RAMHM Chapter 15

Strip

"Please wait here just a moment, Countess Acacia."

Butler Gaspar shot me a meaningful glance, then closed the drawing room door and disappeared. I forced out the breath that had lodged in my throat. With trembling legs, I made my way to Adrienne's bedroom connected to the drawing room. I remembered clearly—the jewelry from my family home in the nightstand drawer beside the bed. My late mother's keepsakes too.

I have to take at least those.

If Novian was going to give me something to remember Adrienne by, as host, it should have been those. The jewelry I'd brought from my family. I ground my teeth, furious at him for deceiving me. Having come this far, the thought possessed me—I had to leave with something, anything that could help me.

The bedroom remained exactly as it had been when I'd always lain there. Not a speck of dust suggested it had been swept, cleaned, and maintained daily. With shaking hands, I opened the nightstand drawer.

"...Where did they go?"

Several were missing. Obviously the maids' doing. Only a few eye-catching pieces remained—the gold rings and bracelets all gone. And of course, the pendant necklace with Mother's portrait.

For now, I swept everything left into the pouch hidden in my dress. The small purse that had held a few silver coins as emergency funds quickly filled with the expensive jewelry Novian and my brother Gregory had given me. They were rightfully mine, yet my heart pounded as if I were stealing someone else's property.

With steps as quick as my heartbeat, I returned to the drawing room. Just then, Novian entered with Gaspar, who'd brought a black shawl.

I snatched up one of the fans lying on the table and fluttered it vigorously, trying to dispel the heat. It had been so long since I'd moved like this—even with my body sound, I felt somehow exhausted.

"Gaspar."

"Yes, Your Grace."

"Go out and continue receiving the guests."

"Pardon? Ah, yes!"

Gaspar withdrew quietly with a knowing smile, closing the drawing room door.

"......"

Silence flooded the drawing room instantly. Novian walked toward me slowly, carrying the shawl he'd received from Gaspar.

"Here."

He stopped before me, spreading the shawl as if to drape it over my shoulders. I set down the fan and rose slowly, turning my back to him. Time crawled unbearably. Alone together in the drawing room, memories surfaced—that brief happiness during our newlywed days. Novian was such a tender man, to both Adrienne and Bliea. Even draping a shawl like this himself. A sad, bitter laugh circled inside my mouth.

"...Bliea."

Then he pulled me into his arms from behind. Hot breath touched my neck. My heart raced madly, tears threatening, while my body went rigid.

"Bliea, Bliea..."

Had he ever called Adrienne's name so passionately? Always low and gentle, never this heated.

"Why—why did you?"

Oh no. Without thinking, I'd let slip the words burning my mouth. Novian's arms tightened around me. I trembled finely, scrambling to recover from what I'd already said.

"Why tell me it was a birthday party...? And this dress, why—"

"...Today really is my wife's birthday."

My wife.

Novian still called Adrienne that.

"But you said memorial gathering in the hall, like that..."

"If I announced a birthday party, everyone would call me mad."

So let's have Adrienne's birthday party just the two of us, Novian whispered. A dead wife's birthday party held secretly with his hidden mistress. What tearful love! Should I be pleased? Enraged?

"So take off this mourning-like thing, Bliea."

"W-wait!"

Novian snatched away the black shawl he'd just draped and spun me around lightly. Burning blue eyes locked onto mine. Eyes I'd definitely seen through Adrienne's vision too. Eyes that truly desired someone. His beautiful eyes. His hands naturally gripped both my shoulders, subtly pushing down the straps of my dress. The heavy pouch hidden in my bodice flashed through my mind.

"No, no, you can't!"

"......"

Novian's face took on a deeply patient expression as he gripped my shoulders tighter. His look said he would at least hear what excuse I had. My shoulders grew damply hot under his hands. My mind went blank, searching for words—then I remembered the maids standing outside the drawing room. I opened my mouth to him, waiting persistently for an answer.

"...I want to see the Grand Duchess's bedroom."

I said it clearly, without trembling, that I wanted to see the place I'd just visited. Novian's face hardened visibly.

"Won't the Grand Duchess's bedroom soon be mine?"

Novian's face went pale, just for an instant. I'd succeeded somewhat in redirecting his attention.

"If I'm to share love with you, I want to do it there."

Such audacious words—I couldn't believe they'd come from my own head. Yes, by this point I was hoping Novian would slap me across the face. Why? As I thought about the defiant words I'd thrown out, I realized—this was another chance I kept giving Novian.

