“Mm! Ahh!”

“Ah…… I’m going to lose a finger.”

Frederic let out a long groan, working through the clenching entrance.

“Fre, derick! Please! Hnoh, mmph!”

“Hah……!”

“Ahng!”

Her back arched against the seat and a sharp urgency washed through her.

Margie writhed against the unbearable pleasure and threw herself against Frederic’s neck.

“Eek, huk.”

“So much, hah, this much. I’ll have to have the car interior cleaned the moment we get home.”

Frederic laughed quietly, unhurried and composed, with all the ease of a man who had never once been rattled.

“I don’t want, mmph, mhh……”

Her resistance ended there. Frederic kissed her again and pressed her deep into the seat.

Over her left hand wrapped around him, a breathtaking blue scattered its light. That blue was a pure and particular honor belonging only to Duchess Graham.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

“……Going off on a naval training while still newlyweds……”

In the lavish drawing room connected to the banquet hall of the Flynn family estate.

“I thought we’d finally get to see him up close……”

Several ladies invited by Duchess Margie Graham let out one disappointed sigh after another. They had dressed their finest, certain today was the day they would finally get a proper look at Frederic, the most beautiful man in the kingdom, and he was away on training of all things.

“Still, isn’t it wonderful that the six-month deployment was cut down to four weeks.”

“Quite. They say it’s almost unheard of within the navy.”

“All thanks to His Majesty the King’s warmth and generous care for the Graham couple……”

“I hear the duke is leaving the service after this training and returning to civilian life. Does he have plans after discharge?”

“He’ll probably take over Sir Flynn’s business, won’t he?”

“Well, who else could take over an enterprise that size if not Duke Graham……”

“Ah, Duchess Graham. You may not remember, but my husband recently started a small trading venture. It’s a very promising venture, but he hasn’t found the right investors yet…… If you have a moment sometime, might I call on you separately? I’d also like to ask after Sir Flynn……”

“Marchioness Howard! Don’t jump ahead. I told you clearly that I was first to bring something like this up with the duchess!”

The sharp-eyed ladies fell over each other trying to win the duchess’s favor, with a subtle undercurrent of rivalry running beneath it all. They had all learned well enough that a wife’s support mattered greatly to a husband’s advancement.

“Ah, yes……”

Whether the ladies made a fuss or not, Margie stayed detached throughout, wearing an expression no one could quite read.

She had her own reason for arranging this gathering.

“It’s so warm.”

“It really is. This summer is particularly hot.”

“Isn’t it? Dreadfully hot. I’m perspiring terribly. My……”

After repeating how warm it was several times, Margie lifted her left hand, which had been resting below the table, and slowly spread her palm open, fanning herself in full view of everyone.

“Oh, so terribly warm.”

“Here! The duchess seems to be feeling the heat, perhaps some cold water……”

“My goodness, Duchess? That on your finger……”

One lady in the group with a particularly keen eye for other people’s affairs lit up and grabbed Margie’s left hand.

“Isn’t that the one? The heirloom passed down through the Graham family for generations?”

“Why, yes it is! A blue diamond!”

“A blue diamond? Oh my! Let me see too!”

The ladies surged toward Margie’s seat.

“A diamond that reflects blue light. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

“The cut, the clarity, it’s extraordinary. Heavens, how magnificent.”

“Any other jewel placed beside that ring would lose its own color entirely.”

“I’d heard you hadn’t been visiting the boutiques lately. I wondered why, and here’s the reason.”

Every one of them knew perfectly well this was a jewel that could belong only to the Duchess of Graham, and the stream of admiration was unstoppable. All the while, Margie savored the feeling of being a true mistress of the house and crunched happily through her cookies.

“You seem to be enjoying the desserts.”

The lady seated beside Margie stared in genuine surprise at the empty plate in front of the hostess.

“Would you like some of mine? I haven’t touched it at all.”

She offered her own fresh plate with a polite gesture.

“I was just hoping for more.”

Margie smiled brightly and popped a chocolate from the plate into her mouth.

The lady knew perfectly well that the usual Margie would never have glanced twice at a chocolate from someone else’s plate. Her famously small appetite was well-known among society women. They had assumed she kept herself that thin by eating almost nothing. Some had even imitated her restrictive eating habits.

