35. Heat

From early morning, carriages and luggage were busily arranged in front of the duke’s mansion.

Adeline had decided to recuperate at a nearby villa for a week starting today.

Adeline, who naturally thought she would be going alone, blinked her eyes as she saw Casis.

“I don’t think knights will be necessary since I’ll be there. Let’s just increase the number of guards in the area.”

“Yes. The chef and maid will bring food at scheduled times and then leave.”

“That’s suitable.”

While listening to the conversation with Gwen, Adeline instinctively felt something was wrong.

Moving her stiffened body, she approached the duke.

“Your Grace, are you perhaps planning to come along?”

The duke turned at Adeline’s voice.

His gaze, looking down at her as if it were obvious, became subdued.

“Why ask the obvious? Do you think I’m such a terrible man that I would send you, pregnant with my child, to recuperate alone?”

The gazes of the surrounding servants focused on the two of them.

“I’d be fine going alone. You’re busy, after all.”

“You needn’t worry about me. Let’s depart.”

Exclamations burst from the surrounding maids.

The eyes of the maids gathered around, whispering as they watched the two, sparkled.

As if they had found gossip material for a week.

‘Did you hear? The cold duke is going with the lady for her sake.’

‘I never knew our duke had such a romantic side.’

‘He seems to truly love Lady Del.’

Adeline developed a headache from the maids’ conversations that followed.

The opportunity she had sought to be apart was now gone.

Once he had packaged this recuperation as the duke’s love in front of people, there was no justification to leave him behind.

How cunning.

She already knew he was a quick-witted man. Adeline felt nauseated again.

Would she still be unable to escape the duke’s eyes?

The door of the carriage, which had completed preparations for departure, opened.

Casis entered first and extended his hand toward Adeline.

“Take it.”

“Thank you.”

Adeline, who had boarded the carriage, was about to sit down.

Her brow furrowed slightly.

Did he smile?

It might have been her imagination.

In that brief moment as he returned to his seat, he seemed to be smiling.

⁕⁕⁕

Adeline leaned against the wide-open window, lost in thought.

She stared at the mountain where red autumn leaves were scattered among the greenery.

A villa surrounded by mountains. Right below it stretched a blue lake.

The sunlight reflecting off the lake’s surface could have made her eyes squint.

Is this paradise? It felt so beautiful that she wondered if she had come to heaven.

Hoo, as Adeline inhaled, the fresh air swept through her lungs.

Even though it had been quite some time since the Beginning of Autumn, the outside air was still quite warm despite the open window.

They said if there was a space the duke loved most, it would undoubtedly be this villa. That statement resonated deeply with her.

The scenery that brought peace to the heart. The warm sunlight.

Everything would have been perfect. Except for Casis being there with her.

“You said you wanted to come, but why the expression?”

Adeline’s gaze met Casis, who had approached without her noticing.

Dissatisfaction was evident in his eyes as he looked down at her with his arms crossed.

“I thought I’d come alone to rest.”

“Alone?”

He frowned as he asked Adeline.

“It’s recuperation, after all.”

“Yes. Isn’t that why you’ve come to recuperate now?”

“I’m more comfortable without you.”

When he didn’t understand, Adeline unconsciously blurted out a direct statement.

At that moment, Casis’s face darkened.

He quickly uncrossed his arms, approached Adeline, and murmured.

“Then this unwelcome guest will disappear so you can recuperate comfortably.”

Quite upset by Adeline’s words, he didn’t return afterward.

After being in silence for a long time, Adeline rose from the windowsill.

He wasn’t a man who said one thing and did another. Perhaps Casis might not return.

As Adeline turned her gaze, the outside had already begun to darken.

Maybe I’ll read a book.

Unable to bear the boredom, Adeline approached the bookshelf.

The books on the shelf seemed to be from the time when the young duke used it, as she had heard.

‘That fairy tale…… I used to read it a lot before.’

Adeline, who had been scanning with her eyes, stood on tiptoe at a familiar title.

And just as she reached out to pull the book, a candlestick placed on top of the bookshelf fell over.

Seeing the flame, Adeline instinctively reached out to grab the candlestick.

“Ah!”

