Chapter 41
The news that she had shown some kind of “achievement” that his subordinate reported suddenly came to mind, and Ricardo felt confused.
He wondered if the woman who became flustered just by showing her foot was really the same person who supposedly suppressed the third prince’s consort.
Since there was no cloth to stop the bleeding on her foot, he untied her hair ribbon. Red hair flowed down like a waterfall beside his face. The woman’s usual flower-like scent rushed into his nose.
For a moment, a certain desire stirred inside him.
He felt the instinct to grab the red hair, pull her head closer, and satisfy his thirst.
He quietly suppressed that urge and focused on what he was doing.
The ribbon wrapped around her foot looked neat even in his eyes.
He had treated wounds alone countless times during war, but it was his first time checking a woman’s injury.
After finishing the bleeding control, he went to sit across from her as if nothing happened.
The woman just moved her lips slightly, not speaking properly, and kept watching his reactions.
After a while, she said something unexpected.
“Come closer and share the cloak with me.”
He said it was fine, but she stood up and limped toward him anyway.
Before he could even think about what she was trying to do, the cloak suddenly spread over his back and shoulders.
Once the warm cloak wrapped around him, he realized how cold the air here was.
After the hunting competition, she had avoided him persistently. Now she sat beside him pretending not to care, and he could not understand her true feelings.
At first, she was the woman who ignited his contempt, but sitting side by side like this felt strange and unfamiliar.
Even though they shared the cloak, they said nothing and just looked elsewhere.
Sitting like this, he suddenly thought of the late empress dowager.
When the empress dowager first found him, who had been abandoned like a slave, he could not even dare to look at her.
She was someone with a splendid dress, shining jewels, and a pleasant fragrance.
To him, even making eye contact with such a high-ranking person felt like a sin.
His body was dirty, and there were wounds everywhere.
People kicked and pointed at him, saying he carried the filthy blood of a traitor’s family.
As a child, he truly believed he should never have been born.
But that noble woman hugged him the moment she saw him with a sad yet joyful face.
He was afraid his dirty, smelly body would stain her, but she smiled with wrinkles around her eyes and asked affectionately.
“Are you the only grandson of the Vitesse family? Then your mother who gave birth to you must be Tatiana. I have watched her since she was a girl. She was such a kind and beautiful child. In fact, I wanted her to become my daughter-in-law.”
He couldn’t understand what she meant back then.
He only remembered that her touch and the warmth inside her arms were very comforting.
“Now, come with me.”
Holding her hand and following her was the first warmth he ever received from someone.
He did not know why the empress dowager suddenly came to mind in this situation.
Thud.
Seeing the woman beside him lower her head forward as if falling asleep, he returned from the past to the present.
Even in this situation, watching the woman who could not hold her head steadily because of sleepiness made a faint smile appear on his lips.
Ricardo supported her head with his hand when it was about to fall to the other side and gently placed it on his shoulder.
The sound of his subordinates clearing the debris outside could be heard, but this place with only the two of them felt peaceful.
“Both of them are safe!”
Someone shouted loudly among the crowd.
The festival had already been stopped because of the explosive accident, but people were still busy lighting torches and removing debris.
Many people came out to watch the situation.
Among the crowd was Yelena.
Covered in a dark brown cloak, she stared in the direction where the announcement that the duke couple was safe came from.
“Ah! Finally!”
“Thank goodness.”
“Heaven helped them.”
The duke finally appeared through the crowd of onlookers.
He carried his wife in his arms and walked out of the collapsed building.
As soon as the two appeared, the duke’s subordinates covered their shoulders with a large blanket.
“Looks like the madam hurt her foot.”
“I saw it just before the accident. The duke rushed in without fear to save his wife. Everyone was shocked. He was almost about to collapse.”
The whispers felt like knives stabbing deeply into Yelena’s heart.
She never imagined the duke would really go inside to save that woman.
Looking at the woman resting in his arms, Yelena felt as if her chest was burning with hot firewood.
When the duke and his wife got into the waiting carriage, Yelena also turned around.
“Let’s go back.”
The maid beside her nodded and followed Yelena.
The maid’s clothes, slightly visible outside the cloak, looked similar to those of the rescued duchess’s crying maid.
A few days after the accident, imperial people visited the duke’s mansion.
It seemed the accident at the festival had been reported to the palace.
The emperor’s messenger first conveyed greetings and condolences to the duke.
Then he spoke the purpose of the visit.
“The Emperor’s order is this. Duke of Zenkish should attend the upcoming Kaia royal wedding as the emperor’s representative. The lady should also attend with her husband so as not to be discourteous.”
Receiving the imperial order, Ricardo knelt on one knee and accepted the decree.
He looked calm, as if he had expected it.
“I will obey the order.”
After the imperial people left, Ricardo opened the emperor’s decree again and read it.
Beside him, Gary spoke quietly.
“Marco that old man is quite something. How did he persuade the emperor? Neither the third prince nor the empress would have stayed still.”
Originally, it should have been the third prince who went.
Marco must have used some scheme to give that position to Ricardo, but since the goal was achieved, the details did not matter.
“Make sure the guards are properly placed around the madam.”
Gary immediately understood his lord’s meaning.
“Yes. I have placed guards around the madam as you ordered. They are skilled, so the madam will not notice that she is being protected.”
Ricardo nodded briefly, satisfied.
After Gary left, Ricardo focused his thoughts and lightly tapped the emperor’s decree in his hand.
Stella believed the festival accident was just a coincidence, but he felt uneasy.
Was it really a simple accident?
If he had not been there that day, he did not know when such an accident might happen again.
If he told her he would assign guards, she would surely refuse, saying she did not want to be watched.
But to prepare for the unexpected, he wanted at least minimal protection.
Ena carefully applied medicine to the wound on my foot.
Because it stung, I shrank my body slightly.
Putting down the medicine, Ena started crying again and wiped her tears with her fist.
“If I hadn’t left your side that day… you wouldn’t have gotten hurt, madam… sob…”
“It’s enough now, Ena. Stop crying. We are all safe, and this injury is nothing.”
I sighed softly while putting down the book I was reading.
Actually, I had been holding the book since morning, but I could not turn a single page.
Soon I would go to the Kingdom of Kaia as a wedding congratulatory envoy, so I tried to roughly understand the information about that place.
But white paper looked like insects crawling, and my mind was full of distracting thoughts.
While looking at the foot where Ena applied medicine, I remembered the sensation of Ricardo’s large hand holding my foot, and my toes curled slightly.
I opened the console table next to the sofa and took something out.
Looking quietly at the dirty, crumpled ribbon stained with blood and dust, I thought.
‘Why is this? Why did he suddenly change?’
I couldn’t express his kind and gentle attitude with my own words, so I decided that he had become strange.
Ricardo was definitely acting strange.
The stories that he rushed into the collapsing house to save me were also strange.
And what was it about carrying me out in front of people even though I said I was fine?
Many question marks kept drawing in my mind.
Then, for the first time, a period mark was drawn.
‘Don’t tell me… Ricardo likes me?’
