"Yes."
Thérèse took his face in her hands, raised her head, and placed her lips on his.
She was captivated by the warmth of his lips, which seeped into her heat after they had been lukewarm.
In the garden, where the sounds of insects had faded, the rustle of clothes and the sound of wet steps spread.
Therese opened her slightly closed eyes and looked at him.
His cheeks were red from the glare of the heat, the wrinkle between his eyebrows from intense concentration, his thick eyelashes and his closed eyes.
All of this lit a fire in her longing.
Therese massaged his broad back.
When she tilted her head, a bright silver thread formed between them and then broke off.
His glossy lips looked luscious.
Dennis's arms wrapped around her, and she inhaled his ever-familiar scent.
The fragrant scent of his cigars and the freshness of his forests.
I want to own you.
Thérèse took a step back and proudly lifted the hem of her red-stained dress.
On the surface of her skin, she felt his gaze glued to her.
A pleasant feeling overwhelmed her.
Among the folds of the raised, shaking dress, the moonlight spilled onto her white legs.
Thérèse's hand clenched around the hem of her dress and she wore a charming smile.
“I spilled the wine and got dirty like this.
The night is late and all the servants have fallen asleep.
What should I do?
Prince, will you help me?”
"…Yes."
Therese grabbed Denise's hand.
Therese returned to her bedroom leading Denise's hand, and then Denise stopped her.
“Therese.”
He turned his gaze to her legs, which were dripping with wine.
The wine had dried on her legs without her realizing it.
“Prince, is this what is important now?”
“Ahem, it looks like blood.”
Eventually, Dennis led Therese to the bathroom.
She took off her nightgown in one go and got into the bathtub.
“Prince.”
Thérèse called him in hasty amazement.
This wasn't what I meant.
He looked around the corner until he found the hanging shower brush.
“Prince.”
“Which perfume do you prefer?
This or that?”
Dennis was holding two perfumes and tilted his head questioningly.
“…the one on the left.”
Therese pointed her finger at the perfume she liked.
The sight of him concentrating was no longer as precarious as it had been a moment ago.
That may be fine, but the atmosphere seems to have been spoiled.
Open the perfume cap and pour a generous amount into the bathtub.
As if he had misjudged the quantity, the strong smell of roses spread in the bathroom more than usual.
Therese felt a throbbing headache.
Denise poured warm water over her legs.
Then he began to gently massage the clinging wine with the shower brush.
"How's that?
Does it hurt?"
"decent."
“Say it hurts you.”
He rubbed her legs with a soft touch.
In the humid bathroom, Dennis was sweating as he washed her off.
Perhaps because he was busy serving her bath, his eyebrows wrinkled and drops of sweat appeared on his forehead.
The corners of Therese's mouth rose in a silent smile.
Anyway, if he gets better, good for her.
Therese raised her hands, soaked in water, to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
When Therese's hands touched his forehead, Dennis raised his head, which had been occupied with her legs.
At that moment, Dennis and Therese's eyes met directly.
Dennis raised the corner of his mouth and smiled slyly.
Like a naughty child planning one of his evil tricks.
Dennis put down the brush and began to caress her legs with a smooth touch.
Therese's heart beat rapidly.
This was clearly not an act of washing.
Dennis's looks were the looks of someone who wanted to desecrate her.
At dawn, the sound of a door creaking then opening and closing was heard, and the sound of the footsteps of someone walking away.
Therese woke up to see the bed already empty.
Therese ran her hand over his spot, which had grown cold.
He's gone.
He never waited for her to wake up.
Maybe it was his special care for her to rest.
But Therese thought differently.
She felt as if he felt guilty for spending the morning in the same bed with her.
The night a few hours ago seemed like an old, distant dream.
If I wasn't an Engelger, would we be any different?
I sometimes wondered those desperate fantasies.
At night, where boundaries disappear, anything can happen.
At night when everyone was asleep, he would come to her, hug her, and finally scream... but...
I won't be able to have both day and night.
That would be greed.
Knowing this, her desire for him was beyond limits and growing.
“Ma’am, are you awake?”
She heard a voice calling her outside the door.
“Yes, come in.”
It's time to get back to reality.
Duke Mathieu Priem was a cold and sharp man.
With his wisdom, he made the right decisions in times of need and put the Duke's family on solid ground.
But the biggest error in his estimates was, as they say, the case of Queen Charles.
In fact, opinions were divided on the issue.
Half of them thought that Duke Priem was cruel, and the other half thought that his judgment was excellent.
