Chapter 8 (Part 7)

‘Please, just stop.’  

Her hand, gripping the hem of her robe, trembled slightly.  

Then, she recalled meeting Gabriel Richard earlier. The more she spoke with him, the more she realized how different he was from his brother.  

Jeremy Richard was always brimming with confidence, decisive in his actions, and accustomed to standing at the top of any hierarchy. His entire presence exuded an invisible authority.  

‘But Gabriel…’  

He seemed incredibly sensitive and was, in fact, quite difficult to deal with. Even after learning she was the Duchess of Richard, he barely let his guard down.  

‘It was as if he wanted nothing to do with this family.’  

Though their relationship had been strained, could there have been a reason for him to harbor such deep resentment toward the family?  

Therese didn’t know Gabriel’s story well. No one in the Richard family ever mentioned him, and in the past, she had been too consumed by her own grief to think about others.  

“Madame, have I mentioned this before?”  

Lost in thought, Therese was startled back to reality by the Duke’s voice.  

Her instincts immediately sensed danger, and her body tensed. She had never heard anything good after the Duke started a sentence like that.  

“I don’t know what you’re about to say, but I’m sure I don’t need to hear it.”  

“I think I may be a rather jealous person.”  

“…”

The Duke’s hands, which spoke of jealousy, carried a heat that was impossible to suppress.  

“It’s all dry now, so you can stop.”  

Therese absentmindedly lifted her head and met the Duke’s gaze in the mirror.  

Her bedroom, dimly lit by a single candle, was dark, but the Duke’s sharp eyes stood out clearly in the reflection, as if they could pierce through her thoughts.  

“I felt endlessly anxious while waiting there for you.”  

His voice, laden with sighs, dripped with desperation.  

‘Ah, what am I supposed to do?’  

Hearing Jeremy Richard’s voice, Therese felt an unexplainable guilt, even though she had done nothing wrong.  

‘Is he upset that I came back late?’  

But there was no need to dwell on the reason. The best course of action was to lie down in bed and fall asleep as quickly as possible.  

“I need to sleep.”  

She abruptly stood from the chair, but her hair, caught in the towel he was holding, prevented her from moving.  

It only made the situation more awkward.  

As Therese stood, the Duke’s body leaned closer to her back, almost touching. With a slight tilt of his head, he let out a faint chuckle.  

“Drying your hair while standing like this isn’t so bad either.”  

“I’m just really tired.”  

Therese’s voice trembled as though she might burst into tears, and the Duke responded gently.  

“Then I’ll give you a massage. Let’s move to the bed.”  

“…Sigh.”  

“Massages are excellent for relieving tension. I used to give them to my subordinates in the frontier—”  

“No, I’ll just stay here.”  

Therese gave up on moving. She figured it was better to endure him drying her hair than to let him attempt a massage.  

But she couldn’t let her guard down.  

As the Duke resumed drying her hair, he began to speak again, shaking her resolve.  

“That slave by your side bothers me, as does every other man around you.”  

“Your Grace, whatever you’re concerned about has nothing to do with me.”  

“I’m jealous.”  

“…Sigh.”  

Jealousy?  

Hearing that Jeremy Richard felt such an emotion left her utterly bewildered.  

‘I can’t believe it. That can’t be true.’  

She had thought he disapproved of her closeness with the slave from Pasa because it tarnished the family’s dignity.  

‘Him asking to dry my hair, make milk tea…’  

Was all of that because the Duke was jealous of Roshan?  

The Duke tilted his head as he observed Therese’s stiffened shoulders.  

“If you dislike me, you can push me away.”  

The towel fell to the floor with a soft thud, and the Duke stretched out his arms to embrace her. His chest, pressed against her back, pounded like a broken clock.  

“Your Grace, ours is a political marriage…”  

“That’s exactly my point. I am your only husband, so I hope you’ll stay loyal to me.”  

He buried his face in her shoulder and whispered, leaving Therese at a loss for what to do.  

“I… I’ve never been unfaithful.”  

“I know. You’ve done nothing wrong. It’s all because I’m lacking.”  

Therese didn’t know how to interpret the Duke’s confession.  

To leave behind her painful past, she needed to divorce the man who had caused her so much pain. Yet, she found herself increasingly entangled with him.  

