My Dear Grand Duke on a Leash - Chapter 57

Chapter 29.1 — Best Bridesmaid (11)

Cain’s hand came to a halt on the middle of her thigh.

“Ha…”

He let out a deep sigh and relaxed his body, barely suppressing the heat that had been boiling inside him. Still, the ember hadn’t completely burned out. It was an active volcano that had already erupted, and all he did was gather the surrounding dirt, packing it tightly at the entrance to prevent further eruptions.

A corkscrew blocking the entrance of champagne…

That was precisely what it was.

Knowing how unruly he could become, he didn’t want to lose control yet. How ugly was a human who succumbed to their instincts? Civilization wasn’t about being at the mercy of nature but rather about restraining and governing it.

He had to be human. To live as a human, he had to endure.

After lowering the hand that had been skimming her, he picked her up carefully.

“I’ll move you to the bed, Princess.”

The end of patience was always sweet.

˚ ･: * ✧ * :･ ˚

Finally, it was the day.

Basking in the unusually scorching summer sun, a flock of white doves soared over the turquoise dome-shaped roof of the cathedral. The sacred tolling of the bells, announcing the festival, even blessed the smallest rats in the winding alleys of Montbéliard.

The sky, teetering on the edge between dawn and morning, was bathed in a shy shade of blue.

The early commotion of the festival reached the windows of the Princess’s Palace within the Royal Palace. Amidst the subtle gleam, the sound of a lark’s song seeped through.

Light suddenly sparkled in the green eyes that had fallen into a drowsy slumber.

A lark… crying?

As she jumped up from her bed, her thick wheat-colored hair swirled like a foam.

When she turned her head toward the window, she could see Shushu chirping in the golden cage. After approaching the window from the bed, Riette pressed her forehead against the golden cage.

“…Shushu?”

With a mind partially entangled in sleep, she stared blankly at the lark with its turquoise plumage before looking down at her own body to see that she was wearing a loose and translucent negligee.

‘Did I dream?’

Riette petted the chirping Shushu through the dented cage door and glanced around her bedroom.

‘…I guess it was all a dream.’

A person turning into a lark… it still didn’t make sense.

Hoisting Shushu onto her shoulder, she got off the bed and pressed the call button near the bed. Soon, a chambermaid entered, bending her knees and greeting her.

“I can’t believe Your Highness is already awake. I suppose you must be nervous and excited. It’s your only sister’s wedding, after all.”

When the chambermaid approached the bed, her excitement as if it were her own wedding, Riette furrowed her eyebrows subtly.

“Um. Today is my sister’s wedding, right?”

“Huhu. Of course, it’s the day Princess Beatrice becomes the happiest woman in the world. You must prepare quickly so you can be ready on time for the ceremony… Oh, my!”

The chambermaid, who was trying to remove the negligee, gasped and covered her mouth. It was because of the clear mark left on the Princess’s neck.

The chambermaid scrutinized Riette’s white, voluptuous figure with her eyes.

“Your Highness, by any chance, did you happen to meet someone privately yesterday? For example, in your room, a gentleman…”

Since she was grounded for going out, there was no way she had ventured outside.

In addition, she couldn’t have had the opportunity to engage in other activities under the pretext of a meeting since her older sister had also been ordered to rest right until before the wedding. Furthermore, Princess Lariette had never possessed the disposition to conspire in such a manner. Which meant that some discourteous person had somehow managed to come through the window without the notice of the servants in the Princess’s Palace…

In the meanwhile, as Riette embraced herself as the eyes explored every inch of her bare skin embarrassingly, the plump and soft mounds of flesh curled upward, pressing tightly against each other.

“Why are you asking such things? It’s so impertinent!”

With the sunrise on her cheeks, Riette raised her voice before she quickly moved to the bathroom, removing her negligee. It was only after facing the bathroom mirror that she gasped and opened her mouth in shock.

“This…!”

The bite mark he left on the nape of her neck yesterday was as clear as a seal.

Tap.

Even though she covered it with her palm now and glanced subtly at the chambermaid, it was much too late.

‘That was why she asked…’

She must have caught everything, right?

Covering the nape of her neck with both hands, Riette stealthily slipped into the bathtub, where steam billowed before she locked the door. Bubbles rose frothingly in the water.

The mark he left was still there, which meant yesterday’s events weren’t a dream…

Furthermore, the lark she had been raising was, in fact, the younger sibling of the Grand Duke. And in the end, she had agreed to a contract marriage with him…

Flush.

Riette’s face flushed.

At the same time, she was worried about the chambermaid’s gaze as she brought in the bath salts, and she ended up soaking all the way to the top of her head.

The foamy bubbles on the water’s surface rose and then suddenly burst.

As if traces of yesterday remained like an afterimage, a ticklish and strange sensation came to mind while the air bubbles popping on the water’s surface suddenly ceased.

Plop!

She soon exhaled a deep breath, sticking her head out.

“Pprik!”

“…Shushu?”

Shushu was sitting on the edge of the bathtub as usual. As she gazed at the turquoise and black feathers, it suddenly struck her once again that it wasn’t a dream, and she felt a shiver trickling down her spine.

…So, this wasn’t a lark but his younger sibling.

A five-year-old child…

“Shushu.”

“Pprik!”

“Ian.”

“Pprik!”

“….”

Finally, a sense of reality began to trickle down her skin.

This little lark was his secret, his weakness, and the reason why he had chosen an arranged marriage.

To him, marriage was for the sake of this fragile lark. Conversely, for her, it was for the sake of her sister and the country’s protection. She must not forget. The contract marriage with him had a duration of one year, and the purpose was the safety of Chalonné and the conception of the heir to the Grand Duchy of Acheron.

It was the most weighty mission of her twenty years of life.

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