"Duchess!!"
After saying one word, Callisto was at a loss for words. Looking wide eyed like a shocked kid, hearing curses for the first time. Thinking that his ears played tricks on him.
Callisto never expected such words coming out of the noble Briana's mouth. She had never once in the fifteen years they lived together or the twenty years he knew her from banquets acted like this.
It could also be the most vulgar thing she had said, Callisto thought, bewildered.
Briana looked at him for some more time to see if he had anything to say before turning around and packing a large suitcase. He really was a child, yet no longer innocent or adorable...
Looking at her actions, Callisto panicked. In all his thirty-one years of living, he had never encountered such a dilemma. He was obviously getting dumped and he should naturally be happy about it but-
"What are you doing?"
"Didn't you hear me saying I am visiting my father?"
"Why are you talking like that to me-... No, why would you go to your father's house?" Callisto said, following Briana around.
Hearing this, Briana stopped, which made Callisto bump into her and fall backward.
"Are you made of stones?" Callisto said, looking at her, annoyed.
Unlike her fair looks and frail body, she was unlikely sturdy, which made him unable to make her lean on him. Something that bothered him every time he looked at her. Looking like wind could blow her away, but in front of him she would become a mountain.
"Why? Because I am worried about him, his sick!" Briana answered truthfully, looking kind of distressed.
Her answer made Callisto furrow. "Did he tell you that in the letter? I saw him on my way home and he was doing pretty well!" He couldn't help but sneer. He had read the letter and knew there was nothing of the kind in it.
Briana looked up at him. If it was anyone else, she might have misunderstood it for that person not wanting her to leave them behind. But it was Callisto, the bloodthirsty cold blooded duke of Golding, so he was probably just curious.
"No, he just asked me to VISIT to pay me for some business I have done for him." Briana said calmly, handing him the letter for him to see for himself.
To be honest, she just wanted to share her worries with someone and even if they were on the verge of splitting up, they were still husband and wife. It was hurtful to admit, but she didn't even have a close friend. Just a bunch of shells like herself.
Besides, even though Callisto wasn't affectionate, he would still burst out his frustrations and worries that she didn't really want to know about.
Callisto looked at the letter with narrowed eyes. It seemed suspicious, but that was all. Was it written in code? Because even if he tasted the paper, there didn't seem to be other words...
"Do you need money?" Callisto asked while thinking how bold it was of her to show him the proof of selling his dukedom's secrets to her father when Briana leaned forward and pointed her finger at the end of the letter.
"I do, not that someone who doesn't even pay me for my work fairly would care, but I wouldn't be in such a hurry because of that. Look here, isn't it worrisome?"
Callisto saw her cherry colored lips move, but the leaning body was so warm and comforting that he couldn't focus on anything.
His eyes wondered about her face. 'How can she get more beautiful, day by day?' Her royal blood and her being the descendant of the great red dragon had for sure their effects.
Gulping down, he tried to focus so he could prevent her from leaving. He wants her to leave his life, but he most definitely doesn't want her to leave now.
Maybe after she comforted him for a long time, saying everything is okay, that the important matter is for him to be alive, that he is the most precious person in the world. Maybe about a month more?...
"Explain so I can understand!" he said in a hoarse, low voice, feeling something like anger swelling up in his throat. The letter's content was not enough to make her leave in such a hurry. Is she making an excuse to leave him? His head throbbed... For a small scar?
She looked into his eyes, with her locking big golden eyes that made him feeling lost. The beautiful eyes in a spotless porcelain face surrounded by silky chocolate brown waterfall that reminded him of the soldiers' conversations on the battlefield. Those eyes that hunted him, day and night.
"Women leave their spouses during the war... No one wants a bloodthirsty ruffian soldier to be their husbands when they can have well spoken scholars."
"Poor thing, his fiancee left him saying he didn't want to be with a killer!"
Being reminded of those despicable conversations made him want her to soothe him for at least another fifteen years. For a long enough time, so he can forget about the fear of getting abandoned helplessly. Enough time to make him forget being a ruthless and heartless killer. Enough time to forget being undesirable and never enough.
Like how his parents had abandoned him from the day he was born, giving all their love and attention to his older brother. For those twelve months, he cursed himself inwardly for saying those words before leaving.
'I won't let her leave until she becomes wrinkly and ugly.' He made that oath to himself while on the enemy's base. It wasn't his fault, she was the one that showed the thirsty him. A river. He is a thirsty beast, willing to kill whoever plans to take his river, even if it's the river itself and why in the devil does she look like she is in her early twenties? He wondered, looking at her uncharacteristically icy demeanor.
Briana took off the hand he was unconsciously holding on the scar. Caressing the scar with indifference. Submerging the urge to drill her fingers inside that pretty head to see what's actually inside.
"Shouldn't you focus so I can explain? I am saying my father may be in deathbed! Otherwise, why should he use such affectionate words? With love?? In my entire life, he has never spotted such words to me or any other sibling of mine! He, for sure, IS DYING!"
Callisto looked at the letter again, now calmer. So, she was genuinely worried. It wasn't a plan to abandon him. He was crazy to think like that when Briana loves him so much...
The duchess analysed the duke's face with a collected expression, wondering if he had bought her obvious lies she had spotted while investing in his unusual naivety about certain common senses.
She, of course, wanted her money and her father wasn't an angel or an ice statue despite how he commonly believed to be. He, too, would use those kinds of words if there was a need to coax someone into doing something for him. Making it all too risky for her to go, but what to do when she needs the money desperately?
The tense look on her husband's face loosened up.
' Tsk! He is really naïve! If he was so worried I am gonna sell his state affairs to my father, he should have been more insistence on my stay! He will lose everything at this rate...' Briana thought to herself as she shook her head mentally.
Then, she suddenly realised she doesn't have to worry about his life anymore. They won't stay related for much longer. Instead, she should make money for herself, so her sons won't starve because Callisto has lost everything.
Determined, she started packing again. Her actions made Callisto uneasy.
"Why is your suitcase so large? Are you going to visit or on vacation?"
The duke, who until now was oblivious to the knight's words, got alarmed. Taking everything she had put inside her suitcase back and pushing away the suitcase.
The duchess, flabbergasted, looked at his crazy actions. He opened the dressing room's door, found a small handbag, and handed it to Briana.
"Here, pack one change of clothes for yourself and one for me. I will shower and get ready."
"What? Are you coming too?"
" Yes, he is but my father-in-law. I should pay him a visit if he is sick. Is there a reason I shouldn't be coming?"
Briana, unaware of his anxious feelings, misunderstood ' So, he really thinks I am a spy delivering information?'. This thought soured her mood. He is the cheating one, yet she is the one getting suspected?
Crossing her arms, she smirked with disdain. "Won't your pregnant mistress feel anxious if you leave her now?" She said, glaring at him coldly. Trying her best to tell 'Do you really want to come to my father's house after what you did?' with her eyes.