Night of the Abandoned Duchess

“Why are you doing something useless?”

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“I don’t think it’s useless.
It’s like dressing the Duke in pretty clothes.”

His gaze turned to Rosalind’s, and she hurriedly hid her hand behind her.
Even so, it was after all the wounded hands had already been caught.
The thought that he must have seen her disgruntled hands made her utterly embarrassed.

She turned her gaze away and opened her mouth brightly to give an explanation of her behavior.

“When I wear clothes I like, I feel good that day, and when I feel good, things go well.
You seem to have a lot of work these days as well as the inspections.
I hope all of that goes well.”

Then, Rosalind added in a voice that was barely audible.

“It would be better if you think of me every time you wear it.”

Unlike her, who lit up her eyes as if asking for compliments, Kyle’s expression was plain and cold.

“So, you don’t eat, you just did this…”

“It’s not that.
I’m not as good as the artisans, but I’ve done pretty much the same thing.”

A wounded expression flashed across her face, though she responded quickly.
As usual, brightly.

“I want the Duke to always be happy.”

Nevertheless, his expression was still not good, so that her words of joy and hope were overshadowed.

Rather, he seemed rather annoyed.

“Did you forget what I said first?”

“What…”

“I told you not to expect more than a wife.”

“I didn’t expect anything.
I just wanted to make it for you…”

She muttered a little with a face that looked slightly unfair.
However, as if even that had been broken, she withdrew the strength from the hand that was holding the clothes.

“That meant don’t do anything.
Don’t you know?”

At Kyle’s words, Rosalind was very embarrassed and perplexed.

A suffocating silence passed between the two of them.
She then opened her mouth brightly as though to change the mood once more.

“…Try it once.
No, it would be nice if you could give it a little peek.
Maybe, you will like it.”

He silently declined Rosaline’s request.

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“But…”

Finally, he pretended to lift the clothes and placed them against his body.
He cut it off, saying it was okay, but he got closer to her, and she tried to avoid it, though their hands clashed, and the clothes fell to the floor.

Rosalind froze as she looked at the clothes that were scattered on the floor as if they had been abandoned.

Meanwhile, as he didn’t expect that, he also slowed down a little, too.

“Duke—”

Rosaline called him in a muffled voice like stuttering, but Kyle turned away from her, opened the door and stepped out.

“Haa…”

Standing in the middle of the hallway, he took a deep breath.

Looking at her face, he felt frustrated and upset, unable to contain his anger.
He didn’t know why he was like this just by looking at her face.

Thinking back, it seems that he had been slightly annoyed since she didn’t come out for breakfast this morning.
Her talking next to him was so noisy, but he didn’t like it because she wasn’t there.

He just wished she didn’t do anything, he just wished she didn’t care as if she didn’t exist…

He told her not to do anything, so Kyle couldn’t figure out why she kept doing this and that.
When did he ever ask Rosaline to make something like that? Why the hell would she do something she’s not good at, to the point of wounding her fingers just for inspection.

“It’s annoying, and I’m going crazy…”

He pressed down on his eyelids with the tips of his index and thumb as if frustrated.
For some reason, the face of his wife, who had stood stunned with the clothes on her hand, lingered in his mind.

He should not have married her in the first place.

He should have said he didn’t accept the letter the serpent marquise had pushed in.

He shouldn’t have met Rosalind at all…

 

* * *

 

After he left, Rosaline stood blankly in the quiet room.
She was like a frozen tree in the middle of winter, she stood there, she could not do anything, and she just curled up the clothes in her arms.

If she didn’t hold on to something, the sad tears seemed to come out at any moment.

“Madam, you have to eat…”

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After a while, the maid who came to get Rosalind’s meal was bewildered and muffled her words.
Because her master was standing there with tears in her big eyes, as if she was about to burst into tears.

The maid hurriedly called the nanny, Anna.
Anna was the person who had been by her side since she was very young and raised her like her own child.

Anna approached Rosalind carefully and spoke her words.

“…Miss.”

But, when she didn’t respond, Anna spoke to her again.
Just like the name she used to call before marriage.

“Miss Rosalind.”

“…Nanny, I must have made the clothes wrong.
The Duke doesn’t like it as much as I thought.”

She tried to brighten it up, but her voice was wet with weeping.
It was almost as if something was about to burst out of the sharp, resounding voice.

Anna knew better than anyone, she, who watched beside her how hard Rosalind embroidered with her lack of dexterity.
When she was having a hard time, she would give her advice.