A soundless, bitter laugh escaped. I felt pathetic, desperate to hurt myself, like something broken.

After mulling it over, Novian grabbed my arm and pulled. He opened the bedroom door and walked slowly to stand in its center. No words to enter, no words to look around. I left him standing there dazed and went to the nightstand where I'd taken the jewelry. Then I plopped down on the bed. Novian only turned his head to stare at me.

"May I open the drawer?"

"......"

He gazed at me sitting on the bed for a long moment before nodding slowly. I bit down hard inside my mouth and reached for the nightstand drawer I'd already opened once. Novian's gaze burned. At this moment...perhaps Bliea would say something like this?

"Noble ladies keep their most precious jewelry at their bedside, I've heard—but not her, it seems. I only wanted to have a look."

Because Bliea loved showy things. So. I snapped the drawer I'd already emptied shut and said that. Novian's brow furrowed deeply before he strode over with those long legs and yanked the drawer open roughly.

"GASPAR!!"

His shockingly angry voice rang through the room.

Gaspar, as if struck by lightning from a clear sky, gathered the servants while trying not to let the guests notice.

"What on earth is going on?"

"That woman came, they say?"

"That woman?"

"You know, the woman they say is His Grace's hidden lover."

"His Grace has a lover? A mistress? Impossible!"

"Didn't you hear from the butler?"

All servants except the maids receiving guests were summoned to the Grand Duchess's bedroom. At first bewildered about what was happening, they pressed their heads to the floor, overwhelmed by Grand Duke Novian's blazing eyes. Whatever this was, one wrong word seemed likely to get them dismissed at minimum.

The person least wanting dismissal from this estate was undoubtedly Annie, the maid who'd attended the dead Grand Duchess's final moments. The Grand Duchess who'd known nothing of her good fortune, who'd only whined despite receiving the Empire's finest match—she'd finally died.

Grand Duke Novian, beautiful as a sculpture she'd admired ceaselessly, had finally begun staying at the estate. Methods to seduce him abounded. He drank enough each night that empty liquor bottles filled the office walls like fallen leaves. Dye her hair gold like the Grand Duchess's and seduce him—wouldn't he fall for that? She'd been calculating. She knew best that they'd been a couple who'd never even shared their wedding night.

And among the servants, hadn't rumors circulated that the upright Grand Duke Novian had a lover? Natural for a young, beautiful Grand Duke not to want to embrace a diseased body. Thinking this, she'd tried to show herself as fresh as possible. Until she saw the woman sitting on Adrienne's bed.

"Y-Your Grace?"

"Watch your mouth."

Gaspar whispered from behind. But Annie couldn't tear her eyes from the woman looking at them lined up in a row. Others might not know, but she recognized her immediately. How could she forget those pale green eyes? She'd seen the Grand Duchess Adrienne's dying gaze right beside her.

"I came straight here without stopping anywhere, Your Grace!"

As Gaspar called out, Grand Duke Novian standing beside the black-haired woman strode toward them. Annie and all the servants trembled. Their master was beautiful but merciless.

"Vermin got into the Grand Duchess's bedroom."

The servants who didn't dare even whisper gasped sharply. Those with guilty consciences felt their knees weaken; those without were appalled. Who would dare invade the dead Grand Duchess's bedroom?

"Someone dared touch my wife's jewelry."

Annie felt her body freezing solid. But she quickly tried to compose herself. She'd stolen discreetly, left all the eye-catching colored gems. Just a few gold pieces, and that worn pendant necklace Adrienne had treasured so... Except for that one necklace, everything was hidden under her bed.

Annie exchanged glances with the maids who'd stolen with her. A signal to keep their mouths shut. But their eye contact was immediately severed.

"The servants' bedrooms have already been searched."

"They could have hidden them on their bodies, couldn't they?"

At Gaspar's report, an unfamiliar noblewoman's voice suddenly interjected. Novian, who'd been scanning the servants, seemed to prick up his ears.

"...Strip."

In the silent Grand Duchess's bedroom, Novian commanded in a resolute voice.

"Pardon?"

Even the head cook had been dragged here, and he asked back. Without even glancing at him, Novian barked again.

"Everyone strip to prove your innocence."

Behind the Grand Duke as he spoke, the beautiful noblewoman's pale green eyes gleamed as she watched them.