“What is that? Is it a fried egg?”
The cursed mouth moved.
Madame Marcel almost jumped, but Hannah, who was standing next to her, held her back.
“My Lord, Lady. Then I will prepare the meal right away.”
Madame Marcel was dragged out into the hallway, and caught by Hannah, who gave her a good excuse to escape from the room.
“How long will the Duke be like that!”
She was furious. Kaian was a master at destroying in one fell swoop what he had spent time and money building up. As she had heard through rumors, the Duke of Temnes was such a hot guy.
"Ha."
Madam Marcel heard Hannah let out a long sigh next to her.
“But somehow it was resolved.”
“Is that so? What if Madame gets angry at me tomorrow?”
If this were to happen, then what did she do for praising Claudel so diligently?
Madam Marcel was at a loss as to how she would see Madam's face tomorrow.
“It’s something we all do to survive. I need to fill my stomach.”
“Madame Marcel is hungry too, right?”
“I see.”
She suddenly had a craving for sweets and felt hungry.
“Would you like to have dinner together?”
"Great."
It seemed that the resentment against Kaian would not subside unless they attacked the kitchen of Rowen Castle, where a skilled chef was holding out.
Madame Marcel disappeared toward the kitchen with Hannah.
It is true that the stitching marks are a little crooked.
So, it is true that there are places where the fabric is bulging.
Madame Marcel said that chalk marks can be erased by washing, so the blue line that I put some pressure on was drawn a little messily.
I never thought I would hear such things.
I froze in shock.
A small sock with a messy fried egg embroidery on top of the neatly gathered palm.
“...”
I was speechless and unable to say anything. Seeing me frozen, Kaian started laughing.
"Haha. Ha ha ha ha ha."
His smiling face was something I loved very much. It wasn't often that he laughed so loudly that his vocal cords vibrated, so it was an even more precious scene.
However, I felt like I didn't know what to do when the embroidery that I had painstakingly put together for over three hours, stitch by stitch, was insulted.
“This is not a fried egg.”
Kaian said as soon as I got angry and started crying.
“Margaret Flowers.”
“...”
“How did you make something like this?”
Kaian seemed happy and he picked up the small thing that was lying in my palm.
The moment he said 'fried eggs' with a cold face, the disappointment that seemed to explode disappeared and a smile appeared on my lips.
I relieved, clung to his arm.
“Did you recognize it?”
"Of course. It was made quite well.”
Kaian took me and sat me down in a chair.
“Actually, I have something to give you.”
Kaian cleared his throat sheepishly and took something out of his jacket pocket.
"Oh."
What he held out was a Margaret flower.
“I heard you like this flower.”
“Did you remember?”
It was a flower that bloomed widely under the patron tree of Rowen Castle.
Kaian criticized me for having unusual tastes. He asked if I liked the flowers I saw on the day I coughed up blood and collapsed.
It had a different meaning for me. It was the flower he picked for me on the first day I went to the shore of Garden Lake with Kaian. When I think of Kaian in sponsorship, I often think of Margaret Flowers as well.
But one day, there were fewer new flowers coming up, and flower begonias took their place.
The gardener said that even flowers fight for space.
So, different types of flowers bloom and fall alternately.
I was disappointed that the flowers were not blooming well, so I told this story to Kaian while taking a walk. I was very happy because I did not know that he would think this way.
“There were a lot of them in bloom at the entrance to the village I visited today.”
"Pretty."
“If you like that flower, I’ll take it with you next time.”
When I fell, I lost the first bouquet that Kaian gave me.
Just like back then, he brought me flowers he had picked roughly, wrapped in foxtails as if tying a string.
I loved the moment when he cared about me like this. Moreover, it felt meaningful and fateful that he was also making the same move at the time he picked the flower.
I inhaled the scent of flowers and felt a surge of joy.
“Did you come this early?”
“Because we couldn’t have lunch together. Did you eat properly?”
"Yes."
Kaian seemed to be frustrated with me because he couldn't feed me.
The Rowen estate was warm, so I didn't have to prepare for winter.
But I had many places to spend the winter, taking from the kingdom's granaries. In Valmonde, where roads were cut off when it snowed, what was dug up and smelted was converted into food and stored to be eaten throughout the winter.
Their job was to keep the food they had to eat safe from rotting and rats, and there was a reason why they were busy even in the estate where there was plenty of food to eat.
So, as a Lord, Kaian went to look around the estate or visit the port, but if he was away, he acted like a person who was worried that I might starve while he was away.
'I eat a lot because of morning sickness.'
The baby in my stomach wasn't even showing signs of growth yet, but I was constantly eating snacks between meals and eating sweet tea with dessert in the afternoon, so I didn't feel like I was going to vomit, but I was worried because I felt like I was gaining weight.
“I’m eating well.”
