Chapter 19

He had been too hasty. It was the one sentence that would not leave Kyle’s mind.

In his impatience, he had made the mistake of abruptly proposing. He should have apologized slowly and approached her carefully. That uncharacteristic haste had brought about a very poor ending.

In truth, he knew why he had hurried.

‘I was arrogant.’

In the past, Hazel had liked him. It had shown so plainly that he could not have failed to know it even without her saying it.

It had been the same on Harrington Street. All through the time he had wrestled with desires suddenly surging up, he had wondered what kind of reaction she would show if he swallowed those red lips. He had thought that, though she would freeze like a mouse caught in a trap, in the end she would still have moved her hips to his rhythm.

But Hazel had rejected him, very firmly.

‘If there was anything in the meantime that could have changed her feelings, it would have been Colin’s funeral.’

What happened in front of the theater must have stayed strongly in her mind. Was it a misstep that, because he thought its not a good memory, he had deliberately avoided bringing it up? Perhaps he had been mistaken in thinking there was no reason to deliberately remind her of Colin’s death in such a glittering place.

She was a more complicated woman than he had expected.

‘Would she soften if I sent her a gift.’

But what?

If he gave her something expensive, Marquis Fitzroy had money spilling over already. On the other hand, if he gave her something that might remind her of country life, she seemed likely to throw it away and ask whether he was mocking her.

What had Hazel liked again…… a woman’s voice awakened him from his thoughts.

“Kyle, what are you thinking so hard about?”

Hannah Margaret. She was a card he needed to keep in hand for the time being, in case Hazel Fitzroy refused him to the end. Pulling himself together, Kyle answered,

“It is nothing. The owner of this restaurant has excellent taste. I was admiring the very modern interior.”

“I’m glad you liked it. I was so satisfied with the restaurant you took me to last time that this time I wanted to treat you myself.”

“You say too much.”

Kyle lifted the steaming black tea to his lips.

Though Hannah said she was treating him, in the end Kyle would be the one to pay. Kyle knew that, and Hannah knew it too.

People said the world was changing, but the idea that a gentleman should attend to a lady was still alive. Sitting rooms permitted only to ladies, the atmosphere in which the man paid for everything used on a date, the custom that if there was no empty seat, it must always be yielded to the lady and the gentleman remain standing……

Old-fashioned, tiring, dull. In a way, that was fortunate. If the world were too interesting, he might forget his original purpose of destroying Strauss and become distracted.

Across the gleaming tableware came Hannah’s voice.

“I heard you went to a salon yesterday.”

“My, has the rumor reached that far?”

Hannah arched her pretty brows.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Kyle. I heard there was quite an event.”

“There was something interesting. But judging from the way you speak, it seems you already heard what happened, so saying more would only waste time.”

At Kyle’s answer, Hannah pursed her lips.

“I heard ‘Glass Slipper’ is astonishingly beautiful. Do you think so too, Kyle?”

“She is objectively beautiful.”

Kyle admitted it without resistance. At his reaction, Hannah set down her utensils on the tablecloth and rested her chin in her hand. The cubic stones set into her carefully maintained nails flashed in the light.

“Then I suppose it is also true that the smile never left your face the whole time you were talking with that young lady?”

There were three major rumors about Glass Slipper that had spread from the salon the previous day.

First, Hazel Fitzroy was beautiful.

Second, Marquis Fitzroy had very little interest in his adopted daughter.

And last, Kyle Strauss had spent time alone with Hazel Fitzroy.

Kyle replied,

“My expression can be a little intimidating. I hear so often that people are frightened in advance when they face me. When I speak with ladies, I consciously try to smile.”

“This does hurt my feelings a little. I thought you smiled only in front of me.”

The class system was a relic of the past. Aside from the direct royal bloodline, which possessed the right to rule, most noble titles had long lost their real power.

Of course, there were still nobles who wielded influence, like Marquis Fitzroy and Earl Nett. However, even their power could not be denied to come from wealth.

The reason Marquis Fitzroy was still such a great figure was because of the long business history that had earned him the nickname Railway King. The reason Earl Nett could receive a direct audience with the King was also because he was the very person who had produced and supplied military goods.

