The air smelled faintly of citrus and toasted bread. Morning sunlight entered in through the tall windows, casting long shadows across the polished floor.
At the breakfast table, the Duchess sliced her poached egg, graceful and calm as the morning itself.
The Duke who sat opposite to her examined her quietly.
He then set his cup down gently. “I hope the Duchess had a good sleep last night.”
She looked up with a calm, composed expression. “Yes. I had a very good sleep, actually.”
Arron’s brow lifted slightly. “That’s good to hear.”
“Because you did seem quite... troubled last night.”
Indeed, the Duchess looked almost unrecognizable this morning. Where last night her eyes had held restless shadows, this morning they were clear, cold, and unnervingly steady. She had changed. Not gradually, but all at once like a storm.
“Well I find that worry is rarely improved by indulging it,” she said, brushing a crumb from her plate with the tip of her knife.
A sharp silence followed.
Arron said nothing, but watched her, thoughts clicking silently behind his eyes.
At the far end of the table, Derek—her stepbrother—leaned back in his chair, his expression smug beneath a veneer of careless disdain.
“Well, that’s good,” he drawled. “They say worrying makes you age quickly. Would be quite the tragedy if my dear brother-in-law grew bored and decided to trade you for someone younger. Especially since you haven't even provided him with children to keep him loyal.”
The Duchess didn’t flinch. She took a sip of her tea before replying calmly
“You needn’t concern yourself with my hypothetical child, Derek. Perhaps you should worry about your own.”
The air in the room thickened.
Derek’s smirk faltered. “Excuse me?”
“I imagine Teresa’s child will need more than your mockery to get by.” She paused. “Has she picked a name yet?”
Derek’s face turned a shade darker, and the scrape of his chair echoed in the room as he pushed it back.
“This is why I hate dining with you. You’re impossible to talk to.”
She didn’t even look at him.
“Then don’t,” she said, “No one is begging you to stay.”
He stared at her. He wanted to insult her, but the words didn’t come.
He recalled how once upon a time, this same woman had waited for him every morning, requesting, even pleading, for him to join her at the table. She used to smile at him with hope of them becoming a happy family. She had loved him dearly.
But that loving and gentle sister was gone.
He was used to her softness, the way she used to spoil him no matter how bratty he acted— but all that changed on the day she survived that murder attempt.
He sat down again, but the food on his plate now tasted like cold ash. He finished quickly, his silence heavy.
The Duke, still watching his wife from across the table, said nothing more. But his thoughts were loud.
“I truly don't understand her” He thought to himself.
And across from them both, the Duchess sat still and composed, like a woman who had finally remembered who had the actual control.
YOU ARE READING
I Became a Side character in a BL novel
Fiksi Sejarah**WARNING CONTAINS MATURE THEMES**** After dying from a car accident, Erika wakes up in the body of Duchess Rosetta Rowells, a side character in the BL novel she had been reading. And soon the three people discover a brand new world. "Please don't...
