Chapter 163

Chapter 163

She rang the bell and started preparing. Donning a dress with an elevated chest line and short sleeves, Deatrice waited for Lucius to finish as she fiddled with the embroidered fabric that was densely sown with pearl-colored threads.

She had to talk about whatever she was up to in the capital for the socialite season.

Like Fredhi.

As soon as Lucius returned to the room, he frowned at the sparsely dressed woman. “Don’t you feel cold?”

“I’ll wear a coat. It’s hot in the room.”

“What do you mean ‘hot’? What if you get pneumonia?”

“One doesn’t get pneumonia that easily.”

“You might be an exception. Didn’t you have it in the past?”

Deatrice raised her eyebrows at the firmness of his question. Could he have mistaken her for someone else? She doesn’t remember ever having pneumonia, not even during several days when she had a bad cold.

With a pondering expression, she immediately recalled something and let out an exclamation.

“Ah! That’s because you said you were going boating.”

“Boating?” His eyebrows narrowed.

She blushed a little and excused it as simply a thing of the past, albeit a little defensively, “Well, you lied to me first. Where in the world is boating just among men?”

“So you lied to me before about having pneumonia?”

He cocked an eyebrow. She held her chin up for no reason and pretended to be unconcerned.

“I know it was foolish, but you—”

“But I didn’t even go,” the puzzled expression remained on his face. “Because you were sick, I kept harassing my attendant to find a good medicine for pneumonia. Then I was on my knees for the first time in my life and saying prayers I’d never uttered before that moment.”

Thinking about the letter he suddenly received one fateful morning and the times he couldn’t sleep at night because he was so worried about her contracting a deadly disease…

A helpless smile crossed his face.

“You ignored my letters for almost a fortnight. I had to send a letter three or two times to get an answer. A too short answer.”

“Well, it doesn’t make sense for someone who is sick to write a long letter…”

“So that delayed response was on purpose too?”

Six years had passed, but he was still genuinely bewildered as if it had happened yesterday. Embarrassed, she looked away and avoided his gaze. When she listened to his words, she did not dare answer the lie that it was only men that go out boating with a sarcastic remark since lying about being sick was on a similar level of fault.

As she averted her eyes, he seemed to realize that he too had been too emotionally immersed in the past six years. He smiled at her dejected expression and came over to hug her.

“What should I do with you…”

The whispered words were delivered with sweet breaths.

It wasn’t that she had kept the lie for too long to keep him anxious on purpose. Just out of her anger, out of jealousy of an unknown woman who might be accompanying him under the warm sun, she impulsively sent the letter saying she was sick. She did her best to hide it.

Looking back at it now, it really was childish of her to do that. But in her defense, she felt how much he loved her because of his letters asking about her welfare. She could feel how anxious he was just by reading the letter, so she became rather willing to continue the lie.

But like other fiancées blessed by other families, he couldn’t just suddenly appear at the duke’s house without invitation or prior notice, lest he be humiliated.

She kissed him cutely on the chin and whispered, “Sorry.”

He said, raising the corner of his mouth. “It’s okay. It’s embarrassing, but I found out that you loved me so much that you’d go as far as lying because you weren’t willing to see me with another woman.”

“I’m still like that.”

“I know.”

“Do you really know?”

Deatrice pulled him over and made eye contact. She didn’t think it was a coincidence that Lucius didn’t bother talking about Fredhi or that he hurriedly tried to hug her upon his return.

He was sleek and seductive, pleading with her, but Deatrice now knew that he acted that way when he was anxious.

His anxiety is like ice, making him calm and persistent rather than excitable.

He’s afraid of losing her.

His eyes darkened, comprehending the underlying meaning behind her question.

“Dee, I don’t want to talk about it,” he said in a low voice.

She frowned in disbelief.

“And why is that?”

“I do not doubt your heart. But there are some things I think we are not yet ready to talk about.” He looked serious and cautious, but she couldn’t understand why he was saying that. If not now, then when would they talk about it?

The words he added were a bit more persuasive, recognizing her mental state at the moment.

“I know your heart. I won’t deny the fact that the confusion and anxiety you must have felt dominated my mind as well. But I want to tell you that I didn’t idly sit by in Carford either.”

“Lucius, we are a married couple.”

Whatever he did, whatever he was so careful not to mention, she wanted to tell him that there was no need to hide it. But Lucius smiled softly at her and kissed her, then he said.

“I know. And I will do whatever I have to do to make sure we stay that way.”

***