Chapter 33: Be Careful When You Consummate
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 33: Be Careful When You Consummate
Watching the barely-smoked cigar burn away with the firewood, Herdin headed for the table with the water pitcher. His throat was dry.
Over the rim of his glass, he saw Blair sleeping peacefully. He was watching her in silence when it happened.
A dizzying sensation washed over him as a hazy vision unfolded before his eyes.
The bed in front of him was stained with crimson blood. Blair lay collapsed upon it, bleeding profusely from her back.
The sight made Herdin’s heart plummet, the blood draining from his face. The strength vanished from the hand holding his glass.
‘What…?’
In that instant, the vision shattered.
Where it had been, Blair lay sleeping just as she had moments before.
Herdin quickly tightened his grip on the glass he had almost dropped.
What was that?
Though the vision was gone, his heart still hammered in his chest, refusing to calm.
He strode over to the sleeping Blair and placed his index finger between her lips and nose. He felt the soft puff of her breath against his skin.
When he gently brushed his finger against her cheek, he felt its warmth. Perhaps sensing his touch, Blair’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Mmh…”
Only then did Herdin let out the breath he had been holding.
‘My mind must be in quite a state.’
First at the New Year's Festival, and now this. He couldn’t believe he was seeing things.
The vision had vanished, but the raw emotion he’d felt lingered like an afterimage, leaving him deeply unsettled.
Just as Herdin was about to withdraw his hand, Blair’s eyelids fluttered open. Her violet eyes, catching the sunlight filtering into the room, blinked slowly.
Her gaze gradually focused on him.
“…Herdin?”
The breath that escaped with her voice tickled his finger.
Staring down at her, he traced her lips with his index finger, then leaned down and captured them with his own.
The unsettling afterimage of the vision finally faded as he felt her lips tremble, heard her soft, whimpering groan, and tasted their hot, mingling breaths.
She was alive. Right here, in his arms.
* * *
“His Grace is still in the bedroom.”
Ruth, arriving at the Delmark Ducal Mansion right on time, received this news from Mason instead of a proper greeting.
Knowing exactly what those words implied, Ruth frowned slightly.
It had been ten days. Ten days since Herdin had begun spending his nights in Blair’s bedroom and staying there until morning.
To be precise, it had started right after Ruth had been unceremoniously dismissed from the office around lunchtime that day.
‘At the time, I was just glad to get some free time.’
As Ruth headed toward the drawing room, Mason asked, “Shall I bring some tea?”
“That would be great. The same as yesterday, please.”
Ruth settled into the drawing room and opened his personal notebook to review Herdin’s schedule and the key matters for the day. A few moments later, Mason returned with the tea and set it down before him.
“How about adjusting your arrival time for a while? They are newlyweds, after all.”
“It’s fine. My working hours are fixed. Besides, I’m sure he’ll get over it eventually.”
Ruth spoke nonchalantly, but inwardly, he was deeply uneasy about Herdin’s interest in Blair. It was unprecedented for his lord, who had never shown such interest in his entire life, to suddenly care so much for one woman.
Since heirs were scarce in the family, it should have been something to rejoice over, but the partner was the problem. Of all people, she had to be Katrina’s daughter.
While Ruth was lost in thought, his notebook open before him, Herdin suddenly appeared from behind, strolling over to sit opposite him. He wore a robe, looking as though he had just washed up.
‘He startled me.’
Usually, Herdin would summon him to the office after waking, so Ruth hadn’t expected him to come to the drawing room himself. Having spent years on the battlefield, Herdin was unintentionally skilled at concealing his presence, and Ruth was often startled whenever he appeared so suddenly.
Especially when, like just now, he had been thinking about the man.
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
Herdin merely nodded at Ruth’s greeting, crossing his long legs. A servant brought Herdin’s tea and a cigar, lit it for him, and quietly exited the drawing room.
Inhaling and exhaling the smoke, Herdin picked up one of the documents Ruth had brought.
“Is this the mana stone mine development project we discussed?”
“Yes. You just need to review and approve it by today. And I’ve compiled these as well, thinking it would be good to review them together.”
Ruth handed over a summary of proposals for related businesses and studied Herdin.
