Chapter 15
My final remark appeared to irk the Grand Duke. His icy demeanor grew even sterner, and a faint sneer curled one side of his mouth.
“Is that the reason the Marquis dispatched you here?”
His deep tone held a frosty edge.
“To erase any grounds for annulment?”
“No, that’s not quite right.”
I regarded him with a playful glint in my eyes and brought my palms together in a light clap.
“Oh! I meant my father didn’t dispatch me. Though yes, I did arrive to eliminate any pretext for divorce.”
The Grand Duke’s jaw locked rigid.
“You relish these circuitous exchanges, don’t you? Is that a habit among capital folk? Or your personal flair?”
I cocked my head to one side.
“I’m merely stating the facts. By now, my father is likely seething. After all, I slipped away from home without his blessing.”
The Grand Duke fixed me with a steady stare, silently pressing for more.
“I want a divorce as well.”
His finely arched brows leaped upward.
“Then why—”
“But not yet.”
His gaze seemed to question, Aren’t we pursuing the identical aim? Yet I shook my head.
“I require time. I intend to end our marriage in a year. Thus, I can’t be banished at this juncture.”
“And why should your circumstances concern me?”
“Because you lack alternatives.”
I lifted my shoulders in a casual shrug.
“You possess no method to expel me.”
“What are you implying?”
“A man of your refinement wouldn’t bind me and hurl me from the castle. So, precisely how do you intend to eject me?”
“You haven’t caught wind of the tales surrounding me.”
His voice stiffened.
“I’m no gentleman by any stretch.”
“Will you starve me? Or press a blade to my throat?”
His scowl intensified, as though my suggestion offended his dignity.
“If it’s neither of those, I’m hardly intimidated.”
“By morning, you might awaken in a carriage bound for the capital.”
His retort held no surprise for me.
I replied without missing a beat.
“Should you attempt that, I’ll proclaim to all in the capital that we consummated our wedding night.”
Crimson bloomed across the Grand Duke’s throat.
“What…?”
“Naturally, I doubt you’d resort to such measures, but…”
“Have you no sense of propriety whatsoever?”
Stunned by my audacious counter, he balled his hand into a fist.
“I’m simply at my wits’ end.”
I maintained a bright, airy facade.
“I’d be ever so grateful if you spared me from uttering such mortifying declarations.”
The Grand Duke, thoroughly flabbergasted, compressed his lips into a thin line. My breezy demeanor had evidently thrown him off balance.
He drained his tea in one swallow before addressing me again.
“Why one year?”
“You’re genuinely entertaining the notion?”
“I require at least the rationale.”
“Truthfully, the year serves you in part.”
“How so?”
“You must wed Princess Pellianess, correct?”
“…”
“The late queen’s mourning period lingers for nearly a year yet, doesn’t it?”
His eyes gleamed with sudden acuity.
When my father broached our union, the Grand Duke was already betrothed to the princess. Both parties had pressed for a swift ceremony.
Yet certain nobles in the Kingdom of Londoris vehemently resisted a wedding prior to the queen’s three-year mourning concluding. The feeble king of Londoris yielded to their demands.
The betrothal dissolved, stripping the Grand Duke of his ideal pretext to spurn my father’s overture.
Still, his union with the princess hadn’t been scrapped outright—merely deferred.
Upon divorcing me, he would no doubt pursue her once more to thwart the Empire’s sway.
The curse posed no obstacle. Princess Pellianess was far too delicate for Blenheim’s harsh northern chill regardless. They had concurred she’d reside in her homeland post-wedding.
A starkly political alliance.
Regardless, he must bide at least a twelvemonth. That delay was precisely my leverage.
“The Marquis’s spies are remarkably thorough.”
The Grand Duke uttered a derisive huff.
As a royal affair, every deliberation had remained under strict secrecy.
Whispers of the engagement circulated, but scant elite insiders grasped the mourning quarrel’s intricacies.
“This bears no tie to my father.”
I offered a winsome smile.
“Regard it as praise for my own shrewdness.”
“You deduced all this independently?”
The Grand Duke’s eyes narrowed, probing for veracity. Yet that detail scarcely mattered now, nor could I divulge it.
After all, I couldn’t confess to gleaning it from the original tale.
I pivoted the discourse with resolve.
“Permit me to remain a single year. Thereafter, I’ll dissolve the marriage.”
The Grand Duke pondered, brow creased, then declined with a shake of his head.
“No.”
His unyielding refusal blindsided me. What? Had my words fallen on deaf ears?
“Why refuse?”
“…”
“It’s not eternal. Not a decade. Merely one year!”
“Time’s duration isn’t the crux.”
“Then what? The expense of my sustenance? Is the Grand Duchy so destitute it can’t sustain me?”
“…I’ll disregard that remark.”
“Then what ails you? Do you simply abhor my presence? I can remain utterly unobtrusive.”
Irritation simmered within me at his intransigence.
“This fortress sprawls so vast, I scarcely glimpsed you these past seven days! I’d hardly register your existence.”
The Grand Duke exhaled softly and glanced aside.
“Are you insisting your father played no role in your journey to Blenheim?”
“…Must I reiterate?”
He paused, moistened his lips, and at last confessed.
“Evidently, no argument sways you, so I’ll speak plainly. Few know this truth. But I entrust your honor to safeguard it.”
Meeting his grave regard, I sat up straighter.
“Proceed.”
“Are you familiar with the pact the prior Grand Duke of Blenheim forged with a dragon?”
“Indeed. Every imperial subject knows the legend.”
“Upon my father’s demise, the obligation fell to me.”
“That much I know.”
“In reality, a curse binds that pact. Any woman touching me endures excruciating agony. In dire instances, it proves fatal.”
“…….”
“It strains credulity, yet it’s fact. Yesterday, death nearly claimed you.”
The Grand Duke delivered the revelation with eerie composure.
“You can’t predict recurrence if you linger near me. Thus, I urge your departure—for your protection.”
He’s divulging this to me?
I reeled from the startling admission, unsure how to respond.
Should this leak, his stature as the Empire’s champion would crumble overnight, branding him cursed. He was entrusting such a perilous vulnerability to me—daughter of his foe, no less.
What if I leveraged it for blackmail?
Admittedly, he struck me as impervious to coercion.
Even so, he omitted the vital truth: my ability to dispel his curse. Had he voiced that, true bargaining could ensue.
Why discard a boon like me? He ought to bribe me with treasures to stay!
Exasperation gnawed, yet bluntness was impossible.
I faltered, groping for apt phrasing.
Mistaking my hush for dread or capitulation, the Grand Duke’s features eased faintly as he pressed on.
“If the capital proves untenable, I can secure alternative lodging. I own cozy villas proximate to it, suitable for a year.”
As he moved to conclude and rise, I interjected swiftly.
“But I’m utterly unharmed.”
His tone flattened.
“Even should you doubt me—”
“It’s not disbelief.”
I held his stare steadily.
“I sensed no pain whatever. Doesn’t that signify the curse spares me?”
At my assertion, the Grand Duke averted his eyes.
“That was… mere fortune.”
“But your kiss upon my hand’s back provoked nothing amiss. Quite the opposite—it felt… delightful.”
“D-Delightful…? How do you voice such notions so offhandedly…?”
He nipped his lower lip in vexation.
