I was a virtuous wife

Chapter 6: Something wrong

"You look well", said Jonathan as he arrived to the estate's entrance. 

["That's the first sentence he says when he sees me after a week ? How disappointing..."], thought Kierra when she turned around and faced Jonathan.

Today was the day when they depart for Kierra's family estate for the harvest festival. It had been a week since they last saw each other and they communicated only by sending word through the head butler Henry or the head maid Bella. 

Normally Kierra would feel sad about the lack of attention Jonathan gave her but now she felt disappointment and even a bit irritated. These days Kierra herself knew that she was acting weird. One day she'll feel hurt and sad or betrayed and disappointed or confused and anxious but she never felt hatred. Kierra knew that somewhere in her heart she still loved Jonathan but her disappointment grew day by day when Jonathan kept acting careless.

"How is your health ? It seems you were so busy that you even forgot to eat..... you never came to the dining room so I was concerned if you were eating well.", said Kierra looking concerned but her words felt icy as if she was indifferent.

Jonathan was taken aback by his wife's words since she would have usually acted like nothing happened or ask for an explanation in a roundabout way but now her words seemed cold and even a bit sarcastic.

"O-oh I was just caught up with the paperwork because of the war... you know how his majesty is a perfectionist so I was busy reviewing them.", he said with a guilty look on his face.

"But I already reviewed them and wrote a report , you only had to sign them. Why ? Were there any mistakes in my work ? I made sure to check them before sending it to you.", said Kierra confidently. 

Kierra knew that Jonathan was blatantly avoiding her since he had finally gotten together with Sierra but she at least expected him to come up with a believable excuse if he didn't wanted her to find out. 

One of the reasons why the Alden family proposed an engagement with Kierra was not only because of her family's wealth and name but also because of Kierra's skills and intelligence. Even though, women were usually frowned upon for pursuing knowledge, the Vonton family was well known for their intelligence and producing great scholars including women. So Kierra who was the eldest daughter of the Vonton family was expected to continue that lineage and she did. Ever since she was young, Kierra was known to be a genius and had a great reputation among the noble families irrespective of her gender.

So the Alden family which was near bankruptcy because of mismanagement and corruption among the vassals, wanted Kierra to marry Jonathan so that she could somehow save them from their situation by acting as the lady of the house who had full rights to handle estate management. That's why after their marriage, Kierra overlooked the entire financial state of the Alden family and took over the estate management. She was the one who read all the documents and came up with the plans for the welfare of the people of their dukedom. Jonathan only had to read the final reports that Kierra made and sign the paperwork to finalize them.

So his reason of reviewing paperwork that made him so busy that he couldn't even spare a visit to his wife was obviously a lie but Kierra didn't want to dig any deeper since it'll take half a day to reach the Vonton estate and they had to share a carriage for the entire journey.

"Then shall we get going, your grace ?", said Nolan, the captain of the knights of the Alden estate. 

"Yes, then let us be off", said Jonathan and held out his hand to help Kierra get into the carriage.

["A times like this only does he act like a gentleman."], thought Kierra as she grabbed his hand and got on the carriage.

The journey began and finally they started their way towards Kierra's home.

"I wonder what her grace and the duke must be doing now ?", said Sara who was riding  inside the servants carriage. 

"What are you thinking about now ?", said Lucy who was also a maid and a good friend of Sara's.

"Think about it ! They are inside a tight enclosed space for half a day, who knows what might happen ?!", squealed Sara whose imagination was running wild.

"I wonder where you get these ideas.... But don't you think the atmosphere between the madam and master is weird these days ?"

"What do you mean ? Of course, the time they spend has decreased but the madam still loves master very much. I bet she can't even hide her excitement for riding with master and is very happy doing lovey dovey things with master right about now", said Sara with a knowing look but she couldn't be any more wrong.

The air between Kierra and Jonathan was awkward and even a bit tense. Jonathan sensed that something was wrong and tried to make light conversation with Kierra but she responded with short replies and in the end went to sleep saying she was tired from preparing for the trip.

["She keeps acting weird these days.... She isn't like how she used to be. Her eyes don't carry the same affection they used to and she is visibly behaving differently"], thought Jonathan as he stared at Kierra's still sleeping face.

Suddenly a thought flashed through his mind.

[".....Did she find out about Sierra and me ?"], he felt anxious just by the thought of it.

["No, its not possible. I was thorough in not leaving any evidences and also warned the servants to not let her know. Yes, a prideful woman like Kierra would have confronted me as soon as she came to know about this so hopefully she still doesn't know. I just need a bit more time to carry out my plan and then finally I can be together with Sierra without worrying about her. So until  then she better not find out the truth."]

End of chapter 6.

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