To The Traitor in My Bed - Chapter 4

Like most aristocrats in Antwerp, Deirdre had married without regard to her personal wishes. It was a marriage even arranged by His Majesty the King himself. The groom, a royalist, had no reason to refuse, and the bride had no courage to oppose it.

Deirdre’s brother, Dorian, openly complained.

<Ha, Fairchild may be rich, but you know how shameless he is. If Father and Daymond were alive, they would have found a far more manly man to marry you. Poor Deirdre Havisham.>

Daymond had been her older brother. The siblings had tragically lost both their father and Daymond in recent years.

Still, she considered herself fortunate.

Indeed, Fairchild was wealthy. Seventy percent of the income from the vast northern Rochepolie, seventy percent of the family’s traditional business earnings, and most of the capital profits from real estate, stocks, and bonds invested with those earnings were all the Count’s alone.

Dorian’s opinion that Fairchild was not manly didn’t come solely from personal bitterness.

Count Fairchild had a reputation as a coward. Three years ago, when the neighboring Froiden demanded the return of territory and declared war, the Count chose to provide a well-trained mercenary force and ample military funds to the King, instead of fulfilling his own military service.

His excuse, being the only heir of the Fairchild family, seemed to convince not only the King but also other nobles. Those who disliked the Count preferred to call him a ‘opportunist’ rather than the more insulting ‘coward.’

Whether he was a coward or an opportunist, Deirdre had no intention of evaluating her husband based solely on that reputation.

It was the romantic and more potentially worrying reputation ‘the Princess’s lover’ that she would rather focus on.

The Leonhart royal family in Antwerp had only one princess: Sabrina Leonhart.

Ever since the late Count Fairchild brought his young son into the royal palace, Frederick and Princess Sabrina had formed a strong friendship.

The princess and the young boy had been an ideal pair, often admired by those who saw them, and many would secretly speculate about the rosy future they might share.

However, the princess had been married off to the Grand Ducal family of the Froiden Union Duchy five years ago. The war between the two nations had started after the Grand Duke fell from power, and another noble, Duke Arthur, took control.

The Duke attempted to reclaim the territory by using the widow of the former Grand Duke, who had committed suicide, as a hostage. However, to King Christian of Antwerp, the fate of his half-sister was not of the slightest importance.

The two nations fought a brutal war for over a year, which ended in a narrow victory for the kingdom.

Even after the war, King Christian would not allow the princess to set foot on her homeland. The peace treaty included the following clause:

[The widow of the former Grand Duke Dietrich, Sabrina, is to be imprisoned in Strasbourg Castle in Froiden until her death.]

Through the war, Fairchild grew even wealthier. The world remained sympathetic to the young Count, who had lost his lover. Many believed that he had been the one to convince the king to spare the life of the princess, as Christian was the type of man who would have no hesitation in sending an assassin to kill a useless sibling.

As for Deirdre, she had never met the princess. Therefore, she never felt any jealousy toward Princess Sabrina or suspected her husband, as some people had imagined.

In fact, Frederick was not as charming on the inside as he appeared on the outside. Though many noblewomen admired him, he lacked the wit and playfulness one would expect from such a popular man in social circles.

Even in the early days of their marriage, when they attempted to spend time together, he could only engage in superficial conversations.

What people truly admired were the Count’s wealth, fame, and his outward appearance.

Deirdre did not expect anything more from her husband.

But occasionally, on days when she couldn’t help but be sentimental, she would wonder if he had truly loved the princess deeply, as the rumors suggested. And if the loss of his lover had extinguished the young man’s passion, wisdom, and courage by the age of twenty-seven.

However, she was only his dutiful wife. By accepting this, she fully embraced the privileges that came with being Countess. She also made an effort to stay away from the confusing political matters, both domestic and foreign.

For example, the rumors surrounding the ‘White Rose Brigade’.

As it was said, the White Rose was the symbol of the Froiden Union Duchy. Was it merely a coincidence that the symbol of the armed forces, who openly engaged in acts of rebellion such as seizing royal armories, funding anti-government media, and liberating political prisoners, was also the White Rose?

Of course, the truth was unknown to anyone.

Nobles who held resentment toward the tyrant Christian secretly hoped for the actions of the brigade. Deirdre, too, honestly found herself in the same position as them, though part of her feared being suspected of supporting the opposition.

So, when she discovered that a man with a strong foreign accent had been coming in and out of her house, she was greatly alarmed.

At first, she tried to reassure herself.

‘There can’t be just one person in Antwerp who speaks with a foreign accent.’

There were many countries on the continent besides Froiden. The kingdom had the most active exchange with the neutral country of Ratnum, which bordered to the east. Perhaps what she had heard was simply a Ratnum accent.

But then, why would Frederick be meeting this foreigner secretly at night?

If he could subdue a wild horse so quickly, why pretend to be unable to ride?

Once suspicion took root, it spiraled into more doubts.

Count Fairchild was often away from home. While the day-to-day affairs were handled by his secretary and lawyers, his signature was still needed for contracts. For this reason, he met many people.

Though Deirdre had full access to both the Rochepolie mansion and the townhouse, there were places she respected as off-limits in her husband’s private life and did not pry into.

The Count had an active aversion to the necessary skills of Antwerp’s nobility—horsemanship, swordsmanship, and marksmanship. Not only was he incompetent at these, but he actively avoided them.

He even asked Deirdre not to take up fencing as a hobby, warning her that he might feel sick at the sight of blood.

This was what her husband, who had shown no interest in her hobbies, like everything else in her private life, had said immediately after the incident with the horse..