< — Realization — > (3)
After the music ended, Lucia and the man she was dancing with bowed to each other . Lucia was hypersensitive about her smarting heel so whatever the man was saying was flowing out through one ear .
'I have to ask the maid to bring me another pair of shoes . '
In the case of an emergency, items such as gloves that dirtied easily and heeled shoes that could break were kept in the carriage for basically, emergency use . When her feet hurt a little earlier, she should have gone to change it .
Lucia's eyes widened when she saw the man(a different one) who was quickly approaching her .
“When did you arrive?” (Lucia)
Her dance partner, Count Yungran, was frightened out of his wits when he saw the Duke of Taran heading towards him with a vicious look and he immediately fled .
To Lucia, her dance partner, who was just here a minute ago, suddenly disappeared . She was happy to see her husband again after a few hours . Happy enough that she would have hugged him if people weren't around .
“Just now . Did you get hurt?” (Hugo)
“Huh?” (Lucia)
“You aren't walking properly . ”
Lucia wondered how he knew .
“My shoe is a little…I don't think it fits me right . I have to change out of it . ”
“Can you walk?”
“Of course . It's not that bad . ”
She took his outstretched hand and as soon as she took a confident step forward, her foot wavered from the throbbing pain and he helped her to stay firm . If she was alone, she would have likely walked as if there was nothing wrong . But because there was someone to lean on her beside her, her heart grew weak . Lucia felt like she was making too much of a fuss so she looked at him with an embarrassed smile .
“It's just smarting a little . I'm fine . ”
Hugo looked at her quietly then he embraced her . Lucia felt several gazes gather on her .
“I…I said I'm fine . ”
When he began to walk as if he didn't hear her, Lucia couldn't face the crowd at all so she buried her head in his chest .
With her in his embrace, Hugo took her to the King and asked to be excused, “My wife is hurt . I'll be away for a while . ”
“…Go ahead . ” (Kwiz)
People's expressions varied as they watched the ducal couple leave the party venue . It was either astonishment or envy .
Kwiz had a feeling that such unseemly acts would happen more and more often with the Duke of Taran . He wasn't that happy about unpredictable variables happening but;
'Still, these days, the Duke seems a little human . '
Kwiz chuckled .
Hugo came out of the bustling party venue with Lucia in his arms .
“This way, please . ”
A handmaid guided the two . Following the handmaid, they arrived at the princess' break room where Lucia and Katherine were at earlier . Lucia realized that the person who sent the handmaid was Katherine causing her to remember the embarrassing scene from earlier again and her face grew hot .
As soon as they entered the break room, Hugo sat her down on the biggest sofa in the middle of the room and squatted at her feet . Before Lucia could say don't do that, he had already taken her right foot, peeled off the shoe and was looking at her heel . There was blood showing on her peeled skin .
Tsk, he clicked his tongue and lifted his hand in a gesture calling the handmaid then he gave a brief order .
“Medicine . ”
The handmaid gave a quick bow and promptly disappeared .
“Why is the shoe like this?”
Hugo got another justification to terminate the contract with Antoine . In his mind, the contract he signed with Antoine was already ripped to pieces .
“It happens sometimes . You can't tell if a shoe fits you well until you walk to some extent . ”
“Isn't that why an expensive designer is hired to get rid of such things?”
Noticing his intent to criticize Antoine, Lucia held her tongue . Just as she expected, it was clear that he didn't like the dress . No matter how one looked at it, he was being nitpicky . Lucia felt weird when he overreacted to her exposure . She had never thought he was a conservative man . All his women that she saw in her dream wore clothes that revealed their chest as if they were trying to attract attention to it . Compared to them, Lucia's dress was very virtuous .
When the handmaid came in with medicine and bandages, followed by her maid, Lucia couldn't afford to keep thinking quietly . She ordered her maid to go to the carriage and bring her spare shoes .
“Will you be okay? Do you want to go back?”
Hugo carefully applied medicine to her wound then he asked her when he was putting the bandage on her foot .
“It's not to the extent where I can't walk . Plus you just arrived . I haven't even greeted His Majesty . ”
What's new about greeting the king? They did it every time they saw him . Hugo just wanted to take her home . But it wasn't a problem that could be solved in such a way . In the future, there would be many events where she had to appear in front of people and he could not accompany her for all of it . He felt anxious like he was being chased . He wanted to lock her up in the top of a high tower where no one could see her . It didn't matter if she didn't know what was going on in the world . He wanted to be the only one to see her clear smile .
