“Where did that bold lady from the greenhouse that night go? Are you now pretending to be innocent?”

At his sarcastic remark, Ellin unwillingly recalled the night in the greenhouse.

The moment when I took the first step to kiss him and surrendered my body as if possessed by something.

Remembering that time again, her face flushed hot with shame.

Seeing this, Dominic burst into a sneer.

When he lowered his hand, her hair that had been wrapped around his fingers softly fell down.

An empty air passed hollowly between the two people.

Dominic straightened his back and turned away from Ellin with a cold face.

While he poured another glass of wine, Ellin straightened her body that had been leaning far back.

Despite the strange atmosphere from just moments ago, he calmly pulled out documents from the table drawer with a composed face.

It seemed like a regular routine for him to end the day reviewing documents even in his bedroom.

“You don’t need to thank me and you don’t need to be so tense.”

Dominic spoke in a dry voice while flipping through documents, sitting in a long armchair with his legs loosely crossed.

“We’re not a real couple, just pretending to be one.”

From that cold tone devoid of any warmth, she could perfectly understand how the duke viewed this marriage.

It was Ellin who had momentarily forgotten the purpose of this marriage.

“Ah, of course we’ll have to act affectionate in front of others.”

Ellin, who had been listening to his words, struggled to speak.

“Then perhaps we should use separate rooms. It seems uncomfortable for you too, Duke.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s not possible.”

He immediately rejected her suggestion.

“To avoid unnecessary suspicion, we need to share a room for now. My mother is here too.”

His mother Melissa had a keen eye for these matters, and even the slightest gap could make her suspicious of this marriage.

Dominic didn’t want to give her any excuse for doubt.

For the next year, this marriage he had initiated needed to be perfect.

Ellin nodded slowly in understanding.

“Then how should we use the bedroom from now on? I can sleep on the sofa if I’m causing you discomfort.”

Dominic’s gaze shifted from the documents to her at Ellin’s words.

With her hands lightly clenched into fists and placed demurely on her knees, Ellin stated her opinion clearly.

He smirked at how she now appeared composed, when just moments ago her eyes had been disheveled as if she might collapse onto the bed when he approached.

Her bold seduction in the greenhouse versus her appearance now.

Which one was her true self?

“The bed seems large enough for three people. Is there really a need for that?”

Ellin’s gaze turned toward the bed at his words.

Indeed, it was wider than any bed she had ever seen, so the duke’s words weren’t an exaggeration.

‘But still.’

Hesitation crossed Ellin’s face again.

No matter how vast the bed might be, sharing it with him…

While her body might not be uncomfortable, her mind would be so uneasy that she would surely spend every night wide awake until morning.

And what if the person beside her was someone she had secretly loved for a long time?

Could there be a worse torture than that?

Ellin looked down at her feet and moved her lips.

“I’ll just sleep on the sofa……”

“I’ll be away on business for a while anyway. It’s quite a long time, so you have no reason to be wary of that bed, right?”

Dominic shrugged his shoulders once as if to say “are we done now?” and turned his attention back to the documents.

“Yes.”

Feeling like continued conversation would disturb his work, Ellin gave a short answer and didn’t open her mouth again.

Afterward, only an awkward silence lingered in the room.

Unable to bear the suffocating, quiet atmosphere, Ellin kept sipping the poured wine.

How much time had passed?

She began nodding off slightly and eventually drifted to sleep on the sofa.

Some time after Ellin buried her head in the sofa cushion, Dominic closed the documents and stood up.

His eyes seemed tired as he pressed his eyelids firmly before looking at the sleeping Ellin.

He approached her from his chair, but she was so deeply asleep that she didn’t register his presence at all.

‘She must be exhausted.’

Dominic recalled how she had looked in her wedding dress at the ceremony earlier.

Her clear face smiling at him while hiding her trembling hands behind the bouquet.

For reasons unknown, when he saw that face, it felt like his heart momentarily forgot to beat.

Dominic stood with his arms crossed, watching the sleeping Ellin for a while.

Despite boldly conspiring with him in this fraud, her sleeping face looked utterly innocent.

Innocent, perhaps?

Or audacious?

Her slightly parted lips, tinged red from the wine like a flower, momentarily tempted him.

‘Would those lips taste sweet like cherries again, like before?’

Though curious, he exercised restraint and gently lifted Ellin in his arms, carrying her to the bed.

She nestled innocently into his embrace with a faint smile, perhaps dreaming of something pleasant.

When her soft cheek pressed against his bare chest, a small sigh like a gasp escaped between his lips.

After laying Ellin on the bed, he went to the other side and lay down.

When he turned off the lights, her wheezing breath wrapped around his ears more clearly.

