Chapter 35

 The woman was fuming. Ella’s eyes remained calm. Her heart was pounding, but she didn’t show it. Enduring was what Ella could do best and had done for the longest time. So she couldn’t be compared to this woman. She stared blankly at the Marquis’s wife. She had heard she was a nobleman’s daughter. She had heard the Marquis was discussing a covenant with the daughter of a great southern noble. However, what the Marquis had chosen after much deliberation was the daughter of his knight’s family. Poor and obscure, but with the most noble loyalty…… Ella was a lowly girl who couldn’t even be compared to the daughter of that obscure family.

 Even though the only power she could mobilize was the power she borrowed from the Duke, Ella didn’t want to back down. It was better to be remembered forever as a girl who spread her legs to make a living than for Marie to come to harm today.

 “Please allow this humble girl to serve.”

 Another slap flew. The woman couldn’t hide her indignation. It was unclear what part had pressed her, but her distorted face was a mess. Ella remained upright despite her reddened cheeks. The queen approached the tense space between them. She separated Ella and the Marquis’s wife with her elegant and modest demeanor.

 “Enough, Henrietta. It’s not a good look to get angry at a servant in such a place.”

 “But……”

 “It’s the Duke’s job to severely punish today’s incident.”

 “Still, still……”

 “It would be better to lock up this colt-like girl separately.”

 Ella stared at the queen. The queen smoothly raised her scarlet lips, approached her, and whispered low.

 “Only the Duke can be served with those eyes. Do you think the noble ladies who don’t even adore you would just watch your arrogant eyes? A slave should be trained with a whipping if necessary…… Indeed, there’s nothing proper in Kylaq.”

 The queen turned around. The attendants following the queen grabbed Ella’s arms and led her away mercilessly. She was dragged away limply, thinking of the Duke. More than being locked up, she was curious about the Duke’s reaction when he found out she was locked up.

 *** 

 When the Duke returned, the sky was brightly dyed with crimson twilight. The laughter of the noble ladies echoed through the forest with the crescent moon embedded like a fingernail in the bluish sky. A lonely feeling crept into the neck. The knights-in-waiting formed groups, tied coyotes, deer, otters, and such in front of the Duke’s camp, and then left the tent, leading the hunting dogs. The butcher who had been waiting inside the tent disappeared outside with dead animals hanging on his shoulder. Larque dismounted and handed the reins to a servant. He searched for Ella with his eyes until the servant approached. The surroundings, sunk in evening twilight, had blurred outlines. Women like dandelion seeds surrounded him. Larque didn’t look deeply at their faces. Ella shone alone even from afar.

 His woman had a colt-like aspect even as she aged. She wouldn’t return even after the time to go home had passed, or she would only return and stand before him when she had to call a servant. It was always a part that didn’t satisfy him.

 “Your Highness.”

 “Where is Ella?”

 The servant who was receiving the bloody gloves and dagger trembled his lips. Larque felt irritation rising from nowhere at the sight of him being afraid to meet his gaze. The servant who read his anger swallowed dry. He waited for the servant to open his mouth.

 “She’s in the second tent from the left. Right next to the kitchen……”

 “Bring her.”

 “I, I, that, Her Majesty the Queen……”

 “Why does the queen have my woman?”

 “She’s not keeping her, but lo-locked her up.”

 The servant bowed his head deeply. Larque looked at him for a long time and then turned his gaze away. The servant trembled and knelt down. Larque went outside the tent without looking at the prostrating servant. While the forest was sunk in twilight, the central camp was brilliantly lit with lamps. Ella had been detained. He didn’t ask why. It was something he didn’t want to know. He was only angry that what was his was not in the place he had determined.

 To suppress the heat rising and itching below his ears, he clenched and unclenched his fist. Even though he had only lightly clenched it, the sweat pooled inside thoroughly wet the tips of his fingernails. His eyes met the queen’s, who was conversing. Purple wine swirled in the glass captured in her white hand. Her cheeks were flushed as if she was drunk. When their gazes intertwined, the queen smiled like a maiden fallen in first love.