"Where? I’ll have to check.”
Kaian put his arms under his hips and lifted me up.
“No problem. I guess I’ll have to eat some more.”
My eyes met his red ones. I looked down at his fine black hair from above and stroked his hair that had become disheveled from riding a horse.
Kaian closed his eyes for a moment as I softly kissed his smooth forehead.
Thump thump.
Claudel looked at his handsome lips.
Usually at times like this, he would naturally overlap his lips with mine, hug each other, and share a heartbreaking goodbye.
Kaian opened his eyes and he carefully set me down.
I became dissatisfied and tightened my hand holding the flower.
“Kiss me.”
"Alright."
Kaian bowed his head and went lightly.
“I skipped lunch to come back early, so I’m hungry.”
I was a little disappointed that he behaved so plainly, but I asked back when Kaian said that he had not eaten lunch.
“You should have eaten something simple. You missed lunch.”
Then there was a knock on the door, and Madame Marcel's voice was heard outside the door.
"Lady. Can I come inside for a moment?”
“What’s going on?”
“I left my tape measure behind.”
On the table was the tape measure and needle bag that Madame Marcel had left behind.
It seemed like she had left something untied while giving me a needle and threading it to make it easier for me to use.
When I looked at Kaian to ask for his understanding, he nodded.
“You can come in.”
Madame Marcel quickly gathered her things.
It was then that I felt strange.
Madame Marcel's gaze lingered on Kaian's face for a moment.
And Kaian also did not avoid Madame Marcel, and for a moment it seemed as if the two made eye contact.
It was such a brief moment that I wondered if I had seen it wrong.
“Then let’s go back.”
When Madame Marcel opened the door, the butler was just bringing in meals from the castle kitchen.
“What’s on the menu for dinner?”
When the man said he was hungry, the butler quickly put down some dishes and answered the question.
'Strange.'
Something didn't feel very right.
I shook my head to shake off my ominous premonition.
Moments that marked a big milestone in my life sometimes came suddenly.
Conceiving a child was like that for me.
It wasn't the first such moment in his life.
Leaving my parents, getting sick with herzol, marrying into an enemy family in exchange for food and my life, and meeting a man named Kaian were all unexpected and sudden.
It was a huge event that would completely change my life in one go.
There were also opposite cases.
Aren't there times when something very small gnaws at my nerves little by little and becomes annoying?
It is only after time passes that you come to an unpleasant realization, thinking, ‘That’s why it happened.’
'Also.'
My eyes met Madame Marcel's, who was staring at me.
When I asked her about it in a secret way, Madame Marcel said, 'I did it because I was thinking about what would suit you.'
Of course, it may have been an excuse that seemed reasonable, but it wasn't what I thought.
This is because, after being close to her for over two months, I have not often met her eyes in this way.
If I pretended not to see, pretended not to notice, Madame Marcel would look at me intently.
'Why?'
Why is she acting so unnaturally?
Then I finally saw it.
The sight of Madame Marcel and Kaian making eye contact.
I am pregnant, but Kaian doesn't know it.
The fact that Kaian was an energetic man who enjoyed nightlife was widely known as far away as Valmonde. The woman who comes into his bedroom changes every day.
However, even though he did not accept my feelings, he was faithful to the role of a loyal husband to the Duchess on the outside.
At the beginning of my marriage, I was uninterested in him because I was suffering from herzol and treating my leg that was injured by a crocodile, but at least after I asked him to come to my bedroom because of my insomnia, he came to me every day, and he was not interested in another woman. It was clear that we did not share a bedroom.
As they came and went, Hannah and Madame Marcel often ran into Kaian with me, but it was the first time that I felt like they were exchanging glances as they were these days.
We dined together several times when we went to the capital, and I never for a moment suspected that Madame Marcel and my husband were exchanging inappropriate glances.
'Is it because I'm sensitive?'
The doctor said that my anxious and depressed mood would improve once I reached the stabilization phase after the early stages of pregnancy.
I thought that if I continued to worry about everything like this, I might become a woman suffering from hypocrisy. I suddenly felt sorry for myself.
“Shall we at least go to the study?”
Today Hannah had gone to the telegraph office to run her errand. For it was time for me to send my courtesy greetings to the Duke of Vermont.
Although I had never set foot on the third floor before, I had a general idea of the layout of the house. As soon as I climb the stairs, the large door in the center is the family's study space.
“Wow. This place is just as good as Castle Valmonde.”
Since it was originally Oberon's first royal castle, it was a huge building close to the royal library. In the meantime, I had been re-reading the books I had brought from Valmonde, so the thought of reading a new book for the first time in a while made me motivated.
I had just entered the study and was about to close the door when I heard laughter coming from the hallway.
“I heard you’re right. I saw Madame Marcel coming out of Lord's office late at night.”
