“How much do you really know about that man to be so certain?”
“Because there has never been anything between us of the sort you’re imagining.”
“You might have been like that until now, but things will be different from here on out. All men are the same.”
“…….”
“Their heads are filled with nothing but thoughts on how to have their way with a woman.”
Headrin reached out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Blair’s ear. Her lips were pressed tightly in defiance, and he added,
“Though you, our noble Princess, couldn’t possibly imagine such a thing.”
The gesture was gentle at a glance, but the look in his eyes as he peered down at her—and the words he spat out—were nothing short of icy.
“In such a situation, a beautiful, wealthy, innocent woman who treats him with human decency appears before him.”
“…….”
“Do you really think he’s any different?”
Blair’s eyes, which had been wavering in anxiety, eventually crumpled as if she were about to weep. It felt as though she herself had been the one insulted.
All for the sake of a mere commoner.
“From now on, bring a knight with you whenever you meet that man.”
Headrin unilaterally ended the conversation and reached for Blair’s hand. It was meant to be an escort, but Blair snatched her hand away.
Headrin’s cold gaze shifted to hers. Looking him straight in the eye, she said,
“You have no right to insult him based on mere speculation.”
Her body trembled as she spoke. It was just like that time at the Imperial Palace luncheon, when she had refuted her own brother’s opinion.
Her terrified eyes were filled with a fierce sense of justice. She would never back down—not if it was a matter she believed to be right.
He found that look absurd and irritating all over again.
“I cannot agree with your views.”
Having expressed her opinion firmly in a quiet, steady voice, Blair turned her back on him and headed toward the hired carriage she had requested.
Headrin let out a dry, mocking laugh as he watched her carriage depart first.
* * *
“Shall I put your hair up again today?”
Mely asked as she sat Blair before the mirror. Blair gave a small nod.
“Yes. Please.”
Her long hair was beautiful, but difficult to manage. With so much to do to prepare for the banquet, it was better to pin it up entirely so it wouldn’t get in her way.
*Rustle, rustle.* The soft sound of brushing filled the peaceful morning room.
This was the time when Mely or Lina would brush Blair’s hair while she reviewed her daily schedule.
Organizing her tasks in her head, Blair looked at Mely in the mirror, then suddenly remembered something and called out to her.
“Mely.”
“Yes, My Lady?”
Blair intended to ask something, but she parted her lips and then closed them again. She shook her head instead.
“No, it’s nothing.”
In truth, she had wanted to ask if Headrin had gone out.
After Blair had returned to the residence first by hired carriage yesterday, Headrin had returned very late at night, long after dinner, perhaps due to other business. They hadn’t crossed paths since.
She usually shared breakfast with him every other day, but today, she didn’t want to see him.
Insulting Mihail to his face was something he shouldn’t have done.
Had he not insulted him simply because of his own high status and Mihail’s commoner background? Such behavior was beneath him.
She was disappointed that it was him, of all people, who would speak like that.
‘But I shouldn’t show it in front of the maids,’ she reminded herself. It wouldn’t be dignified.
“All finished, Your Grace.”
“Thank you.”
Dressed and ready, Blair left the room and stepped onto the staircase leading to the first floor.
She was halfway down when she saw Headrin and Ruth descending from the opposite wing.
Perhaps having spotted Blair as well, Headrin’s gaze shifted toward her. Blair’s steps came to a sudden halt as she locked eyes with him.
After lingering on Blair for a moment, Headrin’s gaze returned to Ruth.
Blair finished descending and reached the first floor a beat early, waiting for him. Even if her heart felt heavy, she couldn’t very well ignore him once they had encountered each other like this.
Headrin reached the floor and brushed past her. Just as Blair was about to follow, having received a quick nod from Ruth, a cold voice reached her ears.
“There is no need for you to come out.”
He walked away with long strides. Even though he wasn’t moving particularly fast, his long legs carried him far away in mere seconds.
Ruth looked flustered, gave a slight bow, and hurried after him.
Blair watched Headrin’s back as he left the residence, seen off by Mason. She stared with a look of quiet dissatisfaction before turning toward the dining hall.
He was the one who had done wrong; he was the one who had made a scene. There was no need for her to go out of her way to dance to his tune.
However, Mely’s eyes were filled with worry as she watched her.
* * *
“This won’t do at all.”
Lina, who had been eating lunch on the garden bench in the noticeably warmer weather, tilted her head at Mely’s sudden outburst.
“What won’t?”