“Miss…”

“I’ll do better next time, right?”

‘…Miss, what should I do?’

Anna hugged Rosalind tightly like a mother.

“All right, miss.
Of course.”

“Still, Anna.
I, I seem to be losing confidence more and more.
I promised my mother to work hard, and I certainly did…”

Rosalind’s little hand gripped the hem of the nanny’s robe.

“If I had made it a little prettier, would he have cut me some slack?”

“No.
It’s still pretty enough.
The Duke is very busy right now, so…”

“I don’t know what I should do…”

Actually, that’s not what she really wanted to ask.

‘What do I do to make him take a look at me? What should I do…?’

However, she didn’t ask.

No one would know the answer, anyway.
No, maybe Rosalind thought from the beginning that there might not be an answer, and she was again filled with sadness.

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“Miss…”

So, she continued to swallow her tears from the nanny’s arms as though she had been abandoned.
There was a deep concern in the nanny’s eyes watching her.

“…Take your meal first.
Health comes first.”

The answer fell one beat slower.

“I have no appetite.”

“Still…”

“I think it would be better to get some air or some fresh air instead of eating.”

After getting some fresh air and convincing rather than persuading her to eat, Rosalind and Anna walked into the garden.
Taking a walk in a garden full of seasonal flowers, she sat quietly at the garden table on one side.

Rosalind’s attitude became more calm as time passed, although the nanny who stood by her side was constantly restless.

“Madam, it’s not good if you get caught in the wind for too long.
You have to come in.”

“It’s frustrating, yes.
It’s frustrating.”

“You are weak…”

Even at the words of the restless nanny, Rosalind only showed a sulky smile, and she smiled thinly.

Sitting in the garden to get rid of her frustration, but her mood did not improve much.
She had calmed down a little.
She’d rather be swept away by the winds like those petals.

“You haven’t even eaten.
You should go and eat something simple.”

“I don’t think it will go well.”

She muttered quietly to herself, looking further into the garden beyond.

“Do you know when I fell in love with the Duke?”

“You saw him before marriage, didn’t you?”

“…Hmm.
Long before the wedding was decided, there was a time when he smiled very kindly to me.
Of course, the Duke won’t even remember.”

Rosalind calmly opened her mouth with an unexpected voice.
At the end of those words, there was a distant feeling and a bit of bitterness that traced back to the past.

The warm voice that sat in her ear, the friendly smile, the cool night breeze that blew…

Even in the memories that fade over time, it was still vivid, as if it were preserved.
Just as it was when she first saw him.
Was it because the night was strangely dark, or was it because his voice was so sweet it felt like the only light in the black night?

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Her memories of that day remained in her like magic.
The friendly image of that time has always been firmly etched in her heart.

“The funny thing is that a very short night was enough for me to love him, and the Duke does not love me after so much time has passed.
What is love? He doesn’t have the slightest love.”

“…Don’t try too hard.
It seems that the human heart doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.”

At the nanny’s words, Rosalind nodded her head slightly.

“Hmm.
No matter how hard I try…”

Cough, cough. She sniffled and coughed as she talked.
Her nanny, startled by her, urged her.

“Did you catch a cold? Come on in.”

“It’s just a little.”

“If you get sick, it’s a big deal.”

“Hmm.
All right.”

“Okay,” she said, giving a feeble nod.

Rosalind’s step by step was as heavy as if a heavy stone had been placed on her.
His attitude toward her felt colder and sadder than the temperature outside, which was just a little chilly.

 

* * *

 

The inspection was conducted in such a way that the surrounding area was extensively inspected, and was centered on the northern area.

Kyle saw with his own eyes whether the feudal lords were taking too much profit, what the life of the permanent residents was like, and directly inspected and checked whether the borders were well defended.

He might be tired of the march that lasted for several days, but for some reason, he couldn’t sleep even though he lay in bed.

Rosalind was standing dumbfounded, holding his clothes, and when he closed his eyes, she popped up.
And, as he pretended to put clothes on his body, the bright smile on her face and the expression on which she struggled to hide her surprise swirled around his head.

Is it because the gap between those two expressions is large, or is it because of the pity that the slender woman was about to cry, or is it just because he is annoyed with Rosalind?

Without even figuring out the exact reason, he had to spend the rest of the days.

It was the day he returned home from the inspection after a long time passed.

As soon as he got off the carriage, the maid told him that Rosalind was ill.