The Duke Is Obsessed With Me!

Chapter 17

           ||The Duke Is Obsessed With Me!||

"Have you heard anything from the Haku household?" Asked Raul sitting behind his desk in his study as he spoke with sir Fredrick. I had some of our men stop by the other day and it looks like they're still there, shall we remove them by force?" Asked Fredrick. Raul shook his head "No that won't be necessary after all I did give them 5 days, they still have two left" said his grace with almost an evil devilish smirk on his face.

Later;

                               With Amora

I was walking down the hallway side by side with Rya as I listened to her excitedly talk about how she'll be going to The Academy of Swordsmanship for young nobles. She was so happy, just then a tall ginger hired man came walking our way after exiting a room that I was unfamiliar with. He smiled when he saw me. "Well hello madman I don't believe we've had a chance to meet" he said. "Fredrick?" Said Rya next to me causing the man's attention to shift. "Little Romiro? I almost didn't recognize you, you've grown since the last time I've seen you, I'm sorry " he said with a light chuckle. I noticed a blush spread across Ryas face. "Oh-um I- it's fine Fredrick" she said stumbling over her words. I looked closely at the way Rya was looking at him and realized something.

Rya certainly had a crush on this man. "Anyways this is Amora my sister in law" said Rya happily. The man finally turned his attention back towards me. "Yes I've heard quite a bit about you, the lucky woman who stole the dukes heart I've got to warn you Madam there's a lot of noble women who wants your head and with that I hope you'll be careful" he said "I will, thank you for letting me know" I said he smiled "No problem anything for my commanders wife I'll start calling you commander W, I'm Sir Frederick of the imperial army by the way my apologies for not informing you of my name sooner" he said bowing his head. "Oh no it's ok there's no need for that Sir Frederick, nice to meet you" I said he smiled. "Likewise" he said before looking down at Rya again. "And you Little Romiro congratulations on the acceptance into the academy, I am sorry that I didn't make it to your celebration, I'll find some way to make it up to you but for now" he said taking her hand in his and kissing the back of it before looking up at her. "I wish you luck and many victory's Little Romiro" he said before letting go of her hand. Rya held the hand he kissed close to her chest as she blushed but Fredrick didn't seem to had noticed.

"Anyways it was great running into the two of you but I should probably get going now, between you and me the commanders a bit of a meanie he'll definitely chew me out for just standing here and chatting, I appreciate the chat though, bye" he said before walking away. Once her was gone I looked down at a flushed Rya. "Rya can I ask you something?" I asked she looked up at me snapping out of her daze. "Of course?" She replied, "Do you have feelings for Sir Frederick" I asked she looked shocked and embarrassed at first but then she eventually told me the truth. "Yes, I've had feelings for him since the day we first met, he's known our family for quite a while now and is like a son and brother to my mom and big brother, which is why he only sees me as a little sister, I actually hate it when he calls me little Romiro it's like a reminder that he'll never see me as a woman" she said with a sad sigh. I felt bad for Rya and wanted to help but didn't know how, honestly lately I've been struggling with my own feelings thinking about when the Duke told me he loved me and my mouth wouldn't allow me to say it back.

I fear that I never will it's true that I like Raul but even though he's now my husband I still feel as though this is all just a dream and he'll wake up one day and realize his error and marrying me just like my uncle did after taking me in.

"I wish I knew how to help but the truth is I'm utterly useless when it comes to the affairs of the heart, I've never even been in love before" I said Rya looked at me confused. "So you don't love my brother?" She asked i looked down in shame. "I'm sorry I'm not sure I even know what love is let alone how to recognize it" I said Rya smiled "it's ok, I'm sure my brother will do enough loving for the both of you he's quite obsessed with you if you haven't noticed by now, who knows maybe one day you'll fall in love with him too just like my mom and dad when they met, she told me they use to hate each other" she said I found myself chuckling at her words. "It'll be fine if love can over power hate then I'm sure it can over power uncertainty" said Rya with a thumps up. My chuckle soon turned into a laugh that eventually made Rya laugh as well.

The next day his grace the Duke visited me in my room. "My Duchess!" He said happily as he approached me a I was sitting in a chair near my window.

I closed the book and turned my head to look at him. "Your grace?" I said he sighed sadly and his facial expression changed. "Why must you address me so formally your breaking my heart" he said dramatically as he pouted like a toddler. I found myself giggling at him. The Duke was such an amusing person when you really got to know him. Although I doubt anyone other than his family has ever seen this side of him as he's usually scolding and glaring at everyone else.