Madame Marcel almost jumped, but Hannah, who was standing next to her, held her back.
“My Lord, Lady. Then I will prepare the meal right away.”
Madame Marcel was dragged out into the hallway, and caught by Hannah, who gave her a good excuse to escape from the room.
“How long will the Duke be like that!”
She was furious. Kaian was a master at destroying in one fell swoop what he had spent time and money building up. As she had heard through rumors, the Duke of Temnes was such a hot guy.
"Ha."
Madam Marcel heard Hannah let out a long sigh next to her.
“But somehow it was resolved.”
“Is that so? What if Madame gets angry at me tomorrow?”
If this were to happen, then what did she do for praising Claudel so diligently?
Madam Marcel was at a loss as to how she would see Madam's face tomorrow.
“It’s something we all do to survive. I need to fill my stomach.”
“Madame Marcel is hungry too, right?”
“I see.”
She suddenly had a craving for sweets and felt hungry.
“Would you like to have dinner together?”
"Great."
It seemed that the resentment against Kaian would not subside unless they attacked the kitchen of Rowen Castle, where a skilled chef was holding out.
Madame Marcel disappeared toward the kitchen with Hannah.
***
It is true that the stitching marks are a little crooked.
So, it is true that there are places where the fabric is bulging.
Madame Marcel said that chalk marks can be erased by washing, so the blue line that I put some pressure on was drawn a little messily.
I never thought I would hear such things.
I froze in shock.
A small sock with a messy fried egg embroidery on top of the neatly gathered palm.
“...”
I was speechless and unable to say anything. Seeing me frozen, Kaian started laughing.
"Haha. Ha ha ha ha ha."
His smiling face was something I loved very much. It wasn't often that he laughed so loudly that his vocal cords vibrated, so it was an even more precious scene.
However, I felt like I didn't know what to do when the embroidery that I had painstakingly put together for over three hours, stitch by stitch, was insulted.
“This is not a fried egg.”
Kaian said as soon as I got angry and started crying.
“Margaret Flowers.”
“...”
“How did you make something like this?”
Kaian seemed happy and he picked up the small thing that was lying in my palm.
The moment he said 'fried eggs' with a cold face, the disappointment that seemed to explode disappeared and a smile appeared on my lips.
I relieved, clung to his arm.
“Did you recognize it?”
"Of course. It was made quite well.”
Kaian took me and sat me down in a chair.
“Actually, I have something to give you.”
Kaian cleared his throat sheepishly and took something out of his jacket pocket.
"Oh."
What he held out was a Margaret flower.
“I heard you like this flower.”
“Did you remember?”
It was a flower that bloomed widely under the patron tree of Rowen Castle.
Kaian criticized me for having unusual tastes. He asked if I liked the flowers I saw on the day I coughed up blood and collapsed.
It had a different meaning for me. It was the flower he picked for me on the first day I went to the shore of Garden Lake with Kaian. When I think of Kaian in sponsorship, I often think of Margaret Flowers as well.
But one day, there were fewer new flowers coming up, and flower begonias took their place.
The gardener said that even flowers fight for space.
So, different types of flowers bloom and fall alternately.
I was disappointed that the flowers were not blooming well, so I told this story to Kaian while taking a walk. I was very happy because I did not know that he would think this way.
“There were a lot of them in bloom at the entrance to the village I visited today.”
"Pretty."
“If you like that flower, I’ll take it with you next time.”
When I fell, I lost the first bouquet that Kaian gave me.
Just like back then, he brought me flowers he had picked roughly, wrapped in foxtails as if tying a string.
I loved the moment when he cared about me like this. Moreover, it felt meaningful and fateful that he was also making the same move at the time he picked the flower.
I inhaled the scent of flowers and felt a surge of joy.
“Did you come this early?”
“Because we couldn’t have lunch together. Did you eat properly?”
"Yes."
Kaian seemed to be frustrated with me because he couldn't feed me.
The Rowen estate was warm, so I didn't have to prepare for winter.
But I had many places to spend the winter, taking from the kingdom's granaries. In Valmonde, where roads were cut off when it snowed, what was dug up and smelted was converted into food and stored to be eaten throughout the winter.
Their job was to keep the food they had to eat safe from rotting and rats, and there was a reason why they were busy even in the estate where there was plenty of food to eat.
So, as a Lord, Kaian went to look around the estate or visit the port, but if he was away, he acted like a person who was worried that I might starve while he was away.
'I eat a lot because of morning sickness.'
The baby in my stomach wasn't even showing signs of growth yet, but I was constantly eating snacks between meals and eating sweet tea with dessert in the afternoon, so I didn't feel like I was going to vomit, but I was worried because I felt like I was gaining weight.
“I’m eating well.”
"Where? I’ll have to check.”
