062. Never Wished For It
‘Why is he looking like that…….’
Deborah, uncomfortable with the man’s blatant gaze, wondered if she had unnecessarily meddled, but since she couldn’t turn back now, she continued speaking.
“If you’re okay with it, wipe with this.”
When she gestured with her eyes to the messed-up front of his frock, the man then let out an ah sound.
As the man immediately took the handkerchief, Deborah briefly bowed her head and tried to leave the spot.
Having handed over the handkerchief, she thought she should now return to where Hannah was, and just as she turned her body.
“Uh, wait a moment.”
Deborah, who had paused for a bit, turned her head again to look at the man who had called her.
The man hesitated with a slightly flushed face and finally opened his mouth.
“If you could tell me your name…… Ah, to return the handkerchief.”
Perhaps thinking that asking for her name outright was rude, he quickly added a justifiable reason afterward.
Deborah blinked a couple of times in surprise and then, understanding what the man was saying, shook her head.
“It’s fine. It’s not that nice…… You can just throw it away.”
It was as she said.
In fact, it was an old handkerchief embarrassing to even hand over, not something worth washing and returning.
“Still…….”
“It’s really fine.”
To the man trailing off, Deborah smiled brightly, indicating he didn’t need to worry.
And that was it.
Leaving behind the man who kept twitching his lips as if he had something to say, Deborah finally walked toward the place where Hanna was waiting.
* * *
It was around evening when the sun was setting low that she returned to the mansion with Hanna.
Waiting for the two who entered holding wicker baskets in both hands was someone completely unexpected.
Robin.
Not only was it uncomfortable due to the recent incident, but more than that, she was very puzzled why Robin was waiting for them.
And standing at the mansion entrance at that.
“Let me…… see you for a moment.”
Robin also seemed equally uncomfortable, as his expression when speaking was very stiff.
Wondering if the words were directed at her, Hannah, standing beside, gave an awkward smile, said she’d go ahead, and quickly left the spot.
Deborah watched the back of Robin, who turned silently as if to follow, for a while and then followed behind.
‘What on earth is he going to…….’
The question that arose throughout following behind was soon resolved on its own not long after.
The thought of ‘no way’ in the direction Robin was going turned into certainty as they ascended to the second floor where someone’s bedroom was.
The two, who had been silent for a while, stopped at, as expected, the front of the duke’s bedroom.
“Go in, he’s…… waiting inside.”
“…….”
Even as Robin, slightly turning his body, said that, Deborah couldn’t think of what to reply.
A heavy silence flowed for a while like that, and finally, Robin turned his body.
Thud thud, while hearing the receding footsteps, Deborah stood blankly in front of the door without moving for a long time.
* * *
-Since it was late at night last time, I couldn’t see it properly. Wouldn’t you show this person the Elfengrin that everyone admires?
Recalling that smile that seemed fabricated, the discomfort felt at that time crept up again.
Samuel de Constant.
For some reason, he was a man who didn’t sit well with him.
Even though he belonged to those with quite a good reputation in society and was clearly a man without flaws, strangely, every time he saw him, an inexplicable uneasy feeling.
That said, the marquis’s proposal wasn’t particularly strange.
They were already acquainted, and moreover, weren’t they in talks of marriage.
If this marriage went through smoothly, he would become his wife’s father.
So, asking to be invited once to Elfengrin, the main residence of the Chayster family, wasn’t particularly rude.
It’s just that the mask-like grin that seemed to hide a lot of unpleasant things didn’t sit well.
At that moment when Raymond’s eyes began to narrow thinly-
Knock knock.
All thoughts were swept away at once by the timely knock sound.
“Come in.”
After the short permission, the door opened a moment later, and through the gap, the awaited face appeared.
The face that hadn’t left his mind all day today.
The moment he saw it, a peculiar face that made no other thoughts arise.
Raymond watched every single movement of the woman cautiously approaching without blinking once.
“You called for me…….”
It must have been about two steps exactly.
Standing quite a distance away, the first words uttered while bowing her head were that.
