"...Insomnia?"
"It doesn't mean I'm unhealthy or anything like that. I just can't sleep well."
As Kaian raised his eyebrows, Claudel shrugged her shoulders and looked at him.
"As long as I sleep well, I'm very healthy. It was like that before I contracted consumption."
Claudel spoke as if making excuses, as if worried that Kaian would find fault with her. When he saw her like this, the heat that had seemed ready to explode a moment ago slowly subsided.
"Why can't you sleep? You can't sleep alone?"
"Well..."
The expression faded from Claudel's face.
"Ever since I first came to Castle Valmonde."
"Didn't you grow up your entire life in Castle Valmonde?"
"What?"
When she opened her eyes wide in surprise, Kaian realized he'd made a mistake.
From his perspective, it had been a forced marriage. Besides, King Valquiterre had already imposed the royal command upon him. He'd married Claudel without even getting to know her properly—nothing had mattered beyond the fact that his partner was from Vermont, his mortal enemy.
It had been so early on their wedding night that he couldn't even remember her name and had to ask. He didn't know much about Claudel being registered as the Duke's adoptive daughter, nor did he think it particularly important. He'd even assumed that sending the Duke of Vermont's niece—registered as his adoptive daughter—as Kaian's bride rather than his beloved biological daughter included the King's tacit permission for divorce or annulment.
Because of his faulty memory, an answer that didn't fit the situation had slipped out.
"Ah. You became the Duke's adoptive daughter after your parents died, so you must have lived somewhere else until then."
"...Yes."
Claudel didn't seem offended by Kaian's hasty correction.
*After losing her mother in an accident, her father voluntarily wrote a will saying he would join his wife.*
The image of a tiny girl left alone at a young age overlaid itself upon the woman who now sat before him.
"I haven't been able to sleep well since my parents died. That's why."
"I see."
Claudel nodded at his words.
"Come here."
She raised her head and looked at him.
"Shouldn't you sleep?"
Kaian went to the bed first and lay down. Claudel hesitantly approached. That hesitation seemed a little endearing to him. She'd asked if he could come every night, yet she found it awkward to lie down beside him.
When Kaian lay down and held out his hand, she carefully took it and settled onto the bed.
"Just sleep for now."
As he tried to withdraw his hand, Claudel grasped Kaian's arm with both hands.
"Can't we sleep holding hands?"
"What?"
"I need to feel someone's body warmth to sleep well."
"Then how did you sleep at Castle Valmonde?"
"Hannah slept with me then. I slept holding her hand."
Kaian sighed through his nose. Claudel must have interpreted this negatively, because she released his arm.
"Oh, never mind then. Good night."
"Come here."
He turned on his side and stretched out his arms. In the moonlight, his eyes gleamed vividly in the darkness like those of a wild animal.
"I'll hold you."
Claudel hesitated, crouching uncertainly, then slowly came into his arms and lay down with her arms around him.
At that moment, Kaian felt a flutter in his chest. His heart felt as if it had been gently swept by a feather fan.
The woman who rested her forehead against his chest fell asleep almost instantly.
Kaian sighed as he noticed dark shadows under her closed eyes that hadn't been there even when she was ill.
*She couldn't sleep?*
She'd slept with Hannah, holding her hand. He was her husband, yet he couldn't even match the role of her maid—who'd become a faithful servant of Temnes. He'd offered to hold her because of such childish competitive thoughts, but after embracing her, he found there was nothing unpleasant about it.
*If I come here every night, perhaps something will change.*
After all, Claudel had been the first to suggest they sleep together each night.
Kaian closed his eyes, breathing in the woman's scent rising from his arms.
---
The morning I woke after a good night's sleep seemed brighter and more beautiful than usual.
When I opened my eyes, Kaian was no longer beside me, but I lay lazily in bed, basking in contentment.
"He really came."
It made me happy that a man with such a cold face and perpetually stern expression had listened to my request without dismissing it.
Kaian was my benefactor. The days I was alive and breathing now were a life I could enjoy thanks to him providing medicine. With that fact alone, I thought that even if he treated me coldly and scolded me, I couldn't help but feel gratitude and affection toward him.
After realizing that Kaian's personality could only express itself in that particular way, he no longer seemed so frightening. At first, even when he merely raised his eyebrows in disapproval, I'd felt so nervous my courage would shrink.
"...He held me."
I would have been grateful if he'd simply held my hand. If he hadn't offered, I'd planned to wait until he fell asleep, then quietly embrace him myself. In any case, I could only sleep with someone's body warmth beside me.
However, though I'd been surprised—having no idea he would hold me like that—I'd fallen asleep immediately from the warmth I felt in his arms and the sense of security provided by the strong embrace wrapped around my body.
After sleeping well for the first time in days, I felt as if I'd been rescued from hell and lifted to heaven, light in both body and mind.
"What should I do? I think I'm starting to like him."
My cheeks flushed as I thought of Kaian.
For months after falling ill with no hope of recovery, I'd prepared for death. The act of tidying things around me had been filled with regret for my short life.
