***
The Grand Duke’s head maid, Mrs. Maureen, had been in a great mood lately.
“Hello, missus…oh!”
Even when, early in the morning, a young maid carrying a bucket of coal smeared soot on her apron.
“You have to be careful. You might fall.”
She tutted her tongue and went to the drawing room, gently admonishing the maid not to make the same mistake.
“What’s wrong with that picky lady?”
She didn’t mean that Mrs. Maureen was a bad person. However, she was originally a person who served the imperial family in the imperial palace.
So her standards are high.
In addition, she felt quite burdened by the fact that the hostess isn’t present. The self-respecting head maid was afraid of being told, ‘you neglected and messed up because there’s no hostess’.
As a result, she tended to be more strict than necessary, even for small mistakes.
But lately, that’s all a thing of the past.
“What else. The hostess that the missus used to sing every day is here.”
“I don’t know what’s good about having an alternate master. It’s just annoying.”
“There’s only one good thing about having a superior.”
“What?”
“Less responsibility?”
Even when the maids chatted among themselves, Mrs. Maureen, in a good mood, let them talk.
Mrs. Maureen went around checking the heating and cleaning.
In the meantime, she found one of the ribbons on the parlor curtains unraveled, but this time she too, instead of nagging, quietly tied it up and left.
The house is perfectly prepared. The missus nodded her head with a proud face and went down the kitchen.
“Cecilia!”
Called Mrs. Maureen, calling the manor cook aloud.
“Is the breakfast for Her Ladyship ready?”
“There!”
A wide tray was placed on the neatly organized workbench to stretch the legs.
The head butler must have polished it with more care than usual, as the silver tray was almost as shiny as a mirror coated with mercury.
For the bread, they prepared two types: savory but easily crumbly bread with plenty of butter, and toast coated with egg wash. Bacon and mushroom omelet, raspberry jam, and fresh orange juice.
Mrs. Maureen nodded her head and gave it a passing grade. It was time for her to deliver breakfast.
***
Lily’s bedroom at that time.
Even though she knew that she only had five years left to live, Lilian’s daily life hadn’t changed much.
She wanted to face her death with the utmost courage and dignity.
She didn’t want to waste her precious time being flustered or sad.
She’d been ill for a long time anyway. She may have to be grateful that she’s been given time to finish what she’s been doing in this five years.
Anyway, she decided to hide it from the people around her for the time being, so she had to maintain a life pattern similar to the previous one as much as possible.
The season is getting closer to winter, and the sun is starting to rise late in the morning. Maybe it’s because her body temperature drops while sleeping, but when she opened her eyes in the morning, she felt quite cold.
Lilian, half asleep and half awake, unintentionally curled up. The body heat of another person wrapped around her back. It was so cozy and warm that Lilian groaned involuntarily and leaned back.
Wait, somebody else’s body temperature?
Should something like that exist inside her blanket?
Lilian frowned for a moment. Little by little, her consciousness was rising to the surface.
As she started to wake up, she felt a gentle breath from next to her.
Anway, the culprit was obvious. Nonetheless, Lilian turned as far as she could, making sure once more that the man lying behind her was really her legal husband.
Shining platinum hair, the sun and shade blended gently on the perfectly sculpted skeleton.
“Your Lordship.”
Instead of answering, Damian’s shoulders trembled and he made a low growl in his throat.
The way he clung to Lily really looked like he’s sleeping, but…
“I know you’re not sleeping.”
Damian twitched the back of his nose a bit, but held on well. The patient Lilian called out again.
“I won’t scold you so please get up.”
“You promised.”
Damian quietly opened his eyes and looked at Lilian.
But it was only after a while did he let go. Lilian sighed.
“It’s a problem if you climb into my bed at night while I’m asleep.
Didn’t I tell you?”
“But we’re a couple…”
“What noble couple wake up in the same bed every day? Everyone will say it’s amazing.”
“We are royalty, not nobles.”
