Chapter 87. Innocent and Kind Wife
"I apologize, but His Excellency has ordered that the Madam is forbidden from going out."
Blair and Reena, who had been thoroughly excited about going out after a long time, could only blink at this unexpected variable.
Reena, coming to her senses a beat late, asked on Blair's behalf.
"Forbidden from going out? Why?"
"It is a measure to protect the Madam, Reena."
"If that's the case, the knights could just accompany her."
"His Excellency has also forbidden that."
"I never wanted such protection. If the person involved doesn't want it, how is this different from imprisonment? The Madam is not a criminal."
Despite Reena's somewhat insolent behavior, Mason neither grew angry nor rebuked her.
"The members of Delmark simply follow when He commands."
He merely replied coldly, in his usual flat tone.
"And you too are now a member of Delmark, Reena."
As he said this, his face bore the appearance of a strict butler who perfectly controlled everything in this mansion.
Even though it wasn't much different from his usual appearance, it somehow felt unfamiliar.
"I...!"
Blair stopped Reena, who was about to argue back against Mason's words.
Blair quietly shook her head at Reena, who looked as though she felt even more aggrieved. Then she yielded obediently.
"I understand. I will speak with him directly."
Blair's lips were tightly pressed together as she turned and went up to her room.
* * *
As soon as Hedin boarded the carriage, he roughly untied his cravat. Perhaps due to the warmer temperatures of recent days, the scrap of fabric constricting his neck felt stifling.
Having undone his cravat, Hedin noticed the letter placed across from him and stiffened his expression.
It was the invitation to the National Foundation Day banquet that Ivan had personally handed him when he called for him earlier.
'You must attend this National Foundation Day with Blair.'
His subsequent demand was something he had fully anticipated.
'On a day when the entire empire should rightfully rejoice and give thanks to the ancestors who protected this land, we cannot allow such unsavory rumors to run rampant.'
'...'
'The judge for that incident was the Former Emperor, as you well know. The more the rumors spread, the more it seems to tarnish his honor who presided over the trial, which does not sit well with me.'
'...'
'That day, I think it would be best to attend the National Foundation Day and put an end to these baseless rumors between us. What does the Duke think?'
In the end, that was the gist of it.
Since directly clarifying the rumors would only invite more suspicion, the plan was to attend the National Foundation Day banquet and indirectly reveal that the rumors of discord between the Imperial Family and Delmark were untrue.
Ivan was finally shaking the leash he had seized to his own liking. The sight was quite irritating, but Hedin decided to play along for now.
Ivan holding his leash was only temporary anyway. Once he had an excuse to keep Blair by his side, he could cast off this measly leash at any time.
Creating an excuse to hold onto Blair, and then clearing Esmeralda's false charge, would come next.
If it was to buy that time, he could endure for a little while.
Before he knew it, the carriage had arrived at the ducal residence.
As always, it was Mason who greeted Hedin as he stepped down from the carriage.
"Welcome back, Your Excellency."
"Nothing unusual happened, I trust?"
Knowing that the 'unusual occurrence' Hedin spoke of concerned only Blair, Mason hesitated and couldn't answer readily.
He had blocked Blair from going out because it was his master's order, but he too thought Hedin's measures were excessive.
"The Madam wished to go out. So, I informed her it was not permitted."
Hedin's steps faltered briefly as he entered the mansion, but it was only for a fleeting moment.
It was something he had expected would happen at some point.
"Is she in her room now?"
"She most likely is."
Hedin headed to Blair's bedroom, leaving Mason behind.
'She must be quite angry.'
Dealing with her when she was angry was mentally exhausting. Despite her fragile appearance, as if she would break at a touch, her stubbornness rarely bent.
It would be nice if she just listened quietly this time.
A languid sigh escaped between his teeth as he shoved his leather gloves into his pocket.
Finally arriving at Blair's door, Hedin knocked and immediately entered the room.
As he passed through the sitting room and entered the bedroom, he saw Blair's back as she gazed at the rear garden from the balcony.
That sight seemed to represent her desire to go outside, making her look quite pitiful.
Hedin approached from behind and lightly tapped the balcony's glass door. At that, Blair turned to look at him.
As expected, those pretty eyes were full of resentment.
It was meaningless to pretend not to know at this point.
Hedin spoke first.
"I heard you tried to go out. Where were you planning to go?"
But instead of an answer, a resentful question came back.
"...Why are you confining me?"