At first, I'd been confused about why he'd saved my life when I'd deceived him about my condition before marriage. I'd thought I would die, but though it was wonderful to be alive, it was also embarrassing. I hadn't been prepared at all to live in Rowan, in Temnes lands.
While I should have been thinking about my life as a Duchess and Kaian's wife, I'd been contemplating what to write in my will and what to engrave on my tombstone.
Unlike when Kaian had asked, *"Did you come here to die?"* he hadn't seemed to care about that aspect. Rather than complaining to Vermont about the Duchess's lack of awareness—because he'd assumed I would die—hadn't he quietly spent money to maintain my dignity?
"It might be too much to hope he could like me."
Kaian was preparing for a territorial war to annihilate Vermont. I knew how deeply Kaian despised Vermont, because I too had grown up in Vermont surrounded by hostility toward Temnes.
There was nothing unusual about everyone in Castle Rowan treating me coldly and not hiding their hatred for Vermont—everyone in Castle Valmonde felt the same way about Temnes. I'd heard similar curses from both sides, only with the subjects reversed.
But until I was quite grown, and even after coming to live at Vermont, I hadn't had the capacity to nurture anger toward Temnes. My parents' deaths had been such an overwhelming ordeal.
Meanwhile, it was very fortunate that Kaian didn't persecute me or treat me harshly. Just by saving my life, I was beginning to like him. Plus, he was exceptionally handsome and noble in bearing.
If my husband wasn't particularly cruel to me, what harm could there be in my secretly liking him during our marriage?
When I thought this far, however, there was a problem.
"It seemed like Uncle was planning to attack him after I died."
I hadn't thought much about what would happen after my death. When the great Lord of Temnes had been forced into marriage by royal decree, there was nothing I could have changed—I had no power.
However, I remembered that the Duke of Vermont had said repeatedly, *"King Oberon is on my side too"* and *"King Oberon will help me defeat Temnes."*
"That can't be possible. It doesn't make sense."
King Valquiterre Oberon was a royal prince born to Queen Silvia. Kaian's mother, Lady Elise, the previous Duchess of Temnes, had been Silvia's biological sister. King Oberon and Kaian were maternal cousins.
Why would such a King take Vermont's side?
Having accepted my approaching death, I hadn't cared either way. So whenever the Duke of Vermont discussed my marriage and what he would do with Temnes after my death, I'd kept silent and said nothing.
But now that I'd unexpectedly survived, everything had changed. Now I was afraid and worried that the Duke of Vermont might try to harm Kaian.
I got out of bed, put on a robe over my nightgown, and went to sit at the desk. I'd never properly used the furniture in the Duchess's room, having been confined to bed due to illness. But as I sat down at the elegant antique desk, I felt hopeful about the days I would live here from now on.
I took out paper and a pen from the desk drawer, thought for a moment, then began writing a short message to send by telegram.
Rowan and Valmonde were located at opposite ends of the kingdom, so it would take more than fifteen days to reach one from the other by horse. But thanks to telegraphs using signals, short messages could be delivered within a day—for a substantial fee.
*[Consumption is cured. Health is restoring. I get along well with my husband. We can send more food to Valmonde.]*
"Is this sufficient?"
I'd told the Duke of Vermont that my relationship with Kaian was fine. If I didn't die, I thought he would figure out the rest—whether he abandoned the plan he'd been proclaiming about being judged for sending precious Vermont blood to its death.
"My Lady, what made you wake so early?"
Hannah entered the room, smiling.
"I was worried you couldn't sleep again..."
"No. I slept well last night because the Duke came."
"Oh! The Lord slept here?"
"Hannah, I have a favor to ask."
I handed her a money pouch and the folded paper with my message written on it.
"Would you please go send a telegram to Valmonde?"
"Yes. When should I go?"
"Right now. Please go and return quickly."
I sighed as Hannah left the room. After resolving what had been troubling me, I felt much more at ease.
---
As the season changed from late summer to early autumn, white frost began falling in the early mornings around Castle Valmonde. The scene of frost crystals gently layering upon green moss that still held summer's light was a quintessentially northern seasonal vista.
"A telegram? A telegram?"
When he heard that a telegram addressed to him had arrived from Rowan, the Duke of Vermont snatched the letter from his subordinate's hand, wondering if he'd finally received the news he'd been waiting for.
*Claudel's condition must have worsened.*
He quickly opened the letter, noting the sender's name written as "Hannah Pebble." However, it was Claudel, not Hannah, who had sent the telegram.
*[Consumption is cured. Health is restoring. I get along well with my husband. We can send more food to Valmonde.]*
Moreover, unbelievably, it stated that Claudel hadn't died and her consumption had been cured.
"How can this be? The consumption is healed!"
Besides, she was getting along well with that Kaian boy?
The Duke of Vermont frowned deeply and tapped his index finger on his desk. Finally, he raised his head and shouted toward the door.
"You there!"
"Yes, my lord?"
"Go and summon Irena."
A moment later, Irena entered his office, tilting her head at her father's unexpected summons.
"Father? You called for me?"
"Yes."
"Why are you looking for me at this hour?"
The Duke of Vermont smiled at his daughter's question and said, "You should go to Rowan, Irena. If you like it there, you can stay forever."
---