Kaian put his arms under his hips and lifted me up.
“No problem. I guess I’ll have to eat some more.”
My eyes met his red ones. I looked down at his fine black hair from above and stroked his hair that had become disheveled from riding a horse.
Kaian closed his eyes for a moment as I softly kissed his smooth forehead.
Thump thump.
Claudel looked at his handsome lips.
Usually at times like this, he would naturally overlap his lips with mine, hug each other, and share a heartbreaking goodbye.
Kaian opened his eyes and he carefully set me down.
I became dissatisfied and tightened my hand holding the flower.
“Kiss me.”
"Alright."
Kaian bowed his head and went lightly.
“I skipped lunch to come back early, so I’m hungry.”
I was a little disappointed that he behaved so plainly, but I asked back when Kaian said that he had not eaten lunch.
“You should have eaten something simple. You missed lunch.”
Then there was a knock on the door, and Madame Marcel's voice was heard outside the door.
"Lady. Can I come inside for a moment?”
“What’s going on?”
“I left my tape measure behind.”
On the table was the tape measure and needle bag that Madame Marcel had left behind.
It seemed like she had left something untied while giving me a needle and threading it to make it easier for me to use.
When I looked at Kaian to ask for his understanding, he nodded.
“You can come in.”
Madame Marcel quickly gathered her things.
It was then that I felt strange.
Madame Marcel's gaze lingered on Kaian's face for a moment.
And Kaian also did not avoid Madame Marcel, and for a moment it seemed as if the two made eye contact.
It was such a brief moment that I wondered if I had seen it wrong.
“Then let’s go back.”
When Madame Marcel opened the door, the butler was just bringing in meals from the castle kitchen.
“What’s on the menu for dinner?”
When the man said he was hungry, the butler quickly put down some dishes and answered the question.
'Strange.'
Something didn't feel very right.
I shook my head to shake off my ominous premonition.
***
Moments that marked a big milestone in my life sometimes came suddenly.
Conceiving a child was like that for me.
It wasn't the first such moment in his life.
Leaving my parents, getting sick with herzol, marrying into an enemy family in exchange for food and my life, and meeting a man named Kaian were all unexpected and sudden.
It was a huge event that would completely change my life in one go.
There were also opposite cases.
Aren't there times when something very small gnaws at my nerves little by little and becomes annoying?
It is only after time passes that you come to an unpleasant realization, thinking, ‘That’s why it happened.’
'Also.'
My eyes met Madame Marcel's, who was staring at me.
When I asked her about it in a secret way, Madame Marcel said, 'I did it because I was thinking about what would suit you.'
Of course, it may have been an excuse that seemed reasonable, but it wasn't what I thought.
This is because, after being close to her for over two months, I have not often met her eyes in this way.
If I pretended not to see, pretended not to notice, Madame Marcel would look at me intently.
'Why?'
Why is she acting so unnaturally?
Then I finally saw it.
The sight of Madame Marcel and Kaian making eye contact.
I am pregnant, but Kaian doesn't know it.
The fact that Kaian was an energetic man who enjoyed nightlife was widely known as far away as Valmonde. The woman who comes into his bedroom changes every day.
However, even though he did not accept my feelings, he was faithful to the role of a loyal husband to the Duchess on the outside.
At the beginning of my marriage, I was uninterested in him because I was suffering from herzol and treating my leg that was injured by a crocodile, but at least after I asked him to come to my bedroom because of my insomnia, he came to me every day, and he was not interested in another woman. It was clear that we did not share a bedroom.
As they came and went, Hannah and Madame Marcel often ran into Kaian with me, but it was the first time that I felt like they were exchanging glances as they were these days.
We dined together several times when we went to the capital, and I never for a moment suspected that Madame Marcel and my husband were exchanging inappropriate glances.
'Is it because I'm sensitive?'
The doctor said that my anxious and depressed mood would improve once I reached the stabilization phase after the early stages of pregnancy.
I thought that if I continued to worry about everything like this, I might become a woman suffering from hypocrisy. I suddenly felt sorry for myself.
“Shall we at least go to the study?”
Today Hannah had gone to the telegraph office to run her errand. For it was time for me to send my courtesy greetings to the Duke of Vermont.
Although I had never set foot on the third floor before, I had a general idea of the layout of the house. As soon as I climb the stairs, the large door in the center is the family's study space.
“Wow. This place is just as good as Castle Valmonde.”
Since it was originally Oberon's first royal castle, it was a huge building close to the royal library. In the meantime, I had been re-reading the books I had brought from Valmonde, so the thought of reading a new book for the first time in a while made me motivated.
I had just entered the study and was about to close the door when I heard laughter coming from the hallway.
“I heard you’re right. I saw Madame Marcel coming out of Lord's office late at night.”
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