Chapter 51

 Clementina put her finger to her lips. The maid closed her mouth but clenched her fist as if overflowing with anger. Clementina looked again at the woman standing on the platform. How could she be so beautiful? Just like a deer at dawn. A white doe playing when the dawn light lifts the night fog and illuminates the forest…… Even the sunlight and stone railings seemed to worship this woman’s beauty. It was extreme beauty. If a person could be extremely beautiful, it would surely be as moving as this…… Even the summer sunlight’s blossoms and the hummingbirds among those blossoms would bow their heads to this unbelievable beauty.

 “Miss!”

 “Shh! Bella! Watch your mouth. Don’t you know how the queen’s wet nurse died?”

 “That……”

 “It was a notorious scandal in the royal palace, wasn’t it?”

 Clementina turned her head with regretful eyes. As the ceremony ended, the doors of the chapel opened. As the gathered people began to leave, she turned her back as well. She wanted to look at the woman to her heart’s content, but that could be done later anyway. She grabbed the arm of her indiscreet maid and hurriedly left the chapel.

 “They say she was skinned alive.”

 “Oh my!”

 The maid covered her mouth. Clementina glanced at the maid who was trembling at the cruelty and sighed. Being stuck on an island, there were many times she couldn’t discern what was true, what was exaggerated, or what was only factual information.

 But she thought that whatever was heard as a rumor wasn’t completely fabricated. The duke’s servant girl was a case in point. Clementina couldn’t imagine that such a beautiful woman existed in the world. She had seen her fair share of pretty women. Clementina was not a country bumpkin who was stuck on an island all the time and didn’t know the capital’s trends.

 She was also familiar with the dressmakers frequented by prominent noble ladies. Because the islands were wealthy, she was quite sensitive to the capital’s trends and had a pride that wouldn’t yield to any other lady. However, however, this was the first time she had seen someone who looked like that. Really, really, there was such a pretty woman in the world. She got goosebumps. She was like an enchanted beauty from ancient minstrels’ songs or legends. Like those absurd tales where dragons or warriors set out to rescue a princess from a cursed castle…… But the woman before her eyes was by no means an absurd existence.

 “I-I’m sure they didn’t go that far.”

 Bella shook her head. Clementina glanced at the woman’s face, which had turned pale with shock, and parted her lips.

 “No. Father said so. Anyway, her skin was half peeled off.”

 “What? Really?”

 “Of course she died from shock. But half was peeled off, they say.”

 Bella stopped walking. Clementina stared at the woman who was trembling with a pale face, then patted her back. Bella looked as if she was about to burst into tears.

 “D-did the duke not hear? What I said about his servant girl……”

 “Well. Whatever the case, if you don’t want your skin peeled off, you should also watch your mouth.”

 After saying that, Clementina dragged the now stiffened maid’s arm and left the chapel. She would be able to see the duke in the evening. Of course, she couldn’t ask him directly if he had killed the queen’s wet nurse like that. But she could confirm what kind of man he was at that place.

 Clementina believed her father’s words. Her father, Count Mertel, was not a man who spoke falsehoods. As someone most sensitive to changes happening in the center, when he pushed his only daughter into the dragon’s mouth, he would have selected only the truth.

 “Miss……”

 Bella shook Clementina, who was lost in thought. The duke and his beautiful servant girl were standing in front of them, who had already made their way into the corridor. They also had stiff expressions at this unexpected meeting, as if they had been moving.

 “Your Highness.”

 Clementina stopped at a certain distance. The duke who discovered her showed no expression. She had heard he was that kind of person, but actually meeting him up close made her feel embarrassed just by the encounter. Did her father want her to marry such a person? Did he want her to sleep with such a person, bear a child, and hope that the effective control of the islands would return to that child? Clementina understood her father. Although many things in the capital might be wonderful, she too was ultimately a person of the island.

 She wished for the Grimaldi Islands to escape Durac’s rule and for her family to be reborn as the true masters of the island. For that, she needed to conceive the duke’s seed. Her father had said that the duke would also want to marry her.

