Ch#40
Her breath came in ragged gasps. Her head spun, and her mouth went dry. Rosalyn had to close her eyes and wet her parched lips several times.
When Jared leaned down, lifted the several layers of her skirts all at once, and slid his hand inside her drawers, she thought it was finally time to lie on the bed. But he did not tell her to lie down.
“Get on your knees.”
His voice was thick with heated breath.
Rosalyn opened her eyes at the incomprehensible instruction. She didn’t even have the leeway to worry about how disheveled she must look with her dress undone to her waist. Panting through parted lips, she looked at him with eyes seeking an explanation.
But Jared showed no kindness or consideration in explaining. He grabbed her shoulders, turned her around, and pressed her upper body down onto the bed. Pressed down by his brute strength, Rosalyn was stunned. The situation, so far beyond anything she had imagined, sent a sudden jolt of fear through her.
What on earth is he trying to do?
Unable to even grasp a hint of his intent, she floundered for a moment before she soon realized.
“Ah!”
The man entered her in a single stroke. Mercilessly.
She felt no pain. The emotion that dominated Rosalyn was shock. Then came shame. And finally, fear surged over her.
The man was not in her line of sight. There was only an invisible presence shaking her. The vague fear that fact brought was almost instinctive. The fact that the other person was watching her, shaking her, and taking possession of her, yet she could not even see him.
That terrible sense of distance left Rosalyn feeling desolate. Jared was so far away that she couldn’t even feel his breath. She couldn’t feel his body heat, and she couldn’t even hold onto him.
So, she had no choice but to endure alone. Biting her lip. Caught between pleasure and pain. Trying her best to swallow both.
Only after a dizzying amount of time had passed did he stop, and Rosalyn collapsed face-down on the bed as if she had fainted.
No conversation passed between them in the bedroom. Only the sound of her own ragged breathing could be heard. Rosalyn didn’t even want to imagine what she looked like right now. She wanted to straighten her clothes, which were pushed up to her waist, but it was impossible. Because the man behind her still held her in his grasp.
The strength of the arm wrapped around her waist was almost violent. Rosalyn didn’t even attempt to escape him. Her whole body was trembling, and her limbs were so weak she couldn’t stand properly without leaning on the bed.
In that state, Jared soon pulled her body upright. Only then could she hear his breathing. She could feel his chest against her back and the arm wrapped around her shoulder.
Rosalyn closed her eyes in a strange sense of relief. She could clearly feel his hot breath against her right ear, flowing down her neck and dampening her shoulder.
Jared stayed like that for a moment, embracing her from behind. As if he were about to say something. As if he were about to whisper something in her ear.
But in the end, he said nothing and let her go. The moment their bodies separated, Rosalyn put strength into her legs. Now that she had nothing to lean on, she had to stand on her own. She didn’t want to show the unsightly image of collapsing or stumbling.
“I’ll head out first.”
Jared regained his composure with surprising speed. What kind of face was he making now? Was he still looking at her with those cold eyes? She was curious, but Rosalyn didn’t dare look at him.
“I’ll see you tonight.”
For now, she thought it might be better not to see his face.
Even after the man left the bedroom with a greeting that sounded like a warning, Rosalyn stood in that spot. She didn’t fix her clothes, which were still undone to her waist. The dress was so badly wrinkled that she would have to change anyway. More than anything, she needed time to calm her body and mind.
‘That’s why I married you.’
She stared into empty space, slowly closing and opening her eyes. She felt a strange sensation trickling down her leg.
With an instinctive realization, Rosalyn simultaneously felt a sense of relief. And then, she immediately felt miserable for having such a thought.
“Just how are you any different from Jared?”
Karina Glenn began her grumbling in the breakfast room. Despite her son and daughter-in-law being there for a rare visit, she didn’t care, because she held her eldest son and daughter-in-law in special regard. She also expected the two of them to take her side.
“That again. I’m getting quite tired of it.”
“Be tired all you want, but listen. You are the second son of the Duke, and he is the third son. So aren’t you closer to the title than he is?”
“I am the son of the 10th Duke, and Jared is the son of the 11th. Naturally, he is closer.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, you stubborn man!”
