KMKS 29

chapter 29

“Did you manage to hold the conversation as you practiced?”

“No. It was difficult. If it hadn’t been for Lady Cordelia, I don’t think I could have said a single word.”

Sara, who had just been embarrassed in the gathering of ladies, shook her head.

It had been a long time since she spoke with strangers rather than the people of the viscount’s estate.

No one showed any interest in Sara—except Lady Cordelia, who alone came to talk to her.

Thanks to Cordelia’s lively personality, Sara was able to finish the conversation without any major mishaps.

Though she couldn’t stay with the lady longer because Duke Leo Winston appeared.

It wasn’t surprising that the duke and Lady Cordelia left the room together, since Olga had already told her about the rumor of their meetings.

And if the rumor were true—hadn’t the two just created a strange atmosphere together across the terrace a moment ago?

Lady Cordelia certainly seemed to like him very much.

“You don’t know how charming he is.”

“If even I’ve fallen for him, isn’t that saying everything?”

For her to boast like that even to a stranger like Sara.

But, unlike Cordelia, Sara had no interest in just how charming the Duke of Winston was.

Whenever she faced him, all she could see was the shadow of her former husband, leaving her no room for any other thoughts.

“Ah. Or perhaps you’d rather do something different with me?”

When she had heard such words from the duke after accidentally bumping into him, she had felt so humiliated that she wanted to flee.

As Sara sank into her thoughts, Aiden waved his hand before her face to pull her back.

“What are you thinking so hard about? Did you perhaps have a drink of wine?”

Startled, Sara quickly touched her cheeks, then tilted her head.

“H-how did you know?”

“It’s written all over your face, my lady. Ha ha.”

She had thought the heat in her cheeks had faded after Duke Winston entered the ladies’ gathering earlier.

But Aiden, looking somewhat surprised, added:

“I thought you never drank.”

Back at the viscount’s estate, Sara had hardly even eaten proper meals—would she ever have touched a glass of wine?

Having never drunk before, she didn’t even know what she liked.

Sara gave a wry smile.

“I found that I actually quite like it.”

Even she hadn’t expected that she would accept a drink so readily when someone offered it.

But Cordelia had been talking so incessantly that Sara ended up drinking without thinking.

“By the way, how’s your headache? It’s been getting worse lately.”

Perhaps it was the lingering effect of the alcohol, but Sara hesitated, then placed a worried hand against Aiden’s forehead.

There was indeed a slight fever.

Aiden coughed awkwardly and turned his head away. He couldn’t tell whether it was truly his body that was unwell, or whether it was simply because of Sara’s touch.

Whether she knew what he was feeling or not, Sara only grew more anxious and wanted to take him home.

“You should go back and rest, my lord.”

“…”

“The wind is cold. You truly have a fever.”

For a moment, did she imagine the deep smile that touched Aiden’s lips?

“May I trouble you to check once more if I truly have a fever?”

Startled, Sara quickly hid her hand behind her back, finally realizing what she had just done.

Yet she could still feel the lingering warmth of Aiden’s forehead on her fingertips.

She had never once touched him of her own initiative before.

“I was tricked by that talk of a pleasant fragrance.”

Surely Lady Cordelia’s wine had been stronger than she realized.

But before she could recover from her fluster, someone stepped onto the terrace where the two of them stood.

Aiden’s expression instantly turned cold.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?”

That low, cavernous voice belonged to Duke Winston.

At his sudden appearance, Sara instinctively stepped behind her husband. The duke’s displeased gaze lingered on her for a moment.

“Anyone would think I was about to devour her.”

“What is it you want?”

Aiden asked reflexively, to divert the duke’s eyes away from his wife.

In polite society, one was expected to avoid intruding upon a man and woman alone on a terrace, but Winston had barged in regardless.

“Is it urgent?”

“Ah, viscount, why don’t we have a word outside? There are still matters unresolved between us.”

If it was about the demolition of the Riera building, Aiden had been planning to propose an alternative anyway.

After all, the authority to grant construction permits rested with the duke.

“Very well. My lady, please rest here for a while.”

He had not expected Sara to cling to his sleeve, shaking her head as if begging him not to go.

Of course Aiden knew what she feared.

It wasn’t only his worsening headaches—but Winston was, for some reason, a dangerous presence to her.

And indeed, look now.