“I’ll do better. Could you give me just one chance?”  

“W-What kind of chance?”  

“To reconsider the divorce.”  

“But neither you nor anyone in the Richard family truly welcomed this marriage, Your Grace…”  

Ending things here and starting anew wouldn’t be so bad. Therese couldn’t bring herself to say the rest.  

‘It feels so pathetic.’  

“Is it because of my mother?”  

Therese blinked at the Duke’s question.  

“If it’s uncomfortable, you don’t have to answer.”  

“…Your Grace.”  

Therese called out to Jeremy Richard but only opened and closed her mouth without speaking further.  

She buried countless unspoken questions deep within her heart.  

Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?  

If all of this is genuine, then what am I supposed to do?  

The Duke’s arms tightened around her, and his heated embrace made her feel as though she might shatter.  

“Can’t you feel my heart right now? Just thinking about you makes it beat so painfully fast.”  

“Then why…”  

The sound of the Duke’s heartbeat grew louder, as if it would soon fill the entire bedroom.  

This was something that couldn’t be fabricated—it was the undeniable truth.  

In the past, Therese had desperately wished for his attention.  

But now…  

Feeling suffocated by the situation, Therese lowered her head. The Duke’s soft blonde hair brushed against her ear, and the sweet breath escaping his lips sent shivers down the fine hairs on her neck.  

“Because I love you.”  

When the word “love” fell from Jeremy Richard’s lips, Therese felt as though her heart had stopped.  

The Duke claimed to love her.  

She had once imagined that a confession of love would paint the world in rosy hues or fill her ears with the sound of bells.  

But the reality of a confession was far from sweet.  

It was sharp and powerful, like a thunderstorm crashing down on parched earth or lightning splitting an ancient tree in two.  

The shock of his confession sent a tingling sensation climbing from her toes upward, and it hadn’t even faded when the Duke began to speak again.  

“Just as I told you before, I’ve thought of you constantly since the day I saved you.”  

“What nonsense!”  

Startled, she turned to face him and saw his face flushed red with heat. He looked at her with an earnest gaze, his sincerity so overwhelming that Therese couldn’t find the words to respond.  

The Duke lowered his head and spoke with a hint of sadness.  

“You’re right. It’s all nonsense. So it’s no wonder you can’t believe me.”  

He had suppressed his feelings so thoroughly that even Jeremy himself hadn’t realized how deep they ran.  

He had once thought that keeping his distance from her was the only way to protect her.  

‘I can’t pass my curse onto you.’  

One person enduring the threat of poisoning was enough.  

He had lost his father first, then his brother to poison. Everyone he loved had turned into stars in the sky.  

‘I don’t want to lose you, Therese.’  

He had planned to let her go after a few years of marriage, once the Emperor’s suspicions had eased.  

“Your Grace, it’s late. We should get some rest.”  

Feeling overwhelmed, Therese tried to pull away from his grasp. But the Duke, holding her waist, didn’t budge.  

“Please, just listen to me until the end.”  

Seeing Jeremy Richard’s serious expression, Therese sighed.  

Taking her silence as consent, he continued.  

“It’s not because of the fever or my personal issues. It’s because you’re incredibly important to me.”  

“But this is all so sudden.”  

The Duke’s simple obsession and his declaration of love were entirely different matters.  

“Your Grace, that l-love you speak of…”  

Therese’s lips trembled as she uttered the word “love.” The Duke, who had released her waist, gently cupped her chin.  

“There’s probably no one in this world who loves you as much as I do.”  

“…Stop it!”  

To hear such words from a man she had thought despised her was something no one could easily accept.

‘Other loves don’t interest me.’  

For someone living a life with limited time, such things were a luxury. She just wanted to escape this moment, somehow, right now.  

“Your Grace, you are the most popular man in the Empire. You’ll find someone good in no time. A few flaws won’t matter at all.”  

It was said that he couldn’t recognize faces, but having a capable secretary by his side would solve that problem. Besides, he could distinguish those he saw regularly by their voices.  

When Therese brought up divorce, the Duke’s face was quickly overtaken by sadness.  

“If divorce is truly what you want, then I can agree to it.”  

“…Ah.”  

It was the first time.  

The Duke had agreed to divorce.