“Is everything done? Get up, quickly . ” (Lucia)
Seeing the closed door, she was restless and worried that someone would come in . Hugo was unhappy that she kept being conscious of other people . Was it because she didn't want to show their intimacy? He was secretly feeling bad so he wanted to tease her a little . He took her bandaged foot and lifted it up .
When her center of gravity suddenly moved backwards, Lucia supported her body so she wouldn't fall on her back . She was startled out of her wits and looked at him with wide eyes .
Hugo looked into her eyes and kissed the top of her foot . She looked cute with her eyes and mouth wide open with astonishment . Her face was completely red .
“Hugh!”
He didn't seem to care, rather he laughed mischievously and raised the train of her dress to her lap then he kissed her calf and bit it .
“Ah!”
Lucia screamed in frustration .
“Who is he?”
“Who?”
“The man earlier . Minuet . ”
“What? Ah…I don't really know . They said he was Count Yungran or something . ”
“You're saying you danced with a man you don't know?”
“People dancing with people they don't know happens a lot . It's not like you don't know that . ”
Lucia struggled to remove her foot from his grasp .
“Refuse them in the future . ”
“Alright . I got it so let me go . ”
He let go of her ankle but she only got a moment of relief before he sat right next to her and wrapped his arms around her waist . Then he brought his lips to her ear and whispered to her .
“Is your foot really okay? Should I carry you?”
“You seriously– . I told you to look at the time and place!”
Even if she replied with, 'Will you?' as a joke, if it was this man in front of her, he would really do it . Lucia was alarmed and pushed away from his chest . The more she pushed, the firmer he held her waist . His flirting increasingly disregarded time and place . It had been a long time since it deviated from the bedroom .
Hugo hugged her tighter as she kept twisting to try and escape then he grabbed her chin and kissed her lips . He looked into her eyes that were filled with surprise and smiled . He promptly invaded her small mouth with his tongue and swept through to the deep ends of her mouth . When he removed his lips, she was blushing to her neck and looking at him in a daze . She looked so cute that he descended for her tender lips again, sucking her upper and lower lip interchangeably .
Lucia was caught in his grasp and had given up halfway but when she found the door moving, she was startled and pushed him as hard as she could .
“Someone is here . ” (Lucia)
Hugo was annoyed and stared at the slightly open door .
“What is it?”
When Hugo raised his voice, the door opened cautiously and a servant hesitantly entered . The servant had asked for permission from outside several times but because there was no answer, he opened the door, poked his head inside and jumped back in surprise . If he was a servant of the Duke, he would have given up when there was no answer and gone away .
“His Majesty was concerned about the Duchess and sent an Imperial doctor . ” (1)
What a useless interruption . Hugo was annoyed at King's excessive thoughtfulness .
“It's fine . There is no need for an Imperial doctor . Tell His Majesty that I will be there soon . ” (Hugo)
The servant affirmed and withdrew while Lucia's maid came in with a pair of shoes . Hugo watched Lucia change her shoes with an objecting expression . He really wanted to go home . Was there any trick he could use to get out of here quickly? He thought really hard about it .
“Milady . Some elderly nobleman entrusted me with an item to give Milady . ”
The maid carefully watched Hugo's expression as she informed her Madam . Hugo knit his brows .
“Are you saying you're delivering something with an unknown identity? Do you do things like normally?” (Hugo)
The maid who was being criticized hunched her shoulders . She did consider that she might get scolded . However, the eyes of the elderly nobleman hanging onto a mere maid was so earnest that she couldn't disregard it .
“She isn't a careless child, I want to hear what happened . ” (Lucia)
Hugo asked the maid to bring the item she had to the table . The item that the maid took out from her inner pocket was a handkerchief . Hugo's expression was getting worse as he looked at the suspicious object which was a man's handkerchief .
“I was told to ask if Milady knew this by any chance . ”
The maid spread out the handkerchief and showed one side of it . Hugo picked up the handkerchief to check it . The seal of a noble family was stamped on the handkerchief . The head of an eagle .
Hugo couldn't remember any family with such seal . He made sure there was nothing suspicious with the handkerchief then he handed it to Lucia .
Seeing the seal, Lucia's eyes shook tremendously .
“This…a nobleman asked you to deliver it? Did he say anything else?”
“He said he is the Count of Baden . ” (2)
Chapter end
Report
|
Donate
Oh o, this user has not set a donation button.
|