"A necklace?""Yes." The duke answered, and then he turned to the window once more, peering from outside. The bright afternoon light made his silhouette darker, as Faustina"s gaze fixated on his tall stature. On Faustina"s hand was the necklace, from the pendant"s back was a carved snowflake, few dents evident from it.
"To someone named Owen?"
"Owen Lopez." Duke Feuerlon says, his emerald eyes compelling and deeply lost in thought. "Bring it to him. And if he do not want it, you must force it to him, if necessary."
**
"Oh, Duke sir!" Says a woman, her red hair wet from the storm. Her lips were full and her cheeks were red, even amidst the heavy rain pouring outside the manor.
Through Adalia"s dark-brown eyes, she saw how her husband"s troubled face retracted back to her once the woman entered the manor. Her voice was so loud that even the d.u.c.h.ess could hear it to her chambers—no, it was not because of that—
"Insolent wom—" the head maid exclaims loudly as the chamber door opens and from there, bursted a wet-looking woman.
"Duke sir!"
Adalia stared weakly over the young woman, who seemed panting and wet from the rain. Mud from her boots were dirtying the marbled, white floor whilst her wet hair soaked the ground. Adalia instantaneously noticed how beautiful such girl is—a younger woman, youthful and very much cheery.
Their eyes met.
"D-duke sir?" She parted her lips, "d-d.u.c.h.ess?"
Adalia stared in silence for a while, but proceeded to close her eyes,
letting darkness take her, away from the probable pain that she might need to face later.
--
"Who told you to barge in?"
"Duke..."
"Who told you to come to my house unannounced?"
"I j-just..."
"ROSE!"
Silent sobs, a piercing silence, and an angered duke. Those were the three things that made the servants of the house to eavesdrop on the duke"s study. Their ears were pressed against the large, wooden door, ready to storm out when they hear the slightest footprint in approach.
"So it"s the mistress?"
"Shh!"
"...can"t,"
"What?" The duke angrily retorted.
"You can"t leave me just like that," Rose says. "I have a baby with me. YOU have to make me the d.u.c.h.eSS of this house!"
"You are not pregnant, Rose!"
"No," the woman angrily responded with a loud shout, "NO! You did it with me. You are my first, Sir Duke! You have to support the child, you have to make me your WIFE!"
"...What"s with the commotion?"
The servants immediately turned to the source of the soft, inquisitive voice. It belonged to the mistress of the house—the d.u.c.h.ess—the respected Adalia Margarette Feuerlon.
"D-d.u.c.h.ess..."
"What are you all doing?" The d.u.c.h.ess asks, frowning.
"W-we were just... um, cleaning... yeah! We were cleaning, d.u.c.h.ess!"
"Yes, that"s right! Hha! Doors are so dusty now."
The d.u.c.h.ess frowned, and then she stepped forward.
"Move,"
"But d.u.c.h.ess..."
"I said, move,"
The servants did so.
--
It was an unspoken rule of the Feuerlon house to not have a lock on the study, on the library, and every common room. It was said that such tradition and practice will bring prosperity—a good omen—in the family, due to "open doors" is an equivalence to a welcoming culture.
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Without hesitation, Adalia Feuerlon pushed the doors wide, revealing the man she loves—
embracing a crying woman,
with blood on her thighs.
"No... no!" The woman bawls, crying loudly. "BRING ME BACK MY BABY!"