Larque watched as the corner of the woman’s lips twitched. The queen slowly approached and stood before him, dressed in flawless formal attire. The evenly spread dress skirt and the lantern light complemented her fair skin and smooth complexion, which had once been the most beautiful color of dress in her youth.

 “Duke.”

 The woman called him. Larque, who had been picturing in his mind the tent where Ella was detained, looked at where the sound came from. The queen had the eyes of someone in love again. He tried not to distort his face.

 “I heard from the servants that you caught coyotes and deer.”

 “Yes.”

 “Is the blood splattered on your cheek from the coyote?”

The queen stretched out her white finger. Larque quietly allowed that finger to touch his cheek. The queen’s smile deepened. The finger wiping the dried blood rubbed his cheek. He looked at the woman impassively.

 “In my palace chamber in my homeland, there’s a scarf made of coyote fur. It’s a tribute my father bestowed upon me when I was young. I heard that some knight caught dozens of them and offered them for my father’s birthday…… When I was young, I felt it was incredibly ignorant. Dozens of just coyotes. It’s too much.”

 Unlike other times, when Larque seemed to be listening, the queen became talkative. It was because they had never had such a long conversation before. Of course, it was a situation where only she was pouring out words one-sidedly, but the queen was happy. It was because this man had never given her this much time before.

 The queen looked up at him with a more excited expression than usual. Her dreamy mood wasn’t because of the alcohol but because of the man in front of her. The gray she had never forgotten from the moment she first saw him. Her eternal snow……

 “Your Majesty.”

 “Ah.”

 Her already flushed cheeks turned even redder. The man who spoke for the first time was like colorless, odorless ice. It seems she was rambling alone again. The queen blinked quickly and smiled awkwardly. She wanted to talk more somehow. According to the subject. Like her usual self. She could approach him attractively enough. But somehow, whenever she stood in front of him, she became clumsy like a half-witted child.

 “I’m not asking for the coyote you caught, Duke. It’s just that today reminded me of my childhood…… You know. I, I came across from my homeland when I was too young, and I can’t easily go back.”

 She poured out her words again, rambling. The way she was talking incoherently seemed terrible even to herself, but such opportunities were not easy to come by. Because he was someone who never gave any openings at all. What can I do? I have to cling to him like this.

 Whenever there was a small gap where she could meet the man, the queen always dressed up brilliantly. She wore dresses in colors more prominent than usual and adorned herself with jewelry more splendid than usual. In terms of beauty, she was not inferior even to the royal consort Sirena. So she could be better than that prostitute who wore those rags and called them dresses.

 The Duke was noble, and such a noble man matched with her noble self. So if she could just throw away that girl, she would have a chance. Besides, as for a child……

 “Your Highness.”

 A low voice struck her. The queen, who had been thinking about the Duke’s small flesh and blood, raised her gaze. In the deepening darkness, the Duke was impassive. She looked at the man with slightly frightened eyes. He was a cold man. She had seen a side of him not long ago. A man who was elegant but more cruel than a commoner ruffian…… But that’s what made him more attractive. The queen tightly closed her mouth.

 “Where have you put my woman?”

 “She is……”

 “Bring her here. To this place.”

 The Duke was gentle. This, too, was a rare sight. The queen looked at him with frightened eyes, then nodded with her chin tucked. Not long after, an attendant ran into the darkness. From then on, the Duke said nothing. She clenched her fist while looking at his firm jaw and manly shadows. If she wasn’t a fool, she couldn’t help but know she was being ignored. Yet she was still fluttering. Because of his incomparable handsomeness. Because of the love that was rotting without flowing.

 While Guinevere turned her head away from Larque and stared at the forest, the attendant brought the Duke’s servant girl. Guinevere came to her senses. Even though she wanted to be lost in thought, she couldn’t because of the thorn that bothered her eyes. Because it became detestable as soon as it entered her sight.

 “The Duke’s bedchamber maid committed a serious disrespect to the wife of Marquis Gwendel today.”