Though the bed was spacious enough for several people as he had said, lying at opposite ends still felt strange.

“I can sleep on the sofa if I’m causing you discomfort.”

Her words, which he had scoffed at earlier, now made sense as he physically experienced what she meant.

He turned his head slightly, and his eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, recognized his surroundings well.

His room, dimly illuminated by moonlight, was exactly the same as usual, but having a strange woman lying in his bed felt odd.

The woman looked comfortable, as if that place had always been hers.

With both arms propped under one cheek, sleeping with a peaceful face, she looked almost amusing.

He turned away from her.

Only his golden eyes gleamed white in the darkness.

The memory of soft skin and heated breaths from the night they spent in the greenhouse suddenly and fiercely overwhelmed him.

He forced his eyes shut.

In the quiet room, only the curtains by the window fluttered in the night breeze.

* * *

Ellin smiled at the corners of her mouth while squinting her eyes.

The morning sunlight tickled her eyelids.

She wanted to be lazy a little longer, burrowing into the rustling blankets that smelled clean and fresh.

“Ah!”

But shortly after, her green eyes snapped wide open.

She grabbed the blanket in shock and sat up.

The bright room filled with birdsong was peaceful, and she was alone in the bed.

‘I think I fell asleep on the sofa last night……’

She ran her hands through her hair, trying to recall last night’s events, but had no memory of walking to the bed herself.

‘Then could the duke have…?’

Looking at her appearance, the sash of her robe had loosened but otherwise remained the same as yesterday.

‘I only drank a little, but I must have passed out. Has he already left?’

Just as she was about to get up, there was a knock from outside and the door opened.

“Are you awake, my lady?”

Monica, who had helped her bathe yesterday, entered with another young maid.

“Oh? Oh. Yes. I must have been quite tired yesterday.”

When Ellin expressed embarrassment at waking up late, Monica smiled brightly and responded attentively.

“You had your wedding and first night. You must have been exhausted.”

“Has the duke already woken up?”

The maid answered while opening the curtains wide.

“He left early this morning. He usually wakes up early, but to go on a business trip right after the wedding day…”

She made an expression that was hard to tell whether she was worried about the duke or the new duchess, then quickly resumed her busy movements.

“Would you like your meal brought to your room?”

Ellin got out of bed at the maid’s question.

‘I can’t be lazy on my first day as the duchess.’

After the two left, another maid soon entered carrying water for washing.

Ellin paused as she was about to place her hands in the water the maid had brought.

The maid had red blisters on the back of her hand.

When she examined it closely, the maid spoke with apparent embarrassment.

“Oh! I’m so sorry! I’ll have another maid bring fresh water……”

The maid tried to quickly withdraw her hand, but Ellin was faster.

“It looks like a burn. Why haven’t you applied medicine yet? It will leave a scar.”

Ellin examined the maid’s hand, unaware of the wrinkles forming between her eyebrows.

“I know because I’ve been burned by tea water before. It hurts more after the burn than at the moment it happens. Like being cut by a sharp knife. It’s even more painful at night. Isn’t that right?”

The maid nodded slowly with a dumbfounded expression at the lady’s words.

“Yes, my lady.”

The duchess looked at the wound with concerned eyes, as if her own younger brother had been injured.

“You shouldn’t let water touch it until the wound heals. I’ll tell them to have another maid bring the washing water from now on, since it could get infected.”

When Ellin looked up with eyes that said ‘You’ll do that, right?’, the maid nodded slowly with a blank face.

“Go apply medicine to your wound first. I can wash by myself.”

The maid who left the room behind the duchess couldn’t hide her bewildered expression even as she closed the door.

‘I thought I would be scolded for preparing washing water with an injured hand.’

The maid was startled because she remembered a previous incident.

Before the duke’s marriage, the count’s daughter had visited.

When she brought tea and biscuits for her, she had a similar wound on her hand like now.

The count’s daughter saw the wound, contorted her eyes in displeasure, and glared at her.

That day, the lady didn’t touch the tea or biscuits at all.

She felt uncomfortable the entire time while clearing the dishes, feeling as if she had served something dirty and contaminated.

The lady’s expression from that time had remained uncomfortably in her mind for a long time.

‘I thought the duchess would push away the washing water.’

The maid stroked with her other hand the hand that the duchess had held earlier.

The noble ladies she knew were all sensitive and always seemed to have sharp nerves.

But the new duchess seemed different.

‘I noticed the flowers in the vase were withering. The hibiscus in the kitchen backyard is blooming beautifully. It would brighten up the newlyweds’ room. Would the duchess like it?’

The maid walked briskly down the corridor with a shy smile.