Chapter 51
Seeing Harvich speaking stiffly, Yulias crossed his legs and rested them on the table.
The table, carefully set with refreshments, rattled as the man grew irritable.
A teacup wobbled, spilling its contents.
“You seem to be sick quite often.
Perhaps it would be better for you to stay in the palace rather than the Grand Duchy?”
“My wife wouldn’t want that.”
“Oh, really?
I’d like to hear my sister’s opinion too.
Let me speak with her.”
Harvich’s frown deepened at Yulias’s blunt insistence.
“I hear she went out to enjoy a festival for about a week…
Aren’t you pushing too hard for a pregnant woman?”
The man’s words, as if hinting he knew something, irritated Harvich.
“Or perhaps there was no other choice.”
“……”
“Did she even try to run away?”
Yulias seemed to know everything.
“The cat you were raising here… it died.
Perhaps it was old, but it passed so quickly.”
Harvich met his gaze.
“All your pets are useless.
One was old, and another had a broken leg.”
Yulias’s eyes widened, then he chuckled lightly.
When he looked at Harvich again, his mouth remained stiff.
“……”
“Divorce her.
Then I’ll return the failing trade company to you.”
“She’s carrying my child.”
“So?”
“She’s my wife.”
Yulias shifted his foot on the table.
“So I’m asking before taking her back.
I’m not asking you to send her back empty-handed.
The company, I’ll return it.”
Including the child’s share, this time it would be a trade company that wouldn’t fail easily, with his guarantee added.
Yulias quickly added.
When Harvich didn’t answer, Yulias raised both hands.
“Look, in case you misunderstood, the original company didn’t fail because of me.
I feel sorry too.”
“……”
“The scheming old fools in the royal court were behind it.
I wouldn’t have done such a thing.
You know that, right?
I got help from you too.”
But did he repay a favor with enmity?
Yulias lowered his eyes in apparent genuine remorse.
“You must find it difficult to keep her anyway.
She might even try to run away.”
Harvich hated hearing Lincia’s fate discussed like she was a commodity.
“So return her.”
Why should her treatment be decided by others in a place where she isn’t present?
A headache surged, and Harvich bit the inside of his mouth.
Yulias tapped the table with his fingers.
As Harvich remained silent, Yulias spoke again to persuade him.
“Settle your grievances and take the company.
Isn’t it what you’ve always wanted?
I even helped during the civil war.”
“I’ll divorce her.”
“Really? You’ve thought it through?
Then we can do it immediately…”
Yulias excitedly rummaged through papers in his arms.
“You see…”
Even without looking, Harvich knew what the paper was about.
“If Lincia wants it.”
He had done nothing right for her either.
Harvich knew that better than anyone.
“But would Lincia really want to divorce me?
Right now… maybe you can hope for that.”
But he couldn’t allow that man to handle it.
“What if she learns you threatened me over her life?
Do you think she’d still divorce me and let you return to the capital?”
“I am family.”
It was absurd for a man who had done nothing for her to argue over her treatment with others.
“You neglected her for a year without even assigning someone to serve her, yet you compare yourself to me, her only sibling?”
“Perhaps he only realized the bond between us siblings too late.”
But what could be done?
“I am family, yet the marital bond seems deeper.”
“Nonsense.
We’re not a couple, but my sister and I…”
“Do you know?
Lincia doesn’t want to see you.”
Yulias rose to his feet.
His anger was palpable.
“Thinking about it, I guess I’m a bit better than you.”
Harvich couldn’t suppress a smile toward Yulias.
It was a dazzlingly beautiful smile.
“At least Lincia doesn’t avoid me.”
***
News spread within the castle that one of the retainers had been stripped of their position.
Though the exact person wasn’t clear, Lincia thought of one man.
Kaiden Avalon.
A man who reminded her of Yulias, or rather, resembled a serpent.
Lincia set down her brush.
The painting, now nearly finished, captured the man’s likeness vividly.
Some personal feelings had subtly crept into it.
“……”
The scene was vivid in her mind, yet for almost a week, she hadn’t spoken with Harvich at all.
Had he been avoiding her, or was it intentional?
Every day, he would enter around the time she fell asleep and leave before she awoke.
She took a dry cloth and covered the painting.
The edges of the cloth were still stained with not-yet-dry paint.
Sitting on the sofa, Lincia steeled herself.
She opened her eyes.
“Were you uncomfortable?”
Her vision blurred.
Her body felt weightless, but she wasn’t afraid.
The heartbeat and warmth of his body felt comforting.
Harvich’s embrace was so soothing that her eyes kept closing.
“Please sleep.”
Lincia lifted her heavy eyelids to face Harvich.
She moved her lips and clutched his collar.
“……I know you must be tired, but talk to me.”
“Have you been waiting?”
“……Yes.”
Suppressing her drowsiness, Lincia lifted her head.
Moonlight streaming through the tilted canopy illuminated Harvich’s face.
As always, the shadows emphasized his features.
She reached out to trace his nose and lips.
Her fingers felt something unusual, and she lifted her head.
There was a torn scar at the corner of his mouth.
“You’re hurt?”
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
Lincia bit her lips firmly after murmuring.
Harvich gently laid her down on the bed.
He carefully arranged her falling hair.
“Have you been very busy?”
His touch combing her hair made her drowsiness return.
She forced herself upright.
How could she fall asleep without having a proper conversation after such an opportunity?
“No, not really.”
“Then why come at such a late hour?”
Lincia rested her face on his shoulder.
The man’s hand stiffened as he touched her face.
“I worried it might be uncomfortable for you to sleep with me.”
“It’s not uncomfortable.
So come earlier.”
“I shall.”
“I heard that one of your retainers has fallen from grace.
What’s going on?”
“Do not concern yourself.
Everything is proceeding well.”