“Your Lordship.”
“I was wrong.”
Damian mumbled an apology and rubbed his face under the blanket. The few rubbing movements seemed very tiring.
‘Well…’
Was it a bit too much in the morning?
Lily’s heart, which had been stronger than ever, became a little weak.
“…are you tired?”
“I’m not in the habit of sleeping alone.”
On the battlefield since he was a teenager, Damian said he rarely slept alone.
“I was too young to be an officer. I had no choice but to live among the new knights, and I was unexpectedly suited to it. It’s hard to change because it became a habit.”
It was a lie, of course. Just the last sentence.
Damian faithfully used the rule that in order to lie well, one lie should be mixed with many facts.
Damian, who finished washing his face, continued to tell abominable lies with a tired but apologetic expression.
“It’s a habit I picked up on the battlefield, so it’s hard to change. Sorry. Now that I think there’s someone I can go to and fall asleep with, I can’t stand it at all…”
Damian muttered his words sadly. Lilian asked without realizing it.
“Are you not getting enough sleep?”
“Sometimes I can’t fall asleep until dawn, but that’s okay…”
A pitiful beauty who plays severe insomnia.
It was sad and pitiful, like a kitten shaking under the eaves on a rainy day.
Lilian let out a sigh of relief. Somehow, from her point of view, this man…
‘I mean, he liked skinship more than I thought.’
It’s not because he has any ill intentions towards her or because he’s burning with passion, it seems that he just loves being touched by her…well, that’s what Lilian thought.
It was a fierce misunderstanding.
It wasn’t purely Lilian’s fault. As for who was responsible, the biggest one was the man who was flickering his eyelashes from a distance of 30cm, feeding Lilian’s illusions.
“If you feel uncomfortable, I will really refrain from doing so from now on.”
Damian, who lost his spirits and lowered his tail saying that he would be careful and restrain himself, looked very pitiful.
By that point, Lilian was starting to feel guilty.
Come to think of it, isn’t he her husband?
Someone who can’t sleep because there’s no presence next to him, so he hesitated.
After hesitating, he came to his wife’s bedroom and kept being scolded for quietly sleeping next to her.
“No. Come to think of it, I was a bit harsh.”
She won’t ask him to come to her if he can’t sleep but she also won’t blame him if they wake up in the same bed tomorrow. Lilian made that promise.
It was then.
“Your Ladyship, this is Maureen.”
Oh my.
It was only then that she remembered she had promised to have breakfast around 10 today.
Lilian got up in a hurry.
But she couldn’t answer. Then the tidy knock rang out once more.
“Your Ladyship?”
Trying to pretend like this hasn’t happened yet…
Suddenly, Damian got up. When a man with a height of 190 sat up, his shoulders were like a bulkhead.
“My wife isn’t up yet. Go away for a while and then come back.”
“!”
Lilian was taken aback. Even through the door of her bedroom, she could clearly sense Mrs. Maureen’s bewilderment.
“Then I will be leaving.”
It wasn’t until the footsteps faded away that Lilian could barely open her mouth.
“Your Highness, that…this is embarrassing.”
“Does it trouble you?”
Damian’s expression softened.
“There’s no one in this mansion who doesn’t know that we are a newly married couple.
“It should be, but if we do this, rumors will spread that we like each other.”
Damian stared at Lilian.
“Shouldn’t there be rumors like that?”
There was a lot of regret in his voice, he was genuinely sorry and not faking it.
But Lilian was adamant.
“Yes, it’s a problem.”
Damian was undoubtedly shocked. ‘Pretending to be pitiful’ didn’t work.
He was shocked by that fact, and was seriously hit by the choice word ‘problem’.
It’s like a bell rining in his head…problem…problem…it felt like an echo.
“You say it’s a problem…”
“Your Highness, when a couple looks good, people expect a child.”
“Ah.”
Children.
This was an unexpected answer even for the worldly Damian.
Leave a Reply