His well-toned physique was faintly visible through his loosely tied robe, his face mesmerizing. With a cigar between his lips, he looked sensual even to another man. Countless women would do anything just to exchange a single word with him, a fact that brought Ruth a great deal of pride.
His relationship with Blair should have been like all the others—one-sided adoration from the woman, met with his own indifference.
However, their relationship seemed to be deviating from that script. Since Herdin wasn’t one to share personal matters, Ruth couldn’t know the details, but he felt it instinctively. The thought filled him with unease. Perhaps this was why Herdin had dragged his feet when Ruth advised him to marry a suitable woman before an imperial decree forced his hand.
“Your Grace.”
Herdin looked up from the documents, his gaze a silent answer.
“I’m sure you’ll handle things well on your own… but just in case. Be careful when you consummate.”
At the mention of Blair, Herdin’s eyes turned ice-cold. It was the gaze of a predator watching an intruder interfere with its prey.
“Are you telling me to be on guard in case she hides a dagger and tries to stab me?”
“As if Your Grace would ever fall for such a clumsy attack. I mean, not that…” Ruth trailed off, clearing his throat before adding in a much lower voice, “Contraception. The Imperial Family might be waiting for her to give birth to a Delmark heir.”
The implication was clear: Ruth feared that once she bore a Delmark heir, the Imperial Family—her maternal family—would have Herdin killed and absorb the duchy’s power. That was why Ruth had suggested he father an illegitimate child before that could happen.
He held no personal grudge against Blair. Having met her, she seemed a different sort of person than her mother.
But blood is thicker than water.
As a loyal servant of Delmark, Ruth knew that her connection to the Imperial Family alone made her someone he could never trust. Though he knew fathering an illegitimate child was immoral and would tarnish the family’s prestige, Herdin’s safety was more important to Ruth than anything else.
The late Duchess, who had given him a second chance at life, would have wanted it that way.
Listening to Ruth, Herdin thought of Blair. He pictured the contraceptive pills always placed on the nightstand beside her bed.
She was a woman desperate to see their contract marriage through and leave his side. If anyone would be in trouble over a child, it would be her.
But Ruth didn't know the terms of their contract, so his concern was understandable.
Herdin swept back his damp hair and put out his cigar. “That won’t happen,” he declared firmly.
Things with Blair would end cleanly. If only for the sake of the lover she so desperately adored.
He just didn’t know why that thought left such a foul taste in his mouth.
* * *
Blair only managed to open her eyes around noon.
Ten days had passed since he’d held her in his office. For the past ten days, she had barely been able to leave her bedroom.
The clause in the contract stating “at most twice a month” had proven completely useless.
He interpreted the contract however he pleased.
‘Since only consummation is restricted, kissing shouldn’t matter, right?’
With that logic, he would kiss her all over, driving her body wild with desire, and then…
‘The contract says “if the other party desires,” but it doesn’t say anything about when both parties desire it, does it?’
After driving her to the point where she couldn’t help but want him, he would take her as if he’d been waiting for that exact moment.
Though Blair had protested at first, she eventually gave up.
Every night—sometimes starting as early as late afternoon when his work was done—she was at his mercy. She would fall asleep as if passing out, and even when she barely regained consciousness, she was still in his arms.
And then, once again, he would claim her…
He held her so relentlessly through the night that she’d reached the point where the absence of his warmth felt empty. Worn out by him all night, she could barely pull herself together during the day, long after he’d gone to work.
It felt as if he had drained every last bit of her energy.
‘How can a human have that much stamina?’
Come to think of it, it had been the same in her past life.
From the start of their marriage until the late spring when their relationship fell apart, Herdin hadn’t let her go. He had taken her like a beast every single night.
‘I thought even that was an act…’
Since this was a contract marriage, she assumed he wouldn’t bother spending his nights with an unwanted wife. However, the desire he showed for her body seemed entirely genuine.
She knew his interest would eventually cool, so there was no reason to fight him over it. She actually liked their current, mutually cooperative relationship. She was already on edge about the lack of progress in recovering her memories of the fire. Giving him something he wanted in another way made her feel a bit more at ease.
‘Since I’ve decided not to doubt him anymore, I should be able to move more freely now.’
Blair forced her aching body to sit up and pulled the bell pull.
She couldn’t just lie in bed all day. She had a lot to do.
She had to plan for her life after the divorce—and track down the intruder who had killed her.