However, it must have been quite sharp, as her hand was cut by the candlestick.

Then, with a crash, the sound of objects spilling echoed through the villa.

At that moment, the door flung open and Casis appeared.

“What are you doing? Ha…… I can’t take my eyes off you for a moment.”

He approached Adeline with irritated steps and sat her on the sofa.

Then, as if looking for something, he approached her again.

The duke pulled out a chair next to the sofa and sat facing her.

“That’s a deep cut. Does it hurt?”

“Ow…… it hurts.”

As Casis pressed a gauze towel firmly to stop the flowing blood, Adeline’s face contorted in pain.

A long wound had formed across her pale palm.

“……Your Grace!”

Adeline tried to twist her hand away from the throbbing pain.

He then reached out with his other hand and grasped Adeline’s hand. To prevent her from moving.

“I need to stop the bleeding, so bear with it.”

How many minutes passed like that?

Thinking he had stopped the bleeding sufficiently, he relaxed his grip.

His eyes deepened as he looked at the wound on her fair skin.

“The wound is deeper than I thought. I’ll have to call the physician.”

Adeline was dumbfounded.

No matter how deep the wound, it was just a cut from a candlestick. And it had merely grazed her.

“It’s fine! Who would call a physician for such a wound?”

“All the items here are things I’ve used since I was young. We don’t know what kind of infection might occur……”

“I know my own body. Just applying ointment is enough, please give it to me.”

Casis, who had been looking at Adeline, let out a quiet sigh.

Then he pulled Adeline’s injured hand toward him.

“I can do it myself……”

“With your right hand in that state, what could you possibly do?”

He took out the ointment and began applying it to the affected area.

The man before her was the Iron Duke Torpeo, who had swept through battlefields.

The touch she had expected to be rough and crude was delicate.

He was careful not to touch Adeline’s wound and cause her pain.

Adeline felt a lump in her throat without realizing it. It was a touch that reminded her of someone.

“……”

Silence flowed between the two.

Adeline, who had initially tried to reject Casis, was now watching him.

He pulled out a long strip of gauze bandage from the basket and began wrapping it around Adeline’s wound.

“You’re not alone anymore, so don’t do this in the future.”

Adeline, who had been looking down, raised her head at the voice seeping into her ears.

It was a subdued voice, as if he was worried.

“You’re free to use your body as you wish, but the child inside is my child. A noble being born with the bloodline of the Torpeo ducal family.”

“……”

“I’m saying you should always be mindful that your actions could harm my child.”

Of course.

It was a moment that made her feel foolish for thinking this man might be concerned about her.

She felt silly for having momentarily softened her heart toward him.

“I know. That this child is the precious heir of the ducal family.”

“That’s good enough.”

With those words, the duke tied a knot on the bandage.

“Go to sleep first. I’ll come after finishing some work.”

And with the words that he would work in the study for a while, he left the bedroom.

After he left, silence returned to the villa’s bedroom.

Adeline sat back deeply on the sofa.

Then she raised her bandaged hand toward the ceiling and looked at it.

“It’s the same.”

During the time they spent together at the Horn villa.

It was very similar to when he treated Adeline after she cut her hand on a broken window hinge.

Mel had also treated Adeline with extremely careful hands at that time.

‘He gets angry when I get hurt, that’s similar too.’

A man who normally didn’t know how to get angry would become upset when Adeline got hurt.

Looking at the knot that resembled the bandage Mel had tied back then, Adeline let out a small laugh.

“……Of course they’re the same.”

Because both Mel and the duke were the same person.

Adeline raised her hand to cover her eyes.

The same person. Although Mel, with whom she had spent a season, and Duke Torpeo were the same person, the gap between the two was stark.

Mel felt as if he no longer existed in this world.

So she had given up. She didn’t want to waste emotions searching for someone who no longer existed.

Perhaps because she was reminded of Mel in the duke after a long time.

Although he was clearly an uncomfortable and hateful man, the palm he had treated seemed to tingle.

Heat gradually built up.

Adeline sat upright on the sofa and fanned herself with her hand.

However, it seemed insufficient, as Adeline’s face continued to burn for a long time.