Chapter 177: Chapter 177
After Minos from the Jackal Bank left, Rubica had trouble focusing on what she was doing. She even poked a finger with her needle, but she didn’t notice the finger bleeding. Ann couldn’t watch her like that anymore and asked her to take a walk. She knew doing more needlework would end up having all of Rubica’s fingers bleeding.
“Shall we?”
Rubica had already taken a walk earlier in the afternoon, but she gladly nodded to Ann. The fresh air that had the scent of flowers made her feel much better.
She walked in the garden, but then she saw Stephen coming out of the lab. He was supposed to be at Edgar’s office guarding him, so it was weird he was out here, and he was even staggering a little.
“Doesn’t… Sir Stephen look a little strange?”
“Yes, he looks as if someone broke his heart.”
Ann replied with curiosity. Thanks to his handsome looks, rank, and excellent swordsmanship, he had been quite popular at Rubica’s tea meeting. He had gotten several letters after that, but he refused all the invitations he received and didn’t even write back any letters to the lovesick girls.
“So, which girl has made him stagger like that?”
“I don’t think that’s what this is about.”
Rubica quickly stopped Ann’s imagination from writing a sad love story. However, what she was thinking wasn’t much different from what the others thought.
‘Has something happened to him with Edgar?’
He looked so fragile that she just couldn’t walk past it. Edgar was now acting sweetly as if he could do anything for her, but how did he act when they first met?
He kept saying and doing horribly arrogant things that completely shrouded his beauty. Stephen must have been hurt by him, and Rubica just couldn’t ignore that.
“Wouldn’t it be better to call him and find out what it is about?”
“Yes, I think so too. Sir Stephen?”
Ann called his name repeatedly in a loud voice, but Stephen couldn’t listen. As he was usually keen even to the smallest sound, it made Rubica even more worried.
“Lord Stephen!”
Ann shouted so loudly that the sound rang through the garden, and Stephen stopped only then. He was a little surprised to see Rubica, but then he quickly wore his usual emotionless expression.
“What is it, madam?”
“Sir Stephen, is there something wrong?”
Ann and Stephen spoke at the same time. He frowned at Ann’s question, but only for a second. But sadly, Rubica’s maid didn’t miss that small change.
“Oh, so something really has happened.”
“Is it really a broken heart?”
“Well, it’s time for him to fall in love.”
The maid’s talking eventually made him frown even harder.
“What on earth are you talking about? Do not misunderstand me.”
He wanted to say he would leave if that was all, but he just couldn’t say that to the duchess.
His knights had changed a lot after the tea meeting, and he wasn’t liking the changes. He was also getting several love letters and invitations to meetings, which he didn’t welcome at all, so he wasn’t glad about such misunderstandings.
“Yes, it must be because of Edgar.”
Rubica added that, pitying the knight, but it almost made his eyes come out in shock. Actually, he just had a conversation about the new machine the duke had ordered to be made at the lab.
-Why is this here at the lab?
He was checking on the raw materials that had arrived at the lab, pretending to be on a different errand. There was something that didn’t belong there: some smooth and soft fabric.
-It’s needed for a new experiment.
-An experiment with fabric… I wonder what you are going to make.
Were they trying to make some kind of special defense suit? He couldn’t hide his hope and asked. The duke had stopped working on his blueprint some time ago because of his wife, and Stephen wondered if he had finally come to his senses.
-Oh, the duke is trying to make a machine that cuts fabric cleanly with heat.
As it wasn’t any top military secret or something, the engineer answered his question without any doubt. Stephen, however, hadn’t seen it coming. A machine that cut fabric cleanly? Why on earth was Claymore trying to make such a thing?
-Why on earth are you making such a machine?
-I don’t know either. Anyway, we have to make it as soon as possible since it is the duchess’s request.
The moment Stephen heard the word duchess, he almost bit his tongue. It was almost like she was born just to ruin his plan.
The duke had so many things to do. Why was he supposed to waste his time on such a useless thing? He really wanted to accuse the duchess. The engineer could see he was angry and left after murmuring a goodbye. Stephen was supposed to leave as well, but he stood on the spot and stared at the piles of fabrics as they went into the lab for a long, long time.
‘I thought he had finally come to his senses, but he is completely out of his mind now.’
The duke had been having trouble focusing on his work for some time. He meddled with something that looks like a toy and came up with a strange tool for needlework. He said he made it because he got some free time, but everyone could see whose heart he was trying to win with it.
Even then, Stephen thought it would be temporary. No, he had hoped it was temporary. The duke had so many projects on his hands. Messengers and letters from the king had gone into his office more than once during the last few days, so the king had to be urging him to come back to his senses.
However, the duke hadn’t made that threader as a temporary impulse. Really, he was blinded by love.
“Ha, is he… not going to make it?
When the anger faded, despondency came. He remembered how hard he tried to gain the duke’s trust and become his most trusted guard. He already had a lot of information he wanted to steal right now, but he had been waiting only for ‘Stella’. However, it looked like he wasn’t going to get its blueprint even if he waited for ten years.
‘I must calm down and let them know about this.’
Stephen decided to use a messenger bird to let them know about the duke’s strange condition and make a new plan about it. He must have been shocked a lot and the way felt so long. He staggered, and then he stopped to take a deep breath.
Then, the duchess and her girls called him and were now talking about love and heartbreak. However, what angered him the most was the duchess’s, ‘It must be about Edgar.’
‘Does she know?’
He got mad and scared at the same time. The duchess looked quite worried about him. Therefore, she carefully said to him, “Do not get too disappointed even if you don’t achieve what you want. You know, none of us can always get our ways.”
Rubica was sure Stephen liked Edgar. The duke, among so many men in the world… what would happen if that was ever revealed? Although it was about her own husband, she pitied Stephen for it.
“You will get another chance, a better one.”
“Your Grace…”
Rubica tried hard to make him feel better, but then she was surprised. He called her with an extremely gloomy and ominous gaze but, contrary to that, there was a blue fire burning hot in his brown eyes. However, considering she was his rival in love, she could understand that.
“You… know?”
Rubica thought about it and then nodded. He had to be in so much pain that he couldn’t tell anyone about it, and she pitied him for that.
“Just cheer up.”
However, Stephen slapped her hand away and left without saying another word.
“Sir Stephen, how dare you!”
“It’s alright, Ann.”
Ann was enraged by Stephen’s attitude and tried to follow him, but Rubica stopped her.
Stephen was guarding Edgar while hiding his feelings for him, so he had to be in extreme agony. She had asked him to come to her tea meeting without knowing about that. And just as she had expected, he was now getting a lot of attention. Oh, he had to be hating her so much by now, for that and for taking the heart of the man he liked.
‘I must pay more attention to him.’
It wouldn’t be good for him to keep guarding Edgar. Maybe he would get a little better if he was distanced from Edgar. Rubica didn’t know that he was a spy and was completely misunderstanding everything. She also didn’t know what her kind consideration was about to bring.