Confinement.
It was rather displeasing for his actions, meant for her protection, to be given such a name, but he decided not to bother correcting her. From her perspective, it could certainly be perceived that way.
Hedin replied in a calm tone.
"I have taken measures to protect you."
"There are plenty of other methods besides this. You could assign knights to me, or forbid me from going to certain dangerous places."
"Because that is not enough."
In his heart, he wanted to keep her all day within his line of sight, carrying her in his embrace.
But since that was realistically impossible, he had settled on this alternative.
Placing her in what he considered the safest location.
However, Blair didn't seem to accept it that way.
"Then am I supposed to not go anywhere all day, quietly locked in this bedroom, just waiting for you?"
"This is a measure to protect you, and you also enjoy being with me. Do you really hate it that much?"
There was not a trace of mockery in his tone as he said this, which only fueled Blair's anger further.
He truly, genuinely believed there was nothing wrong with confining her under the pretext of protection.
His face, which she thought she had grown familiar with, suddenly felt unfamiliar.
The realization struck her deeply in this moment—that her belief of knowing him well, having lived as his wife across two lifetimes, was nothing but her own arrogance.
"I am not your mistress. Don't speak like that."
Trembling lips parting for a long while, those were the words Blair finally managed to spit out.
Hedin scoffed at that.
"You are the one who said you wanted that kind of relationship in the first place."
"..."
"You offer your body however I want, regardless of your own will."
It was she who, with this innocent face, had vilified him as a lust-crazed bastard and torn him apart.
Since you wished for it, I merely became such a man—so why is it that only eyes full of contempt come back to me?
Why do you look more wounded than I?
"...There was no clause stating I couldn't go out. Let me go out."
"What are you going to do outside?"
"..."
"Are you going to get kidnapped again, and give them more fuel for the rumors?"
At his sarcasm, Blair's eyes contorted painfully.
Hedin looked at Blair, who seemed on the verge of tears, then rubbed his forehead and let out a sigh.
Making Blair cry here and now would be problematic.
With barely enough time to even join their bodies, he didn't want to argue with her any further. He also didn't want to forcefully hold her when she was rejecting him.
After thinking for a moment, Hedin changed his approach.
He approached Blair, who was trembling pitifully, and pulled her into an embrace.
"I don't want to."
Blair pushed against him to escape his embrace, but Hedin easily caught her hands and subdued her. At that, Blair turned her head to avoid his approaching lips.
Hedin grasped her chin, met her gaze, and whispered in a much softer voice.
"Fifteen days."
At the sudden word that spilled from his lips, Blair's eyes blinked with a look of puzzlement.
As if answering her, Hedin continued speaking.
"If the National Foundation Day passes safely in fifteen days, I will let you go out."
By bringing up days with a dwindling deadline and soothing her appropriately, his innocent and kind wife would believe his words without question and wait.
Then it would also be easier to achieve his purpose.
Hedin finally leaned down to Blair, who had stopped resisting, and pressed his lips to hers.
Blair's eyes, which had been blinking slowly for a moment, soon closed as if in resignation.
* * *
The next day, when Blair opened her eyes, it was nearly noon.
Hedin, who had stayed by her side without leaving for a while, had been leaving the mansion every morning recently, perhaps because he could no longer put off his work.
Even so, when he returned, he unfailingly held her through the night. It made her newly realize his inhuman stamina.
'Fifteen days...'
Blair, left alone in the bathtub, curled her languid body and mulled over the deadline he had mentioned yesterday.
Since she couldn't defeat him with her own strength anyway, she had pretended to accept his proposal, but in truth she was anxious.
Blair gently stroked her lower abdomen, lost in thought.
'What if I start having morning sickness during that time?'
It would certainly be difficult to deceive not only Hedin, but also Reena and Melly, who served her most closely, for an extended period.
After pondering for a moment, Blair let out a sigh and stood up. It was a problem with no solution, even after thinking about it.
When she came out of the bathroom, Melly, who had been waiting outside the door, came in and dried her body and helped her into a robe.
"The meal has been prepared in your room as you requested."
"Thank you."
The two left the bathroom and went straight to the room.
The moment she passed through the sitting room and entered the bedroom, Blair's pupils began to shake violently at the smell of soup and savory bread.
'My stomach is churning...'
She could have dismissed it as simple loss of appetite, but Blair, having already lived through her previous life, knew exactly what this symptom meant.
This was morning sickness.