Chapter 21: 21

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“The Duke’s injuries have long since healed.”

Kathleen answered calmly.

“And I want to let you know that it is polite to introduce yourself first.”

“Ah.”

Then she seemed to have noticed her own rudeness.

“My name is Edith.”

She only said her name and nothing else.

Upon closer inspection, the clothes and ornaments she wore were luxurious, but they did not appear to have been made by the tailor belonging to the family.

They were ready-made items that were sold in different sizes with the same design in the dressing room and were often worn by wealthy merchants. Edith was a commoner.

If she had been a noblewoman who wanted to hide her identity, she would have at least unconsciously bowed and bent her knees, but she was certain that she wasn’t because she did no such thing.

‘How did ordinary people know about the Duke’s injury?’

The Duke of Walten kept the fact that he had been wounded in the Carmine Mountains a closely guarded secret. But if she knew that…

Kathleen asked, trying to speak calmly.

“How did you get here?”

“The Duke called for me. ‘Come find me.’ I got that summons late because I was traveling for a while, so I didn’t know that the wound was already healed.”

Edith handed her a letter.

It was written concisely in Alexis’ handwriting and said to come find him. It was even stamped with the seal of the House of Walten.

“Then there is no reason to be in a hurry.”

Kathleen motioned for her to sit down.

“I want to hear your story.”

“That..”

The look of hesitation as if she was embarrassed was different from her initial actions.

“Is it something you can’t tell me?”

“I’m sorry, it is.”

Edith stood there and answered firmly.

“It’s better that Madame doesn’t know.”

“What does that mean?”

“I was wrong to come here. The Duke wouldn’t want me to talk to his wife.”

“Does he want to keep your existence a secret?”

“Yes, I was originally not supposed to come to the Duke’s residence, but I came here in a hurry when I heard that he was injured. If I had known he was fine, I wouldn’t have come. My apologies. Please pretend you haven’t seen me. I’ll go back now.”

She seemed to want to clean things up.

‘Why are you avoiding me?’

She rushed Kathleen, as if she was afraid of hearing Alexis’ obituary, and now she was trying to run away without even making eye contact.

“Wait.”

Kathleen tried to catch Edith as she rushed out of the drawing room.

“I have something to ask. For a moment…….”

“I’m sorry.”

She avoided Kathleen with her nimble movements and swung the door open.

“Edith!”

Viscount Rylent, who was just about to enter the drawing room, stopped her. His hair was all messy, as if he had run out of his office in a hurry, surprised that Edith had come to the Duke’s residence.

“Edith, why did you come here? I told you over and over again. With this, if anyone sees you… Oh, Madame.”

As soon as he saw Kathleen, he bit his lip. His disconcerted expression was evident.

“I’m sorry, Madame. She’s my guest, I made a mistake. She’s not someone you should care about. We’ll be on our way now.”

“Ah, let go, Viscount!”

Viscount Rylent grabbed Edith’s arm and pulled her away.

Kathleen had nothing more to ask.

“I, Madame. Are you okay?”

Emily asked carefully after a long silence.

“Do you think I’m mistaken, Emily?”

Kathleen murmured miserably.

“Why does she have to be kept a secret from me?”

“Madame….”

Emily could not tell her that it was a useless concern. Kathleen smiled bitterly and sat down on a chair.

She did not know what she was supposed to do. Viscount Rylent, the lieutenant, even took care of her like that, so she must have been a precious person to him.

‘Should I threaten to say I know everything?’

Then?

What would you say?

‘I’m the official wife, and I am with child, so get rid of the mistress? Or, meet her without me knowing?’

All of those were pitiful statements.

How long has it been?

As the sun was just starting to set, Emily shouted.

“Madame, the Master is back. He is entering the main building now.”

Kathleen quickly got up from her seat. Her steps towards her husband’s bedroom accelerated.

She opened her husband’s bedroom door with a trembling hand.

“Duke!”

He looked back at her as he hurriedly took off his red vest.

“Kathleen?”

“I’m here to ask you something.”

“I’m changing clothes, can’t you see?”

“A woman named Edith came to the Duke’s residence.”

His busy fingers unbuttoning his white shirt stopped.

A shadow fell on Alexis’ face, he was standing next to the thick curtain which made it difficult to see his expression.

But she could tell that his breathing in the silence was getting rough. His chest, visible through the half-unbuttoned white shirt, visibly moved up and down.

“Who is she?”

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“I have to go out, so I’ll tell you later.”