The duke, glaring at them both, crossed his arms and tapped his foot in irritation.

Aiden answered Sara’s concern with only a reassuring smile.

“Let’s go.”

After the two men left the terrace, Sara anxiously peered outside.

“What will they talk about?”

The two men strode off into the darkness where no streetlamps reached.

She had no time to worry further about her husband, as Olga soon summoned her away.

Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise.

The two men’s private meeting took place in the greenhouse garden outside the building.

Seated at a table with his legs crossed, Leo spoke first.

“You and your wife seem to get along well.”

“As you can see.”

He had intended to mock Aiden for being so tightly held even over a mere conversation with someone else’s wife.

But Aiden’s answer, without a second of hesitation, only deepened the wrinkles in the duke’s brow.

“Confident, aren’t you.”

Loosening his cravat to ease his chest, the duke watched closely.

Aiden, however, immediately caught the suspicion laced in Winston’s question.

“I hear Your Grace is also enjoying good company with Lady Cordelia.”

“Ah, is that so.”

The duke’s dry response was enough to make Aiden wary.

“I’ve noticed it before, but I hope it’s only my imagination.”

“What do you mean? You sound rather hostile.”

“If you keep looking at my wife like that, others may easily misunderstand.”

Aiden was fully aware of the unpleasant gaze Winston often cast toward Sara.

He guessed that Sara’s trembling fear likely came from the duke’s oppressive stare.

That being so, it was time to make matters clear.

“And let me also say this.”

Better to speak plainly now, so the man couldn’t try any tricks later.

Even if it might offend him.

“Such looks—”

“You had best restrain yourself.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then I won’t hold back.”

“So you’re saying you have been holding back until now.”

The two men locked eyes in a taut clash, neither willing to yield an inch.

“Then do you mean I’m free to misunderstand as I like?”

When Aiden’s gaze shifted sharply, Winston threw back his head and laughed.

“What nonsense. As if. The great Leo Winston and your wife?”

“…”

“But tell me, viscount—isn’t it ridiculous? You act as though you’re some couple bound by eternal love.”

“What are you—!”

As Winston’s laughter shook the garden, Aiden clenched his fists tightly.

“Hey, Viscount Spencer. They say you used to keep your wife hidden away at the estate.”

The duke countered with a rumor. And as he emphasized each word, Aiden was left speechless.

Wherever Winston had heard it, Aiden himself had no such memory.

“Ah, was it because you were ashamed?”

“…”

“And now, suddenly, you put on an act of marital bliss? If you’re going to deceive, at least make it convincing. The story doesn’t add up in the slightest.”

The more Winston spoke of his past sins, the more it felt like Aiden’s skull would split open.

Inside him, the refusal to acknowledge that degraded former self battled fiercely against a strange, suffocating guilt.

“These days, they call such couples a ‘show-window marriage.’ They say you were quite a philanderer, even bringing other women into the house. Now I see why I felt such a kinship with you.”

The duke even dared to claim he felt a bond with him.

Blood seemed to boil in Aiden’s veins.

Yet strangely, Leo’s own face twisted as he went on.

The more he spoke—

“Turns out you were the same type as me after all. All men are like that, aren’t they?”

It felt as though his chest were burning away.

At some point, two buttons of his shirt had come undone.

When he had first heard from his butler, Jace, about the viscount and his wife, Leo had thought:

“So Aiden Spencer, that pompous man, is no different after all.”

But then—why this uncanny feeling?

Tonight, he had not once seen Aiden’s gaze wander to another woman.

Briefly, when Leo had glimpsed him, Aiden had been nothing but gentle toward his wife.

He had even stood in front of Leo’s towering frame to shield her.

Even now, he had just declared war, warning Leo not to lay a hand on her.

Leo remembered, too, the time he saw Sara smile faintly beyond the estate’s fence from a carriage window.

That smile had not been for show—it had been natural, unforced.

And so, when Aiden asked his next question, Leo found himself silenced as if honey had glued his lips.

“Do I look to you like such a man, Your Grace?”

It was a piercing question.

“…”

After a brief silence, the duke finally spat out an answer laced with fury.

“Well, who can say?”

With that, Winston leapt to his feet.

He refused to admit it.

He wanted to drag Aiden down, believing him to be the same breed as himself.

But now Winston was left breathless, clutching his pounding head as the worsening pain nearly brought him to collapse.