Seen from that perspective, Kyle Strauss was a good marriage candidate. Young, gifted in business, and highly sharp when it came to money. In an age when money pressed status into the ground, he was in no way inferior to other men.

Moreover, the fact that he stood alone without family also worked as an advantage in Hannah’s eyes. It meant there would be no need to awkwardly force her to fit herself into her husband’s family.

Masculine charm and overflowing ability. Kyle was a rare man who fulfilled both conditions. That was why Hannah had decided she would marry him.

A knife came down diagonally into the steak.

“It upsets me to hear that you are interested in another woman when it has not even been that long since you began dating me. Even if we have not met many times, I think you and I understand each other quite well, Mr. Strauss.”

“I shall take that as an honor.”

“If it would be all right, let us go visit my maternal grandfather one day. He seemed to want to see you again after such a long time, Kyle.”

“My, Miss Margaret.”

Kyle cut off her words. The knife that had been moving back and forth cutting the meat stopped.

Meeting Hannah’s eyes, Kyle continued in a serious tone.

“I appreciate the suggestion, but let us be more cautious about meeting the elders in your family. I understand that they do not yet find me very welcome.”

“Thank you for being so considerate toward me.”

Though she spoke with a smile, the hand she had lowered beneath the table was clenched into a fist. Her face lowered toward the plate had gone stiff.

It had been over a month since the two had begun seeing each other. The number of times they had dined together could be counted on one hand, but it was more than enough to spread rumors that their relationship was not ordinary. It had also been more than enough time for Hannah to persuade her parents and decide for herself that she would marry Kyle.

And yet she had not expected that the very man who ought to be earnestly hoping to marry her would be so lukewarm. Hannah took a short breath and smiled.

“Please continue eating. The sauce is excellent. I think it has Bordeaux wine in it.”

If one had to name the single reason Kyle Strauss held himself a step back from marriage, there would be only one.

The woman coming into the restaurant, looking around and linking arms with Alice Nett.

* * *

Contrary to Hazel’s vague expectation that, once she came up to Bukata, she would be able to see Alice every day, the two did not meet until well over a month after Hazel had come to the capital.

Alice cheerfully gave the name of the reservation.

“Alice Nett, for two.”

“I will show you to your table.”

A waiter with a towel draped over his arm guided the two ladies to a seat by the window. As she naturally sat in the chair the waiter pulled out for her, Hazel blankly watched the candle on the table flicker to life.

“It feels like Christmas, Al.”

“That is generous praise. Candles in the middle of summer—I thought it was old-fashioned for something with such a reputation.”

Unlike fixed electric lights, candlelight trembled at the slightest disturbance.

Hazel stared fixedly at the candle flame. For no reason, it made her feel dazed. Was that why the voice that had tormented her all day pushed its way out again from between the folds of her mind.

“Marry me.”

Hazel defined her first suitor in simple, clear terms.

‘A madman.’

A madman, Kyle Strauss was definitely a madman. Unless one had no shame at all, how could he ever think of proposing to her?

She was not a child, and the problem was that Hazel knew all too well what marriage was. In dictionary terms, people bound by legal registration of marriage; in literary terms, people who trust each other more than anyone else in the world. And in real terms, people who shared ‘one bed’—through that thing called s*x!

Hazel pressed her lips tightly together.

‘Absolutely not.’

She knew that if she married someday, it would be a process she had to go through. But when she thought of that person being Kyle, she hated it unbearably. To devote pure feelings to a trash-like man who appeared only when he needed her and coaxed her to marry him, then pretended not to know her when he no longer needed her—what sane woman would make such a choice?

‘Of course I did like him. But that was only in the past.’

As Dennis had once said, Kyle was handsome and attractive. His way of treating women was not bad, either.

She corrected herself. He was not bad at dealing with women ‘who were useful to him.’

And with that face and body, it would not even seem strange if he had five mistresses hidden away somewhere on Ripletta Street.

‘Is that why he chose me?’

Because she looked like someone who, so long as appearances as husband and wife were maintained, would not do things like get jealous?