Alexis’ blunt voice interrupted her.

It was clearly a rejection to continuing the conversation.

He left the clothes he was going to change into and tried to brush past her at a quick pace. Her eyes became hot.

Kathleen desperately grabbed his arm. She asked.

“Are you coming back today?”

“Why are you curious about that?”

His answer pierced her chest like a dagger.

Her husband, no, Duke Walten, looked at Kathleen with expressionless eyes.

His eyes, which she had always thought were beautiful, were unbearably cruel at this moment.

“Do you want me to come back and be by your side?”

“……Yes, I wish you would.”

Is Edith really your mistress?

Even if I confessed that I am pregnant with your child, would you still leave me to see Edith?

The moment she was about to say that.

At her brave words, he laughed out loud. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer and whispered.

“Then, like a contract marriage, give birth to an heir first.”

She felt like she was splashed with cold water.

‘Right now, what…’

An obvious mockery.

How can you say that, when you know that I couldn’t…

It was like tossing a gold coin to a beggar over the clock tower.

Kathleen couldn’t contain her tears and pushed him away.

Her husband’s arm, which felt like it had a fever, easily let go.

Alexis passed her quickly without hesitation. He was almost running.

Alsdorf approached her with a worried look. She stared blankly at him from the doorway as he got on the horse without a saddle and disappeared.

“Madame.”

“You know where Viscount Rylent took Edith.”

Alsdorf was startled by the sharp voice of the Duchess who had always been gentle and quiet. The pale blue eyes filled with tears seemed colder than ever.

“Do you want me to ask the Duke myself?”

“……It must be the hut in the Western hunting ground.”

“I will go there. Prepare a carriage.”

Emily dissuaded Kathleen, but she climbed into the carriage alone.

The Western hunting ground was a land that was inherited from generation to generation by the people of the Walten family, and was not far from the duke’s residence.

‘Have you always been here whenever you didn’t come home?’

She knew that there was a hut where he could spend the night in the hunting grounds, but it was the first time she had come in person.

Kathleen wanted to know. Was he really in love with the other woman, and took her as a shield to hide the woman?

The soldiers guarding the entrance to the hunting grounds were bewildered by her unexpected visit, but they saw the carriage bearing the Walten’s emblem and Kathleen’s face and let her through.

She saw a hut in the middle of a field. From there, Kathleen got off the carriage and walked.

The black horse that Alexis loved was grazing nearby without even having its reins tied. Viscount Rylent’s horse was nowhere to be seen.

Red hair was visible through the gap in the slightly opened door. And just when Kathleen was about to approach.

She heard the moan of a man holding back something.

“Oh, Duke. I can’t do it any more.”

The woman’s voice sounded like a plea. She sounded like the woman, Edith, whom she had met in the drawing room.

“Stop, can’t you stop now?”

“No.”

Alexis, who took a deep breath, ordered.

“Continue.”

“But… Hng…”

There was the sound of something collapsing from inside, and Edith let out a moan.

Kathleen was devastated.

The more she listened, the more nauseous she felt. She covered her mouth and went back to the carriage.

Kathleen sat in the carriage, leaning back, and repeated the conversations and breaths she had heard, in her mind.

Even as he saw her tear-soaked face, her husband turned around expressionlessly, she thought.

If I can’t really be your wife,

Then I really have to leave now.

***

Alexis Walten returned to the Duke’s residence two days later in the late afternoon.

“Duke!”

As soon as he stepped foot in the duke’s mansion, Alsdorf rushed to him.

“What’s going on?”

“Is not!”

It was the first time he had seen the old butler in such a great panic, cutting off the front and back of his words, speaking gibberish.

“I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find… Even the maids said no one knows… Hasn’t been seen since this morning.”

“So what is missing?”

He was very tired. He was so annoyed because he didn’t need to know about every little thing like this.

However, Alsdorf’s following words were completely unexpected.

“The Madame is gone!”

Alexis stood frozen on the spot.

“The Madame is gone, Your Grace!”

At the words of the old butler that continued like hammering a wedge, he thought it couldn’t be, but his gait got faster.

And it didn’t take long for him to realize that what he thought was wrong.

When he went upstairs and opened the door to her bedroom, he didn’t see the woman who was always there waiting for him.

On the table lay a letter without an envelope. Alexis picked it up with an unknown feeling.

There was only one sentence in the letter that was left and it seemed to have been written without hesitation.

[Don’t look for me.]

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