Kylyus chuckled as he looked at his wife, who was thumping her chest in frustration. How on earth did his mother choose such a woman as a daughter-in-law? Even his mother in the afterlife would be embarrassed.
“I’m asking you, dear, Karina. Please don’t say such things in public.”
“Why? Are you afraid Jared will send assassins to our house?”
“I’m afraid of people’s gossip. There is nothing I fear more than the family’s honor being damaged.”
Having replied with dignity, Kylyus Glenn wiped his mouth with a napkin and finished his meal.
The Glenn family had many reputations, and one of them was the great harmony between brothers.
Despite being a family that had reigned as rulers for a thousand years, there had never once been a conflict between brothers over the position of the head of the family. Considering history was rife with younger brothers harming their elders or uncles stealing their nephews’ positions, it was a very noble family tradition.
Kylyus was the younger brother of the previous Duke, Philip. Originally, there had been a sister as well, but she died young, and he grew up with his two brothers. Because of that background, his heart naturally ached when two of his brother’s three sons died tragically, leaving only the youngest.
However, his defense of Jared was by no means due to affection for his nephew. It was because he could not bear to see the end of the direct bloodline—the sons of the family head—which had continued without ever skipping an order since the family founder and King of the North, Sheldon Glenn.
In truth, all of his brother’s sons had issues. The eldest, Herald, died after daring to try and divide the family title and estates among his younger brothers. He had tried to mar the family legacy, so he was cursed.
Kylyus truly believed this and had told Jared as much. It was because he hoped his nephew, the new Duke, would live a life of total service to the family.
Yet that fellow had turned the house upside down by insisting on an absurd marriage, and then hadn’t he protested by staying single for nearly four years? Marrying at thirty was late, very late, but it was a relief that he had finally come to his senses.
“I don’t know why you dislike Jared so much. He’s doing a fine job as Duke, so what’s the problem? The issue that was causing so much trouble has been resolved, so we can finally breathe easy.”
“Then why were you pestering him so much to get married? You should have just let him live and die alone. You should have let him stay obsessed with that novelist or whatever she was.”
“Stop it, Lady Glenn. You must maintain your dignity.”
“Hmph, I say this because I am just Mrs. Glenn! Because I’m not the Duchess or the Dowager Duchess!”
Kylyus, looking at his shrieking wife with pathetic eyes, rose from his seat. The sight of a husband leaving the table before his wife was a very common occurrence in this mansion. Thus, neither the son and daughter-in-law sitting with them nor the servants waiting on them were surprised at all.
“I must have been crazy too. What was I thinking, introducing a woman to him? I thought there was no way he’d be interested in a Baron’s daughter, but he really has no eye for women.”
Karina simply couldn’t let her anger go. Infuriated even more by her husband, who always treated her poorly, she continued to mutter to herself while vigorously cutting the sausage remaining on her plate.
“They say there’s no cure for lovesickness; who knows if he might have died young? If he had, I could have been the Duchess. I could have seen my son become the Duke, even if it was from the afterlife.”
“Don’t be too disheartened, Mother. It’s not as if there’s no chance at all of me becoming the master of Maxville.”
Karina looked up at the sound of her son’s comforting voice. Unlike his father, her eldest son did not neglect her. He was a clever and kind child.
“There’s no law saying the new Duchess must give birth to an heir.”
Alexander Glenn wore a relaxed, gentlemanly smile. Having inherited his father’s black hair and his mother’s blue eyes, he was a handsome man who had been called the prince of social circles before his marriage. Even now, as a father of two, his striking appearance remained unchanged.
“That’s true. You’re right.”
Karina nodded with a satisfied heart. Not every woman enjoyed the good fortune of giving birth to such a magnificent son.
“Just because one gets married doesn’t mean a son is guaranteed.”
“But Mother, a novelist? Was the woman Duke Jared tried to marry a novelist?”
Naomi Glenn’s eyes sparkled. Karina was pleased that her daughter-in-law showed interest in her words. Since her daughter-in-law, who was busy caring for her sons, was visiting after a long time, it would be good to reward her with an interesting story.