If we listen to the words of those who evaluate the matter positively, the bottom line is this: they removed an ignorant and lowly commoner queen who had no proper education, and elevated the daughter of the ducal family of Priem to the throne to become queen, thus repairing the foundation of the kingdom.
But the arguments of the opposite camp strongly contradicted that view.
The course of removing Queen Charles was not convincing, and that they robbed her of her life and placed a disgrace on her children, and in the end that the disputes between the two princes over the succession to the crown were what they caused, they were the focus of the main argument.
But at this point, it was difficult to judge the rightness or wrongness of what he did.
Because he is still influential.
Those who participated in the deposition of Queen Charles were themselves Old Testament aristocrats.
Duke Priem, Marquis Engelger, Count Riedel, Count Grimaldi, Baron Fland, and others.
Twenty years have passed, but the emergence of new nobles did not make the Old Testament aristocrats lose their power, but rather firmly maintained their territories.
At that time, Duke Priem and Marquis Engelger were harmoniously cooperating colleagues.
But their disagreement emerged when a new queen was nominated.
Matteo wanted his daughter, and Marquis Engelger wanted his sister on the throne.
The result was Duke Priem's victory.
Since then, the two have lived as separate enemies.
That broken alliance was never healed.
Because the Marquis Engelger pushed his daughter into the opposition side of Denis.
In his own way, he was also an amazing person.
It was as if he had placed his daughter in the heart of the enemy camp.
Mathieu Priem is old now.
All those glory and humiliations are a thing of the past.
His wisdom, sharp as a sharpened sword, began to weaken little by little, and his memory faded.
The things he was forgetting increased.
If it was like before, he would scold Fabrice harshly for his misdeeds, but he now overlooked them more and more.
This time too it was.
When the Fabrice Castle scandal broke in the capital, Matteo visited his grandson, who was retiring.
The sight of the grandson sitting slumped looked as if he was extremely remorseful.
“Your Highness, you must be careful in your actions from now on.”
Fabrice replied grumblingly:
“I know I was just going with Javier so you know that well.”
“That's right, you're similar to Marianne in your tenderness and emotional sensitivity, so you can't get rid of bad friends.”
“That's right, grandpa, I clearly said I didn't want to go.”
As he said this, Fabrice grabbed Matteo's wrinkled hand.
Fabrice always called Matteo “Grandpa” and not “Duke” when he was in trouble.
Fabrice had realized that Matteo was vulnerable to his pitiful expression.
In the eyes of Duke Prim who looked at them, the sternness with which he intended to rebuke him disappeared and was filled with compassion.
“I will definitely make His Highness the Prince ascend to the throne, I, Matteo Priem.”
"Really?
I just have to stay calm, right?"
“Sure, just trust me, Your Highness Prince Fabrice.”
Matteo said as he patted Fabrice on the shoulder.
His shabby appearance was not befitting his grandson.
When he looked at Fabrice, smiling broadly, his daughter Marianne's face seemed to overlap for a moment.
My daughter, who died a week after Julian was born.
He felt pride and pity for his grandson who had grown up alone without a mother, so even when it was said that he had taken commoners and killed them, the Duke did not get too angry.
In his view, common people were no different from cows or pigs.
Animals that never stop complaining all the time.
Cows and pigs provide him with labor and food, but they do not bear any resentment.
That's why Matteo sometimes considered cows and pigs better than the common people.
“When we meet again, I will bring support forces with me to strongly support Your Highness.”
"Really?
I'll be patiently waiting, Grandpa."
Fabrice bid him farewell, smiling broadly.
Matteo left the palace leaning on his cane.
He moved his head, which had become dull.
Who could he put behind Fabrice?
Even if this old man died, there must be a family with the strength to protect Fabrice and put him on the throne safely.
After careful thought, Matteo decided to associate the daughter of the Lomaxong family with Fabrice.
Of course, he was the one who chose the candidate for the engagement, but the final decision was up to Elliot.
The daughter of a new noble family whom he reviled so often.
Only at this point did Matteo himself realize that he was acting contradictory.
'You've grown very old.'
Matteo smiled wryly.
His face, reflected in the full, moving cup, was full of wrinkles.
But he still had something to do.
Perhaps it will be the final achievement of his life.
Put Fabrice on the throne.
He won't be able to close his eyes until he completes this task.
Matteo drank the liquid in the cup.
It was still too early to lie in the coffin.
[Continued in the next chapter]