She came because he called.
It wasn’t exactly wrong.
He had sent Robin to bring her, so she came; in a way, there couldn’t be more appropriate words.
Yet, the woman’s attitude and atmosphere while saying that bothered him somehow.
What on earth is it…….
Raymond, who had been observing the woman who hadn’t made eye contact once
since entering the bedroom, slowly leaned back against the chair.
At the same time, the fingers that had been rhythmically tapping the table stopped.
“Closer.”
At the low resonating voice, the woman’s shoulders trembled slightly for a moment, but only briefly.
Soon, she obediently moved one step forward as instructed.
Pfft, Raymond who smiled gave the same order once more.
“Even closer.”
This time too, it was clearly visible that her body stiffened slightly, but what could he do.
Toward the woman taking another half step closer, Raymond stretched out his arm straight.
As he wrapped around her waist and pulled, the body that lost balance in an instant settled right onto his lap.
Ah, as she tried to stand up immediately in surprise, he pulled her even closer, and only then did the woman’s gaze turn to Raymond’s face.
Looking at those clear eyes rounded in bewilderment, Raymond grinned, pulling up the corners of his mouth.
“It feels like we’ve gone back to before again.”
Softly, the tone sounded calm, but the woman seemed to catch what the content implied.
Raymond, who had been staring at her lower lip twitching as if pondering what to say, slowly lowered his head and gently took that lower lip into his mouth.
If the woman hadn’t immediately turned her head away, he probably would have savored it for a while longer.
“…….”
“…….”
Suddenly, a heavy silence descended in the bedroom.
What he had thought was just awkwardness after spending their first night together, Raymond’s thoughts changed at the same time.
Due to staring at the side profile of the woman who had turned her head as if rejecting, the grip he had loosened slightly.
Taking that opportunity, as if waiting, the woman who escaped his embrace returned to a spot one step away.
Raymond’s gaze turned coldly in an instant.
“What’s this now.”
“…….”
“I’m a bit confused, you see.”
Huh? The voice was soft as if suppressing anger, but the opponent couldn’t miss the danger lurking within.
Clearly until this morning, they were two people who had been closer than anyone, skin to skin, sharing body heat.
Yet, in less than a full day, how should he interpret the woman acting like this.
Thinking she was continuing silence while ignoring the urging, finally the firmly closed lips opened.
“Please…… let me go back to my original duties.”
Duties? Raymond’s gaze, not understanding immediately, slowly moved once to the right.
But soon recalling the instructions he had given to Charlotte before going out today, he then let out a low ahh.
Raymond’s gaze turned back to Deborah.
“Why.”
It was a question asked out of pure curiosity.
Reducing the grueling work of cleaning all the guest rooms from morning to evening all day, and she refuses that and asks to go back to original.
Yet, the expression of the woman looking this way was somehow strange.
As if asking why he was questioning the obvious, as if he really didn’t know the reason.
But a moment later, the words that came from that mouth were entirely different.
“By any chance, the reason you suddenly gave such an order…… is it because of yesterday’s incident?”
At the unexpected question, Raymond thought for a moment.
Because of yesterday’s incident?
The thought wasn’t long.
No, it wasn’t something to think about.
“So what if it is.”
The woman’s face, upon hearing the answer, immediately turned pale, but honestly, it was an incomprehensible behavior.
So what if it is, naturally, after spending a day with me, she should have expected the surroundings to change a bit.
Did she perhaps think she’d continue living in that cramped third-floor attic doing lower maid work? And at night, sneaking into my bedroom like a thief cat avoiding others’ eyes?
Of course, he wasn’t planning to do something right now- but still, he couldn’t leave the woman who spent the night with him, and would continue to, as is.
That was entirely unrelated to feelings toward the other, something utterly natural in Luvake high society.
Meaning no noble man would leave a woman he spent the night with in such a position, and in that regard, he was the same.
But the other seemed not to understand his thoughts at all.
Biting her lip tightly, the content coming from that mouth was saying so.
“I…… never wished for such a thing.”
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
By Anna 💓
