Chapter 34

 The year of her marriage to the Marquis had passed. Henrietta had not even shared a bed with the Marquis, let alone conceived his seed. As long as the woman in front of her existed, she might never be able to reach him. Everything in the castle existed for the Marquis’s bedchamber maid. There was not even the smallest thing that existed for her. Her mother from her maiden home had said that the legal wife of the Marquis was a more honorable and noble position than a girl who served the Marquis’s bedchamber, but Henrietta did not want to be satisfied with just that position with its empty title.

 She hid her rising anger and looked at Marie.

 “I heard your due date is not far off, is it okay for you to be out here?”

 “Th-there’s still some time left……”

 “I heard you were too sick to fulfill your duties as a maid, but I guess that’s not the case.”

 Henrietta laughed. Marie’s cheeks turned red, and she lowered her head. Then she quickly shook her head.

 “Your glass is empty, would you like me to bring you more drink?”

 Marie asked. Henrietta didn’t answer. She turned her gaze away from the empty glass. Marie hurriedly picked up the glass and headed to the makeshift kitchen.

 “Marie!”

 “Ella.”

 “Where are you going?”

 “I think the lady is thirsty, so I’m going to bring something.”

 Marie stopped walking. She immediately put her hand on her waist as if it hurt. Ella’s eyebrows crumpled terribly.

 “Give it here. If it’s serving, I’ll do it.”

 “It’s okay. I can do this much.”

 “Your face is pale.”

 Ella bit her lips. Her friend had suffered a miscarriage with her second child and had been bedridden throughout. Though the unstable period had passed, looking at her haggard face, it didn’t seem stable. Ella snatched the glass from Marie.

 “If it’s for the Marquis’s wife, I’ll explain. So go back inside.”

 “Ella. Really, I’m fine. Give it back.”

 Marie’s eyes quickly heated up. Ella had no choice but to return the glass. But she couldn’t just let her go, so she followed her along the path. To reach the makeshift kitchen, they had to pass through a sloped path. It was incomprehensible enough that they had brought a pregnant woman with a belly as big as a mountain outside, but it was even more incomprehensible to make such a pregnant woman go up and down a sloped path.

 They said when coming to the hunting grounds, the Marquis had brought her without getting a speck of dirt on her feet, as if moving a jar of precious items, but how…… However, Ella kept her mouth shut. It wouldn’t be easy to go up and down a mountain path carrying something, let alone just walking. The premonition wasn’t good. Ella felt tense watching her friend move with sluggish steps.

 *** 

 “Aren’t you the servant girl of His Highness the Duke?”

 The Marquis’s wife had a fastidious temperament. Though expected, Ella couldn’t help but be flustered, having never directly heard complaints from a master. It was a funny thing to say, but for Ella, there was only one master. And that master was a common man who was dying for Ella. Therefore, she could have all of the Duke with just a faint smile at the corner of her lips. For Ella, San Parvale was such a world.

 She would be like a flower in a greenhouse. Since childhood, she had lived hearing people say she was foolish because she was spoiled by luxury. In fact, she was no different from the Duke’s jewel inside San Parvale, so it wasn’t strange at all.

 “Why are you doing what the Marquis’s servant girl should do?”

 The absence of a mistress in the castle meant she wasn’t familiar with such matters. The sharp energy in her two eyes pierced Ella deeply. How should she react when a master openly showed fastidiousness? Ella tried her best to smile.

 “Why are you smiling? Am I funny?”

 “That’s not it……”

“So?”

 The woman asked back. Ella withdrew her smile and looked at the Marquis’s wife. Her dark-skinned face was framed by a bundle of curly black hair pinned up. Her long eyelashes added elegance, while her darker eyebrows and straight nose bridge gave a prim and haughty impression. At the question of whether she found her funny, Ella stiffened completely and stared at the woman. Marie put the tray down on the table and took the tray Ella was holding.

 “I’m sorry, madam. Ella was just thinking of me, so please don’t be angry.”

 Marie stopped sobbing and bowed her head. Instead of getting angry at Marie’s words, the woman smiled a little. Ella folded her hands neatly. However, it was difficult to create the same gentle expression as before. The gazes gathered in the noble ladies’ tent were directed at her. Ella carefully opened her mouth instead of bowing her head.

