He had a characteristic languid smile on his face, but in Deatrice’s mind, it wasn’t simply a question. It was a question thrown her way with a subtle attack.
“If you’re talking about those six years when we broke up, I got along well and then I was met with a misfortune.”
She pulled herself at his remark and answered with a straight face, “His corpse hasn’t been found yet, but that’s what people say.”
“Well. It will be much better if his body is found. This situation is much harder. It’s like holding on to false hope. You must have had a hard time,” he spoke. Those who would have heard this from a distance might have thought of his statement as an ill-natured remark, but his attitude rather characterized his remark as comforting.
Lucius has always been good at confusing others with his attitude. It was this same attitude that got her interested in him in the first place.
Lucius was a friend of Deatrice’s cousin, Elwood More, but she was never close to her cousin, hence, Deatrice never talked with Lucius.
When Deatrice’s mother passed away and Victoria More, her aunt, helped Deatrice debut in society, her relationship with her cousin was in an ambiguous situation. This brought Deatrice and Lucius to greeting terms at the ball.
Elwood’s younger sister, Charlie More, had a worse relationship with Deatrice, compared to Elwood. They needed to be friendly with each other as they debuted with the same chaperone, but Charlie was one cunning and obsessive being, so much that when a man asks her for only a dance, she would fall in love with the man and never let him go. Elwood had received strict orders from his mother to take care of Charlie More if any such situation arose.
“Please, Angel,” Elwood spoke in a tired voice to his friend. The person who he was referring to as an angel lifted his head and looked at Elwood. With blonde hair and red eyes, Lucius looked no less than an angel.
Elwood spoke, “Please save my sister. This is her fourth time dancing with Wick. She must have decided to end her social life here.” It was sarcastic of him to speak of his younger sister.
Deatrice thought that Lucius would agree with what Elwood had said. Because she knew how men would view a woman who only dances with one man.
However, Lucius acted the exact opposite. He raised the corner of his handsome lips and spoke ambiguously, “She must have fallen in love already.” It was difficult to decode his attitude and made people wonder if he was being sarcastic or he meant to say it in a good manner to tell Elwood to stop being harsh on his sister.
Elwood sighed and patted the angel on his shoulder. To keep his friend’s heart, the angel danced on one song with Charlie More and walked away, and therefore saving her from society’s ridicule.
Coming back from her thoughts, Deatrice recalled the angel’s words. It will be much better if his body is found. You must have had a hard time.
She looked up at him without saying a single word. Her actions made Lucius smile at one corner of his mouth.
Later, he turned his head to look at the flower again. “I know your feelings, but you must go on with this marriage.”
She wasn’t foolish enough to ask him how he knew her heart. “I know, I can’t refuse. Though I know you don’t need to.”
“I am no different. Besides, it’s a marriage that’s quite an advantage to me. The emperor has always wanted to grant me a title, but the conservatives seem to have opposed it because of my bloodline. Your family’s legitimacy is necessary for me to inherit the title,” Lucius explained.
“That was why…,” she trailed off.
He nodded, “Yes. I came here with a marriage proposal, though you would have already guessed.”
It was a light conversation. Far from romance, it was more of a proposal. Deatrice understood that he was not in a position to turn down the proposal, but since the order to keep secrets came to duke and her directly from the emperor, she was speculating that it might be because if Lucius objected, the marriage could be disrupted.
Concerning her speculations, Lucius would never willingly want to have anything to do with her, let alone the duke. But when she saw Lucius calmly revealing his intentions, he must have made up his mind to leave behind his messy past. Deatrice couldn’t stop wondering how can a person be like that?
She suddenly remembered the words of a nobleman who had returned alive from the war. He had mentioned that during a war, trivial matters between people become nothing, and one starts accepting everything that occurred in the past. Lucius might be experiencing the same.
After returning from the war, Deatrice could see that Lucius had learnt to accept everything he had gone through, including him losing all of his property and that precious title. What a great existence the war must be.
“But I have one condition,” Interfering her thoughts, Lucius spoke. “The emperor had wished for our marriage to be built on love.”
“What?” At the sudden, puzzling remark, Deatrice frowned and Lucius laughed to calm her down.
“That’s what he says. Think from his point of view, he wouldn’t want me to perceive that he forced me to marry you just to grant me a title. He knows about our past. Hence, he wants to announce that we got married because after reuniting, we fell in love again. And then he will go on and grant me a title.”
“So that’s why you and I-”
Lucius interrupted and continued with the words she might not wish to hear, “-Should act like we’re in love again in front of other people.”
She went blank and Lucius waited patiently for her reaction. She backed away and said, “Nonsense.”
She started clearing her stance, “Everyone knows how we ended. How am I supposed to act like that again? And it has not been long since Freddy…”
“People’s hearts can change easily. You could just say that I aimed at your heart when it was weak. Is it that hard to happen? Everyone does it like that.” He watched her deny it with a bored attitude.
He added, “Everyone is well aware of the fact that we really loved each other.”
A brief silence passed. She never expected him to remind her of their past this way. She could withstand statements like both of them had a past, but it was not the same on hearing that the both of them had loved each other. It left an undulating ripple in her heart.