“You must have been quite…… hungry, Duchess……”

She eats like this?

The lady trailed off, staring in disbelief as Margie finished off the sweets she had just offered without hesitation.

“Not really? I’m not particularly hungry.”

“Oh? Is…… is that so?”

The lady answered again, baffled.

Not hungry, and she ate all of that? If she were actually hungry, she’d have eaten the plate itself.

“Th, then perhaps today’s pastry chef has worked some extraordinary magic to suit the Duchess’s palate perfectly……”

Before the lady finished speaking, Margie clapped her palm over her mouth and retched.

“Oh my! Are you all right?”

“Duchess, please eat slowly!”

The ladies gathered close again, patting her back and pressing her palms, expressing their concern.

“Take all of this away. The smell is…… I can’t bear it.”

Margie’s face had gone white. She waved urgently for a maid, looking nothing like the person who had been reaching for other people’s plates moments before.

“I’m so dizzy……”

“I think you should see Dr. O’Brien, my lady.”

The maid who had helped Margie to her bed offered the suggestion carefully. Margie gave a heavy nod instead of answering aloud and closed her eyes.

“Tell them to stay and enjoy themselves. And don’t forget to apologize for me, that I couldn’t see them out properly.”

Being rude by absenting herself was far preferable to disgracing herself by being sick in front of her guests.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

That evening, in the Flynn estate, after all the guests had gone.

“……So complete rest is essential……”

Dr. O’Brien finished his examination in the master bedroom and began gathering his bag.

“You must not neglect proper nutrition either.”

Knowing well how little talent Margie Flynn had for feeding herself, he pressed her firmly.

“I’ll come again at this hour tomorrow. You’ll need consistent care until you’ve stabilized.”

Even so, the look in his eyes as he regarded her was kind, and his expression, touched with a quiet smile, seemed almost elated.

“Sir Flynn is going to be so pleased when he hears……”

“Doctor.”

Margie called after him quickly as he moved toward the door.

“Please keep today’s visit a secret from my father and my husband.”

Her face was still pale, the color not yet returned.

The damp summer breeze that had carried the green of the season changed to something considerably fresher. The year had moved past summer and was now boldly knocking at the threshold of autumn.

“I hope autumn comes soon.”

Wondering whether she had ever waited for autumn this eagerly in her life, Margie found a letter arriving before her.

[To my wife, Margie]

It was from Frederic, nearing the end of his training with his discharge just ahead.

Working out in her head when his discharge date would be, Margie tore the envelope open in a hurry.

[Margie. I miss you. I miss you so much, darling. Missing you is driving me out of my mind.]

A letter that launched straight into a litany of missing her, without so much as a formal greeting.

“What on earth. How strange.”

Margie laughed out loud. Then she stopped. She had been thinking exactly the same thing.

[……My cynicism was the result of not knowing how to be in the world. But meeting you, Margie, beautiful as a rose on a spring night, changed my world. To think a world this warm had been waiting for me all along……
……Do you know this? Your loveliness makes me an extraordinarily lazy man.
People ask me what it is I love about my wife.
I find myself seized by a vulgar desire to list every wonderful thing about you. You truly are a woman with a great many wonderful qualities.
And yet…… all I can say is, a lovely person. Every other expression becomes useless. In the end I become a man too lazy to praise his own wife. Ah, had I known it would come to this, I would have read more poetry and novels. I should have learned long ago how to express even a tenth, no, a hundredth of my love……
……Sometimes I think about the right to choose one’s own life.
If God had given me that right, I would have chosen, of my own free will, never to have been born.
But meeting you, Margie, changed that.
I want desperately to live. As long as possible, and in good health. The time I have shared with you, and the time ahead of us, is too precious and too full of happiness. I find myself regretting, again and again, the moments I once declared I would choose not to exist. If God exists, perhaps He will forgive me for being such a fool.
……The end of training is in sight. By the time my wife reads this letter, there will probably be four days left.
I will come as fast as I can. If only I had wings instead of legs……
My dearest Margie.
Wait for me. Don’t wash.]

“……Margie!”

Before she could read the last line of the letter, a loud crash rang out and a man’s voice bellowed over the garden wall.