“His Grace and Her Grace. It doesn’t seem like they’ve made up yet, right?”
Shortly after their marriage, they could excuse it as awkwardness. But after the day Blair collapsed in front of the fireplace, they had seemed to be getting along well.
*They didn’t come out of the bedroom for a while back then, so I was actually worried for Her Grace…….*
But from some point on, Headrin stopped visiting the bedroom, and the atmosphere grew cold and frozen. They were, by all appearances, a bickering couple.
Still, she had thought they reconciled on the day they returned together from the Empress Dowager’s Palace, but watching them closer, that didn’t seem to be the case.
Especially after their visit to the art gallery a few days ago, Blair seemed to be intentionally avoiding meal times.
By nature, servants should neither pretend to hear anything beyond their master’s orders nor ask questions they weren’t prompted to. But that didn’t mean they were blind and deaf to what was right in front of them.
The two had fought bitterly. That was certain.
It wasn’t the place of servants like them to interfere. Marital quarrels were the business of the two involved.
However, as the period of silence dragged on for nearly a month, Mely began to worry about Blair.
After Headrin caught the maids quietly bullying Lina, the ostracization had stopped, even if they weren’t exactly warm.
*But if this cold war between the two continues like this…….*
Mely didn’t want Blair to go through what she had experienced before.
Part of it was lingering guilt from the past; part of it was the pure fondness that had grown for Blair.
However, Lina was a staunch member of the anti-Headrin faction.
“It’s absolutely His Grace’s fault. Absolutely! Her Grace is right.”
“No, I’m not trying to figure out who’s right or wrong. It’s not for us to judge. What I mean is, we shouldn’t just leave things as they are.”
“Then?”
“Wouldn’t they be able to resolve something if they just saw each other, whether they reconcile or fight even harder?”
But Lina, who was absolutely on Blair’s side, furrowed her brows.
“Why should Her Grace make that kind of effort? The person who’s frustrated should be the one to do it.”
“Her Grace is just the type not to express herself, so she must be frustrated too. Still, he is her husband.”
Lina couldn’t criticize Headrin any further and pressed her lips together.
Mely was right. No matter how close Blair was with them, they were ultimately master and servant.
In this residence, the only family Blair could rely on was Headrin.
Lina still didn’t approve of him, but for Blair’s sake, she decided to listen to a little more of what Mely had to say.
“Anyway, so?”
“How about we create a time for the two of them to be together?”
“How on earth would we do that?”
“Well, that is…….”
Mely, who had been thinking with a grave expression, let out a small gasp as if she had thought of something.
* * *
This kind of thing… it’s a different development from my previous life.
Blair stared at the scene unfolding before her with wide, surprised eyes.
In the bedroom’s drawing room, where she had been called while preparing for the banquet, Baroness Sionel and her assistants were unpacking the finished dress and men’s formal wear.
Up to this point, it was the scene Blair had expected.
Except for her husband, who was sitting sideways on the adjacent seat, watching the scene with her.
Blair glanced at Headrin with confused eyes.
*Why is he here?*
The start of this incident was a week ago.
Baroness Sionel had come to the residence to prepare clothes for the banquet.
*“My Lady, how about a couple’s look? It’s quite the trend among young lovers and newlyweds these days. Even in crowded places like banquets, it’s clear at a glance that this man is mine.”*
The Baroness had suggested a couple’s look in her previous life as well. Hearing that, Blair had followed her suggestion. The lovesick new bride had been desperate to show off her love and her husband.
But now, having returned from the past, she knew that all of that was futile.
Blair had expressed her desire to have a regular dress made, not a couple’s look.
But Mely and Lina, who had been listening from behind, had suddenly cut in.
*“My Lady, I’d like to see you wearing a couple’s look.”*
*“After all, it’s the first banquet you’re hosting as the Duchess. Wouldn’t it be better to dress so that the two masters of the Ducal family stand out?”*
After thinking for a moment, Blair decided to readily accept their earnest suggestion.
She hadn’t particularly wanted to wear a couple’s look, but there was no special reason to deny their request either.
*And besides, it would look good to have our outfits coordinated at the banquet anyway.*
Instead, this time she chose a different design from her previous life. It would be boring to wear the same design twice.
Whatever the process was, the result had flowed exactly as it had in her previous life—as a couple’s look—so she had assumed the future that followed would be the same.
In her previous life, he hadn’t tried on the couple’s look until the very day of the banquet.
So, in other words, his appearance today to try on the finished clothes before the banquet was something that had never happened in her previous life.