Previously
At Baldur's insistence, Jeanne moves into a luxurious guest room equipped with a large bathtub and a garden view.
He seemed to feel he had revealed too much of himself. I gave a silent nod.
‘So that was why he said my clothes were too thin.’
All at once, I understood why he had been so fixated on what a mere governess wore. He had already lived through the consequences once before.
As if hoping to lift the heavy atmosphere, the Duke changed the subject.
he asked in return.
Young Lord Mael? I blinked in confusion. Of course, if I were allowed to correspond with multiple people, I would have sent him a letter as well. But right now, the ones I wanted to reach with news of my well-being were my family.
If someone far from home could send only a single letter, wouldn’t anyone address it to their family? Yet he looked surprised.
“…”
With those words, he drained his glass.
It was then that a question I would never ordinarily dare consider surfaced in my mind. And before I could catch myself, it slipped past my lips.
‘Gasp.’
The moment the words left me, I was startled at my own audacity. Had I crossed the line into rudeness?
Yet the Duke answered quite readily.
“…”
I nodded. Though a vassal pledged in fealty to His Majesty the King, he governed a duchy that functioned practically as an independent realm; a man of his stature was eligible to wed not only into ducal houses, but with princes and princesses. Conversely, that status meant that marrying below his rank, to a count’s daughter or beneath, would tarnish his house's prestige.
Yet if that was his reasoning… couldn’t he consider marrying a princess or ducal daughter from a foreign realm with a similar climate and circumstances? But as though he had read my thoughts, he spoke again.
I considered it carefully. If he married a foreign princess, any child born between them would hold claims to both a portion of that foreign throne and the succession of the duchy. In some circumstances, that child might ascend that foreign throne and simultaneously lay claim to the duchy.
he murmured cynically.
In truth, just listening this far meant I had learned far too much about my employer's private life. An impassable line existed between employer and employee; while the employer might step over that line as though it were nonexistent, the employee never could. I ought to have backed away right then, pretending I had heard nothing, and steered the conversation toward a lighter topic.
Yet I did not.
Looking back, that potent northern liquor must have driven me mad.
I kept speaking, as though possessed. As if offering counsel to someone dear and familiar, I laid bare what was in my heart.
Because it seemed such a waste. And what felt like a waste was him—this man, remaining all alone.
Not that the Duke was wrong. Princesses accustomed to a life of ease in court, nurtured like greenhouse flowers, would surely endure misery here, and perhaps, like his mother, might never adapt. But wasn’t it possible they might?
If only love were present.
Just as I had settled here thanks to Ana’s and his consideration, might not someone else do the same? That thought seized me for a moment.
And at the same time, I felt that he was more than deserving of someone's love.
Why? Because he was a wealthy man possessing vast lands? Because, contrary to the notorious reputation that had spread beyond his territory, he was surprisingly young and handsome?
It was not just that. Before I knew it, I realized my first impression of him had transformed within my heart, as naturally as the shifting of the seasons.
At first, he had terrified me. But if asked whether that remained true now—well, he was still an intimidating presence, but he was certainly no longer a figure of mere horror.
‘Could it be that I was misunderstanding so much about him all along?’
My ability to settle in this place was thanks to Ana, but it was also thanks to the Duke. He had acknowledged my work, and he had shown me consideration so that I could prepare in my own way before winter arrived. If he could offer a spouse just as much as he had bestowed upon me—no, surely he would treat her with far greater warmth and care. If so…
‘Who could fail to fall for such a man?’
The liquor had loosened my thoughts, steering me toward reflections I could never have entertained with a sober mind.
‘The Duke is handsome, the wealthiest magnate in the kingdom, and his daughter is as sweet and gentle as a rabbit. What does it matter if winter is long, dull, and cold? Summer and autumn are all the more beautiful for it. Of course, worrying about him departing for the battlefield in summer would be agonizing. But if one could endure that anxiety, marrying such a man might well be a blessing, not a misfortune.’
“However slim the chances, it is not impossible, is it? For two married people to love one another.”
For in my years at court, I had learned that among the seemingly handsome, wealthy noblemen, not one was a decent human being. Not a single one. I had been appalled to find that honesty, morality, and everlasting love simply did not exist there. It was like… a den of beasts. Wouldn't this place be preferable to that, even if it were a little monotonous? If among those princesses disillusioned with court life, there was one who wished to come here.