Lucia Chapter 72

Lucia felt deeply exhausted as soon as she got home . Once she entered the house, her tension quickly evaporated . Even if she had experienced it in her dream, in this lifetime, it was her first activity and first stage .

Having to maintaining her expression while being under people's scrutiny required considerable effort . In addition, perhaps because Sophia had gotten on her nerves, her body felt exhausted as if she had done hard labor . She took an early dinner and retired to bed early .

Today, Hugo returned home past dinner time but it was not that late . When he saw that she hadn't come to greet him, he searched for her with his eyes . Without being asked, Jerome gave an answer .

“Milady retired to bed early . She seemed to be tired from the outing today . ”

When Hugo frowned, Jerome added .

“Milady made no mention of being troubled . She said there was no need for a doctor and that the tea party was pleasant . ”

Hugo quickly went up to her bedroom . He entered the bedroom and sat on the bed, looking at her quietly sleeping figure . After a while, he reached out to smoothen her disheveled hair that was sprawled out on the pillow .

“…Hugh? Are you back?”

Her eyes flickered and opened . As she was half-asleep, her voice sounded indistinct and muddled .

“I didn't mean to wake you up . Go back to sleep . ”

The sound of his low reverberating voice was nice . Lucia smiled and as if stretching, she lifted up her arms to reach for him . Hugo smiled and lowered his body . Her slender arms wrapped around his neck . Hugo placed hand on her back to support her . He could feel her warm temperature coming from beneath her thin nightwear . He wrapped one arm around her waist, lifting her up and taking her into his embrace . Her fragrant scent tickled his nose . Hugo felt his heart squeeze with wicked thoughts and closed his eyes .

“Do you feel ill somewhere?” (Hugo)

“No . I was just a little tired . I think I was tensed up because I was meeting a lot of people after a long time . ”

“How was the tea party?”

“It was like a tea party . ”

Hugo pulled her away from him and met her eyes .

“That's it?”

“Apart from that, what else is there? I am the Duchess . They were all being careful of my mood . ”

Lucia had no intention of telling him about the incident with Sofia . Sofia's actions were completely because of her lingering attachment and obsession . It is not his fault . He had already closed that chapter before their marriage . Although the way he broke it off wasn't sweet, did it make sense to be tender when it came to the separation between a man and woman? It was better to cut it off completely rather than give room for doubts .

Since she had given Sofia a warning, she planned to wait and see . If Sofia stayed quiet, Lucia planned to leave it at that but if the woman showed herself on the social stage, she would not overlooked it .

Lucia was the Duchess . If she ordered it, it would be a walk in the park to make her followers, who were dying to get into her good graces, to act . There would be no need for Lucia to get her hands dirty . As long as she gave them a glance, it was a simple thing for them to humiliate Sofia and make sure she couldn't show her face in the social circles again .

The world of the high society did not respect, nor did it tolerate, forgiveness and generosity . One would be ridiculed as a fool who could not even protect their own authority . No matter how high one's position was, if you showed weakness of the mind, there was an overflowing amount of people that would sponge off you with sparkling eyes . Even if being vicious would hurt one's prestige, one should not let everything pass over nicely . Lucia did not want to dominate the social circles but she had no intention of looking like an easy target to anyone .

“That's good to hear . Nothing much happened?”

“Yes . What of you? How was today?”

Hugo was depressed for a moment when he remembered his handkerchief that was taken .

“It was the same as always . ”

“But, do you know how many questions I received over you escorting me today? I didn't know it's not supposed to be done . ”

Hugo's eyebrows jumped .

“Who says it's not?”

“Nobody does it . That's practically the same thing . ”

“If I do it then it's done from now on . ”

Lucia looked at him with the side of her eyes . There he goes again . In any case, his unreasonableness and pride could not be stopped .

“I don't want to next time . I don't want to become a spectacle . ”

“…Why are you so concerned about other people's gazes?”

“You are just overly unconcerned . ”

When he remained silent and just watched her, Lucia's eyes widened slightly . He suddenly tightened his hold on her and covered her lips with his . He bit her tender lips lightly and wove his tongue into her mouth . Feeling his soft tongue moving around in her mouth, her fingers began throbbed . Lucia tightened her arms around his neck and loosely clenched her fists . The kiss was sweet without any fierceness .

Hugo pulled away from her lips and kissed the side of her mouth . Then he lay her back down on the bed .

“Go to bed . Your eyes are full of sleep . I'll go and get some work done overnight . ”

“Is there a lot of work?”

“Instead of lying next to you and spending a sleepless night, I am going to get some work done . ”

“…you . Do you only think of that every day?”

“Of course . ”

Lucia looked at him in disbelief then burst into laughter .

Hugo looked through the list of participants for the tea party that Lucia had attended today . Fabian inwardly grumbled at having to come into the ducal residence late at night with documents but on the outside, his expression was earnest .

Even though Fabian sometimes held his ground against the Duke, he had never forgotten that fundamentally, the Duke was a scary person . Unless it was absolutely necessary, Fabian would never do or say anything that would offend the Duke .

Hugo had light-heartedly asked Fabian to bring the list of today's attendees . In the future, she would attend parties more often and it was impossible for him to individually check who attended every time . He was going to look through it this time because today was her first gathering .

As Hugo took a rough look over the list of participants, his eyes twitched slightly .

'Fuck . '

A word that Kwiz often used automatically popped up in his head . The 'Countess of Alvin' was very boldly printed on the list . Hugo hoped that he had misread so he checked it over a few more times but there was no doubt . Hugo suddenly began to sweat .

“This tea party . Find out exactly what happened during this party . ” (Hugo)

Work has increased again . 'Hu-hu' Fabian lamented inwardly .

“When do you want it?” (Fabian)

“As soon as possible . ”

Hugo's voice was dark .

At times like this, one must unconditionally crawl . Fabian answered in a reliable manner .

“Understood . I will focus all manpower on it and take care of it . ”

A few days later, Hugo received a report . A portion of maids that waited on the party attendees were bought off and the situation at the time was recreated as much as possible . Some of it was the pretty useless prattle of women and the amount was fairly thick but Hugo read through it with patience . When he finished reading everything, his sentiment was simple:

'I'm in trouble . '

Chapter end