 It was, so to speak, a case of different dreams in the same bed. Durac wanted a more certain subjugation by taking a duchess as hostage, and Mertel wanted to make the child born from that marriage a Mertel person to gain recognition of the island’s governance. In any case, the duke’s succession would go to the child that was born. Mertel wasn’t too greedy. The duke’s seal could go to the child born from the woman the Duke of Durac loved. If only the control of the islands would be given to the child born from the marriage, as had been the custom…… Could that child not become the fuse for independence?

 “I congratulate you on the young lord’s celebration day.”

 Clementina greeted him politely. She bent her right knee slightly and lifted the hem of her bell-shaped violet dress slightly, looking as elegant as any noble lady in the court. The duke gestured. It was an attitude beyond indifference, lacking sincerity, but Clementina straightened her knee and smiled brightly.

 Suddenly, the duke’s servant girl was staring blankly at her. Clementina gave her a gentle look in return. Suddenly, the woman bent her knee deeper than Clementina, greeting her in a lower posture. The duke frowned at this unsolicited action. The summer sunlight flickered over the head of the woman wearing pearl-colored ceremonial clothes. Clementina looked at her with entranced eyes. Her long eyelashes were elegant like a saint in a sacred painting drawn by a skilled painter’s brush.

 “P-please rise. I……”

 “Thank you, Lady. I heard you came all the way from far away to wish blessings for my baby.”

 The woman pulled the corners of her mouth. It was a pale smile. With her hands folded on her chest and her cheeks flushing, she looked as radiant as a pure virgin chosen by the Holy Spirit. Clementina moved her lips with difficulty and looked at the duke.

 The man had been glaring at her since who knows when. His twisted face looked fierce. His originally sharp features became so crushed that it took her breath away. Clementina swallowed dry saliva to avoid showing her fear.

 “Let’s go, Ella.”

 The duke coldly commanded. The woman didn’t reply but glanced at the man standing beside her and just looked at Clementina again. Her face showed no fear at all. As if all days were like this, unconcerned…… The woman gave a slight bow and turned her back. The duke roughly grabbed her wrist and pulled her. His sharp eyes touched Clementina briefly as if looking at something displeasing, then fell away.

 *** 

 As the sunset rose over the low ridge, the lights for the banquet for the diocese’s priests and visitors were lit. Clementina, who had been assigned a bedroom in the west wing, changed into a banquet dress with the help of her maids and took a fan.

 The banquet hall had a bright and deep atmosphere with yellow lights. Unlike in the chapel, the attending ladies had thrown off their modest-colored dresses and were waiting for the duke, all dressed up in colorful dresses. Shoulders half-exposed with hair flowing down, flowers and jewels densely woven between braided hair. It was true that the capital’s dressmakers had done their best for today. Clementina took careful steps.

 She wasn’t curious about these women. Whatever dresses they wore or whatever ornaments they put on, they were all predictable. Besides, Clementina was no less up-to-date with the capital’s trends. There was no need to feel intimidated. The only thing she was curious about was the duke’s woman.

 Given her status, it was said that she had rarely appeared at official occasions, but today was the young lord’s celebration day. As the young heir’s mother, wouldn’t she make at least a brief appearance? Clementina imagined the woman who would be brighter than the sun and more profound than moonlight. She was a peerless beauty so unforgettable even after seeing her just once. If she threw off the ceremonial clothes prescribed by the diocese and dressed up to the fullest, she would be so enchanting that even angels would roll around holding their bellies.

 Clementina held her excited heart and rolled her eyes around. Soon, the sound of trumpets was heard, and the duke appeared at the top of the stairs wearing a dark blue tailcoat. The handsome man, no different from the daytime, was dressed more splendidly than during the day. The imposing seal and the red banquet cape covering his shoulders were elegant. He received champagne from a servant. His gaze sweeping across the audience showed no distinct emotion.

 Tasteless and useless…… It was unimaginable that this man could pull the corners of his mouth to smile. Thus, he was more frightening than the king she had seen once. She felt like suffocating from his oppressive attitude underlying emotions that were impossible to read. How could anyone live with this man, flesh to flesh? Just entangling gazes made it hard to breathe…… Soon, a short speech flowed from his mouth. It was an ordinary greeting expressing deep gratitude to the blood relatives, vassals, and priests of the diocese who had come from far away for the heir’s celebration day.