 “I wasn’t laughing at you, madam. I wanted to help Marie, who is pregnant, because it’s difficult for her to go up and down the sloped mountain path. I thought it might be more beneficial for you if there was one more hand to serve you.”

 “I never asked you to serve me.”

 The Marquis’s wife, who had been smiling slightly, became serious. The queen’s gaze fell on Ella. Her amber eyes, which had been sparkling with interest, were now hardened with displeasure. It was the look of someone glaring at a slave trying to climb above their master. Ella suppressed the rising anger inside her and opened her mouth.

 “I apologize. Don’t forgive this ignorant girl who couldn’t understand your intentions, madam.”

 She raised her head. The Marquis’s wife’s brown eyes glittered fiercely. Ella spat out her pursed lips and stared directly into those eyes. The woman’s eyes blazed even more fiercely in response. In contrast, Ella remained calm.

 “I hope you would send Marie back to the tent.”

 “I will serve the lady.”

 “Ella……”

 Marie, standing beside her, looked at her with anxious eyes. The woman’s eyes briefly scanned Marie. Her gaze rested on Marie’s swollen belly. The woman unfolded the fan she held in one hand and fluttered it slowly.

 “No.”

 “I won’t entrust my service to you.”

 “……”

 “Are you dissatisfied?”

 “Is there any particular reason you insist on Marie?”

 Ella asked. The Marquis’s wife smiled faintly. She closed the fluttering fan and tapped her chin with it. An arrogant smile formed at the end of her red lips. Ella blankly watched as the woman’s lips opened.

 “No.”

 “……”

 “They say that because His Highness the Duke cherishes you, you see nothing else, and truly it’s not a lie.”

 The Marquis’s wife recited quickly. Her languid and soft voice echoed lazily. She moistened her throat with the drink Marie had brought and then continued kindly.

 “Just like secondary wives who aren’t even proper ones, they become so arrogant. Things that will wither in the same way when they get old don’t know their place and try to climb up.”

 Ella didn’t respond. Listening to it, it wasn’t wrong. She was only thinking about whether she was a girl who didn’t know her place. Because she knew her place, she didn’t accept the Duke’s heart. Because she knew how insignificant human affection was, even while loving. Love was an emotion with a short expiration date. It was foolish to stake everything on just that one thing. However, Ella didn’t show it. Only that she was appealing that something unjust was unjust. The woman who was the Marquis’s “wife” probably couldn’t understand.

 Generally, women who rose to the position of legal wives of nobles all hated secondary wives and despised even more those who couldn’t even become secondary wives. Since it wasn’t a feeling she couldn’t empathize with, Ella just looked at the woman.

 “Those eyes.”

 “……”

 “If you were my servant, I would have plucked them out.”

 Ella blinked. The woman had just given Marie one more task. Ella was still confronting the Marquis’s wife without being able to follow Marie’s figure. She felt the noble ladies staring at her from not far away. The women who had been whispering among themselves burst into low laughter. Among them, the clearest and most elegant was the queen’s laughter.

 “Yes. But you are not my master, madam.”

 “……”

 “My master loves my eyes the most. If he knew you said you wanted to pluck out my eyes, I think he would be very upset.”

 Ella blinked again. With her hands neatly folded, she appeared submissive. The woman, who had been sitting lazily, twisted the corner of her lips. Ella was merely maintaining her neat appearance like a calm water surface. One of the noble ladies who had been whispering sneered, saying it was outrageous, at her posture that didn’t tire or dishevel in the slightest.

 “You……”

 “I am merely appealing to you, madam. You said I don’t know my place, but if I didn’t know my place, I would have asked the Duke to let me be in this position. Our tent has neither silk curtains nor servants to attend to us. But I know my place. That’s why I won’t tell the Duke about today’s incident. Marie also knows her place, so the Marquis won’t know either.”

 “You insolent……”

 Ella straightened her head. As soon as she did, her cheek turned to the left. Along with the stinging sensation, her right ear became numb.

 “Please let Marie rest in the tent.”

 “You mere thing! How dare you, how dare you!”

 “……Madam.”