept up in emotion, so honestly, he couldn’t guess which part she was referring to.
“I just said that because I was angry…”
“…”
“I…”
The appearance of her stopping her words for a moment and biting her lips tightly.
At that action, Raymond’s brow began to narrow gradually.
“I’m… fine with being a mistress.”
“…”
“No, it’s fine even if I’m nothing. You can just… visit once in a while…”
Seeing her fingertips, which were gripping the cravat tightly, turning white, Raymond only then realized what the woman’s words meant.
—Then… what other future is there for the two of us besides that?
—Don’t tell me you’re… planning to keep me as a mistress?
—I, I… hate that. That person becoming the Duke’s wife… and me waiting and waiting indefinitely until the Duke seeks me out, that kind of thing… I hate it. No, I won’t do it.
That time when, for the first time in her life, she had brought out the heart inside her.
The words she had sharply spat out—saying she hated being a mistress and that she would never wait for him to find her—flashed quickly through his head.
Raymond’s gaze sank low.
As her gaze was stubbornly directed downward, Raymond made it reach him by catching her chin and lifting it up.
“So.”
“…”
“You want me to leave you as nothing, and just seek you out whenever I think of you to just desire that body? Is that it?”
Even though he knew clearly they were words she didn’t mean, he felt angry for a moment.
Did she think this situation was just comfortable for him right now?
Thinking of the Royal Family, Cheister, his mother, and Cecilia—thinking of everything surrounding him, it was not an easy process for him to reach his current decision either.
Even though he could clearly see how much of a thorny path the road ahead would be—still, he had no choice but to do this.
Because he was more desperate than the woman was for it to be no one else but the person before his eyes.
However, the fierce emotion stirring inside his chest soon subsided slowly at the golden eyes shimmering like ripples.
The hand that held her chin moved up and softly cupped her white cheek.
At that tender touch, transparent tears filled up over the golden glass beads.
“…The Duke’s honor will fall because of me.”
“There’s no need to worry about that.”
“Everyone… might criticize and point fingers.”
“It’s fine.”
Wiping the endless stream of tears with his thumb, Raymond whispered lowly.
“Don’t say such things, just comfort me.”
“…”
She was a kind and gentle woman.
He knew very well that she thought this whole situation was because of her, and that she was saying such nonsensical things because of that.
While he felt frustrated by such a woman, she was also that much more dear and heart-wrenching.
That was why he was saying it.
When his mood was sinking endlessly like this, just a word of comfort instead of such talk would be enough.
“Your comfort, that is enough for me.”
Words whispered quietly in her ear like a secret.
Emotions surging like waves swept by a storm were all being revealed in those golden eyes.
Raymond quietly embraced and soothed her body as she soon leaned fully into his arms.
The moment he breathed in the sweet scent wafting from her, the head that had been throbbing until a moment ago began to become peaceful like a miracle.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
