Duke's wife

Chapter 32

"...What's wrong?"

Arthur looked at Grace and asked her, holding her shaking hand carefully. Grace took her eyes off the letter and answered, staring at Arthur, who looked perturbedly at her.

"Yes? What?"

"Aren't your hands shaking right now? Are you cold?"

"...Oh, no. It's not cold. I'm fine. I just, I guess I did it without realizing."

Grace smiled awkwardly and deliberately waved her hand gently holding the letter. Nevertheless, Arthur looked at her anxiously. He looked at her with a sad gaze and opened his mouth carefully.

"...Madam."

"Yes?"

"Do you not want to go to that party by any chance? If that's the case, Then I'll make any reasonable excuse and refuse."

"...What? No, I'm fine..."

"The Duke of Alberton omitted all the proper gifts, new matching wedding dresses, and the bridal shower too citing the excuse of 'imminent date' unlike what he is doing now, when you were preparing to marry me.*"

[*T/N: Arthur is saying that Duke Alberton didn't make the wedding of Grace as big as Marianne's wedding. At Grace's wedding there were no proper gifts, no new matching wedding dresses and no bridal shower which would be there in Marianne's wedding.]

"...Ah..."

"The feeling of discrimination and contempt not from anyone else but from the family, must have been an unimaginable pain. It breaks my heart to think of Ms. Marianne, who will meet and talk with those people again and will be sincerely blessed in front of you, unlike the time when you became my wife."

"...Duke."

"....I'm sorry. If you had married some other royal family or nobleman, not someone like me, you could have been treated better... I'm sorry to think that you were treated like that because you married me, and I feel sorry for not being able to understand your heart."

Arthur said with a wry smile. Grace was moved by what he said. Until now, she had never felt sad about the cold treatment of her family. No, to be honest, she didn't even think it was cold treatment. She considered such treatment normal for herself who was born without any magic abilities.

When Arthur said that he was heartbroken and she should have been treated more preciously, Grace was extremely grateful. She headed for him with a light smile that hid her feelings.

"You don't have to say that. No matter who I would have married to, I wouldn't have been treated the same way as my sister. I'm sure my father would always choose a person who was 'lagging'* according to his standards and set him with me."

[*T/N: She meant that her father would find someone who is lower than her father's standards (Which can also mean that the person doesn't necessarily have to be bad but doesn't match her father's standards which is too high. We saw Arthur wasn't bad but was infamous because of the rumors about the curse.)]